NRC wants land purchased for YuccaDec 30 - McClatchy-Tribune Content Agency, LLC - Derrek Asberry Aiken Standard, S.C.The latest volume of a Yucca Mountain report states that the U.S. Department of Energy has not yet purchased the property where the repository could potentially sit, while DOE officials maintain that Yucca is not a "workable solution." The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, published Volume 4 of its safety evaluation report on the proposed underground geologic nuclear waste repository. Volume 3 was released Oct. 16 and stated that the site was a safe location for nuclear waste storage -- an announcement that local officials believe could get the ball rolling in relocating waste stored at the Savannah River Site. On Dec. 18, Volume 4 of the report was released and stated that most administrative and programmatic requirements in NRC regulations are met, except for certain requirements relating to ownership of land and water rights. The land and surrounding area are under the control of several federal agencies -- DOE, the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Defense. "Specifically, DOE has not acquired ownership or jurisdiction over the land where the geologic repository operations area would be located, and the land is not free of significant encumbrances such as mining rights, deeds, rights-of-way or other legal rights," NRC officials wrote. "DOE also has not acquired water rights it determined are needed to accomplish the purpose of the geologic repository operations area." Yucca Mountain, a volcanic structure near the former Nevada Test Site, about 100 miles from Las Vegas, has been heavily debated since 1994 when the Department of Energy began drilling a 5-mile tunnel through the mountain. The federal government poured more than $10 billion into the project before funding was cut in 2010 because of a belief that the site was not suitable to house nuclear waste. The decision left several DOE sites holding unwanted waste, including SRS. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered the NRC in August 2013 to resume the licensing process using currently available funding appropriated from the Nuclear Waste Fund. According to Volume 4 of the report, DOE is examining "appropriate courses of action" to meet certain requirements, including a legislative land withdrawal, to establish jurisdiction and control of the land on which the repository would be located prior to NRC granting a construction authorization. The Aiken Standard reached out to the Energy Department on the issue. A spokesperson quoted Secretary Ernest Moniz on the site not being a solution to dispose of nuclear spent fuel, but wrote that the Department is pursuing a path forward consistent with several entities including: the Administration's Strategy for the Management and Disposal of Used Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste; and the principles recommended by the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future. "The Department looks forward to continuing to work with Congress and other stakeholders to develop a consent-based process that is transparent, adaptive and technically sound," a DOE spokesperson wrote. Derrek Asberry is the SRS beat reporter for the Aiken Standard. http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=34756485& |