State petitions NRC for tougher dump safety rules

Benjamin Grove

Friday, July 12, 2002 | 9:46 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada lawyers filed a petition today goading the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to require that Yucca Mountain meet stricter safety standards.

The petition is another tactic in the state's effort to kill the plan to construct a national high-level nuclear waste dump at the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Senate this week approved the site, shifting the state's fight from Congress to the NRC, which must review the Energy Department's application to dump waste at the site. The NRC must determine that the site would safely isolate waste from the environment before it grants the DOE a dump license, a process that could take years.

At issue in the petition are the standards the NRC will use to measure the site's suitability.

The petition, filed at the NRC today by lawyers working for Gov. Kenny Guinn, asks the agency to set tougher standards, making it more difficult for the DOE to obtain a license.

By law, the NRC must require that the site merely meet standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency, said Joe Egan, a lawyer working for Nevada. One such standard limits the amount of radiation that could be released from the site, for example.

But beyond meeting EPA standards, the law does not require the DOE to demonstrate that the site is safe, which seems like an obvious omission, Egan said.

The 46-page petition asks the NRC to demand other requirements. Among other requests, the petition asks the NRC require that the DOE:

The state also is battling Yucca in federal court, filing lawsuits designed to block the repository project.

The petition filed today complements a lawsuit that alleges the EPA standards are not strict enough to protect future generations of Nevadans. Another lawsuit alleges the DOE improperly changed its own rules, putting too much emphasis on man-made radiation barriers.