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March 9, 2000

Comment still open on Yucca Mountain suitability

Because of a mailing error by the Department of Energy, Yucca Mountain officials said Wednesday the comment period on whether Yucca Mountain is a suitable site for the nation's high-level nuclear waste dump has been extended.

Allen Benson, director of institutional affairs for the Yucca Mountain Project, said comments on the site's suitability were originally cut off Feb. 28 along with comments on the draft environmental impact statement for the project. The statement deals with potential impacts which may result from creating a storage repository for nuclear waste underground at Yucca Mountain. The site suitability guidelines deal specifically with whether that waste can be safely stored at Yucca Mountain.

According to a Department of Energy notification, the agency "inadvertently included a mistaken post office box number in the address for submission of comments." As a result, a number of public comments and letters never got to DOE in time to be included in the file. Some of them were returned to the sender.

Benson said comments on the suitability of the site 100 miles north of Las Vegas will be accepted as long as they are postmarked by March 20.

http://www.tahoe.com/appeal/stories.3.9.00/NEWS/a2n3809Mar5839.html

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-- Dee (Dee360Degree@aol.com), March 09, 2000