United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1997-07-22 monographic deposited born digital 16 p. GA 1.13:T-RCED-97-212 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-97-212 P0b002ee18037b8b8 f:rc97212t DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-97-212 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-97-212 T-RCED-97-212 Environmental impact statements Environmental monitoring Land transfers Radioactive waste disposal Native Americans Site selection Government facility construction Federal/state relations Radioactive pollution Licenses Ward Valley (CA) Beatty (NV) Arizona North Dakota South Dakota Colorado River Testimony RCED Although Congress in 1980 directed the states to take responsibility for disposing of commercially generated low-level radioactive waste, only California has authorized the construction of a disposal facility--to be built on federally owned land in Ward Valley, California. GAO found that the Interior Department's insistence on new environmental studies before transferring the property is not based on significant new information. Eleven of the 13 issues that Interior is assessing, such as the effects of a disposal facility at Ward Valley on Native Americans, had already been considered in California's licensing process and in earlier environmental statements prepared by the state and the Bureau of Land Management. Moreover, much of the new information that has become available is favorable to the proposed disposal facility. Interior believed that the second supplement would provide a forum for resolving the public's concerns about the facility and would allow an independent determination of the site's suitability as a disposal facility. Interior, however, lacks the technical expertise in radiological safety matters to independently determine the site's suitability, and it has not sought technical assistance from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or--with one exception--the Department of Energy. California, however, has met all of the state's procedural and substantive requirements for licensing the proposed facility. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-97-212/html/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-97-212.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-97-212/pdf/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-97-212.pdf GAO/T-RCED-97-212 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-97-212 Testimony GAO/T-RCED-97-212; Radioactive Waste: Interior's Review of the Proposed Ward Valley Waste Site; Environmental impact statements Environmental monitoring Land transfers Radioactive waste disposal Native Americans Site selection Government facility construction Federal/state relations Radioactive pollution Licenses Ward Valley (CA) Beatty (NV) Arizona North Dakota South Dakota Colorado River