Yucca Radiation Limits Proposed

NUCLEAR WASTE

The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing new radiation exposure limits for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada that seek to protect public health for up to 1 million years.

Under the standards, people living close to the facility about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas would not receive total radiation higher than natural levels that people experience routinely in other areas of the U.S., EPA says. "It is an unprecedented scientific challenge to develop proposed standards today that will protect the next 25,000 generations of Americans," says EPA Assistant Administrator Jeffrey R. Holmstead.

Nevada officials opposed to the project charge that the proposed limits are too lax and threaten legal action. "We were pessimistic about the outcome, given EPA's record of pushing the repository," says Nevada Gov. Kenny C. Guinn. "But never in our wildest nightmares would we have anticipated such a ridiculous standard." Brian Sandoval, the state's attorney general, says that if the proposed standard "or anything close to it ends up being adopted by EPA, Nevada will sue them again."

EPA's proposal responds to a year-old federal court ruling that said the agency's original radiation standard was inadequate. The revised standard would require the Department of Energy to ensure that people living near the repository during its first 10,000 years of operation would be exposed to no more than 15 millirems of radiation annually. After that period, EPA is proposing a higher dose limit--350 millirems--equal to natural background levels.

But Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) says EPA "has provided no scientific basis for the 350-millirem figure."