The state of Nevada plans to submit 30 to 50 new contentions with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission against building a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, the state’s point man on the project said Wednesday.
Should the NRC ultimately approve a license for construction of the underground storage site, state lawsuits would follow, Robert Halstead, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said at the ExchangeMonitor’s RadWaste Summit in Summerlin, Nev.
Contentions are part of the commission’s adjudicatory process for the Energy Department’s license application for Yucca Mountain, which the NRC suspended in 2011. About 15 of the new contentions would address threats to groundwater from storing spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste under Yucca Mountain, while others would focus on separate topics such as the project’s impact on tribal lands in the region.
The NRC has already admitted 218 contentions filed in 2009 by the state, on matters such as waste transport, the impact on Las Vegas, and the storage method for the material.
He said the new contentions would not be submitted until the NRC resumes the adjudicatory process, which he believes would not occur until after the agency receives additional funding for the work. The Trump administration has requested $30 million for NRC licensing activities on Yucca Mountain for fiscal 2018; the House of Representatives passed legislation with the funding, but the Senate Appropriations Committee’s corresponding legislation provides no money for DOE and NRC to work on the project.
The adjudicatory process would culminate in the commission’s decision on whether to approve the recommendation on licensing from its Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel. Only when that occurs will the state decide whether it needs to sue, Halstead said. The state is preparing cases on a number of fronts, including that DOE rather than the NRC should have prepared an environmental impact statement for Yucca Mountain on groundwater.
Nye County Board of Commissioners Chairman Dan Schinhofen, speaking at the conference alongside Halstead, said he supports filing of additional contentions if it means moving the review process forward. He reaffirmed his belief that science facts, not politics, should determine whether the Yucca Mountain facility is built in his county.
