Copyright 1999 Times Mirror Company
Los Angeles
Times
August 7, 1999, Saturday, Home Edition
SECTION: Part A; Page 20; Metro Desk
LENGTH: 555 words
HEADLINE:
ENERGY DEPT. FINDS NO REASON TO REJECT NUCLEAR WASTE SITE;
ENVIRONMENT: CRITICS OF YUCCA MOUNTAIN PLAN ASSAIL
CONCLUSIONS OF FEDERAL AGENCY'S REPORT.
BYLINE: JOHN M.
GLIONNA, TIMES STAFF WRITER
BODY:
After
years of scrutiny and numerous studies, scientists have uncovered no
environmental factors that would rule out Nevada's Yucca
Mountain as the future home of America's first nuclear waste
repository, according to a Department of Energy report released Friday.
In a mammoth, 1,400-page report, officials acknowledged that there is "a
substantial amount of uncertainty associated with estimates of long-term
repository performance."
The document added that scientists used
conservative estimates to gauge the long-range environmental impacts of the
proposed waste site, which would house 77,000 tons of nuclear waste, much of
which has been stored at sites across the U.S. since the dawn of the atomic age.
The mountain site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is intended to store the
waste for as long as 100,000 years.
"In all our studies, we found
nothing to disqualify this site," Yucca Mountain Project
spokesman Allen Benson said of the two-volume draft environmental impact
statement. "We're confident we've covered all our bases. But we're waiting for
public comment to help us see if we've missed anything."
That public
comment came swiftly Friday as project critics lambasted the report, saying it
ignored key issues such as the waste dump's location in an earthquake-prone area
and offered scant details on how the government would move the waste across the
country.
"At worst, this draft is misleading. At best, it is
incomplete," Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement Friday. "I am shocked
that there is no discussion of the impact of transporting high-level nuclear
waste through communities across the nation."
Added Laura Chapin, a
spokesman for Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.): "It's one thing to have
Yucca Mountain as a site, but we're talking 100,000
cross-country trips to get this garbage to the mountain. We're talking about a
lot of highways and backyards here, folks. And Americans deserve to know more
about what the government is up to."
Critics said the government is
afraid that releasing specifics on the proposed routes would incite protests
from those who live along the way.
Under the government's plan, the
nuclear waste would be transported by truck and train from 77 nuclear reactors
and military sites nationwide. The proposed routes would take the waste past 51
million people in 43 states, including California.
Benson said critics
who claim that the report ignores proposed routes should read it again. "We're
quite confident we've addressed the transportation issue," he said. "The draft
report identifies potential routes that could be used to move this waste.
"We can't choose a specific route now because in a best-case scenario
we're not going to begin shipping the waste for a number of years."
He
said the report also addresses the impact of earthquakes on the Yucca
Mountain site. "One of the things it notes is that while Nevada may be
a seismically active area, the immediate vicinity around Yucca
Mountain is relatively quiet. Still, we're designing a facility to
withstand a magnitude 6.5 quake."
The government will conduct 16 public
hearings during a six-month comment period before releasing a final report. If
the project is approved by Congress, officials will begin burying the nuclear
waste in the isolated mountain by 2010.
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August 7, 1999