Washington state seeks entry to Yucca fray

WASHINGTON -- The attorney general of Washington state, where millions of gallons of radioactive waste are resting in underground tanks at the Hanford nuclear reservation, is preparing to get into the fight over whether to terminate the Yucca Mountain program.

Attorney General Rob McKenna intends to file a motion with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by Wednesday seeking permission to intervene as the agency considers a Department of Energy request to withdraw its application to build a nuclear waste repository at the Nevada site, his office confirmed.

The state's interest follows on the heels of a federal lawsuit filed by three Hanford-area businessmen last week challenging the Obama administration's decision to end the repository, which had been designated to receive Hanford waste after it is converted into glass logs.

In a weekend editorial the TriCity Herald, which covers the communities surrounding the Hanford reservation, said a broader fight was needed and challenged McKenna "to intervene and right away."

In an interview with the Hanford News last week, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire said she was concerned about the pending removal of Yucca as a potential disposal site.

Gregoire said she was concerned that, without Yucca Mountain in the government's long-range plan, someone might move to turn the Hanford site into a reservation for spent nuclear fuel from other states in addition to the government-generated weapons waste that is there now.

A representative from McKenna's office sent an e-mail to NRC and DOE attorneys on Monday alerting them that the state would seek to intervene, according to a copy of the e-mail.

The NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board would rule on whether Washington state could take part.

The Washington state move is part of an uprising of sorts within the nuclear industry and several states where spent fuel is stored at commercial reactors and at government reservations.

Jon Summers, a spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said other states "just are going to have to understand the dump is just not going to be built."