WASHINGTON — Brushing aside state safety concerns and objections from Nevada lawmakers, President Bush signed a resolution on Tuesday clearing the way for the burial of nuclear waste from across the nation in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, reports a wire service.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the move would “allow us, after a decade of scientific study, to take the next step in establishing a safe repository in which to store our nation’s nuclear waste.”
But Nevada lawmakers, citing the safety concerns of the region’s 1.4 million people and the risk of terrorist attack, pledged to keep fighting the plan any way they can, both in court and in congress by slashing its funding.
The resolution signed by Bush overrides Nevada’s veto of the administration’s plan to put the country’s first permanent nuclear waste repository in the Nevada desert, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The resolution won final congressional approval earlier this month.
The move clears the way for the U.S. Energy Department to apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license the $58 billion project. The facility is scheduled to open in 2010 and hold 77,000 tons of radioactive material that the Environmental Protection Agency ( news – web sites) says must be isolated for 10,000 years.
“The successful completion of the Yucca Mountain project will ensure our nation has a safe and secure underground facility that will store nuclear waste in a manner that protects our environment and our citizens,” Fleischer said.
There are about 100 nuclear power plants across the country. Spent fuel from these plants is highly radioactive and is stored at 131 sites in 39 states. Many storage tanks are nearly full and the government has faced lawsuits for failing to meet a 1998 deadline to open a permanent storage site.
Nevada has filed federal lawsuits to try to stop the project before and after Bush accepted a recommendation by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham ( news – web sites) in February to build the facility in the state.
Opponents, including a number of environmental groups, argue that Yucca Mountain and shipments of nuclear waste to it would provide an inviting target for terrorists in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. The highly radioactive material will be shipped by rail or truck, crossing as many as 43 states and 109 cities with populations of at least 100,000 people.
But backers, who include many of the nation’s top businesses, contend it would be safer to have the waste in one site rather than scattered at facilities nationwide.
Opening a new front in the state’s fight against the dump, a Senate appropriations subcommittee chaired by Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid cut $189 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s nuclear waste disposal program.
A competing House spending bill would provide the full $525 million the Bush administration has requested for nuclear waste disposal. It is unclear how the issue will be resolved as Congress proceeds with the bill, one of 13 it must pass each year to fund the federal government.