Nuclear waste foe sought burial at Yucca Mountain

WASHINGTON -- Combative to the end, the attorney who led Nevada's legal fight against nuclear waste said his ashes would be scattered at Yucca Mountain.

In an obituary he wrote before he died on May 7, Joe Egan said he arranged for his remains "to be spread across the volcanic terrain."

The scattering, he wrote, would be accompanied by a eulogy: "Radwaste buried here only over my dead body."

Egan, 53, died of gastro-esophageal cancer, his family said, after he battled the disease for more than two years. A memorial Mass and a remembrance service are scheduled for May 22 in Naples, Fla.

Egan was Nevada's lead attorney since 2001 in lawsuits against the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The obituary is posted at www.nuclearlawyer.com, the Web site of the firm, Egan, Fitzpatrick & Malsch, PLLC.

A spokesman for the firm said when or how Egan's wishes would be carried out was unclear. The Department of Energy, which controls access to the Yucca Mountain site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, had no comment.