Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Back and forth on Yucca dump

With the application filed, here’s a look at the likely arguments, responses

Sun Topics

In a legal proceeding like none the country has ever seen, Nevada and the federal government are about to begin what could be a four-year battle over whether Yucca Mountain should become the nation’s first nuclear waste dump.

The Energy Department on Tuesday submitted its long-awaited application to license the facility in the desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will decide over the next 90 days whether the 8,600-page document is adequate for review. If so, the legal battle begins.

Here is a sampling of the key arguments attorneys for Nevada, which opposes the dump, will likely make as the process unfolds, as well as expected federal government responses.

Bad Actor

Nevada Says: E-mail showing allegedly falsified quality control work uncovered in 2005 severely threatened the project’s credibility. The Energy Department is an unfit applicant based on this and other lapses in quality control, outlined in reports from the Government Accountability Office and the department’s investigator general.

The Feds Say: The Energy Department released reports this year giving its quality control programs a clean bill of health, showing that improvements have been made.

Questionable science

Nevada Says: The government’s plan won’t adequately protect residents from ground water contaminated by 70,000 tons of radioactive waste stored inside the mountain. A key barrier being proposed by the government is the use of titanium drip shields that would shelter canisters of nuclear fuel from corrosive water drops. But the shields won’t be installed in the mountain until 100 years after the dump opens — and then, by robots.

The Feds Say: The Energy Department says drip shields cannot be installed until the end of the monitoring phase, which is estimated to be 100 years after the dump opens in 2020. The waste needs to be accessible in case it must be removed for recycling, scientific study or to prevent contamination from leaks.

Missing data

Nevada Says: Despite the thousands of pages of documents, the government is still missing key components, including standards that will establish how much cancer risk residents living near the site can be exposed to.

The Feds Say: Risks of cancer from Yucca Mountain will be less than what is allowed under the government’s draft standards. The project can proceed with the license review while the final standards are being prepared for release.

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