Washington (Platts)--6Aug2007

The US Department of Energy has improved the quality assurance program at
its Yucca Mountain repository site in Nevada, but it's too early to tell
whether the turnaround is robust enough to produce a high-quality repository
license application, the Government Accountability Office said Monday. 
     The finding is more positive than one GAO issued three years ago, when it
said the program still has "lingering problems with data, models and software,
and continuing management weaknesses." Federal auditors expressed similar
concerns in a 2006 report. 
     In the report released Monday, however, federal auditors said DOE has
made progress in implementing recommendations in GAO's March 2006 report and
in resolving some problems that GAO had identified. 
     A high-quality license application is crucial to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission's ability to reach a decision on a DOE licensing application within
the three- to four-year period that the law requires, GAO said. 
     "Specifically, NRC has stated that a high-quality license application
would be complete, technically adequate, transparent--clearly justifying and
explaining any underlying assumptions and conclusions--and traceable to
original source materials," the report said. 
     If NRC grants the license, Yucca Mountain--roughly 100 miles outside Las
Vegas--would be used to dispose of utility spent nuclear fuel and defense
high-level radioactive waste and would be required to meet federal regulations
for 1 million years.
--Elaine Hiruo, elaine_hiruo@platts.com