No shortcuts on nuclear waste site

By Nevada Appeal editorial board

Win some, lose some. That appears to be the mixed-bag result Nevada will get from its arguments this week before judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals over the proposal to dump nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

Bear with us for a moment while we get some harrumphing out of the way. Because that was our reaction when the judges appeared to brush aside Nevada's arguments that it got railroaded into being the nation's nuclear waste repository when the Department of Energy decided to study Yucca Mountain and only Yucca Mountain.

Didn't Nevada's rights as a state get trampled by the federal government in such an arbitrary process?

"It's their property," answered Judge Harry Edwards.

Now, that's just the kind of comment that drives us crazy out here west of the Mississippi. We kind of like to think of it as our property - as in, the American taxpaying public. Apparently, however, Nevada is going to lose on that one.

On the brighter side is the notice judges took of at least one of the federal government's many dubious scientific conclusions. The Environment Protection Agency decided Yucca Mountain should be designed to protect mankind from radiation exposure for 10,000 years, even though peak radiation doses will extend for closer to 300,000 years.

"An agency does not have the authority to do whatever it wants to," Judge Edwards said - a quote worthy of being sandblasted onto the side of a government building or two somewhere.

So Nevada's attorneys were encouraged they still have some legal weapons in their bag, if the Energy Department's application passes muster with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The battle is an important one to Nevadans, not only to try to keep 77,000 tons of nuclear waste out of the state, but to make sure the government isn't taking shortcuts along a path of least resistance.