Yucca Mountain News Clips
Thursday, July 22, 2004
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State of Nevada
July 22, 2004
A message from Governor Kenny C. Guinn
Court of Appeals Decision
A Resounding Victory in Yucca Fight
On July 9, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a decision that is a major setback for the Department of Energy´s (DOE) effort to place nuclear waste in our state at Yucca Mountain. The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals´ decision reinforces the State of Nevada´s position that the science used by the Department of Energy is not sound nor is it safe, and that the 10,000-year standard used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is woefully inadequate and is inconsistent with the Congressionally-mandated recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences.
It is important to note that the court vacated the primary EPA rule governing the project, holding that the EPA deliberately rejected the sound advice of the scientific community and adopted a standard that is not safe. The EPA chose to ignore the National Academy of Sciences´ recommendation of a health standard that would protect the public for between 300,000 and one million years when the repository would be experiencing its peak radiation hazard. Instead, the EPA opted for the expeditious – but much more dangerous and indefensible – standard of 10,000 years. The State of Nevada´s legal team has serious doubts if the EPA can now adjust its science in such a way to fit the 300,000- to 1-million year standard, given Yucca´s unique and porous geology.
Second, and just as important, the court vacated the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) rule governing repository licensing. This means there is currently no rule against which to license the project. The NRC will have to wait until EPA puts out a new rule, and it too will have to promulgate a new rule. This is often a costly and time-draining maneuver, one that can sometimes – if successful – take up to a decade to complete. For this to be accomplished, DOE will have to prove what our state has always wanted it to prove – that the geology of the mountain is sufficient to retard radiation hazards to a safe level for all time. It is highly unlikely DOE can succeed in this endeavor.
Based on this recent ruling, it is obvious that the EPA deliberately adopted a standard that runs contrary to the health, safety and well-being of the citizens of Nevada. Prior to this ruling, the State of Nevada has helped provide funding for the state´s legal team, and in February 2002, I exercised my Notice of Disapproval to the U.S. Congress (Governor´s veto) upon hearing of the decision to recommend Yucca Mountain as a nuclear repository.
I would like to congratulate Attorney General Brian Sandoval and the state´s talented legal team for working so hard and so successfully in bringing about this important victory. There will no doubt be an appeal from the DOE in the coming months, but I am confident that the latest ruling has struck a significant blow in favor of the welfare and safety of all Nevadans.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
July 22, 2004
RADIATION STANDARD: Yucca ruling has agency scrambling
NRC seeks recommendation on whether to accept nuclear waste dump application
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Regulators are uncertain what to do in the wake of a court decision that has greatly complicated the Yucca Mountain Project.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission asked its general counsel to study whether the agency can or should accept an application for a Nevada nuclear waste repository that is beset with uncertainties after judges voided a radiation health standard this month, chairman Nils Diaz said.
"We need to get to a decision to accept the application or not," Diaz said after a scheduled commission meeting. "We are not at that point."
The new clouds over the Yucca program increase the likelihood that a repository will be delayed years beyond a 2010 target opening, NRC commissioner Edward McGaffigan added.
"From the date on which clarity emerges, that puts it probably at 10 years," he said. "In the best case you could shave a year or two."
The NRC, along with the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, is sorting out a host of legal, technical and procedural questions raised by the July 9 ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
A three-judge panel threw out a 10,000-year radiation protection standard for the repository, saying its authors at the EPA disregarded a 1995 National Academy of Sciences study that suggested protective standards should be set for perhaps hundreds of thousands of years longer.
Department of Energy officials said they still plan to file a license application later this year. They expect the NRC will begin a formal review while the court ruling is appealed, or as the EPA or Congress forge new standards.
The judges withheld their ruling on the radiation standard until after appeals requests are decided. While there is an expectation the ruling will be appealed within the 45 days allowed, none has been announced yet. Spokesmen for the EPA and for the Energy Department did not return calls on Wednesday.
The government activity is being monitored closely by officials in Nevada, who believe the court delivered a potential knockout blow by voiding part of the repository's radiation protections.
The state is prepared to take the government to court if repository licensing goes forward, said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.
"Our view is that (the NRC) cannot accept an application." Loux said. "It seems to me it is time for the commission on their own to take a stand on the issue and stop worrying about what the industry says and doesn't say."
McGaffigan said the nuclear industry is proposing the NRC docket the license application and work on segments that do not involve long-term radiation until the 10,000-year standard is settled.
In addition to the web of tunnels where 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste will be stored, the Yucca facility will consist of an above-ground complex where the nuclear material will be placed in containers for disposal.
"You could be working theoretically on the easier parts first, getting some of the work out of the way, but you would still be waiting for the (radiation) standard to do the hard stuff," said McGaffigan, who stressed he has not taken a position on the matter.
Diaz also said he will not consider the details of moving into a Yucca licensing phase until NRC attorneys advise whether the application could even be accepted.
The NRC had supported the 10,000-year radiation standard voided by the court. McGaffigan said he was troubled by the National Academy of Sciences study that formed the basis for the court's ruling.
McGaffigan said scientists on the study panel assumed residents in the repository vicinity in the far future "are going to be dumber than people today" and would be unable to filter impurities from water supplies.
"There is technology available in the 21st century that would drive (radiation) doses pretty darn close to zero and meet all the EPA standards," he said. "I suspect that humans will not be dumber in the 5000th century than in the 20th century."
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Las Vegas SUN
July 22, 2004
Editorial: Back to drawing board
Las Vegas SUN
In a ruling earlier this month the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sent into limbo the timetable for opening Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste dump. The Energy Department's designs are based on the mountain's ability to protect the outside world from radiation for 10,000 years. The court threw out that standard, citing research by the National Academy of Sciences that shows the standard should be much longer.
The Energy Department, though, still plans to submit an application for a license to operate Yucca Mountain this year, and to open the dump by 2010. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will decide on the license, would then have two options -- begin evaluating aspects of the Energy Department's application that do not pertain to the radiation standard, or wait for a new standard. In our view, it's impossible to set a meaningful standard for even a thousand years, much less 10,000 years. The whole dangerous project should be shut down. At the very least, not one minute should be wasted evaluating the license application during the time the Energy Department is trying to set a new radiation standard.
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KRNV
July 21, 2004
NRC official sees five year delay judging license for Yucca Mountain
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission member's now saying the Energy Department might miss its 2010 target for opening the Yucca Mountain project by five years.
Commissioner Edward McGaffigan says it could take that long to recast a radiation safety standard that a federal appeals court rejected on July ninth.
The court ruled an Environmental Protection Agency standard limiting radiation from the site for 10,000 years has to be made much stricter. Since the license application will have to adhere to the EPA standard, that could set the whole process back.
The Energy Department's insisting it'll still apply this year for a license to build and operate the repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It expects NRC to approve the license within four years, and initial construction to be done in time to start burying the nation's nuclear waste by 2010.
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State of Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects
www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/
nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us
775-687-3744
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