FEDERATION OF WESTERN OUTDOOR CLUBS

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STUDIES NEEDED REGARDING NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY AT YUCCA MOUNTAIN, NEVADA 

In 1982, Congress selected deep burial as the officially sanctioned method for disposing of highly active nuclear waste and directed the Department of Energy to study three possible disposal sites and to select two of them for further analysis. In 1987, this approach was abandoned, and Yucca Mountain, Nevada was selected instead for further study.

Since that time an enormous amount of money has been spent on studying that site. Problems that have emerged in the study are possible contamination of ground water (the site is upstream from Death Valley National Park) and seismic activity.

This spring President Bush selected Yucca Mountain as this nation's repository for high-level nuclear waste over the next 10,000 years. The House of Representatives and the Senate have voted to override the veto by Nevada's Governor of this selection. Waste is expected to start arriving at this site by 2010.

However, no Environmental Impact Statement has been issued on routes to be used in transporting wastes to the repository nor on the modes of transportation. These are extremely important issues since most nuclear plants are located over one thousand miles from Yucca Mountain. Several lawsuits have already been filed on this decision.

The Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs asks that a thorough Environmental Impact Statement be prepared on the routes, modes, and effects of transporting nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. It also requests that scientific work continue for possible alternatives to this way of disposing of high-level nuclear waste, which could have so many unfortunate consequences.

Moreover, the Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs supports research into the conservation of resources by recycling the fuel in these fuel rods rather than permanent burial.

Contact: the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (www.nwtrb.gov) for information as to alternatives. Also contact your senators and representatives asking that they fund further research into alternatives and that they call for a complete EIS on transportation of the waste.