Nevada’s plea for grant to oversee Yucca denied

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2004 | 11:06 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected Nevada's request for a $13.75 million grant to oversee Yucca Mountain, a blow to the state's effort to act as watchdog of the federal project.

The state relies largely on federal money, mostly from Congress, to help pay its legal and research bills in its long-standing effort to kill the nuclear waste dump project.

This year, for the first time, Nevada requested oversight money from the NRC, which will be responsible for licensing and regulating Yucca. Nevada's top Yucca Mountain watchdog, Bob Loux, and the state's top Yucca attorney, Joe Egan, went to the NRC to request money in July.

But in a lengthy ruling delivered to the state Tuesday the NRC rejected the request, on the basis of "applicable statutes, regulations, Commission precedent and the agency's available funds."

The state was hoping to use that money for an array of oversight work, including about $2 million to continue analysis of the repository performance and $1.8 million to continue study of how waste containers might corrode in the repository.

Now the state may have to scramble to keep its Yucca oversight projects going because federal money from Congress is drying up, Loux said.

In past years Nevada and nine counties have received several million dollars annually from Congress for Yucca oversight. The state requested $5 million from Congress last year, but received only $1 million.

"We have some dwindling resources," said Loux, executive director of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Projects Office. The office has enough money to keep it running through the end of the year, he said.

Loux said he may ask the Nevada Legislature for as much as $1 million for next year.

The Legislature typically budgets about $1.9 million for the office.

In addition, a special state Yucca fund established in 2001 to fight the dump had about $9 million, a mix of state, county and private money. About $3 million of that was spent on an advertising campaign aimed at the ultimately failed bid to stop Yucca in Congress. The remaining $6 million has been nearly spent, mostly on lawyers in the effort to derail Yucca in court, Loux said.

The Legislative Interim Finance Committee last year also approved $2 million for the legal fight.

Congress has not specifically set aside any money for Nevada Yucca oversight for next year as lawmakers are still working out the details of a final Yucca budget. The House approved $131 million, far less than the White House requested, with none of that money specifically earmarked for Nevada; the Senate has not acted.

The Department of Energy project is aimed at constructing a national nuclear waste repository under the mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The project has entered an important phase as the Energy Department plans to submit an application for a license to construct the underground repository by the end of the year.