U.S. formally applies for nuclear dump at Yucca

updated 2:56 p.m. ET June 3, 2008

WASHINGTON - Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Tuesday he’s confident the government’s license application to build a nuclear waste dump in Nevada will “stand up to any challenge anywhere.”

Bodman spoke at a news conference hours after the Bush administration submitted the formal application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to build the underground storage facility at Yucca Mountain more than 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Nevada officials, who have fought the waste dump for years, vowed to launch hundreds of specific challenges to the proposed design of the facility, arguing the Energy Department has not proven it will protect public health, safety and the environment from radiation up to a million years.

Responding to the filing, Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons reiterated his promise to fight the waste dump which he said “threatens the life and safety of the people of Nevada.”

“As long as I am governor, the state will continue to do everything it can to stop Yucca Mountain from becoming reality,” he said in a statement. Bodman called the application submission “a big day” for moving the stalled project forward and said he’s confident the scientific assessments demonstrate the 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste from the country’s nuclear power plants can be stored there safely.

“Issues of health safety and security have been paramount during this process. ... (They) are the driving factors in the decisions we have made,” said Bodman.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a vocal opponent, said in a statement he and other Nevada lawmakers “will continue working ... to kill the dump,” which polls show most Nevada’s don’t want in their state. In recent years Congress has repeatedly cut Yucca project funding in part because of Reid’s strong opposition.

No opening until 2020?
Edward F. Sproat, manager of the Yucca project, confirmed that the department now believes it may be 2020 before the waste site can be opened, assuming the NRC grants a license. And he said even that target may not me met if Congress does not provide a steady money stream.

A truck delivered tens of thousands of pages of documents to the NRC’s office in Rockville, Md., earlier in the day. The application itself covers 17 volumes and 8,600 pages and is supported by more than 200 other documents and studies.

But a key document is missing.

The application prepared for the NRC still lacks a final public radiation exposure standard that establishes how protective the facility must be from radiation leakage.

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