MARK WAITE / PVT Lewis Darrell Lacy Jr., new director of the Nye County nuclear waste project office. Advertisement

Nye County commissioners, after pressure from the Nevada Congressional delegation, decided Monday to back off from endorsing a plan to reprocess nuclear waste near the Yucca Mountain site.

Instead, the commission agreed to let Lewis Darrell Lacy Jr., newly-hired director of the Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Office, study the proposal.

The Nye County position on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project -- which went from aggressive neutrality to constructive engagement with the U.S. Department of Energy -- has been at odds with the state's official opposition to the project.

"I really thought our job was to provide independent scientific oversight of the DOE's activities at Yucca Mountain. I am also aware that we had been, I'll use the word, 'asked' by the delegation not to get involved in issues like this," said Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley.

President Bush recently unveiled the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, in which a site would be selected to reprocess nuclear waste and erect a reactor to use the reprocessed fuel, but none of the proposed sites is in Nye County.

Instead, locations being considered are in Hanford, Wash., Hobbs, N.M., Oak Ridge, Tenn., Portsmouth, Maine, and the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. Most of those communities are part of the nation's nuclear program.

The partnership would expand the use of nuclear power worldwide and develop nuclear reactors to consume the most hazardous materials in used fuel.

A memorandum to commissioners from Dave Swanson, interim director of the county nuclear waste project office, said experts involved in the partnership believed it was logical to have recycling facilities near the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, thus reducing transportation costs.

"It is anticipated that recycling facilities will result in considerable economic benefits to the host community," Swanson's memo stated.

The county white paper states Nye County has a long nuclear history already, as the host county for the Nevada Test Site.

But the white paper states further that "political posturing precluded (the Department of Energy) from publicly voicing any intention to study a site in Nye County near its planned Yucca Mountain repository."

A recycling facility would be either publicly or privately owned, with government incentives. Those incentives and the potential of high paying jobs make the recycling facility attractive, the Nye County white paper states.

The recycling facility wouldn't do away with the need for the nuclear waste repository, the white paper states, but it would reduce the volume and toxicity of the waste. The reduced volume could increase the repository capacity and safety margins associated with the operation.

"However, to scatter the location of the separate GNEP facilities around the country will not optimize the environmental, safety and cost benefits that are available from collocation of some of the facilities," the white paper states.

Eastley told the board, "We've been warned by the delegation not to get involved in reprocessing. Here we are getting involved in reprocessing. For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction."

Tory Mazzola, a spokesman for Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said, "We discussed with Nye County the implications of a repository center in Nye County. Most particularly, having a reprocessing plant in Nevada is a step forward for Yucca Mountain and Sen. Ensign is adamantly committed to stopping a storage facility."

Jon Summers, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, "Our office did communicate with Nye County to ensure they understood the implications of locating a reprocessing facility in Nevada. Doing so could potentially be beneficial to the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, which, as you know, Sen. Reid opposes."

Nye County Commission District 4 candidate Lewis Beaver, during the 2006 campaign, suggested the county could benefit from the revenue from nuclear power plants using fuel from reprocessed nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

Likewise, a county resolution asking for the transfer of three parcels, totaling 13,000 acres, from the 147,000 acres DOE will ask to withdraw for the Yucca Mountain project, was tabled. The parcels would be used for industrial parks for businesses and industries associated with the repository.

The sites would include 5,670 acres at Lathrop Wells adjacent to the southern boundary of the Nevada Test Site. Another site would be 5,120 acres in Crater Flat, where the proposed Yucca Mountain rail line would meet the west side of the Yucca Mountain project. A third parcel would be 2,240 acres north of Beatty adjacent to Highway 95 and adjacent to the proposed railroad near Sarcobatus Flat, which would be called the Sarcobatus Flat Railroad Business Park.

DOE is expected to contract with commercial businesses for repository construction and maintenance. Those contractors will need warehouse space, offices, lay-down yards, manufacturing, transportation facilities and worker housing.

Eastley, one of the commission liaisons on nuclear waste, said of the request for the nine sections of land, "We have been told that is not going to be a possibility."

Swanson said if DOE is going to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nye County wants it to be a success.

"For it to be a success, we have to benefit from the program," Swanson said. "We can use that facility to promote the local economy ... In other words it's not going to be a series of Quonset huts in the middle of the desert. It's something we can provide guidance, how we want to see the area outside the fence developed."

Nye County is in the early stages of preparing master plans for development of the industrial parks. The Amargosa Valley Science and Technology Park was first proposed back in 1999, but the land has sat largely dormant, except for construction of a couple of water tanks, a well house and some bladed dirt roads.

The selection of Lacy as the new nuclear waste project office director was approved by a 4-0 vote of the Nye County commissioners Monday without discussion. Commission Chairman Gary Hollis was absent.