Friday, April 09, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Extension sought on comment period
By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Nevada's senators on Thursday demanded more time for state residents to comment on a government plan to set aside public land for a possible railroad to Yucca Mountain.
An official public comment period should be extended another 90 days before the Interior Department decides to withdraw federal land for the study, according to Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev.
The public comment period ended March 29.
Reid and Ensign pressed for more time in a letter sent to Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
Norton will weigh an Energy Department request to withdraw public land in a mile-wide corridor that runs 319 miles between Caliente and the proposed nuclear waste site in Nye County, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
DOE has proposed to build a railroad through rural Nevada to carry nuclear waste to a Yucca Mountain repository. The radioactive material would arrive in Caliente from around the country on an existing rail line.
"The DOE has a long history of steamrolling Nevadans," the senators said.
Withdrawing the corridor would stifle mineral exploration and restrict access for ranchers who graze cattle, according to Reid and Ensign.
Reid said he has created a page on his Web site where Nevadans can register comments on the land withdrawal that he will forward to Norton. The address is http://reid .senate.gov/yuccamtn_com ments.cfm.
Interior officials could not be reached for comment Thursday night.
