Nuclear Project Draws Interest

Apr 17 - Las Vegas Review - Journal

Several scientists associated with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas have positioned Nevada researchers to compete for contracts from the Energy Department's new nuclear waste reprocessing program.

The officials, affiliated with the Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies at UNLV, established a research entity in February and have filed preliminary paperwork with the government to participate in the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership.

Nuclear science division Director Anthony Hechanova and Donald Baepler, a retired longtime university executive who founded and directed the UNLV environmental research arm more than 20 years ago, are among the principals of the newly formed Nevada Environmental Research and Monitoring Institute.

Organization papers for the institute were filed Feb. 23 in Carson City. Also identified as principal managers were Bimal Mukhopadyay of Las Vegas and Thomas Ward of Germantown, Md.

The institute has expressed interest in working with the Energy Department, which is expected to invite bids later this spring to examine potential sites for a test-scale factory for reprocessing used nuclear fuel.

The study teams could be awarded at least $5 million apiece through the so-called GNEP program.

Energy officials have not identified which sites they want explored. The Nevada Test Site has been among the rumored locations, along with the Idaho National Laboratory, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

"All we did was put our name in to get an RFP whenever it is ready to be distributed," Baepler said, referring to DOE's formal Request for Proposals expected later this spring. "If the test site is one of the several areas that they want characterized, we would consider going for that."

Baepler said the newly created entity is independent of UNLV and the Harry Reid Center.

But if the institute receives a federal grant to survey the test site, it plans to assemble a research team. Baepler said it is possible that scientists from UNLV, the University of Nevada, Reno, and the Nevada-based Desert Research Institute could be brought on board for their local expertise.

Bob Loux, director of the state Agency for Nuclear Projects, said Friday the contract bid calls new attention to the ties between Nevada universities and DOE nuclear projects, including Yucca Mountain.

While the state is fighting the proposed Yucca Mountain repository and likely would oppose nuclear waste reprocessing at the test site, Nevada scholars have conducted DOE-funded research for years.

The Nevada university system has received more than $93 million in research funding from the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management since 1984, according to DOE figures compiled by the Nuclear Energy Institute.

"There is nothing wrong with it, other than you have education institutions of Nevada looking to get in bed with DOE when the state's policy and the governor and attorney general oppose this thing," Loux said.

Loux noted that the Nevada group's interest in GNEP has been singled out by DOE officials in congressional testimony, which is potentially damaging to those trying to keep nuclear waste out of the state. Energy Department leaders have linked GNEP to the Yucca Mountain effort as part of an overall nuclear waste management strategy.

But some Nevada leaders, notably Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., have been supportive of UNLV building a research reputation and nuclear expertise using federal government dollars. As senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Reid has earmarked millions for such research at state institutions.

The Harry Reid Center, named after the senator in 1991, administers a cooperative agreement for Yucca Mountain research between DOE and the Nevada schools. Hechanova separately is manager of two large university programs conducting work for the government on nuclear hydrogen and nuclear waste transmutation.

Baepler said participation by Nevadans ensures that nuclear waste studies are conducted without bias.

"For purposes of credibility it is good to have the local universities involved in the scientific investigations of Yucca Mountain," he said. "We will report the results quite objectively."

DOE officials said 40 entities filed GNEP paperwork by a March 31 deadline. Development agencies and officials representing communities in Tennessee, Washington state, Kansas, Idaho and New Mexico were among them, as were engineering companies.