Top Yucca experts to discuss license application process

Suzanne Struglinski

Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2003 | 9:38 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada's top Yucca Mountain experts will gather in Virginia during the next three days to discuss technical elements of the project and the upcoming license application process.

Steve Frishman, technical policy coordinator for the Nevada Nuclear Waste Project Office and Susan Lynch, technical program director, will attend along with about 30 other experts and consultants working for the state on the project.

Nuclear lawyer Joe Egan, whom the state has hired to lead its legal case against the Energy Department's planned nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain said the meeting will allow all the experts, including those from other countries, to gather in one room to talk about technical aspects of the upcoming license application.

The consultants are paid for using money earmarked to Nevada from the Nuclear Waste Fund, the account that collects fees from nuclear utilities to pay for the project, and some state money, Egan said.

The department anticipates submitting its Nuclear Regulatory Commission license application in December 2004 for the Yucca project, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Nevada will have the opportunity to object to elements of the document and file its own data supporting its objections.

The commission has three years to review the application once it formally accepts the Energy Department's submission.

Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval, Nuclear Waste Project Office Executive Director Bob Loux, other state technical experts and Egan held a similar meeting in August to discuss plans for the upcoming court case.

Oral arguments are to take place in Washington on Jan. 14.