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EPA Sets Yucca Mountain Radiation Limit
JEFF JOHNSON
EPA last week issued its final radiation exposure standard for Nevada's Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The standard is nearly identical to an August 1999 proposal criticized by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the nuclear power industry, and pronuclear members of Congress as too rigorous. Environmental activists and others, however, said the standard was too lax (C&EN, April 17, 2000, page 27).
The standard sets a dose limit for exposure of no more than 15 millirem per year from all pathways and a groundwater standard of 4 millirem per year, the same level used for the Safe Drinking Water Act. EPA notes that an aquifer beneath the planned repository will likely serve nearby Las Vegas in the 10,000-plus years that the repository's spent nuclear fuel remains dangerous.
The groundwater standard's stringency has generated most of the opposition from industry groups as well as NRC and the National Academy of Sciences.
Although the standard is applauded by Congress members from Nevada, the Nuclear Energy Institute says it may sue. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham calls the standards "tough and challenging" but says the Department of Energy can meet them. Later this year, Abraham will make his recommendation to the President as to whether DOE should continue work on the repository.
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