Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

YUCCA MOUNTAIN PROJECT: Money request approved

$1.75 million sought to fight repository

CARSON CITY -- A panel that includes Gov. Kenny Guinn approved a request Tuesday for $1.75 million in additional funding for the state's ongoing efforts to fight construction of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

The request for $1.1 million for the Agency for Nuclear Projects and $650,000 for the attorney general's office for outside legal assistance was approved by the Board of Examiners and will go to the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee on Nov. 17.

Bob Loux, executive director of the Agency for Nuclear Projects, said the additional funding he requested from the Legislature's contingency fund is needed for several reasons.

The U.S. Department of Energy has indicated it plans to file a licensing application for Yucca Mountain with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December, and the state has to be ready with its experts and legal advisers, he said. But funding to the state from Congress for its Yucca Mountain efforts is in limbo, because a new federal budget has not been passed for this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, he said.

If the federal budget is approved later this year and Nevada gets its funding, the extra state funding may not be required, Loux said.

Though it is unlikely the DOE will be able to file its licensing application because of Nevada's legal victory in the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals in July, the state has to be ready, he told the board.

That court decision voided a 10,000-year radiation standard the Environmental Protection Agency had written for the nuclear waste repository, suggesting the period should be longer, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years.

"We think the program is in big trouble," Loux told the board.

The board made up of Guinn, Attorney General Brian Sandoval and Secretary of State Dean Heller, approved the request for funding.

Guinn said the money should last through at least March, when the Legislature can debate the funding issues for the agency.

The 2003 Legislature put in just under $1 million a year in general fund revenue to support the state agency in its fight in the current two-year budget.

Another $2 million was allocated to the attorney general's office for legal expenses related to Yucca Mountain in the current two-year budget, but due to a misunderstanding, about $1.1 million reverted to the state general fund at the end of the 2003-04 fiscal year on June 30. The $650,000 request by Sandoval would be covered by the reverted funds.

The Nuclear Projects Agency has relied on federal support for its fight, but Congress allocated only $1 million for fiscal 2004, far less than the $2.5 million anticipated. And with the current budget stalemate, no funding is yet available this year.

Sandoval has sued the Energy Department for more government funding.

Guinn and most Nevada political leaders oppose plans by the DOE to bury 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste at the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.