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County to begin mounting Yucca offense |
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Saturday, 23 August 2008 |
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By Mike Gervais
Register Staff 8-21-2008
Yucca Mountain is one step closer to accepting nuclear waste now that a completed licensing application has been submitted to the Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Inyo County Yucca Mountain Project Coordinator Pat Cecil reported Tuesday.
The U.S. Department of Energy submitted its application – a whopping 18 volumes averaging 3,500 pages each – for the construction of the Yucca Mountain Geologic Repository to the NRC on June 3. The DOE is expected to docket the application, opening it for comments, on Sept. 2.
Before that time, Inyo County must decide if it will participate in the comment process of the LA as either an intervener (either in favor of or opposition to the project) or an interested government participant. The county could also opt not to participate in the LA process.
The county will have 90 days from the docket date to decide if and how it will participate.
“If we don’t declare within the time frame what we want to be (either an intervener or a interested government participant) then we will be a non-participant” and forfeit the ability to coordinate with the DOE, NRC and other participants, said Cecil.
Inyo County’s Yucca Mountain Project staff has identified three issues with the DOE’s licensing application.
The first problem Cecil said his staff has come across is the DOE’s definition of the affected environment around Yucca Mountain. He said the DOE does not include the lower carbonate aquifer in Death Valley in its analysis of affected areas, but county staff and research conducted by contractors suggests there will be an impact to the aquifer.
Cecil also said the DOE inadequately analyzes the environmental impacts of the project. He said that section of the licensing agreement does not include the affect Yucca Mountain will have on the lower carbon aquifer when the facility begins operations and starts pumping groundwater from the aquifer.
Finally, Cecil said, the DOE “really has a super inadequate analysis of the socioeconomic impacts on Death Valley and Inyo County” as a result of storing nuclear waste in the national park’s back yard across the Nevada border.
Cecil said the county could cite those issues as a reason for declaring its involvement as an intervener.
If the county chooses to participate in licensing discussions about Yucca Mountain as an interested government participant, it will not have to draft a list of contentions, but could still discuss issues with the licensing application during a series of hearings.
The dates for the hearings have not yet been scheduled, but should be released to the public some time in September.
The first thing Inyo must accomplish before it can move forward in the licensing application process is to decide how it will participate.
From there, the Board of Supervisors must designate a “responsible official” to oversee the county’s work on the Yucca Mountain Project. That position would likely be filled by Cecil. The county must also discuss the possibility of filling the Yucca Mountain Project coordinator position that was vacated by Matt Gaffney earlier this year.
Once the county has filled out its ranks in the Yucca Mountain department, those individuals will be responsible for drafting the county’s arguments for or against the licensing application, and bring those documents before the Board of Supervisors for approval.
The county will also be required to seek outside legal representation for the hearings, preferably a full-time law firm on the West Coast and a part-time firm in or around Washington, D.C., Cecil said.
“Talking to people at this point, it looks like the meetings are going to be in both Vegas and D.C., with three meetings in Las Vegas to every one in Washington,” Cecil said, noting that the schedule for the hearings could change before September.
Cecil said that the California Energy Commission, the California Attorney General’s Office and Nye County are all expected to participate in the licensing application hearings as intervener groups that may support Inyo County’s arguments.
He added that the State of Nevada has spoken of opposing the licensing application, but has not taken an official stance.
County officials will now agendize a board discussion on how the county will participate in the hearings as well as schedule time for the board to consider filling the vacant Yucca Mountain Project coordinator position. The board may take up those discussions at next week’s meeting.
The county is also planning to define its case for possible intervention, and discuss seeking outside legal counsel for the hearings at one of its board meetings in September.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 07 October 2008 )
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