NRC asked to give new look at Yucca documents

Suzanne Struglinski

Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004 | 10:46 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department wants the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to revisit a licensing board decision that ruled the agency did not file Yucca Mountain project document properly.

The department filed a 20-page document with the commissioners on Sept. 10, saying a Web site it created to handle the project's document should satisfy federal rules.

The commission licensing board decided Aug. 31 that the Energy Department did not meet commission rules when it said it made all of the Yucca project documents available on June 30. The Energy Department wants to open a nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain by 2010, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must issue a license before the Energy Department can begin building.

Under law the department had to make all documents it would use to support its license application public six months before it could submit it. The department intends to submit the application by Dec. 30 to meet the 2010 opening.

Nevada's attorney complained to the board about the poor quality of the department's database in arguments on July 27. The board found the department did not make a substantial amount of documents available and the Web site the department created for the public to use to search the documents was not suitable. Nevada attorneys said that under law the documents needed to be on the official Licensing Support Network controlled by the commission, not a "rogue" Web site handled by the department.

But in its appeal filed Friday, the department said tying the validity of its database to the commission's ability to load documents onto its own Web site was unfair and not required by law.

The ruling, if it is upheld, could delay the project because the commission cannot officially recognize the Energy Department application until six months after the NRC certifies the documents, according to federal rules.