Editorial: Shining a light on nuke dump

Monday, Sept. 26, 2005 | 9:10 a.m.

The state of Nevada has won a victory in its efforts to get the U.S. Energy Department to release a draft license application to build a high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel has ruled that the Energy Department can no longer keep secret the 5,800-page draft application. Although it's not the final document that will be submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, lawyers for Nevada say it will be extraordinarily helpful once the state receives it because the draft application will reveal what direction the Energy Department will be taking in trying to get the dump approved.

The Energy Department has vigorously fought attempts by state officials and Nevada's congressional delegation as they tried to get a copy of the draft application, with Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., likening it to "pulling teeth." The reason for the Energy Department's stonewalling is simple: It wants to steamroll its application through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- the regulatory agency that will have the final say on Yucca Mountain -- without giving Nevada officials enough time to raise substantive scientific objections to the proposed dump. There have been serious questions raised about the project, including the danger of shipping nuclear waste thousands of miles cross-country to burying it in a seismically active location, where concerns have been raised that the 77,000 tons of nuclear waste planned for the dump might leak into the environment .

The desperate attempt by the Energy Department to keep such important information from seeing the light of day is proof that the agency is worried about the viability of the Yucca Mountain project, which recently has been beset by regulatory and legal setbacks. Why, otherwise, would it be so afraid to let the public take a look at its draft application to open a nuclear waste dump?