Yucca database challenge rejected

WASHINGTON -- Nevada suffered a setback in its fight to keep out nuclear waste when a panel of judges on Wednesday rejected a charge that a document database required for the Yucca Mountain project was incomplete.

A victory for the state would have thrown a big monkey wrench into Department of Energy's schedule for licensing a nuclear waste-handling complex and repository in Nevada.

But three administrative judges assembled by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission tossed out the state's case only a week after hearing oral arguments in Las Vegas.

"Nevada's legal position is incorrect," the judges said in a two-page ruling.

Federal regulations give DOE the ability to add finalized documents to the electronic library even after it is certified as being complete, they said.

The ruling removed one of the obstacles standing between the Energy Department and its goal to apply for a repository construction license by the end of June 2008.

By law, the department must wait at least six months after the database -- called the Licensing Support Network -- is certified before it can submit a repository license application to the NRC.

DOE certified a database containing 3.5 million documents on Oct. 19. It is on the Internet at www.lsnnet.gov.

The six-month waiting period exists to give the state and other parties time to study the documents and prepare for hearings on the license application.

NRC hearings and license reviews are expected to consume four years or more.

Nevada officials charged that many of the most important studies and safety reports that will form the backbone of the license application do not appear to be finished.

Those need to be completed, posted to the database and certified before DOE is allowed to move forward, the state argued.

The judges' ruling "renders the whole idea of a six-month review to be utterly meaningless," said Bob Loux, director of the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects.

Loux said the judges "did not want to be the ones to step in front of the freight train" and stall the Yucca Mountain project that is a Bush administration priority.

Ward Sproat, director of DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said the ruling "enables DOE to move forward as planned."

The NRC judges said they were preparing a detailed ruling.

Loux said the state will review that ruling before deciding whether to file an appeal.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he is working on other ways to derail the project.

"It is clear that the (Licensing Support Network) is not complete and that DOE is playing hide the ball with key documents in order to prevent the state of Nevada from having all the information it needs to oversee and challenge the license application process," said Reid, the Senate majority leader.

Reid and other congressional leaders are negotiating a giant year-end spending bill that is expected to contain Yucca Mountain budget cuts deep enough to force more delays.