SUBMITTED NEWS RELEASE
Governor-elect Brian Sandoval made the following statement today after learning of the judicial order from the Yucca Mountain Licensing Board rejecting the 11 legal questions:
“As Nevada’s attorney general and as a candidate for the highest office in this state, I opposed Yucca Mountain. I made a pledge to do all I could to protect the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of this great state. As governor-elect, I remain opposed and I will not consider accepting high-level nuclear waste in our state. Period.
“When I visited with President Obama in Washington, D.C. earlier this month, I was pleased and encouraged to hear the president say he would not reconsider his decision to shut down the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site. Our conversation reaffirmed to me the president will not be supporting the long-term storage of high-level nuclear waste in Nevada.
“I am disappointed by the licensing board’s order. As the executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects has pointed out, the judges made special note of Nevada’s scientific claim that erosion could cause the surface of Yucca Mountain to completely erode during the regulatory period as prescribed by the Environmental Protection Agency, leaving the waste unprotected by the mountain’s geology in the future. EPA requires that nuclear waste must be kept away from public and environmental exposure for a million years. I will support the state’s petition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to open a rulemaking docket addressing this erosion science that was not previously available when the NRC addressed the issue.
“Due to the investment in infrastructure at Yucca Mountain, I am willing to consider Yucca Mountain for research or other non-nuclear purposes that might benefit economic development efforts. As governor, I will not give up my fight against storing high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Protecting the health, safety and welfare of our fellow citizens will be my highest priority.”
