Nevada Officials Disappointed With Dismissal Of Yucca Mountain Legal Challenges
CARSON CITY – Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval today said he is disappointed with an order from a Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel dismissing Nevada’s legal challenges to the high level nuclear waste repository proposed for Yucca Mountain.
“I am disappointed by the licensing’s board order,” he said. “As the executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects has pointed out, the judges made special note of Nevada’s scientific claim that erosion could cause the surface of Yucca Mountain to completely erode during the regulatory period as prescribed by the Environmental Protection Agency, leaving the waste unprotected by the mountain’s geology in the future.
“EPA requires that nuclear waste must be kept away from public and environmental exposure for a million years,” Sandoval said. “I will support the state’s petition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to open a rulemaking docket addressing this erosion science that was not previously available when the NRC addressed the issue.”
A three-judge panel of the commission’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board rejected the legal issues.
Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto noted that while the board, also referred to as the Construction Authorization Board (CAB), refused to dismiss the U.S. Department of Energy’s license application on legal grounds, it nevertheless preserved for a later date consideration of the safety issues raised by the state in its legal papers.
“Although we are understandably disappointed by the CAB’s latest ruling and had hopes of circumventing the protracted and costly NRC hearing process, we are encouraged that the CAB recognizes the serious safety issues inherent in the DOE’s poorly executed license application for the proposed Yucca Mountain project,” Masto said. “My office will continue to prepare for the NRC hearing to protect Nevada’s citizens.”
The order from the CAB rejected the state’s legal arguments but reserves Nevada’s nearly 300 factual contentions for the extended licensing hearing. Nevada’s legal team is currently reviewing the order and considering an appeal to the full NRC.
“We are particularly heartened by the CAB’s specific finding that erosion at the Yucca Mountain site could likely cause the repository to violate the radiation protection standard adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for protection of the public,” Masto said.
Sandoval said that because of the investment in infrastructure at Yucca Mountain, he is willing to consider the site for research or other non-nuclear purposes that might benefit economic development efforts.
“As governor, I will not give up my fight against storing high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, he said. “Protecting the health, safety and welfare of our fellow citizens will be my highest priority.”
Sandoval said he was pleased to hear President Obama say in a visit earlier this month that he would not reconsider his decision to shut down the Yucca Mountain site.
In a related matter, a federal appeals court last week lifted a stay on cases challenging the U.S. Department of Energy’s authority to withdraw its licensing application for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
The lifting of the stay by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, also includes an expedited briefing schedule to consider arguments by the states of Washington, South Carolina and others challenging the Energy Department’s intent to stop the licensing process.
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