Yucca mountain - Nuclear dump to proceed despite ruling

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Posted, courtesy of Powernet:



Nuclear dump to proceed despite ruling     



WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The Bush administration will proceed with a 

plan to build a nuclear waste site in Nevada this year despite a 

court decision ordering it to prevent radiation leaks for more than 

10,000 years, a senior Energy Department official said on  Tuesday.   

                              

Critics of the project, including Senate Minority Whip Harry Reid of 

Nevada, say this recent federal court ruling could permanently derail 

a plan to build a massive underground storage depot beneath Yucca 

Mountain about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.   



The administration said, however, that it does not intend to slow 

down.                   



"We are still on track toward submitting a license application in 

December of this year, and opening the repository and beginning waste 

acceptance in 2010," Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow told a 

Senate Energy Committee hearing on nuclear energy.        





The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last week 

rejected Nevada's attempt to block the plan to store 77,000 tons of 

waste on constitutional grounds.        



However, the court also said the administration wrongly ignored a 

recommendation from the  National Academy of Sciences to ensure 

safety from leaks for well beyond 10,000 years.                       

       

Radioactive releases could peak in 300,000 years and the 

administration must assure safeguards on that scale, the court found. 

                          

Republican Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, a long-time nuclear 

industry proponent, said assuring safety over that timeframe is 

"impossible," and that the industry will "stand or fall" on how the 

court's objection is addressed.                                



Spent fuel from the nation's nuclear plants is piling up -- there are 

over 50,000 tons of it stored at over 100 interim locations in 39 

states within 75 miles of 161 million people.



------------------------------------

Sandy Perle

Sr. Vice President, Technical Operations

Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc.

3300 Hyland Avenue

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100  Extension 2306

Fax:(714) 668-3149



E-Mail: sperle@dosimetry.com

E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net



Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/

Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/



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