Las Vegas Sun

May 1, 2024

Nevada says Yucca Mountain dump would threaten farm community

Yucca Mountain Tour

John Locher / AP

Train tracks are seen through Yucca Mountain during a congressional tour Thursday, April 9, 2015, near Mercury.

Yucca Mountain tour

People stand inside of Yucca Mountain during a congressional tour Thursday, April 9, 2015, near Mercury, Nev. Several members of congress toured the proposed radioactive wast dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher) Launch slideshow »

Nevada is telling the Nuclear Regulatory Commission some 1,400 people in a rural Nevada farming community could be threatened if the nation's most radioactive waste is buried in the desert northwest of Las Vegas.

In a 53-page report submitted Friday, the state derides environmental studies on the proposed Yucca Mountain repository as legally inadequate.

It says the reports don't properly address the danger to people in nearby Amargosa Valley — or the cultural and spiritual effect that building the long-mothballed repository would have on native Americans.

The Timbisha Shoshone Tribe included its objections.

Groundwater contamination is the key environmental issue for yet-to-be scheduled licensing hearings.

While some area residents oppose the nuclear dump, others want the project finally put before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a thumbs-up or thumbs-down decision.

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