Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
10/24/2014
With the release of Volume Three of the NRC’s Yucca Mountain Safety Evaluation Report last week, the state of Nevada is pushing back against assertions that the report shows the suitability of the site for a repository. Volume Three, which found that repository design adequately addresses Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulatory requirements for post-closure out to a million years, has been the focus of pro-Yucca lawmakers since the project was deemed “unworkable” by the Department of Energy in 2010. Nevada, however, argued this week that the NRC Staff findings are only a portion of the safety case, while the rest of the findings will show the unsuitability of the site. “The safety of a repository at Yucca Mountain cannot be known, and should not be asserted, until the remaining volumes of the SER are completed and the full licensing proceeding is completed,” Nevada Executive Director of the Agency for Nuclear Projects Bob Halstead said. “The SER presents the opinions of NRC Staff. NRC staff is only one of 16 parties in the adjudicatory proceeding. Under NRC rules, their viewpoint is entitled to no more weight than that of the other parties.”
Halstead’s comments were echoed by Nevada Assistant Attorney General Marta Adams, who called for the completion of the adjudication process before determining the site safe. “You may recall that Nevada has over 200 admitted contentions which go to whether the proposed repository meets public health and environmental requirements contained in the law,” Adams said. “The mere fact that there are as many admitted contentions as there are speaks both to the complexity of the project and to the fact that at this stage, without the benefit of all volumes of the SER, a supplemental environmental study of groundwater and a full adjudicatory proceeding, it is impossible to draw meaningful inferences about post closure safety of the proposed repository.” Adams added that any conclusion based off of Volume Three would prove pre-mature. “Whether the Yucca Mountain repository is viable and safe is very much an open question and it is premature to argue otherwise,” Adams said. “There has been a considerable amount of misreporting surrounding the import of Volume Three and this may be attributable to both politics and a misunderstanding of what the SER is.”
Nevada’s Interim Finance Committee approved in August a $1.4 million funding request from the state’s Attorney General Office and Agency for Nuclear Projects for their efforts to combat Yucca Mountain. The funds will enable the two agencies to prepare a response, especially with the remaining SERs scheduled for release by January. “Nevada’s technical experts and legal team will conduct a full review of the Safety Evaluation Report (SER) Volume 3 over the next few weeks,” Halstead said.
Nye County Continues to ‘Stand Ready’ for Yucca Movement
Nye County, meanwhile, called on the Department of Energy late last week to restart its licensing support efforts, and fund Nye County’s oversight responsibilities. Under the Nuclear waste Policy Act, DOE is responsible for providing funding to a host county for a repository so it can properly conduct oversight of the design and build of the site. “Nye County requests that the Department of Energy provide additional funding to comply with the aforementioned provisions of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, as amended, and utilize existing carryover funding to restart the Yucca Mountain licensing process until such time as Congress appropriates additional funds,” Nye County Board of County Commissioners Chair Daniel Schinhofen said in a letter to Secretary Ernest Moniz. “Nye County continues to stand ready for active and constructive engagement with the Department of Energy on this project of critical national importance.”
