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LegalNewsline | Nevada AG files suit over Yucca Mountain radiation standards

Nevada AG files suit over Yucca Mountain radiation standards
Legal Newsline.com BY CHRIS RIZO  OCTOBER 10, 2008 CARSON CITY, Nev. (Legal Newsline) -Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto filed a lawsuit Friday, demanding that a federal appeals court reject radiation exposure limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the Yucca Mountain repository.

In papers filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the attorney general said the radiation exposure limits set by the EPA last week fail to protect the environment and the public health………………………….The attorney general said the Department of Energy’s data shows that water infiltration will corrode nuclear waste packages and radioactivity will leak into Nevada’s groundwater, delivering lethal doses of radiation to the public and irreparably contaminate groundwater.

“Instead of working to protect the health and safety of Nevadans and striving to find reasonable solutions to the nation’s nuclear waste problem, EPA and DOE are ignoring science in favor of a project which presents unacceptable risks to the public and presents American taxpayers with a $90 billion dollar liability they can ill afford,” Masto Cortez said.

The controversial Yucca Mountain repository is decades behind schedule, causing nuclear waste to pile up at commercial power plants in 39 states,

LegalNewsline | Nevada AG files suit over Yucca Mountain radiation standards

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

October 11, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics