Loux believes Nevada ‘can legally stop’ Yucca

Friday, May 31, 2002 | 10:46 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A state official says there is a "real difference" between Nevada's fight against nuclear waste and the battle in South Carolina against plutonium.

Robert Loux, director of the state Office on Nuclear Projects, said today South Carolina doesn't have a good legal case to stop plutonium being shipped to that state. He said, "We believe Nevada can legally stop" the building of the Yucca Mountain repository.

Loux was asked to comment on a suit by a South Carolina lawyer that wants the federal government to give everybody in that state $10,000 if plutonium from a former nuclear weapons plant is sent there.

Loux said if everything fails in Nevada that "might be an option." But he said, "That's a long way off -- decades."

Nevada's position is it does not want to negotiate with the federal government while it seeks to sidetrack the efforts of the Energy Department to build the underground storage facility. The state has at least five suits already filed and more are expected.