Senators Snap Over Mixed Messages on Yucca Project

May 18 - Las Vegas Review - Journal

There are remaining technical questions about the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, but the Department of Energy is making progress on them, a science expert said.

No way, insisted an official for the state of Nevada. DOE "is bogged down in a morass of technical, legal and managerial problems, and it is unrealistic to imagine the project can pull itself out."

Meanwhile, an Energy Department executive said more time is needed for a project redesign. But at the same time, DOE is setting up a task force to study the need for a second repository since the first one is projected to be full almost as soon as it might open.

The widely divergent messages aired at a congressional hearing on Tuesday finally caused several senators to snap in frustration and issue some of the sharpest criticism to date over delays at Yucca Mountain. One senator said he will step up efforts to reshape the repository program to reflect a new emphasis on waste reprocessing.

"Confusion is rampant; time frames are all out of whack," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Domenici said he called the hearing to assess progress "or lack of progress" at the Nevada site.

Many lawmakers thought Yucca Mountain was settled when Congress voted for the site in 2002. "Except we now find this is not the case at all," Domenici said, as the Energy Department has faced legal and quality assurance setbacks and undertook a redesign last fall.

"I'm not here to pour water on anybody's parade but at what point do we think we need to look at something else" while Yucca Mountain "spins its wheels," asked Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.

The Energy Department has not issued a revised Yucca schedule yet, with experts saying it could be 2015 or 2020 before nuclear waste might be accepted at the site.

"In terms of why this is so hard, the simple fact is this has never been done anyplace anywhere around the world" with the safety requirements DOE must meet, said Paul Golan, acting director of DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.

Golan said delay was partly due to DOE redirecting toward a design that would use a single canister style to ship, store and dispose of nuclear waste. Golan said the change would simplify fuel handling and make it safer.

But Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., noted DOE abandoned a similar multipurpose canister a decade ago. And Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., a repository advocate, charged DOE "has dragged its feet from the beginning."

"Congress has an obligation to get the job done and we don't need bureaucrats to get in the way constantly," Bunning said. "Changing from one canister to another? Using that excuse to say we are going to start over? Give me a break ... and now we are talking about a second repository? Do you know how foolish that looks to the American people?"

Bunning also blamed Nevada for delays, saying DOE has taken extra time "to ensure the people of Nevada are as safe as possible. It would be more productive for all of us to work with DOE to complete this project as safely and quickly as possible."

Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, rejected the advice. He said Kentucky would react the same as Nevada in fighting what it considers an unsafe endeavor. "Flogging Nevada certainly isn't the answer," Loux said afterward.

Loux contended Yucca Mountain was found to be flawed around 1995 but the government moved forward anyway while covering up problems.

"DOE decided to compensate for the bad site with better packaging," Loux said.

The Bush administration has asked Congress to pass a bill that would speed repository licensing and groundwork in Nevada.

But Domenici said that approach is outdated. He said he will reshape the bill to reflect the Department of Energy's new push into nuclear waste reprocessing, which could alter the form and reduce the radiotoxicity of the waste shipped into the mountain if development is successful.

"It is going to be clear we will not be putting spent fuel rods into Yucca Mountain," Domenici said.

Domenici said the bill also contained a "big vacuum" in that it does not allow waste to be removed from power plants and stored at temporary locations while work continues in Nevada. Golan said DOE is open to the idea of temporary storage if Congress authorizes interim sites.

The Energy Department got an endorsement from John Garrick, chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, a panel of independent science experts.

The board "believes that the DOE has made meaningful progress over the last year," Garrick testified. Although the group has questioned DOE's grasp of certain geology and corrosion matters, "The board believes that the technical work is doable."