U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham yesterday said he intends to recommend Yucca Mountain in Nevada for the first U.S. high-level nuclear waste storage site (see GSN, Jan. 10).

In a letter to Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn, Abraham said security issues and “compelling national interests” influenced his decision, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.  “A repository is important to our national security,” Abraham wrote.  He also wrote that transporting the waste away from population areas would “enhance protection against terrorist attacks.”

Abraham probably will formally recommend the Yucca Mountain site to U.S. President George W. Bush in 30 days, the Review-Journal reported.

“We anticipate in the near future that the secretary will make a recommendation to the president,” said White House spokesman Ken Lisaius.  “Once again we are confident that the secretary bases his decision on sound science.”

Nevada officials expressed anger over the decision.

“I told him I think this decision stinks, the process stinks and we’ll see him in court,” Guinn said shortly after talking with Abraham.  “I told him I was damn disappointed in this decision and he was to expect my veto.”

“The fight is far from over,” Guinn said.  “I also told [Abraham] I’m outraged that he has allowed politics to override sound science.  We’re going to go to the Oval Office, the White House.  Also we’re going to go to every regulatory body we can.”

Nevada officials said they could challenge the decision through the courts.  Abraham’s decision “triggers a whole lot of other legal actions,” said Bob Loux, head of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency.

“We may litigate the secretary’s decision.  We may litigate this 30-day notice, the [environmental impact statement] and the presidential decision, assuming he makes one,” Loux said.  “Maybe we’ll see three, four or five lawsuits.  We only have to win one of them.  They have to win all of them.”

Former Nevada Governor Robert List said, however, he doubted the state would win any cases against the decision.  “To date, the state hasn’t had great success in this litigation,” List said.  “One has to be pretty optimistic if one thinks that”  (Keith Rodgers, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jan. 11). 

The next step in the decision process is for Bush to approve Abraham’s recommendation on Yucca Mountain, according to the Los Angeles Times.  After Bush makes his decision, Nevada state officials could veto it, and then Congress would have 90 days to make a decision.  Only a simple majority would be needed to approve the plan, the Times reported.

Nuclear Waste?  Not Through My State…

Senate Majority Whip Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said if a decision on Yucca Mountain ends up in Congress, he will do all he can to fight the plan.  He is looking for support from other members of Congress whose constituents back home may be worried at the idea of nuclear waste passing through their state en route to Yucca Mountain, according to the Times.

“The nuclear waste is not going to suddenly appear at Yucca Mountain one night,” Reid said.  “Thousands of trucks and trains are going to carry it through the country.  People don’t like the idea of it, and since Sept. 11, they like it even less” (Shogren/Gorman, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 11).

“Each and every atomic waste train and truck passing through major urban population centers and the agricultural heartland would be a potential terrorist target,” said Kevin Kamps of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.  “Such risks represent radioactive Russian roulette on our roads and rails.”

Nuclear industry officials, however, said they approve of Abraham’s decision to recommend Yucca Mountain and that storing nuclear waste there would improve U.S. security.

“Safely transporting nuclear waste from 35 states to one secure, specifically designed federal disposal facility underground is the best solution to protect our environment and our national security,” said the Nuclear Energy Institute, a chief lobbyist for the nuclear industry (Nancy Dunne, Financial Times, Jan. 11).

Missouri state officials said they were worried about nuclear waste shipments passing through their state on the crumbling Interstate 70 or through major cities, the Kansas City Star reported today.

Missouri has said it would check waste shipments for radiation leaks and would provide Highway Patrol escorts as the shipments passed through the state, the Star reported.  If shipments would occur often, then the state would have to reexamine how it would fund such measures, said Dru Buntin, interstate issues coordinator at the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

“We’d certainly think that any part of national discussions about making Yucca Mountain the nation’s permanent disposal site for nuclear wastes would include consideration of how to get those wastes there,” Buntin said.

One waste shipment passed through Missouri last year, according to the Star.  State officials delayed the transport so it would not go through St. Louis during rush hour or pass by Kauffman Stadium during a Kansas City Royals baseball game, Buntin said.

“We weren’t very reassured by how that shipment was handled,” Buntin said.

About 70,000 tons of nuclear waste would be transported from plants throughout the country to Yucca Mountain when the repository opens in 2010 (Michael Mansur, Kansas City Star, Jan. 11).

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