Nevada challenges new plan for 'aging' nuclear waste at Yucca

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The state of Nevada is challenging the newest Energy Department blueprints for aboveground handling of spent nuclear fuel before burial at Yucca Mountain.

In a protest prepared for submittal to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the state calls the size of concrete pads on which highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel would be "aged" in reinforced containers far beyond what Congress authorized for the Yucca site.

Nevada officials accused the Energy Department of planning speedy removal of waste from sites in 39 states by circumventing a federal law forbidding nuclear waste from being placed in aboveground "monitored retrievable storage" at the Yucca site.

"Clearly, DOE's proposed 'aging facility' is nothing more than an unlawful MRS in embarrassingly thin disguise," state officials said in documents obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal for a Friday report.

The state said that while some aboveground handling might be necessary before burial, an aboveground facility with a capacity of 21,000 metric tons of nuclear waste would be too big.

Energy Department spokeswoman Gayle Fisher told the Review-Journal the aging pads were being designed to cover about 75 acres and hold 2,500 canisters, but could be reduced to 45 acres.

She said system engineers determined the capacity of the pads by calculating the rate at which nuclear waste containers would arrive at Yucca Mountain.

The state intends to ask the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to decide that no waste would be allowed at Yucca Mountain without a "reasonable assurance" that it could be moved underground within a year.

Above ground, the containers would be vulnerable to earthquakes, plane crashes or terrorist attacks, the state said.

Energy Department officials previously described aging pads as part of a "thermal loading" strategy, where the heat of highly radioactive waste would be allowed to dissipate to safe levels before canisters would be entombed.

Congress in 2002 approved burial of 70,000 metric tons of the nation's most radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The plan has since been stalled by lawsuits, budget shortfalls and quality assurance questions. The target date for opening the repository, originally 1998, has been pushed back at least to 2017.

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Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, www.lvrj.com