Navis is the Chair of Clark County’s Yucca Mountain Advisory Committee and is a member of the Clark County Emergency Planning Committee

She pointed out that Yucca Mountain is not in Clark County, but is in Nye County and about 90 miles North of Las Vegas.

In 1985 the Federal government designated Clark, Nye and Lincoln Counties as affected counties for purposes of having input into the decisions concerning the nuclear waste to be stored at Yucca Mountain.

The State of Nevada had to force the federal Department of Energy to recognize that the 10 counties surrounding Yucca Mountain also are affected as well as one county in California, containing Death Valley which is downhill from the Mountain and will receive run off from the facility.

Navis pointed out that with the new president’s help, Senator Harry Reid has said, “The Yucca Mountain Project will die a slow and painful death.”

She points out that this likely means that, “The project will bleed money for the remaining period of its consideration, but ultimately it will be abandoned because of our hard fought campaign to stop it.”

Originally the nuclear waste depository was one of three considered.

The other two were quickly abandoned and Yucca was the only one left to consider.

The plan is for 135,000 metric tons of nuclear waste to be stored there, the majority of it from naval reactors and decommissioned weapons and some commercial spent fuel.

At the present time the permit to operate is restricted by law to a cap of 77,000 metric tons.

Navis said that, “The original Environmental Impact Statement that the DOE submitted showed no negative environmental or cultural impacts.”

“We showed that the impact on the safety, police, and disaster requirements for the surrounding counties and cities would be a significant event if something major was to happen at Yucca Mountain.”

“We look at the technical aspects of the projects, and we study the transportation plan and analyze expected and potential impacts.”

“Our Clark County Yucca Mountain Advisory Committee functions as a public outreach agent and coordinates efforts of cities and tribes to make the combined impact greater that the individuals concerned.”

Originally none of the cities in Clark County were considered impacted by the Feds.

“We at Clark County are interested in the impact of this project over the next few decades, as that will set the pace for the considerations we will be given by the D.O.E. over the life of the proposed project considered to be 100 to 300 years.”

The D.O.E. has been woefully stingy with funds for adjacent communities on other projects such as the ones in New Mexico where they have provided token funds for addition training and equipment that would be required to protect a major facility such as Yucca Mountain Nuclear Depository.

There will be a Public hearing on Dec. 4 at Las Vegas from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and there will be a panel of speakers on Yucca Mountain and the rail line bringing the nuclear waste to Nevada.

It is recommended that interested public attend.