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Pahrump Valley Times – Nye County’s Largest Newspaper Circulation

Nevada sues over radiation standards
Pahrumo Valley Times By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU 15 Oct 08

WASHINGTON — It was back to court for Nevada Friday when Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto filed a federal lawsuit asking judges to throw out new radiation limits for the Yucca Mountain project.

The radiation exposure standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency will fail to protect Nevadans “from cancer-causing radioactive contamination” if nuclear waste is buried at the site, Masto said……………………..The new EPA standard once again fails to protect the health and safety of Nevada citizens, and the environment,” said Masto. “EPA has obviously worked closely with DOE to adjust its radiation standard in an attempt to steamroll this project through licensing, but has failed to protect Nevadans from cancer-causing radioactive contamination.

“DOE’s own data shows that water infiltration will corrode nuclear waste packages and radioactivity will inevitably leak into Nevada’s groundwater, delivering lethal doses of radiation to the public and irreparably contaminating the 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,” she concluded…………………….The Nevada lawsuit challenges the EPA setting separate “near term” and “long term” radiation limits for people who may live near the repository site thousands of years into the future.

Pahrump Valley Times – Nye County’s Largest Newspaper Circulation

Tags: nuclear

October 16, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics