Guinn asks for Yucca documents

Suzanne Struglinski

Friday, Feb. 4, 2005 | 9:59 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Gov. Kenny Guinn wants the Energy Department to recognize Congress's requirement that the state receive all information pertaining to the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, he told the new energy secretary.

The department has denied a Freedom of Information Act request and an appeal filed by attorneys working for the state to get the repository's draft license application and other documents, said Joe Egan, one of the state's attorneys. The information will be useful for Nevada to understand more about the department's work, he said.

Guinn sent a letter to new Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman demanding the department give the state a copy of the draft application, the Total System Performance Assessment, which shows how all the elements of the project work to isolate the waste, information on software used to produce results and a document on tornado analyses.

Guinn argues the Nuclear Waste Policy Act gives Nevada, as the host state for the proposed repository, a "unique posture giving it special access" to any information or plans made on the development, design, licensing and construction of the repository. The law requires the department to give Nevada complete information at the governor's request.

"As we approach the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing proceedings for the Yucca Mountain facility, Nevada's need for the timely and complete disclosure of information has become acute," Guinn said in his letter to Bodman. "Accordingly, in my judgment, it is particularly appropriate now for me to exercise the authority given to me by Congress."

Guinn gave the department a 30-day deadline to get the documents to Bob Loux, executive director of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects.

Egan said he wants the draft application to compare to the final application, if the department completes one.

"We want to know what they changed and why," he said.

He also wants to check if the department is satisfying additional questions posed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on its answers to the 293 Key Technical Issues. The department and the commission agreed the issues, known as KTIs, needed more information or clarification. The department finished answering all the questions at the end of last year and now the commission is reviewing them.

Egan said the department has told the commission in some cases that it will answer certain requests for more information in the license application.

Egan said the draft would be a "road map" for all the areas the department is not following the rules, which could lead to more arguments once or if the licensing hearing begins.