Editorial: NRC panel correct to reject Yucca challenge

The Obama administration was recently handed a defeat in its effort to take back the feds’ application for opening Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste depository. The licensing board of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled that the U.S. Energy Department had no sound legal or scientific basis to reverse course and ignore the wishes of Congress.

Washington state’s congressional delegation has long charged that the agency does not have the authority to back away. Led by U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, 67 representatives and 24 senators signed a letter stating, in part, that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board’s ruling is a “clear statement that the Department does not have the authority under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to unilaterally terminate Yucca Mountain.”

Congress approved the site underneath the Nevada mountain in 1982, but Nevada lawmakers have fought it ever since. U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, is locked in a tough election battle. If he can’t torpedo Yucca, his career could be sunk. Meanwhile, the Obama administration needs Reid’s help in passing its agenda. So it isn’t surprising that it has announced that it wants to consider alternative solutions, including finding other sites and keeping more nuclear waste where it currently resides. This means that the more than $10.8 billion – yes, billion – already spent on the laborious licensing process would be totally wasted.

This is alarming to those states that thought storage was temporary. Hanford Nuclear Reservation is a prime example of why a permanent site is needed. A total of 53 million gallons of toxic waste has been buried on site with the thought that it would be moved one day. Meanwhile, storage tanks are leaking, and there is a real threat that an underground plume could reach the nearby Columbia River. Once there, the disaster could be transported throughout the Northwest.

The NRC licensing panel ruled that the feds failed to show that there were errors in the application or that Yucca Mountain was unfit for long-term storage. The burden of proof is on the administration if it wants to overturn an act of Congress. Not only that, but it has no alternative plan, which is strange for an administration that has touted the revival of nuclear energy as part of its overall energy plans.

The Yucca tap dance is just another in a long line of failed promises from the feds when it comes to cleaning up and securing Hanford and other sites around the nation. It’s good to see that the experts from the relevant agency agree this time.

NRC is not bound by this panel’s decision. But if the agency reverses this ruling, it will be clear that politics has buried a vital issue.