12/23/08

LAS VEGAS (AP) _ Clark County and a Timbisha Shoshone
corporation have joined the state of Nevada in challenging the
federal Energy Department application to build and operate the
proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

The county submitted 15 contentions yesterday to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, challenging performance assessments and the
validity of computer models for the repository 90 miles northwest
of Las Vegas.

Timbisha Shoshone tribe members are concerned about how the
planned repository will affect land, air and water.

The Native Community Action Council, based in the White Pine
County community of Baker, also filed a petition to intervene in
the licensing process -- as did the state of California and four
rural Nevada counties: Lander, Churchill, Mineral and Esmeralda.

Nye County has filed a petition challenging assumptions about
climate change and water infiltration at the Yucca Mountain site,
in addition to hazards posed by aircraft crashes.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is due next year to begin
reviewing the Energy Department application to build the repository
to store the nation's most radioactive waste.
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Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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