State files anti-Yucca dump brief

Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2003 | 10:40 a.m.

Nevada added some ammunition on Monday to its lawsuits fighting a federal plan to bury 77,000 tons of radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain.

State Attorney General Brian Sandoval filed a 75-page brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington that adds to earlier efforts to block the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from licensing the Energy Department to build and operate the nuclear dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"We've got a lot of great work behind us; we've got 12 years of preparing," Sandoval said, "and now its time to play ball."

The Las Vegas and Clark County joined the state in its legal challenge, which is expected to be heard before the end of the year.

NRC officials declined to comment Monday.

The Energy Department plans to file a license request in December 2004 and plans to open a Yucca repository in 2010 at the earliest.

The NRC lawsuit is one of five filed by the state. Three others are aimed at the Energy Department, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and President Bush. Another addresses the Environmental Protection Agency's radioactive limits at the proposed repository.

The new brief accuses the NRC of letting Energy Department officials change licensing rules after DOE scientists discovered that Yucca Mountain's rock alone might not keep radioactivity from the environment.

"We're convinced the courts will treat this in a fair and objective manner," Sandoval's spokesman, Tom Sargent, said. "Politics and money given in campaigns don't work in the courts."

The five lawsuits are separate from a constitutional challenge filed in early January. Nevada is arguing in that case that the federal government cannot force a state, against its will, to accept nuclear waste from 31 other states. Nevada has no commercial nuclear power plants.

The state is also trying in a separate case in federal court to withhold water necessary for the project.