(The Associated Press circulated the following article by Erica Werner on April 5.)
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration wants to bury tens of thousands more tons of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada than is allowed.
Legislation unveiled by Energy Department officials Tuesday proposes lifting the 77,000-ton storage cap on the dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas and allowing as much waste as the mountain can safely hold. That figure has been estimated by federal environmental-impact studies at 132,000 tons; but in a letter to the Senate to introduce the bill, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said it could rise even higher.
The plan is part of a package of new proposals meant to spur development of the long-delayed dump.
About 55,000 tons of nuclear waste are already waiting at utility sites nationwide. Lifting the waste cap would postpone indefinitely the need for the Energy Department to find a site for a second nuclear waste dump, the department said.
The department also proposed dedicating money in a special nuclear waste fund, which is paid for by utilities, to the dump to try to ensure adequate funding. The bill also would allow federal officials, who hope to ship nuclear waste to the dump by rail, to pre-empt state and local transportation regulations.
Certain non-nuclear elements of the dump, including the rail line to get there, could be built before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issues a license needed to build the dump.
Nuclear material transported to Yucca would be exempt from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, a federal law that gives the Environmental Protection Agency control over environmental problems from hazardous wastes.
“This proposed legislation will help provide stability, clarity and predictability to the Yucca Mountain project,” Bodman said in a statement.
The bill will be introduced in the Senate by Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M. With time running out on the legislative calendar, it faces a fight from ardent Yucca Mountain dump opponent Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate minority leader.
Reid said Tuesday that the bill was “not even on life support. It’s dead when it gets here.”
The bill does not propose moving nuclear waste to interim storage sites while the Yucca Mountain dump is completed, something key lawmakers, including Domenici, want the department to consider.
Domenici said Tuesday that he has to review the administration’s legislation but may introduce his own bill as well.