$1.1 million Yucca allocation helps deplete emergency fund

Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004 | 9:34 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Approval Monday by the Legislative Interim Finance Committee of spending $2.1 million to continue the battle against Yucca Mountain and to help fix problems at the Sawyer State Office Building has left the state's emergency fund with just $150,000.

Bob Loux, director of the state Office of Nuclear Projects, was asked Monday whether the request for $1.1 million for the Yucca Mountain fight could be delayed until the Legislature meets in February.

"We're running out of money. Are you sure we can't put this off until the regular session?" Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, asked.

Loux told the committee that the Energy Department plans to file its application for a construction permit in December to start turning Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, into the nation's dump for highly radioactive nuclear waste. Loux said he needed the money from the emergency fund to prepare for the hearings.

Loux said there was a possible bright spot in all of this, however: It may be illegal for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to start the hearings because there are no radiation standards on how long the public should be protected.

The Environmental Protection Agency believes it will take years to develop a new standard to replace the one struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., Loux said.

The appeals court in July ruled that the radiation standard for public protection was inadequate. The court tossed out the 10,000-year radiation compliance period that was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. Congress either has to change the law or the EPA has to come up with a new standard.

Loux said it would take years for the EPA to draft and approve a new regulation.

Outside the hearing, Loux said the state could take legal action if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission begins its hearings. After the Energy Department files its application, the state has 90 days to submit all of its records, e-mails and other data electronically to the regulatory commission. Loux said there are 8 million to 10 million pages to be transmitted, costing between $160,000 and $200,000.

The money would also be used to hire attorneys and to retain the 30 scientific expert witnesses to oppose the project.

Committee members wondered why they should allocate the money when the legal issues were still pending.

Loux said the state needs to be ready to proceed if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission decides to go ahead.

The state planned on receiving $2.5 million from the federal government for the Yucca Mountain legal battle, but Loux said it received only $1 million. He said this year's federal appropriation still has not been approved.

The hearing before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is scheduled to take about four years.

The Interim Finance Committee Monday also allocated $650,000 from its emergency account to the state attorney general's office to continue the other legal battles against the Energy Department.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams said the office mistakenly sent $1 million back to the general treasury and now needs some of that money for the court battles that are under way.

There was $13.5 million in the emergency fund when the Legislature adjourned at the end of the summer of the 2003. The expenditures have included: $2.7 million to help schoolteachers pay insurance costs; $2.6 million to pay to settle the lawsuits over the construction of the Lied Library at UNLV and $2.6 million for the Forestry Division to buy vehicles and cover the cost of fighting wildfires.