The nuclear push - Updates - no nuclear dumping in Nevada, environmentalists demand - Brief Article

E: The Environmental Magazine, Jan-Feb, 2002 by Courtney Hibbard

The ongoing battle to revive nuclear power includes the Department of Energy's (DOE) push to open a nuclear waste repository in Nevada (see "The Nuclear Phoenix," November/December 2001). Many Nevadans, including local and state officials, environmentalists and human rights groups, see Yucca Mountain as an unsuitable site.

Judy Treichel, executive director of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, charges that despite concerns about geologic instability, groundwater contamination and hazardous waste transport, the DOE has held a minimal amount of public meetings, often with misleading and confusing locations and times. "They have done everything they can to thwart public participation," says Treichel. The final Environmental Impact Statement, she adds, will not be released until after the public comment period. But Allen Benson, the Nevada DOE's director of institutional affairs, says, "We far exceeded what was required of us by law." CONTACT: Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, (702)248-1127, www.nvantinuclear.org; Nevada DOE, (702)794-1300, www.nv.doe.gov.