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'Yucca is far from dead' amid court, NRC issues
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Updated: Apr. 8, 2010 | 7:42 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department's drive to terminate the Yucca Mountain Project took a surprise turn this week that might either streamline the shutdown or delay it for months or longer.
A panel of three judges at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday suspended briefings on the proposed DOE shutdown until a federal court can decide on some of the legal issues that critics have raised in challenging the move.
The NRC judges, who serve on the agency's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, are considering a DOE motion to withdraw a construction application for the nuclear waste site in Nevada. They said it would be "judicial efficiency" to allow key issues to be sorted out first by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
"The board concludes that the pending actions in the Court of Appeals will likely yield quicker and more authoritative resolution of most if not all relevant legal issues than if the board were to address them without waiting for the court's guidance," the judges said in a 13-page order.
In the meantime, the judges noted that the NRC staff would continue to review the DOE license application, keeping the process going even as the Obama administration has declared it has no interest in the Nevada site.
"In other words, Yucca is far from dead," Jack Spencer, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, commented in a blog posting Wednesday.
Attorneys who follow the issue said the NRC's move raises a number of uncertainties, including how long it now might take the government to issue final decisions on terminating the project.
Even before that, attorneys said, it remains to be seen whether NRC commissioners, who oversee the licensing board, might step in to reverse the licensing board's decision. And, they said, the court of appeals could decide it is premature for it to get involved before the NRC makes its own decisions on the repository license.
"There are a few things that need to fall out before we really know what is going to happen," said Marta Adams, Nevada senior deputy attorney general.
The states of Washington and South Carolina, plus Aiken County, S.C., have filed federal lawsuits questioning whether the Department of Energy has legal authority to close down the program to develop a waste site at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The Department of Energy disagrees with the NRC move to delay any decisions until courts rule, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.
"We are confident that we have the legal authority to withdraw the application for the Yucca Mountain repository," spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller said. "We also believe that this issue should first be ruled upon by the NRC and then by the courts. But we look forward to resolving this issue promptly in any appropriate forum."
As far as reaching a resolution, "It could take anywhere from a year best case to 2½ years, but who knows," said one attorney who asked not to be identified because he is involved in other nuclear waste litigation.
Adams said the federal court, if it agrees to hear the case, could clarify some of the legal issues and possibly ease final decisions on the project.
"I think giving it a positive spin it could result in expediting the whole morass that has been swirling around ever since the announcement that DOE would be filing the motion" to terminate the project, Adams said.
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We have information from Yucca insiders that say the DOE office here in Nevada is doing everything in their power to basically SABOTAGE any effort to comply with the license investigation requirements currently being investigated by the NRC.
These include actions such as:
1. Zeroing out the budget via the Energy Secretary.
2. Literally locking out scientists from fielding and collecting critical data from "Performance Confirmation" required experiments. (They erected a fence across the entrance road to keep scientists from the "Lead Lab" out).
3. Since there is no budget for next year, the scientists employed by the "Lead Lab" (mostly Sandia National Laboratory) are seeking employment elsewhere. Most have already moved OUT OF THE STATE.
4. The DOE is not taking proper actions to archive all of the data and scientific modeling efforts that have accumulated over the years and support the license application.
5. The DOE fielding offices have literally SHUT POWER OFF of critical field areas that were used for storing 'core samples' and other data collection areas (again in an effort to sabotage the project).
So it seems that even IF the courts rule that the DOE can not withdraw the license, their efforts above would leave NO ONE to work on the project regarding the science aspects needed to support the NRC's investigation.
Also, this would open floodgates for law suites via the utility companies even MORE (by the way this money comes out of your tax dollars and can amount to BILLIONS).
So, the DOE is breaking federal law, not complying with the wishes of the NRC, AND wasting BILLIONS of dollars in past funding for the project and future projected lawsuits.
Also,low interest loans Obama promised to build new Nuclear plants are worthless as the NRC will not do this until a plan for the waste is made.
The State of Washington (Sen. Patty Murray) and the State of Idaho (Gov. what's his name) are making big money in the nuclear industry and need a place to send their refuse. Their reaping big money, we'll get the craaaaap.
After years of resistance, we will see Yucca Mt. open under Obama's watch.
Obama will play like he was duped or his hands were tied. But we all know in the end Obama will be the president to open Yucca Mt.
The principal reason Yucca was chosen as a site for the depository is because of its remote location and considerable distance from any amount of useful resources as evidenced by the posts of alan, M A R, and li'l "p" below.
Tom, I enjoy your posts every time Yucca is in the news. Keep up the good work.
PS -
Nuclear waste is only an extreme case of a much more pervasive issue. Namely, that everything we do creates waste. EVERYTHING. Trying to figure out what to do with nuclear waste is no different in principle from San Francisco trying to find a place to put it's municipal garbage, as shown in the current Winnemucca thread. Including the fact that both could be considered potential resources rather than garbage!
So unless the Vulcans from Star Trek suddenly come down and give us new technologies that don't produce ANY waste, sooner or later we're going to have to stop pretending it doesn't exist. And actually DO something about it.
The one thing I absolutely agree with in Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth", is the idea that it is physically impossible for six BILLION people to live on this planet with absolutely no impact on the environment.
Sorry, environmental idealists, but there is just simply no such thing as a PERFECTLY clean energy source. To force our society to wait for it is to condemn our society to wait forever.