Source from Reuters.com
The state of Nevada on Friday asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reject the U.S. government's plan to store thousands of tons of nuclear waste temporarily above ground at a mountain located about 90 miles from Las Vegas.
The Energy Department is set to file an application with the NRC in mid 2008 for a license to operate the Yucca Mountain permanent nuclear storage repository in Nevada, which would hold radioactive waste underground from more than 100 nuclear power plants, along with the tons of leftovers from the U.S. nuclear weapons program.
The permanent storage site is years behind schedule and until it is ready, the department wants to place the nuclear waste temporarily above ground.
Nevada has vehemently opposed Yucca Mountain becoming the country's nuclear waste dump, but has been overruled by the U.S. Congress. Blocking above ground interim storage at the site would delay the eventual arrival of any radioactive waste put permanently inside Yucca Mountain.
Nevada says it is worried the radioactive waste could linger at the allegedly temporary surface site for decades, pointing out that the 21,000 tons of waste that might be stored above ground is seven times the amount of waste the permanent underground storage facility would be able to receive each year if it is finally opened.
In a petition to the NRC, Nevada said federal law specifically prohibits large interim storage in the state as long as it is the location for the country's permanent nuclear waste repository.
"Planned storage of seven times the annual emplacement rate at Yucca Mountain is nothing more than an unlawful interim storage site in embarrassingly thin disguise," said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.