Commissioners plot repository opposition

It will take more than four years for the federal government to obtain a license to turn Yucca Mountain into a nuclear waste storage site and more than 12 years before the project is finished, Clark County's nuclear waste expert told the Clark County Commission on Tuesday.

The predictions came on the morning when the Department of Energy applied for its license to create the repository 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The commission continued what has become a tradition: staunch opposition to Yucca Mountain being used to house as much as 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste.

"I think today makes clear that the single-most stubborn agency in the history of the federal government is the Department of Energy," Commissioner Rory Reid said. "They just trudge forward knowing this project has all the scientific and technical problems that it does."

Now that the Energy Department has filed for a license with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the county has 30 days to submit a list of criticisms of the project, said Irene Navis, who manages the county's nuclear waste division.

Federal agencies have had "22 years to get here," Navis said. "We have 30 days."

Commissioners voted to have staffers compile the criticisms, study the project's potential effects on transportation and recruit outside counsel to represent the county.

Navis said that surveys consistently show 75 percent of county residents oppose the project. And 87 percent of those polled said they feared a Yucca Mountain repository would decrease their property values, she said.

One reason federal officials are pushing so hard to develop the Yucca Mountain site is because they are already so far behind schedule, Navis said. Initially, it was scheduled to start accepting waste in 1998.

The tardiness has led to the government owing $7 billion to utilities because it failed to comply with contracts when the storage site didn't materialize as promised, Navis said.

Instead of shipping the waste to Yucca Mountain, the material could be stored at the nuclear plants themselves, an option the industry has fought, she said.

Meanwhile, researchers could develop ways to convert nuclear waste into energy, Navis said, eliminating the need for long-term storage.

For now, Reid said, the county must resist the attempt to stockpile such a lethal substance less than 100 miles away.

"We need to keep doing what we've been doing as a county, and that is to fight," Reid said.

Contact reporter Scott Wyland at swyland@reviewjournal.com or 702-455-4519.