Editorial: No deadline break for Yucca application

Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2003 | 8:52 a.m.

The Energy Department's application for a licence to operate Yucca Mountain will be made to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has a rule that the department wants to skirt. The rule states that all information supporting the formal application must be filed electronically six months in advance. The Energy Department wants to submit its application in December 2004, even if it has missed the advance deadline by months.

The license application must provide answers to hundreds of technical questions about how the Energy Department intends to safely bury high-level nuclear waste under the mountain. To date there are 194 questions that do not have an answer. Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency, estimates there will be more than 30 questions yet unanswered by July 2004. By federal law, the NRC will have four years to complete its license review. It should not start that clock until such time as the Energy Department has submitted its application properly, with a full six-month advance electronic filing.

The initial electronic filing sets off a timeline by which Nevada, and other parties opposed to Yucca Mountain, must abide in filing opposing responses. Beginning that schedule, but with incomplete information, cheats opponents out of precious time. The Energy Department should be required to follow the rules to the letter.