Lawyers may spend $12 mil. for Yucca license preparation

Suzanne Struglinski

Friday, April 9, 2004 | 11:16 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department's hired law firm can collect up to $12 million this year to prepare the license application for the Yucca Mountain project, according to its contract.

That compares with $1 million allocated to Nevada for Yucca Mountain oversight, which includes license application work, Nevada officials say. The state sued the Energy Department last month for an additional $4 million to effectively participate in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing process.

The department last month awarded the law firm Hunton & Williams a $45 million contract through 2008 to be its main legal counsel for the licensing of the proposed nuclear waste storage project at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The firm will prepare the application and defend it during the licensing hearings.

The department expects to submit its application to the commission by the end of the year. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has three years to review it but can ask Congress for an additional year, potentially extending the process through 2009. The department wants to open the site in 2010.

According the 47-page contract obtained by the Sun, Hunton can bill for and collect about $12 million from the start of the contract on March 24 through the end of the year for an estimated 45,000 hours of work. The exact amount billed per hour by the lawyers is not included in the contract but senior partners can collect up to $3.1 million this year.

The firm is allocated up to $10 million next year and the budget decreases to $3 million by 2008. The department included roughly $20 million additional for work through 2013 on the license.

Nevada's $6 million contract with Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsch and Cynkar, a Virginia law firm hired by the state to handle litigation as well as the license proceeding preparation, expires in September, said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. He expects the contract to be renewed for an amount not to exceed $5.7 million, but explained that the state does not have the revenue right now to do it.

Loux's office is using the $1 million allocated by Congress so far this year and dipping into the $182,000 protection fund but he hoped the Energy Department would allocate the state more money or that the state would win its lawsuit to get another $4 million.

Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Energy Department must give Nevada oversight money for the project.