In a letter submitted Friday to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Nevada officials described the Department of Energy’s continued exploration for developing a repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain as an “unworkable waste management plan” at an unsafe site.
The letter was submitted on the final day of the public comment period for the NRC’s environmental study on groundwater effects at the site, with federal licensing hearings expected in the coming months. Some congressional lawmakers have suggested re-examining the long-stalled repository project.
Submitted by Robert Halstead, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, on behalf of Gov. Brian Sandoval and state Attorney General Adam Laxalt, among other officials, the letter argues that the NRC’s 2015 draft supplement fails to evaluate direct and indirect social and economic impacts of Yucca Mountain groundwater, particularly in Amargosa Valley, a town of 1,400 people where the Western Shoshone and Southern Paiute tribes live.
“The repository proposed in the Yucca Mountain license application would not protect Nevada’s people and environment for the required period of one million years,” Halstead wrote. “The 2015 Draft Supplement violates both the National Environmental Policy Act and the Nuclear Waste Policy Act as amended.”
Earlier this year, NRC findings showed that the proposed repository would have little radiological impact on groundwater in and around the site. That, combined with the NRC’s determination that the site meets public health and safety standards, strengthened the feasibility of the project.
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