Editorial: Will politics decide Yucca?

Thursday, July 14, 2005 | 8:56 a.m.

A year ago Nevada's legal fight against storing the nation's high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain scored a near-knockout blow. A federal appeals court ruled that a critical safety standard governing Yucca's construction was not even close to being met. The standard had to do with the science of nuclear waste, and for how long its radiation would pose a lethal danger to the outside world once buried.

Congress had ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to set a "radiation standard," which would be integral to how a proposed nuclear waste dump would be built and how the waste would be contained. Congress had also ordered the EPA to rely on calculations by the National Academy of Sciences in setting the standard. The Academy said the standard should be set for the peak life of the radiation, which is about 300,000 years.

The EPA, however, had set the standard at 10,000 years. This was a gift to the Energy Department, which must apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to operate Yucca Mountain. Given the political will at the federal level for Yucca Mountain to open, it's conceivable that the department could persuade regulators that Yucca Mountain would be safe for 10,000 years. It would be impossible to make that case if the standard were 300,000 years.

The court gave the EPA two options: Write a new standard based on the academy's recommendation, or persuade Congress to drop the requirement that it rely on the academy's scientific judgment. The EPA is working on a new standard. But wouldn't you know it? This week Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House Energy Committee, said he intends on his own to introduce a bill in the fall that could mandate a 10,000-year radiation standard.

Because of the court's ruling, the Yucca Mountain project is near death. But if successful, Barton's bill could lead to its full recovery. And this would prove, once again, that Yucca Mountain is a political endeavor having very little to do with science.