Keith Rogers reports that The federal Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project that has been presumed dead for five years still has a pulse. And Nevadans for the most part(?) are still against the project. About 80 people showed up Tuesday night at a public meeting to discuss a draft report by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff.
The 173-page study found if a repository for tens of thousands of tons of highly radioactive used fuel from U.S. power reactors is ever licensed and built in a maze of tunnels in the mountain there would only be a negligible increase in health risk from nuclear particles that might leak into groundwater. Richard Bryan, chairman of the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects, said he is not ready to gamble on the health and safety of Nevadans with a flawed nuclear waste disposal site that became the only one studied because of raw naked politics. But Bryan is not qualified to assess the merits of the report.
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., and Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman weighed in, saying that a repository is dangerous and bad for the tourism-based economy. The project also been flawed from the beginning and remains so, Titus said. But all of the above are also not not qualified to assess the report.
A statement from Gov. Brian Sandoval read by Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects Director Bob Halstead noted that DOE does not posses the land and water rights necessary to receive a construction authorization, but this a political block, not a technical block.
Dr. Leonard Kreisler, former Nevada Test Site medical director, and someone who is qualified to judge such matters concluded that there is no significant danger with the Yucca Mountain Project. That means their is little risk.
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