Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Sandoval says project doomed

Attorney general addresses lawmakers

CARSON CITY -- Lawmakers were told Monday that a proposed federal nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain will never open because of major problems, including its creation over time of "the world's largest septic field" of radioactive material.

Attorney General Brian Sandoval said proposed tanks in which the waste would be stored probably would fail within 100 years, causing the high-level waste material to leach into groundwater.

Sandoval said he was surprised to hear repository advocates tell lawmakers last week that the project in the Southern Nevada desert is inevitable. The advocates included former Gov. Bob List, a strong repository opponent while in office but now a Nuclear Energy Institute consultant and lobbyist.

The repository's location, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is "literally a volcano that sits on an earthquake fault, above an aquifer, next to the Nevada Test Site, next to one of the nation's largest organic farms, next to the state's largest dairy, adjacent to ... the United States' fastest growing metropolitan area, next to one of the busiest Air Force bases in the country," Sandoval said.

"If you could choose a worse place to store nuclear waste, I really challenge you to do so," he said.

"My best analysis is that it's a matter of time before this project fails," Sandoval told the Senate Finance Committee, adding that it's behind schedule, funding from Congress and the Bush administration has been cut, and Nevada won a key legal battle over required radiation standards.

While Sandoval said he had heard rumors of a possible attempt in Congress to legislate a new standard, he was "very confident with the strength of our congressional delegation" and its ability to stop such an effort. The five-member delegation includes Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

State Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, praised Sandoval for his legal efforts against the plan to bring some 77,000 metric tons of waste from U.S. reactors, adding, "We have to keep the full-court press right up to the last buzzer."

"They didn't know what was underground until they started digging," Coffin said. "If our people hadn't kept them honest, they would have just blown it right by us -- just like they did the nuclear tests above ground that threw radiation everywhere."

Sandoval said there's proven technology for recycling radioactive wastes, adding, "I can't think of a more primitive way to deal with this waste ... than to dig a hole in the ground and cover it up."

List told the state Senate Judiciary Committee last week that "the likelihood of this project is greater than it has ever been" despite a valiant fight by state officials and the state's congressional delegation.

List was joined by Michael Bauser, associate general counsel for the Nuclear Energy Institute, which sets policy for the nuclear industry and includes companies that operate nuclear power plants and nuclear fuel suppliers.

Bauser said that out of 13 legal cases, nine of which were initiated by the state, all but one of the challenges were rejected.

The successful challenge involved the Environmental Protection Agency's radiation standard. A federal appeals court found the standard inconsistent with a National Academy of Science recommendation and told the EPA that it can either revise its regulations or go to Congress for legislation to clear up the matter.

While that will take time, Bauser said the Department of Energy still plans to submit its application for a repository license sometime this year.

Bauser also said holdups on the project -- the DOE is putting the opening date at 2012, two years later than originally scheduled -- have nothing to do with the litigation and are results of the "inability of DOE to complete tasks in a timely fashion."