Thursday, February 24, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Yucca meetings held secretly, Nevadans allege
By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Nevada officials charged Wednesday that government managers have met behind closed doors to discuss a court ruling ordering a new radiation safety standard for Yucca Mountain.
Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency who are rewriting the standard attended meetings and had phone conversations with counterparts from the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Nevada attorneys said, based on documents they obtained.
Martin Malsch, one of Nevada's nuclear waste lawyers, said the contacts do not appear to break any laws. A federal spokeswoman and two people outside the government said the sessions they were familiar with were proper and not out of the ordinary.
But Nevada officials said private talks at least raise questions about government openness and at worst hint that federal officials might be collaborating to make it easier to build a nuclear waste repository in the state.
Malsch raised the issue during a presentation Wednesday before the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste, a branch of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
"It appears that NRC, DOE and EPA have been discussing with each other how to respond" to the court's ruling, Malsch told the committee.
"However, rather than being open with it, the agencies have drawn an iron curtain of secrecy around their deliberations," he said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in July voided an EPA 10,000-year radiation standard for the repository. The EPA has said it might propose a new standard this summer, but the project has been delayed in the meantime.
Malsch said Nevada has asked the EPA to issue an "advance notice of rule-making" that would require the agency to conduct public meetings, but has received no answer.
Malsch later said the state, through the federal Freedom of Information Act, obtained date books for EPA officials, meeting notes and e-mails indicating that meetings and telephone conversations involving the three agencies took place shortly after the court's ruling in July.
Sue Gagner, an NRC spokeswoman, said the agency's discussions with EPA are appropriate because NRC's licensing regulations for Yucca Mountain must be harmonized with the safety rules that EPA is writing.
