Thursday, April 22, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Yucca hearing period longer

Nevada lawmakers seek even more time

Soon after Nevada's congressional delegation asked the Department of Energy on Wednesday to extend the comment period and offer more public meetings on its plan for building a nuclear-waste rail line, the federal agency, by coincidence, did just that.

But the additional time of one week, from May 24 to June 1, was not the additional 45 days the delegation has sought for fielding comments on what to include in the Caliente rail corridor environmental impact statement.

The additional meetings, one in Las Vegas and one in Reno, fall short of what the delegation requested for scoping meetings to be held at areas outside the state.

Those areas, too, the Nevada delegation said, will be affected by plans to funnel rail cars of spent nuclear fuel to Caliente, where a 319-mile rail spur will be constructed to haul the highly radioactive cargo on to the planned Yucca Mountain repository.

The five-member delegation of Democratic Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Shelley Berkley and Republican Sen. John Ensign and Reps. Jim Gibbons and Rep. Jon Porter sent a letter Wednesday to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham complaining that the 45-day comment period "is entirely inadequate."

"The choice of the Caliente, Nevada rail spur alternative will have wide-ranging implications for shipments of spent nuclear fuel within Nevada and around the country," the letter states. It notes that impacts on the nationwide transportation system have never been adequately assessed.

The delegation asked that Abraham make the comment period a minimum of 90 days and hold additional meetings on the plan in Las Vegas and the Reno area as well as "strategic locations nationwide."

"Such locations should be chosen based on an analysis of how shipments from reactors and generator sites would be routed to a Caliente rail spur," the letter states. "There must be sufficient number of such meetings to adequately cover key impacted states and cities through the Yucca Mountain transportation system."

Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said late Wednesday that the DOE, at the request of state officials, agreed to hold additional meetings in Las Vegas and Reno in May. Later, the DOE's Office of Repository Development issued a news release that said the public comment period was extended to June 1.

A spokesman for the Office of Repository Development, Allen Benson, said the timing of the news release was coincidental because, despite the delegation's letter, his office had gotten other requests for more comment time and more places for scoping meetings.

Davis said hearings outside the state are not necessary because the department only intends to build a new rail line in Nevada.

Until Wednesday, the department had only scheduled meetings on three consecutive days beginning May 3 in Amargosa Valley, Goldfield and Caliente.

Earlier this month, Reid and Ensign sent a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton seeking an extension of the comment period on withdrawing public land for the Caliente rail corridor while the Energy Department studies it.

That comment period ended March 29, and the senators sought a 90-day extension before the Interior Department decides on withdrawing the federal land for the mile-wide corridor. They have not received a response from Norton's office, according to a spokeswoman for Reid.

Yucca Mountain is 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The shipping campaign is expected to last decades.