Joe Egan, 1955-2008

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

In Nevada’s David and Goliath fight against the federal government’s plans to dump more than 77,000 tons of nuclear waste in Nevada, Joe Egan was a giant-killer.

Egan was the state’s lead attorney in the effort to stop the planned dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. He and his Washington, D.C., firm gave national exposure to the Energy Department’s faulty scientific work and helped file legal challenges that severely set back the project.

Egan, 53, died last week after a long fight with cancer. He will be sorely missed.

He took Nevada’s case in 2001 and filed several lawsuits pointing out problems with the Energy Department’s work. In 2004 an appellate court in Washington agreed, finding the government used the wrong standard to measure the project.

The decision was a major blow to the project. Coupled with the efforts of the state’s congressional delegation, particularly Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to cut the project’s funding, Yucca Mountain has been stalled ever since.

Egan was uniquely suited for the fight. An M.I.T.-trained nuclear engineer, he left work at a nuclear reactor to study law at Columbia University and became one of the nation’s foremost legal experts on nuclear issues.

Although a proponent of nuclear energy, he took Nevada’s case after learning that Yucca Mountain is highly porous and would leak radiation faster than anyone thought.

A memorial posted on his firm’s Web site said Egan had arranged to have his ashes scattered over Yucca Mountain with the words: “Rad (radioactive) waste buried here only over my dead body.”

We are thankful for all of his tireless work, and we hope that in time we will be able to say that Joe Egan helped stop the government’s plans to make Nevada a nuclear waste dump.