LAS VEGAS - Lawyers for the Energy Department and Nevada have begun talks about how to handle sensitive documents during licensing for a national nuclear waste repository in the state.
Meetings that began Thursday in Washington, D.C., aim to limit delays during upcoming Nuclear Regulatory Commission review of plans for the Yucca Mountain project.
The lawyers are negotiating ground rules for documents that would be shielded from view for homeland security, privacy or attorney-client privilege reasons.
Energy Department lawyer Donald Irwin, of Richmond, Va.-based Hunton & Williams, said the government's goal was to set up a system that works for all parties.
Nevada lawyer Joe Egan, of McLean, Va., said the state's view is that Yucca Mountain is a public project and there should be little to hide.
A panel of Nuclear Regulatory Commission judges ordered the two sides to the table and gave them 40 days to reach an agreement, saying that without guidelines in place, licensing hearings could face delays while lawyers argue about access to documents.
Others taking part in the discussions represented Clark County, the Nuclear Energy Institute advocacy group, several environmental organizations and OMB Watch, a nonprofit group that promotes governmental openness.
State and environmental interest groups expect to review thousands of Energy Department documents as they prepare for NRC hearings on a repository operating license.
The documents include technical analyses, reports and e-mails compiled over two decades of study of Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The Energy Department expects to make documents available this summer on an Internet database.
The department missed a self-imposed Dec. 31 deadline to submit its license application, and now says it expects to submit an application by the end of 2005