Nevada: Feds should restudy seismic risk at nuke dump site

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada's governor and congressional delegation are pointing to earthquakes this month in the California desert and calling for the U.S. Energy Department to look again at seismic risks of burying the nation's most radioactive nuclear waste at a site in the Mojave Desert.

In a letter made public Wednesday, Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak told Energy Secretary Rick Perry that 6.4 and 7.1 magnitude quakes during the July Fourth holiday near Ridgecrest, California, underscore safety concerns that Nevada first raised about Yucca Mountain in 2008.

"These significant recent earthquakes so near to Yucca Mountain show one of the many geologic problems with the site as a nuclear waste repository," Sisolak said in a statement, adding that the state is resolved "to fight any continued federal effort to use Nevada as the nation's nuclear dumping ground."

Ridgecrest is 108 miles (174 kilometers) west of Yucca Mountain, an ancient volcanic ridge at the western edge of the Nevada National Security Site. The site is a vast secure federal reservation some 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Las Vegas where the U.S. used to conduct nuclear weapons tests.

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