Washington (Platts)--30Apr2008

Nevada's congressional delegation has asked the US Nuclear Regulatory
Commission to extend the filing deadline for petitions and contentions related
to the licensing of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

The lawmakers said Wednesday in a letter to the agency that parties to
licensing should have up to 180 days after an application is docketed, or
accepted for review, to file. NRC regulations now have a 30-day deadline for
filing.

The lawmakers, all of whom oppose the Department of Energy's plan to
dispose of utility spent nuclear fuel and defense high-level waste at Yucca
Mountain, said that DOE has generated more than 30 million pages of data,
studies and analyses that it considers relevant to licensing.

"Even if these documents were 'quick reads,' like novels, a person would
need over 400 days, at eight hours per day, just to read them once-through,"
the letter said. "We are asking for less than half of that."

If licensed by NRC, DOE would be authorized to construct a repository
deep within the mountain, roughly 95 miles outside Las Vegas, that would be
used to dispose of up to 70,000 metric tons of radioactive waste.