...utility managers push for Yucca opening (partial HL)

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/editorials/2006/apr/01/566631106.html

Safety holds little concern as federal officials, utility managers push for Yucca opening

The Bush administration is working on a plan to expedite the opening of Yucca Mountain and intends to unveil it this month, according to a report from McClatchy News Service's Washington bureau. Details of the plan, under review by federal agencies, are not known.

What is known, however, should be of concern to every Nevadan. The Energy Department, in charge of the project to bury the nation's high-level nuclear waste 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas at Yucca Mountain, has confirmed discussing various ideas for inclusion in the plan.

Among them is removing the congressional cap of 77,000 tons of the deadly waste that can be buried in the mountain. This is consistent with a call in February by the Nuclear Energy Institute - a Washington-based organization that lobbies on behalf of nuclear power plants - to bury as much as 115,000 tons at Yucca.

Additionally, federal officials are considering declaring Yucca Mountain an interim site for storage, meaning waste could be hauled there immediately to await a presumed opening. This would contravene Congress' original intention that no state with a site under consideration for a permanent storage facility would have to accept waste on an interim basis.

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[JohnWxy]

1. recommended!