Native Council to Speak to Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Yucca Mtn.

2009-03-31 | The Native Community Action Council (NCAC) is prepared to provide oral arguments to support a Petition to Intervene and Contentions before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on the Department of Energy (DOE) License Application to construct a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, NV. The NCAC filed one of twelve petitions along with contentions in response of the NRC’s Notice of Hearing October 22, 2008. The twelve parties presented 319 contentions, to which the DOE has responded are all invalid. Licensing hearings begin March 31, 2009 in Las Vegas, NV on the Petitions to Intervene. According to Margene Bullcreek, President of the NCAC, “We are a vulnerable population and need representation of our contentions in licensing.” Ms. Bullcreek added, “We fought against the monitored retrievable storage site for nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Indian Reservation to protect the land and people…and, we are doing the same here.” The NRC proceedings are authorized by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 as amended and seek to transport 77,000 metric tones of high-level nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel from US commercial nuclear reactors for disposal on lands used jointly by the Western Shoshone and Southern Paiute peoples for a thousand generations. “We have retained legal counsel to convince the NRC that there is too little protection of Western Shoshone and Southern Paiute people who suffer adverse health impact from US nuclear development.” stated Ian Zabarte, Vice-President of the NCAC. “The denial of every contention is an example of the pattern of argument used by the DOE to deny all concerns on any issue that does not support siting a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.” Presenting oral arguments on behalf of the NCAC are attorneys Scott Williams and Rovianne Leigh of the law firm Alexander, Berkey, Williams and Weathers, LLP, a law firm that provides comprehensive service to Indian tribes and tribal organizations both nationally and internationally. Native Community Action Council P.O. Box 140, Baker, NV 89311 Press Release: March 30, 2009