Delays cloud Yucca radiation standards

WASHINGTON -- There is still hope the Environmental Protection Agency will set the radiation standards for Yucca Mountain, Sen. Richard Bryan said today, following a meeting with the chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The NRC recently said it planned to release its proposed exposure standards for Yucca Mountain, which is being considered by the federal government as the final resting place for the nation's nuclear waste.

Nevada officials and environmentalists fear the NRC standards will be more liberal and the state's residents will be exposed to higher radiation. Currently the NRC has no right to set the standards, but the agency is attempting to establish the exposure levels before licensing for the dump begins.

By law, the EPA is responsible for establishing the radiation standard, and the NRC then has one year to craft the laws to implement the regulations, said Bryan, D-Nev.

But Bryan said NRC Chairwoman Shirley Ann Jackson told him the EPA has been dragging their feet on releasing their recommendations and that is why her commission wants to move forward.

"The appearance of setting a standard in this regulation is that the NRC is attempting to pre-empt the EPA," Bryan said. "Legally the NRC cannot do it, but in effect they are setting the standard which will probably be much lower than the EPA's."

Bryan, who met with Jackson in Washington today, said the chairwoman told him she will propose to her fellow commissioners to delay releasing its exposure standard until the first of the year, when the EPA is expected to have finalized their standard. He said Jackson didn't tell him she would endorse the plan, but she also did not reject it.

Bryan said he is concerned that if the NRC sets a standard -- and in the worst case scenario Yucca Mountain is chosen for the nation's nuclear waste -- then the NRC standard will be used during congressional debate to question the EPA standard.

Although Bryan said he doubts that Yucca Mountain will be chosen, he said it would be irresponsible not to fight for the higher standard.

"There may be an attempt to legislate the lower standard," Bryan said.

Bryan's meeting came a week after EPA Administrator Carol Browner sent a letter to Jackson telling her the NRC does not have the authority to set radiation standards for Yucca Mountain.

The NRC had suggested that the radiation standard should be 25 millirems of exposure at Yucca Mountain. The common radiation exposure standard is 15 millirems for industry workers and for the public, it's 5 millirems.

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