Consultant Estimates Yucca Mountain Costs

Jun 09 - Las Vegas Review - Journal

The Yucca Mountain repository would cost local agencies $385 million before the proposed nuclear waste site opens, and another $3.7 billion over 24 years after it opens, according to a consultant helping Nevada and local governments fight the proposal.

The numbers, presented to the Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday, update estimates made in 2001 when Urban Environmental Research found that $369 million would be needed to equip and train emergency personnel who would respond to an accident at Yucca Mountain or one involving transportation of waste to the site.

Urban Environmental Research Managing Partner Sheila Conway said the estimates come out of work done in coordination with various cities' fire departments and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, using staffing levels prepared by the Department of Homeland Security.

"Local governments don't have resources to address what needs are going to be," Conway said.

Mayor Oscar Goodman emphasized that the preparation of the numbers should not be taken as a sign of capitulation.

"I don't think anything we're doing here should be considered a waiver," he said. "I don't want anybody to think that by exploring emergency centers, somehow we're abandoning opposition."

Goodman said he also talked to a Homeland Security official to urge the agency to oversee any transportation of nuclear waste. "I don't trust the Department of Energy when it comes to Yucca Mountain and Las Vegas," he said. "They put their spin on it."

The projected costs for all of the public safety agencies was arrived at by using the proposed start of shipping at 2010. Factored in were increased staffing levels for the possibility of an emergency, added equipment such as radiation detectors for all emergency vehicles, and training costs.

The costs reflect "any additional cost to these agencies ... directly attributable to the repository's siting and the related ... transportation shipping campaign," according to the report.

Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the proposed site of a repository to hold the nation's nuclear waste. The U.S. Department of Energy wants to use the mountain to bury 77,000 tons of radioactive waste.