Source: FuelFix.com
CARSON CITY, Nev. — Gov. Brian Sandoval has sent a second letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz requesting a meeting about Department of Energy activities in Nevada, including plans to haul canisters of radioactive waste from Oak Ridge, Tenn., to the Nevada National Security Site northwest of Las Vegas and proposed cuts to state oversight funding.
In a letter dated July 12 and released by his office Monday, Sandoval reminded Moniz of his first letter sent a month ago, adding “I have received no official communication from your office regarding this request and now write again to request this important meeting as soon as possible.”
Sandoval raised questions about a recent DOE proposal to reduce funding that supports state oversight of waste management.
Leo Drozdoff, director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said figures are not yet firm, but the DOE is talking about chopping Nevada funding by about $300,000 — roughly 30 percent.
Drozdoff said similar cuts were included in the current budget, but his agencies, including the Office of Nuclear Projects, were able to absorb the reduction through salary savings.
With Nevada against the proposed transport of 403 canisters of radioactive waste from Tennessee, DOE budget talks are much more worrisome, Drozdoff said.
“We all understand tightening budgets, but we are concerned for that reason,” he said. “This is a time where we need oversight, whether it’s stuff from Oak Ridge or anything else.
“Our oversight is important. The ability to have enough eyes on the ground is important.
“The discussions are ongoing but worrisome enough that the governor thought it should be part of the discussions,” Drozdoff said
Members of Nevada’s congressional delegation also have been pushing the DOE for answers to questions over the nuclear waste shipments, including routes in and around Las Vegas, the state’s tourism and gambling mecca.
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., in a July 9 letter to Moniz said she had been asking DOE “for months” for a detailed briefing on the transportation plan.
“Today I ask for you to immediately schedule this briefing so that I may better understand the transportation plans related to these shipments and determine if they following previous statements regarding critical transportation routes that will be avoided,” Titus wrote.
The canisters measure 2 feet long and 5 inches in diameter and weigh about 10 pounds.
Sandoval, in his June letter, said he didn’t want highly radioactive waste of the type that could be used to build a “dirty bomb” buried in a shallow pit at the former national nuclear proving ground. He said the DOE was attempting to exploit a “gap” in regulations to deem the material low-level waste acceptable for shallow burial.
“Qualifying this material as low-level radioactive waste sets a dangerous precedent for the classification of potential future waste streams that exist across the nation,” the governor wrote.
Nuclear waste is a sensitive topic in Nevada, which has fought for more than three decades to block federal plans to ship highly radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain adjacent to the test site. That proposal has been dormant since the Obama administration cut funding for it, but lawsuits challenging the move are pending.