Yucca fault line might spring surprise (LVRJ)

Letter, maps suggest it’s not where scientists had thought it was

LAS VEGAS–Bore hole drilling operations at the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site have turned up preliminary evidence that an earthquake fault line passes beneath the place where project officials want to build concrete pads for storing thousands of tons of highly radioactive spent fuel.

A letter and maps from the U.S. Geological Survey obtained last week by the Review-Journal show that the Bow Ridge fault passes directly beneath the footprint of a pad where spent fuel canisters would age or cool down before they are entombed in a maze of tunnels inside the mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Rock core samples extracted by drill rigs about 250 feet below the surface indicate that the fault is hundreds of feet east of where scientists had thought it was.

Read the complete story at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Judge refuses to stop Yucca water use (LVRJ)

Energy Department can finish Phase 1 drilling

LAS VEGAS–U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt on Thursday denied motions by Nevada attorneys to make the Department of Energy stop using the state’s water for all bore hole drilling operations at the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site.

In so doing, Hunt urged lawyers for both sides to sit down and work out their differences rather than “dig in their heels” and not budge on their respective positions.

“I am directing — sharply suggesting, short of requiring — that the parties get together seriously and reasonably,” Hunt said after announcing his decision without hearing arguments.

Later, he said, “The court could craft an agreement that neither one of you are going to like.”

Read the complete story at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Violations prompt order to halt some radioactive waste activities (Review Journal)

LAS VEGAS–State environmental officials ordered the National Nuclear Security Administration to halt some mixed, low-level radioactive waste activities at the Nevada Test Site in August after the federal agency reported permit violations involving shipments from three waste generators.

An NNSA spokesman said Monday that the test site already had stopped receiving shipments from those waste streams before the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection issued its order on Aug. 27.

Read the complete story at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

YUCCA MOUNTAIN: State presses DOE on use of water (Review Journal)

LAS VEGAS–Nevada attorneys filed a pair of motions Monday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas asking a judge to compel the Department of Energy to stop using the state’s water for drilling bore holes at the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site.

The motion by Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams asks the court for an order to make DOE “immediately cease its use of water for all bore hole drilling irrespective of ‘phase,’” and in the meantime reach a three-way agreement on appropriate water use at the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Read the complete story at the Las Vegas Review Journal.