Tuesday, June 3, 2008 | 2:20 p.m.
WASHINGTON — Not quite champagne, but punch and cookies were flowing today at Energy Department headquarters to celebrate the submittal of the long-awaited application to license the proposed nuclear waste dump in Nevada.
A “big day” is how Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman characterized the filing to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during an afternoon news conference at the National Press Club. He stood before a table of binders holding the 8,600-page document in a room filled with the top brass from the country’s national labs and government scientific community.
Bodman predicts Yucca will be built in the desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas even as the Democratic presidential contenders vow to stop today’s action and Nevada prepares hundreds of challenges.
“This project can and will be completed in a safe and secure manner,” Bodman said. “I am confident the application you see before you will stand up to any challenges from anywhere.”
The department believes hitting this “milestone” will rejuvenate support on Capitol Hill that has waned as lawmakers have grown frustrated after 20 years of delays. Yucca Mountain is now scheduled to open in 2020.
“I believe they will be energized and very supportive because we’ve actually done this,” said Yucca Mountain director Edward Sproat.
Sproat added that he doubts a new president would pull the plug, despite what is said on the campaign trail.
“I personally think they’re going to say, ‘Let’s wait and see what happens,’” Sproat said.
Yet reaction from Yucca’s backers on the Hill was somewhat mild.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Tx., ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and a longtime Yucca Mountain backer welcomed the “small step.”
“Nothing about the Yucca Mountain project is simple, so even the smallest step forward manages to be critical,” Barton said.
“Getting the license application finished and in on time was a real test. The critics won’t quit carping, but Americans who pay their own electricity bills can be grateful that their Energy Department got this small step done.”
The organization representing the nation’s utility commissioners, also longtime Yucca supporters, issued a statement saying they were “encouraged.”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said, “While today’s action is long overdue, we commend the Department of Energy for transmitting its license application.”
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has 90 days to determine if the application is sufficient for review. If so, it will then undergo up to four years of scrutiny in a court-room like proceeding in Nevada.
Nevada’s lawmakers in Washington wasted no time attacking the submission they called “shoddy,” a “last-ditch effort to breathe life into bad policy” and a “reckless waste of taxpayer dollars.” You can read the full firestorm here.
Bob Loux, Nevada’s point man fighting the project for nearly 30 years, said simply: “The application is essentially dead on arrival.”
Or is it? If approved, waste could begin being sent by rail and truck to Nevada, where it would sit on site in the desert until construction is completed.
Sproat, who was hired by Energy two years ago to salvage the project, was headed to Nevada to celebrate Wednesday with staff in the Las Vegas office.
Don’t spoil the surprise, but workers in Washington also got commemorative souvenirs. The half-dollar-sized medallions have an image of Yucca Mountain, the American flag, puffy clouds and the words “Yucca Mountain License Application, Environmental Impact Statement, 2008.”
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