U.S. Nuclear Waste Plan is Dealt a Legal Setback

U.S. Nuclear Waste Plan is Dealt a Legal Setback BRIEFLY: WASHINGTON

Jul 12 - International Herald Tribune

The U.S. government's 17-year effort to bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, suffered a major setback as the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia said that the government's standards for protecting the public from radiation leaks at the repository extended only 10,000 years. The appeals court said that was too short, though it did not specify an appropriate period.

The Energy Department has spent about $9 billion on the repository, which would dispose of waste from civilian reactors and would give the government a place to store radioactive material left over from manufacturing nuclear weapons. The repository is also crucial to the nuclear-power industry's hopes for new reactor construction after a 30-year drought.

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