Wednesday, April 1, 1998 | 9:57 a.m.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will decide whether to create a separate ground water protection standard for radiation at Yucca Mountain, if the site is licensed as the nation's nuclear waste repository.
NRC Chairwoman Shirley Jackson said it will be up to the commission to decide whether to enforce a more robust standard during licensing. The U.S. Department of Energy plans to submit an application for a license in the year 2002.
Jackson commented on the approach to tougher radiation standards during a hearing Monday in Washington, D.C. The NRC heard a technical report from an oversight panel.
Jared Cohon, chairman of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, said recent scientific reports on Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, saying that an earthquake or volcanic eruption could occur every 1,000 years did not surprise the board.
A study published Friday in Science said such surface disruptions could occur 10 times more frequently than earlier estimates by the DOE or the U.S. Geological Survey.
Estimates of radioactive concentrations at the south end of Yucca Mountain will be highly uncertain, board member Richard Parizek said. Scientists have not yet concluded that these new findings would stop Yucca Mountain from becoming a repository, he said.
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