EPA Issues Radiation, Groundwater Standards for Yucca Mountain
The Environmental Protection Agency has set limits on how much radiation can be emitted from groundwater, air and soil at the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository site in Nevada. The Dept. of Energy, which is in charge of planning and building the facility, last month estimated its cost at $57.5 billion through 2019, up 26% from DOE's 1998 projection.
In the final standards, announced June 6, EPA made few changes from draft versions of the rule. The radiation exposure limits are 15 millirems annually "from all pathways"--that is, from any potential sources. EPA says that level is about twice the amount of radiation people would receive from residing in a brick house