Nevada picked for nuclear waste dump site for nation

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department gave the go-ahead for a nuclear waste dump in the Nevada desert Thursday, contending the site is scientifically sound and that "compelling national interests" override the state's strong objections.

President Bush must decide whether to approve the site and apply for a federal license.

Nevada would need the support of Congress to have any hope of thwarting the proposed dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Under a 1982 law, Nevada can veto the project, but that could be overridden by Congress.

Congress singled out Yucca Mountain 15 years ago as the only site to be studied for the nation's nuclear waste repository. Outraged Nevada politicians said the legislation passed only because lawmakers didn't want the waste in their states.

The commercial waste, about 40,000 tons and growing at the rate of 2,000 tons a year, now is warehoused at reactor sites in 31 states, although the government was supposed to have taken it off the industry's hands four years ago.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, who is to send a formal recommendation to the White House in 30 days, called Yucca Mountain "scientifically sound and suitable" as a repository for as much as 77,000 tons of highly radioactive material generated by commercial nuclear power plants and the government's weapons program.

Nevada officials have vowed to fight the proposed dump to the bitter end and responded with anger to Abraham's decision, although they admitted it had been widely expected.

"This decision stinks," said Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican.

Despite Abraham's assurances, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said there was "a mountain of evidence that the site is unsuitable" for keeping materials that will remain radioactive for more than 10,000 years and eventually could seep into groundwater.

Nevada officials argue that despite 13 years of intense scientific study, federal experts have not shown adequately that the public can be protected from future radiation. A myriad issues have been raised from worries over future volcanic activity, possible earthquakes and uncertainty about the ability of the rock to keep wastes out of groundwater over the millennia.

Energy Department scientists contend those issues either have been resolved or can be dealt with as a final design for the facility goes through the licensing process.

The formal recommendation to the president, Abraham said Thursday in a letter to Guinn, will show "that the science behind this project is sound and that the site is technically suitable" as a nuclear waste repository.

"There are compelling national interests that require us to complete the siting process and move forward with the development of a repository as Congress mandated 20 years ago," Abraham wrote. He said increased unease about terrorist attacks makes it even more important that the nation's radioactive waste be consolidated.

Since Congress narrowed the potential locations for a nuclear waste dump to only Nevada in 1987, eliminating potential sites in Washington state and Texas, the government has spent more than $6.8 billion studying Yucca Mountain.

A tunnel has been dug into the rock, where 900 feet beneath the surface massive heaters have sought to simulate the 400-degree temperature that can be expected from the highly radioactive wastes once they are put in a labyrinth of underground bunkers. The purpose is to learn the effect on the rocks.

Even if finally approved, no waste would be shipped to the site until 2010 at the earliest. Even that target was considered unrealistic in a recent report by the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative agency.

Reid and other Nevada officials, as well as many environmentalists, contend the waste should be kept at reactor sites where some power utilities already have begun to build aboveground temporary storage in concrete bunkers. Most of the 40,000 tons of waste at reactors, however, is kept in spent fuel pools not designed for permanent storage, and the industry has argued the government made a promise to take the waste and, so far, has reneged on that pledge.