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The Las Vegas Review Journal
www.lvrj.com
Mayor wants city to file lawsuit to block
Yucca Mountain plans
By JAN MOLLER
January 10, 2001
Citing safety concerns about the proposed nuclear waste
dump at Yucca Mountain, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said Tuesday that he
wants the city to sue the U.S. Department of Energy to stop the project.
Speaking to a packed City Council chamber in his State of
the City address, Goodman said he has asked City Attorney Brad Jerbic to determine
whether the city has grounds to enjoin the government from recommending Yucca
Mountain as the permanent storage site for 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear
waste just 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
It's unclear whether the city's lawsuit would be filed in
federal or state court, or whether there is sound legal standing on which to
mount a challenge.
Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency,
said the state has never sued to stop the Yucca Mountain Project because
"there never was a legal basis to do it."
But Loux noted that Nevada challenged the federal
government numerous times during the late 1980s in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals over such issues as siting guidelines and the project's
environmental assessment. Each time, he said, the court ruled that the federal
government would have to actually apply its guidelines before the state could
have a valid case.
The question could come down to what takes precedence: The
"commerce clause" of the U.S. Constitution, which gives the federal
government the right to regulate interstate commerce, or the 10th Amendment,
which provides that all rights not specifically granted to the federal
government belongs to states or individuals.
"Sometimes out-of-the-box thinking is required,"
Goodman said, adding that he was moved to act after being told by DOE officials
that the site's safety could not be guaranteed.
The mayor said he was further motivated after reading
about a draft summary report written by a government contractor studying the
site. That report called the site safe, but came with a "note to
reviewers" suggesting that congressional politics were playing a large
role in the site-selection process -- prompting several Nevada officials to
accuse the government of bias.
"It's conceivable that what's taking place is
tantamount to a crime," Goodman said.
The seven-member City Council is expected to take up the
matter at its Jan. 17 meeting, when council members likely will authorize
Jerbic to explore ways to challenge the project.
Yucca Mountain has been the only site under consideration
for a permanent nuclear waste dump since Congress passed the Nuclear Waste
Policy Act in 1987.
A comprehensive review of scientific work conducted at the
site since 1986 is expected to be released later this year. The document, which
will be open to public comment, will be used as a guide by the incoming
secretary of energy in deciding whether to recommend the site.
Goodman acknowledged that the legal road could prove
rocky, but said someone must take the lead.
"I've been told ... that nobody can recall any (Yucca
Mountain-related) suit," Goodman said, citing a conversation with Rep.
Shelley Berkley's chief of staff.
Berkley, a Democrat, said she supported Goodman's efforts
and likened the Yucca Mountain Project to above-ground nuclear weapons tests
conducted in Nevada decades ago.
"They did atomic testing and told people it was
perfectly safe," she said. "To me that's a crime -- it's a deliberate
lie and cover-up of information that could've protected these people. I have no
reason to suspect they're conducting themselves differently now."
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