Editorial: Oversight of Yucca is in jeopardy

Thursday, Sept. 23, 2004 | 9:08 a.m.

The federal money that the state of Nevada has been receiving for the oversight of the Yucca Mountain project has been dwindling away in recent years. Last year the state had sought $5 million from Congress, but it was given only $1 million. On Tuesday the state experienced another setback, as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- the federal agency that will decide on the Energy Department's application to build a nuclear waste dump in Nevada -- rejected the state's request for a $13.75 million grant. The state wanted the money to perform oversight work, such as $2 million to analyze the dump's performance and $1.8 million for further studies of how nuclear waste containers could corrode inside a repository. The latter issue -- the potential corrosion of the containers -- continues to vex scientists and offers enough uncertainty, we believe, to doom the pr oject.

The federal government -- whether it's Congress or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- should be providing Nevada with the necessary funding to carry out proper oversight of the Yucca Mountain project. The federal government's shortcuts and failures to look out on the behalf of Nevadans are legion with respect to determining whether Yucca Mountain can safely store nuclear waste. Just this summer the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal government's proposed radiation standard for Yucca Mountain didn't meet the legal requirements to protect public safety, a legal blow to the project that ultimately could prevent nuclear waste from ever coming here. We're not optimistic, though, that Congress will step up and provide us with the money to be the watchdog on Yucca Mountain that the federal government has been unwilling to be. It's essential th en that Gov. Kenny Guinn and the next session of the Nevada Legislature set aside enough state funds to provide the needed ! oversight of one of the gravest threats to Nevada's future.