Leaked memo seems to suggest Yucca Mountain dead

Jerry Brown reporting

A leaked Energy Department memo suggests that the Yucca Mountain Project might soon be history. That news should have local opponents of the proposed nuclear waste repository celebrating.

However, as the state nuclear commission met Tuesday, some members did not radiate optimism.

It was supposed to be routine. Nevada's Commission on Nuclear Projects met Tuesday as scheduled. Though not on the agenda, many on the commission and in attendance focused on one subject: the Department of Energy budget document memo.

"The memo seems to suggest that Yucca Mountain is dead," Commission on Nuclear Projects chairman Richard Bryan tells News 3. "It's not over, as they say, until the fat lady sings, so I'm always cautious to pronounce it in fact dead, but this is certainly encouraging."

Former Nevada governor and United States Senator Richard Bryan chaired the meeting. He warned fellow Yucca Mountain opponents against complacency.

"There is considerable support in the Congress for Yucca Mountain; nobody wants it in their backyard."

All license defense activities will be terminated in December 2009 - Department of Energy Chief Financial Officer Steve Isakowitz

The memo, which was revealed in two energy industry trade papers on Monday, appears to indicate that the D.O.E. will withdraw its license application before year's end. Bruce Breslow, the executive director of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, remains skeptical that Yucca Mountain is going away that soon.

"It's been dead so many times without being dead that it's hard, you know, it's hard to believe anything you read. It's a memo, it's from a draft," said Breslow.

Breslow told those in attendance that the memo made no sense. "While I want them to withdraw the application, it wouldn't surprise me if it was a typo."

A typo substituting "2009' for "2010" would explain a basic incongruity in the memo, Breslow says.

"Withdrawing the licence application - it would make sense for December of next year. I don't quite understand why they would pull it a week after the president funded going ahead with the licensing for another year."

The latest proposed budget for the Yucca Mountain project reflects cuts of over 75 percent with the remaining funds being used for archiving, site remediation and transitioning site workers to other employment.

"My strategy - I've been in this fight for 25 years now - is if we can starve the beast, that is if you reduce the funding, reduce the funding each year, ultimately the project simply can't go forward," said Bryan.

But bureaucracy moves slowly says Bryan, which is why Nevada's Commission on Nuclear Projects will continue to meet and plan strategy.

"We can't just simply say let's go home, it's all over and declare victory because technically it's out there," Bryan continues. "Theoretically, it could go forward, and that's why we want to be vigorous and vigilant."

The Yucca Mountain project won't be officially dead until the Energy Department withdraws its license application and declares the area - located about 90 miles from Las Vegas- unsuitable.

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