Saturday, February 05, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Report sees Yucca battles paying off

Panel urges lawmakers to continue funding opposition to nuclear waste repository

WASHINGTON -- The board overseeing Nevada's efforts against Yucca Mountain called the troubled project a "dead man walking" in a report this week expressing optimism that it could be killed.

The Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects said the proposed nuclear waste repository was "a program that is on the verge of collapse" because of legal and budget setbacks.

An Energy Department spokesman disputed the report, while a consultant to the Nuclear Energy Institute characterized it as a sales pitch for the Nevada Legislature to continue spending on the fight.

"There's quite a lot of hyperbole in there," said NEI representative Bob List, a former Nevada governor.

The 32-page report recounted DOE delays brought on by legal rulings last summer on key radiation protection rules and a Yucca Mountain electronic document database.

It predicted DOE will run into broad opposition whenever it announces details of a nationwide nuclear waste shipping campaign.

The state is making inroads against Yucca Mountain due to the aggressiveness of its lawyers and due to Energy Department missteps, the seven-member commission said.

"DOE's problems, many of them the result of the department's own politicized science and mismanagement, continue to mount," Chairman Brian McKay said in the report.

The report was delivered to Gov. Kenny Guinn and the Legislature just before 2005 session, which opens Monday. The commission recommended that legislators continue to fund the state's anti-Yucca science and legal efforts.

"While the proposed Southern Nevada repository may be in the category of a 'dead man walking,' much remains to be done in the next two years to assure the state does, in fact, prevail," the panel said.

DOE spokesman Joe Davis disputed the report, saying, "We continue to move forward."

List said the report was aimed at boosting support in the Legislature.

"One of the clear objectives is to promote and justify the expenditure of state dollars to underwrite the costs of this fight," List said.