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11-20-08 County Seeks to Become an Interested Governmental Participant on the Yucca Mountain License
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County Seeks to Become an Interested Governmental Participant on the Yucca Mountain License
By Dave Maxwell, Staff Writer
 Attorney Barry Newman, of Carter, Ledger and Milburn, a legal firm in Washington D.C., visited the Lincoln County Commission meeting November 17. The firm has been retained for some time to represent Lincoln County interests in the licensing proceedings regarding the proposed Department of Energy Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository.
Newman suggested two options the County might pursue now in the process. One is to file their own list of contentions and go to litigation, and the other is to become an “Interested Governmental Participant” and join with other groups who are also filing contentions regarding Yucca Mountain.
The Lincoln County Nuclear Oversight Program spent a lot of time and effort developing a long list of contentions that were submitted to the Department of Energy (DOE) regarding the rail transportation of nuclear waste shipments through Lincoln County. Subsequently these were pretty much ignored, or deemed of not enough significance, to pay much attention to.
Newman said, after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published a notice of hearing on the DOE license application October 22, 2008, a 60-day period began in which “any person or governmental entities who may wish to participate in the licensing proceeding as a full party intervener may apply.” He explained, “Specifically what that means is that by December 22, 2008 any one who wants to participate as a party intervener must file a petition with the NRC seeking that status. In addition, the petition must be accompanied by the contentions, specific issues that may have legal significance for the proceeding, and must include adequate supporting evidence the potential party wishes to raise and have litigated before the NRC.” This option does not leave the County much time in which to act.
The second option, Newman said, is “an alternative method by which County governments in particular, can participate in these licensing proceedings short of full intervention status with specific contentions.”
He said it is known as an “Interested Governmental Participant,” and Newman was recommending the County follow this method. As he explained, “A county government that desires to participate in the proceeding, but not as a Full Intervening Party with contentions, may elect to participate as an Interested Governmental Participant which gives the County certain rights to participate.” He said this, in many ways, parallels the rights the County would have if they decided to become a Full Intervening Party, with some exceptions.
“In a nutshell,” Newman said, “if you are an Interested Governmental Participant, you don’t have your own contentions that you are sponsoring, but you can identify the contentions that other parties raise that are of direct interest or significance to the County, and elect to participate in the proceedings with respect to those contentions that other parties have raised.” As Commissioner Wade Poulsen put it, “We would have to ride on the coat tails of someone else.”
Newman said being an Interested Governmental Participant, would provide the County an opportunity to participate in the proceedings, but the drawback would be that Lincoln County would have to piggy back on the contentions raised by others and not use their own contentions. “If another party or another state does not raise a particular issue, you don’t have a right to raise it yourself at that point,” he said. The County would give up an opportunity for raising an issue that might be unique to Lincoln County.
It was noted during discussions, the primary issues that are of significance to the County have to do with transportation along the railroad DOE wants to build to Yucca Mountain. However, the DOE does not think the transportation issues have any merit and is requesting the NRC grant the Yucca Mountain license as a whole, including the railroad line through Lincoln County.
Poulsen said he felt the County should follow the option of becoming an Interested Governmental Participant. He thought the County would have to spend its own money to seek to litigate railroad contentions the DOE has already deemed “insignificant,” and the County does not have the money to do that.
Newman said after other parties make their contentions known in the public record, Lincoln County, as an Interested Governmental Participant, “would be able to review what had been listed and decide which contentions other people have raised, you want to participate in.” He added there would be a time line, as yet unspecified, in which to notify the NRC what contentions Lincoln County wishes to participate on. He also felt the County should protect itself by filing a notice with the NRC on or before December 22, of its desire to participate as an Interested Governmental Participant.
Prior to the Commission vote, Vaughn Higbee and Dr. Mike Baughman, both involved with the Lincoln County Nuclear Oversight Program, said it was their belief that the best course to follow was not the legal course, but rather one of creating alliances and relationships with state and federal officials. Hopefully that would create a “seat at the table and talk to those people, talk with the DOE high personnel closely, and get to know them personally, so that they will talk with us on mitigations, and we can explain our unique situation on all the issues we have laid on DOE’s doorstep..” Baughman said the DOE has paid some attention to contentions already made regarding the railroad, as addressed in the final Environmental Impact Statement DOE submitted to the NRC. He felt the County has “already gained a seat at the table with them.”
Newman said, at present, only Nye County, has been willing to make known what contentions they will file with the NCR licensing process. Others are still working on their contentions, Newman said, and have not offered to make them known. He explained, “The feeling of other counties has been, they are so busy preparing their own contentions with their own folks, that to take time out to try to negotiate possible language with other counties concerning those contentions, would just be to distract them from getting what they need to get done in the tight timelines.” He felt other counties would probably only be concerned with raising DOE rail transportation issues to ensure the railroad does not come through their county.
Newman said he did not know if the State of Nevada or other counties might try to raise any transportation related issues with the NRC. At the same time, “DOE and the NRC staff,” he said, “is taking the position that transportation issues and impacts are not part of this licensing proceeding. Those issues would probably be thrown out at the outset of the proceeding.”
Commissioner Paul Mathews said the work Lincoln County has been doing so far relates primarily to contentions about the railroad route and, “If the NRC is not going to pay any attention to our efforts to attempt to address those issues, we’re not going to be in the game where it is pertinent or impacting to us anyway.”
Commissioners voted 4-1, with Commissioner Paul Mathews voting nay, to seek to become an Interested Governmental Participant.
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