In brief: Report: Nuke site plan met standards
RENO, Nev. – Permanent closure plans for a high-level nuclear waste facility at Yucca Mountain met all the necessary objectives based on safety evaluations completed before the Obama administration pulled the plug on the proposed Nevada dump, federal nuclear regulators said in a long-awaited staff report released Thursday.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s staff said in a 781-page document that the underground storage facility once planned in the desert mountains 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas would meet all post-closure design requirements.
The multiple natural and man-made barriers adequately would protect public health and groundwater, and sufficiently guard against sabotage or human intrusion, the report concluded.
Nuclear energy industry leaders hailed the report as a “key milestone” that should serve to restart stalled efforts to build the facility they say is needed to store more than 72,000 metric tons of radioactive fuel stored at more than 70 sites in 34 states.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other members of the state’s congressional delegation vowed to keep that from happening.
Big Island braces for deluge, winds
HONOLULU – Tropical Storm Ana is expected to deliver heavy rain and potentially destructive winds to the southern half of Hawaii’s Big Island in the next couple of days, meteorologists said Thursday.
Ana likely will become a hurricane by this evening but return to tropical storm strength Saturday morning, National Weather Service meteorologist Ray Tanabe said.
That’s also when the storm is forecast to be closest to the island – about 85 to 90 miles offshore to the southwest.
The storm will be farther from the coast than predicted earlier, forecasters said Thursday. It also will be a hurricane for a shorter period than previously thought.
“Right now, we expect the main impacts to be on the Big Island,” Tanabe said. The weather service has issued a tropical storm watch for the island.
The soil in the Big Island’s Kau district already is heavily saturated from recent thunderstorms, raising the risk of flooding there.