Letter: NRC’s objectivity on Yucca is questionable

Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2007 | 6:58 a.m.

Nevadans beware: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is not a neutral party in the Yucca Mountain licensing proceeding, but rather a biased advocate of the dump.

Regarding today's hearing, an article in Saturday's Las Vegas Sun reported that "on one side will be lawyers from the Energy Department (DOE) and the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the industry's main lobbying arm. On the other will be Nevada and (Judy) Treichel (of the nonprofit Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force)."

But carefully watch NRC's technical staff and its Office of General Counsel and you will likely witness them walk in remarkable lockstep with DOE and NEI. This has been NRC's tradition for decades in literally hundreds of nuclear licensing proceedings. In fact, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California objected to this scandalous history at the contentious Yucca hearing she chaired Oct. 31 in Washington, D.C.

To be fair, the Pre-License Application Presiding Officer board should be commended for ruling in 2004 that DOE's license application documentation was absurdly half-baked. Let's hope the PAPO board is as clear-headed and courageous this time around, as DOE's document submission - despite its astronomical 30 million pages - is still substantially incomplete. It even lacks the computer projection on just how badly the dump will leak deadly radioactivity into Amargosa Valley's drinking and irrigation water supply over time!

But NRC's staff and lawyers have never met a nuclear application they didn't like. Rather then protecting public health and safety, they can - scandalously - be counted on to do DOE and NEI's bidding.

Kevin Kamps, Takoma Park, Md.

The writer is a radioactive waste expert with Beyond Nuclear, a group that opposes nuclear power and supports sustainable energy, including renewable energy and conservation.