State protests limits on Yucca oversight

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2004 | 10:55 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada officials say the Energy Department is trying to limit the state's ability to oversee the department's efforts to make Yucca Mountain a nuclear dump.

Nevada lawmakers today are drafting a letter to the Energy Department objecting to the department's stricter new interpretation of rules on how nine Nevada counties can spend federal money for Yucca oversight.

Clark County Commission Chairman Chip Maxfield and Vice Chairwoman Myrna Williams also fired off a letter this week to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.

The letter said that department staffers at an Aug. 27 meeting in Las Vegas explained to county officials that there may be new curbs on how the county could spend money analyzing the department's Yucca project.

The letter asks Abraham to reconsider new limits.

"The latest action by the DOE cuts deep into the (counties') ability to provide meaningful oversight of DOE activities at perhaps the most critical juncture in the Yucca Mountain program," the letter said. "This attempt to curtail (county) activities in the most critical program areas at a time when important decisions are being made should not be supported."

Congress in recent years has given the state and nine counties money to oversee the federal project, a proposal to construct a national high-level nuclear waste dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Last fiscal year the counties received $7 million for oversight. This year they received $4 million, said Irene Navis, Clark County nuclear waste division manager.

There are limits on how the money can be spent. The money cannot be used for lobbying or lawsuits against the project, for example.

The Energy Department is simply following the federal law that limits the Yucca oversight spending, department spokesman Joe Davis said.

But Nevada officials are concerned that department staffers have said they will now be using a strict new interpretation of the rules to enforce new limits on basic project oversight.

Specifically, Nevada officials are concerned that the department will no longer allow them to spend their oversight money for certain kinds of research of a new Yucca document database called the License Support Network. They are also concerned that they would be limited in analyzing a proposed new nuclear waste rail route in Nevada.

"We're prohibited from scoping out any of the transportation stuff," Williams said in an interview.

Nevada lawmakers could introduce legislation to ease Energy Department restrictions on how the money is used, Reid spokeswoman Sharyn Stein said today. In the meantime, the lawmakers plan to send Abraham a letter of their own requesting a reconsideration of the rules.