U.S. House report on Yucca project safety protested

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. House report that suggests Yucca Mountain could be safe to store nuclear waste drew a blast on Thursday from Nevada's top nuclear watchdog.

Joe Strolin said the report by the Republican majority staff of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee was one-sided, ignoring questions that Nevada officials think should disqualify the site.

"You would never know from the report that thousands of pages of scientific studies in the public record ... document hundreds of grave safety problems with disposal of high level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain," said Strolin, the acting executive director of the Agency for Nuclear Projects.

The House panel drew on a two-year, unpublished safety report written by the staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC study, it said, concluded the site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, could comply with federal safety rules.

But Strolin said Nevada officials and other repository opponents have raised more than 300 technical protests to the Yucca site, which would be debated before a panel administrative law judges if the project moves forward.

Strolin said the NRC safety report is still undergoing peer review and cannot be disclosed publicly, making any conclusions about the site "no more transparent than a brick wall."

Strolin said the House committee, whose GOP members generally support the Yucca site, might have been trying to sway public opinion to keep alive the repository plan, which the Obama administration is terminating.

"It gives the false impression the site has been found suitable, which it has not," he said. "It is unfair, and it is a real political move to do this."

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.