Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005 | 7:59 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- When people talk about Yucca Mountain and geological time, they're not necessarily talking about rocks. They just as well could be describing the protracted, yearslong debate over the federal government's proposal to put the nation's nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The government's plan for Yucca has moved extraordinarily slowly in the face of ceaseless bickering between, on one side, Nevada officials and environmentalists, and on the other, the Energy Department and the nuclear industry.
It's a fight that has frustrated both sides.
Nevada officials continually say the Energy Department does not play by the rules -- an argument made again in federal court Tuesday. On the other side, nuclear utilities wonder why, in 2005, a nuclear waste repository that was supposed to open in 1998 still is being debated rather than used.
The repository is scheduled to open by 2010, but that is a long shot. Some believe the Energy Department will be lucky to get a license application reviewed by then in a process where nothing is simple and nothing is without controversy.
"The most frustrating thing is the deference the government gets on what clearly are reckless things," said attorney Joe Egan, who represents Nevada on Yucca issues. "This type of behavior would not be tolerated in the corporate climate."
Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's advocacy group and a top Yucca supporter, is just as frustrated over finding itself still waiting for a repository promised 20 years ago.
"The most frustrating thing overall is the failure of the Department of Energy to have submitted a license application as planned," NEI attorney Mike Bauser said. "It is dif.cult to identify one single thing that would cure the ongoing delay." Every energy budget in Congress, public comment at an agency or federal court case drag out the process even longer, with no end in sight.
That's not necessarily bad for "Every day that it is delayed, is another day in our favor," said Peggy Maze Johnson, executive director of Citizen Alert, which opposes the repository. Johnson said the longer the project takes, the more her organization and other anti-Yucca groups can strengthen opposition to the repository, especially in other states.
"These delays are going to help us," Johnson said. "We've been able to shoot (the proponents) down at every single turn."
Calling Nevada's arguments valid, not simply a delaying tactic, Johnson describes the proposed radiation protection standard as "horrific" and terms the transportation plans "outrageous."
Each argument against the site, whether Nevada ultimately prevails or not, drags the Energy Department further away from a license application. And no application means no waste in Nevada -- for now.
On Tuesday, Egan argued before the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia against the Energy Department's plan to put a rail line through Caliente and on to Yucca Mountain.
Nevada wants the court to force the Energy Department to go back and prepare a new environmental impact statement on its transportation plan with the Surface Transportation Board at the table. The board automatically brings more scrutiny to the process, Egan said.
If the court rules in Nevada's favor, the department may have to go back to the transportation drawing board on a shipping plan already riddled with uncertainties.
Another battle front was the subject of a hearing last Thursday at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where a three-judge panel is trying to determine how the public can access certain Energy Department documents. While Nevada's attorneys want access to as much information as possible, the department wants to protect data that it says should be kept confidential, such as details about nuclear fuel used by the Navy.
The department's attorneys have been filing monthly reports since March on the project's status. October's report, like the others, did not give a specific date for submitting the license application.
Judge Thomas Moore, one of the three judges, said he wants better reports estimating the project's progress, including specific dates for submitting the application.
"Events are linked to other events, and it's hard to draw absolute straight lines to a day on the calendar," attorney Don Irwin, who represents the department, said.
While the lengthy debate and delays can be viewed as battle victories for Nevada, in the end, the state might not win the war.
David Blee, managing director for the Forrestal Group, an energy consulting firm in Washington, said it will be difficult for one state to "thwart" the will of Congress and the president.
"They have a tendency to claim the sky is falling a number of times or that they have a smoking gun, but that hasn't been the case," said Blee, who is part of the U.S. Transport Council that supports the site.
"As far as the politics, it's like a chess game -- they are constantly moving their pieces," Blee said. "Anyone who plays chess knows it take a lot of patience."
Suzanne Struglinski can be reached at (202) 662-7245 or at [email protected].
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