Editorial: Meetings on Yucca must be open to all

Friday, Sept. 20, 2002 | 5:32 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: Sept. 22, 2002

Members of Congress ganged up on Nevada 15 years ago. They chose Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the only site in the nation to study as a possible burial ground for radioactive waste from the nation's nuclear power plants. Given the site's geological drawbacks and the transportation dangers, it's clear that the decision to single out Yucca Mountain was largely political. In denying that, Congress pointed to how clearly it was ensuring fairness: Nevada was to have access to all Yucca-related data generated by the federal government as it studied the site. This was so the state could be fully informed as it mounted political and legal challenges to the federal government's plans to license the mountain and operate it until the waste was no longer deadly -- a minimum of 10,000 years.

We support Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa and state Agency for Nuclear Projects Director Bob Loux as they seek to hold the federal government to that obligation. They have discovered that the Department of Energy, the agency studying Yucca Mountain, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency that will decide on the mountain's license, are holding frequent meetings without informing Nevada officials or the general public. The state officials have written letters to the federal agencies, charging that they are colluding to "shape the licensing proceedings to mask the inadequacies" of the site. If all federal meetings about Yucca Mountain are not open to Nevada, what can we conclude other than that the federal government is continuing to gang up on Nevada?