Deal with county on monitoring of Yucca OK’d

Thursday, July 3, 2003 | 9:25 a.m.

Ed Koch

The Las Vegas City Council by unanimous vote Wednesday approved a contract for the city to receive from Clark County $40,000 to participate in the monitoring of the planned nuclear waste facility at Yucca Mountain.

The council approved the interlocal agreement without comment, voting on it as part of the consent agenda, items considered to be routine.

Since 1998, the city has been funded by the county to participate in the monitoring of the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, where the federal government wants to store l77,000 tons of high level nuclear waste.

The contract says the city can use the money for a number of Yucca Mountain-related issues, such as to "train a cadre of firefighters on emergency response (for) a wide range of vulnerabilities that the local municipalities would be subject to should there be a radiological spill."

The city's contract with the county says that the county is the designated "affected unit of local government" as determined by the Energy Department. But the city also can participate because of "the potential to impact social and economic characteristics of Southern Nevada," the contract says.

"The city desires to increase and enhance its capabilities to determine, evaluate and respond to the potential and perceived impacts" from the project, the contract says. "The city desires to participate in making findings and recommendations regarding potential impacts."

Under the terms of the contract with the county, the city can spend up to $40,000 to, among other things, participate in meetings of the Clark County Nuclear Waste Steering Committee, send a representative to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission meetings and meetings of other federal boards, visit nuclear waste-related facilities and participate in the county's impact assessment program.

The funds also can be used to offset travel expenses related to the Yucca Mountain project, the contract says.