March 6, 2008
Intervening in the DOE License Application

By Dave Maxwell, Staff Writer

In late June or July, the Department of Energy (DOE) expects to submit its application for construction of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. If approved, DOE then plans to build a rail corridor through Nevada, including parts of Lincoln County, to transport spent nuclear waste to the site.

Appearing at the February 26 regular meeting of the Joint City/County Impact Alleviation Committee in Caliente, Dr. Mike Baughman, President of Intertech Services, gave a report on how Lincoln County and/or the City of Caliente can raise contentions regarding the application.

Dr. Baughman said he was recently told by Ward Sproat, Director of the Energy Department’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, that the license application would be submitted sometime in late summer. He reported that Sproat also said that the Yucca Mountain project was absolutely tied to the rail transportation line in Nevada. “If the rail line is not built, the repository does not go forward.” Baughman said he believes Sproat is of the opinion that if Congress does not give DOE all the money they ask for during each budgetary cycle, “the project will never get built."

The NCR will have to adopt the Environmental Impact Statement regarding rail transportation but that will come later and it is at that point that Lincoln County has an opportunity to bring up issues for mitigation.

However, he said the need to identify contentions is not imminent, still about 10 months away, “but get going now, don’t wait until the last minute.”

In his comments, Dr. Baughman mentioned three areas of contention Lincoln County and the City of Caliente might consider reviewing as possible avenues of mitigating impact in the NRC licensing proceedings. One would be, “If the repository were to have any kind of unanticipated consequence.” Something, he said, that might cause Clark County and/or the Las Vegas area, to have a lot of adverse publicity resulting in a reduction of people coming to visit. He said it would be similar to after 9-11 when travelers stopped going, for a time, to popular spots, which had a large local economic impact. Baughman said if such an event happened that impacted the economy of Clark County, “You (Lincoln County/Caliente) could probably argue you as well suffered fiscal consequence.”

A second possible contention could be related to exposure of County residents to radiation being carried downwind as a result of volcanic activity at the Yucca Mountain site.

A third area of contention might be related to storage of nuclear waste at the DOE proposed rail-staging yards. Dr. Baughman noted that the preferred staging yard being considered, the Upland site between Panaca and Caliente, might have “nuclear waste containers sitting at the site, day in and day out, for a number of years,” before being moved to the repository. He said, “If that is the case, this site itself may be licensable. We’ve raised that issue in the comments and that may be the basis of a contention in and of itself.”

Beyond the NCR licensing process, another option noted by Dr. Baughman for the County to address mitigation would be participation in the permitting process to be undertaken for the Caliente rail line by the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB). He noted that DOE has determined the rail route will be a shared line, meaning that other (non-DOE) commercial traffic could use the line when nuclear waste shipments are not scheduled. In order for the line to be used commercially, he said, “DOE is required to file with the Surface Transportation Board for a Certificate of Conveyance which results in conditions being imposed on the Certificate that serves to mitigate impacts along the rail line.” The STB process often results in imposition of mitigation conditions on granted Certificate of Conveyance.

The right-of-way for the rail line will have to be granted by the Bureau of Land Management. “BLM has its own process that they have to go through to grant that right-of-way,” he said, “and it typically involves them imposing conditions on the granting of that right-of-way, which often times are designed to mitigate impacts.”

“I have a much higher degree of confidence in the County and the City getting strong consideration for the impacts that you have in this County, or the things that you want to have mitigated, through both the Surface Transportation Board and the Bureau of Land Management permitting venues, than I have through the NRC process,” he added.

Dr. Baughman informed the JCCIAC that the planned construction date for the rail line has been pushed back to 2013 and he thought that would put the in-service date to about 2017 and 2023, allowing for a 4-10-year construction time.

With all the delays and funding cutbacks the DOE has been experiencing, the opening of the Yucca Mountain repository has also been pushed back to about 2021.