Green Scissors wants Yucca project stopped

National environmental groups hope to slash wasteful and harmful projects such as the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, one of the targets in the 1999 Green Scissors report.

The report, released last week, underscores $50.8 billion in federal subsidies for 72 taxpayer-funded programs harmful to the environment, Anthony Slocum of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group said.

One of those projects in the fifth edition of the Green Scissors Report would cut out studies at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"We call these programs polluter pork," Slocum said. "Corporate polluters are the ones bringing home the bacon, while taxpayers are the ones getting burned."

Yucca Mountain is plagued by technical, environmental and cost problems, Slocum said.

New findings suggest that Yucca Mountain will be unable to isolate 70,000 tons of commercial nuclear waste for more than 10,000 years.

Hot water rising within the mountain, a creeping surface crust and a series of earthquakes this week are raising health and safety concerns, he said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently proposed a higher radiation exposure standard of 25 millirems. The proposal is an indication that a repository at Yucca Mountain cannot meet more stringent existing standards, said Anna Aurilio, who reviews DOE projects for U.S. PIRG.

There also is evidence that ground water flows through Yucca Mountain in 50 years, rather than the 10,000 years required by law, Aurilio said.

The Department of Energy is spending $358 million this year on studies that should be stopped until an independent review of the project is complete, the report concluded.

The Green Scissors report estimates that it will cost $34 billion to build, monitor and maintain the repository at Yucca Mountain. The DOE this week estimated $18.7 billion for the life of the 76-year program.

The Green Report also recommends an end to selling mineral patents for gold and limestone worth billions for hundreds or thousands of dollars.

"And the government should cancel clean coal technology," Slocum said. The Department of Energy gave Northern Nevada's Sierra Pacific Power Company, Foster Wheeler, MW Kellogg Co. and others $168 million for such a project in Reno.

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