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A Mountain of Waste Yucca
Mountain High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository
None of the longstanding concerns about the Yucca Mountain Project have been resolved, although Congress last year voted to allow the Department of Energy (DOE) to proceed with a license application. Multiple scientific, environmental and cost barriers plague the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository. Moreover, transporting 77,000 tons of nuclear waste to Nevada would threaten the health and safety of millions of Americans in 44 states, without solving the nuclear waste problem. To protect the program from expected cost increases, the Bush administration is now proposing to partially remove the Yucca Mountain budget from the normal appropriations process. Green Scissors
Proposal Current
Status In the meantime, the State of Nevada and environmental organizations are challenging the project in court. The U.S. Court of Appeals will hear three important cases for the District of Columbia Circuit, which involves DOE, NRC, and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations that were inappropriately weakened to allow the Yucca Mountain Project to proceed. Also, the General Accounting Office has launched the latest of several investigations into the project's questionable integrity. The latest involves allegations that the DOE is covering up deficiencies in project data and computer modeling. Nevada lawmakers requested the probe after the Labor Department ruled last September that a Yucca Mountain quality assurance manager was unjustly fired for raising concerns. Reminiscent of previous conflict of interest scandals, the DOE hired an outside law firm with ties to the commercial nuclear industry to conduct the internal investigation that led to the firing. Project Hurts Taxpayers Funding for the Yucca Mountain program comes from DOE defense appropriations (taxpayers) and the Nuclear Waste Fund -- a fund to which nuclear utility ratepayers must contribute to finance the long-term management of high-level nuclear waste. If the Nuclear Waste Fund continues to be squandered on the ill-conceived Yucca Mountain Project, taxpayers could be left footing the bill for the eventual high costs of nuclear waste management. The waste program record is dismal. The Department of Energy's (DOE's) total cost estimate for the Yucca Mountain Project has soared to nearly $60 billion, almost double the original projection, and the cost will almost certainly continue to rise. The Bush administration is now proposing a budget provision
that would reserve funds specifically for the Yucca Mountain
project within discretionary cap adjustments for 2004 and 2005.
This proposal would inappropriately limit the discretionary authority
of appropriators to balance various budget priorities and exercise
oversight, essentially granting the DOE a blank check for Yucca
Mountain spending. This would be a grossly irresponsible fiscal
maneuver, particularly given the DOE's history of cost over-runs
and financial mismanagement in its nuclear programs. The Yucca Mountain site is not suitable for radioactive waste storage. The site is cut by 33 earthquake faults and has been jolted with a 5.6 magnitude earthquake. Water travels through Yucca Mountain much faster than expected -- 50 years rather than 10,000 years. Groundwater beneath Yucca Mountain provides the only source of drinking water for nearby residents. Volcanism is another concern -- Yucca Mountain itself is formed from volcanic tuft. Environmental regulations
have been weakened at Yucca Mountain. In June 2001, the EPA finalized site specific
radiation protection standards for Yucca Mountain and settled
for standards that are more lenient than the generic standards
already in force at New Mexico's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
Pending lawsuits, against this and other regulatory rollbacks,
seek to remand the project's Environmental Impact Statement to
the DOE and force the agency to rescind the Yucca Mountain site
recommendation.
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