Nevada adds transportation expert to anti-Yucca team

Feb 09 - Las Vegas Review - Journal

Attorney General Brian Sandoval announced Wednesday the hiring of Reno lawyer Paul Lamboley, a former member of the federal Interstate Commerce Commission.

State officials said the hiring signals Nevada is preparing to open a new front against the Energy Department's bid to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"We're getting a lot more serious about transportation issues. We are looking to challenge DOE decisions that are pending or may come out soon," said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.

Loux said Lamboley will bill the state $350 an hour and will be utilized on an "as-needed" basis. He will become a part of the state's nuclear waste legal team assembled by Virginia attorney Joe Egan.

The Energy Department in December announced plans to study and develop a 319-mile railroad line to transport nuclear waste from Caliente to the Yucca site. The waste would arrive in Caliente, 150 miles northeast of Las Vegas, mostly by rail from government sites and nuclear power plants in 39 states.

Lamboley, 63, was appointed by President Reagan in 1982 to the Interstate Commerce Commission.

The ICC was an independent agency that regulated railroads, trucking companies, bus lines, water carriers and oil pipelines. It was disbanded in 1995, with its responsibilities transferred to a new Surface Transportation Board.