Energy chief pledges funds to let science settle Yucca issues

Monday, Dec. 7, 1998 | 11:03 a.m.

A new series of experiments are being planned for Yucca Mountain after Energy Secretary Bill Richardson's visit there Friday, a lead scientist said.

Both the Department of Energy and the University of Nevada will conduct tests on ground water, heat effects on the mountain's volcanic rock and other extended experiments, said Zell Peterman, the chief of the U.S. Geological Survey's environmental science team for Yucca Mountain.

The mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site being studied as a potential national repository for nuclear waste.

Peterman headed back to Denver on Saturday after spending most of Friday touring the mountain with Richardson. It was the energy secretary's second trip to Yucca Mountain.

"He asked very good questions and he had been well briefed," Peterman said. The parallel tests by the state and the DOE will expand experiments to see whether the mountain is suitable to contain highly radioactive wastes for thousands of years, a decision that itself is years away.

The secretary will have to fight in Congress to get the funds allowing Nevada to do independent studies, but Richardson said he is committed to giving the state enough money for its own research.

Richardson vowed that science -- not politics -- will decide the fate of Yucca Mountain. "I am committed that the decision on Yucca Mountain will be based on science and not politics," he said at the end of the day.

Nevada officials met with Richardson after his scientific tour and are cautiously optimistic about the approach taken by the new energy secretary.

"Never in 16 years have we had this quality of time from a Cabinet official," Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., said.

Bryan, a foe of the nuclear dump as both senator and governor, added, "The secretary understands the depth of our concerns. The public's health and safety is utmost."

Gov. Bob Miller echoed Bryan's enthusiasm. "In more than 15 years, as long as Yucca Mountain has been an issue, no Nevada governor has been able to sit down with an energy secretary," he said.

In 1989, the state presented its concerns about contaminated ground water traveling off site in less than 10,000 years. It also aired concerns about the cracks and crevices in the volcanic rock that would open paths to air and water contamination from nuclear waste escaping from containers placed 1,000 feet under the surface. This time, however, the secretary appeared to listen.

A viability assessment due to Congress later this month is not the decision to build a repository at the mountain, Richardson said. That decision will come in 2001. "I know there is more technical work to be done," Richardson said. "The viability assessment has no legal significance."

The state told Richardson it has a right to analyze technical aspects of the Yucca Mountain site. Congress granted such independence in the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act.

Richardson agreed. In fact, Miller said, the secretary was surprised that Nevada's funds had been cut by Congress. "He turned to an aide," the governor said, "and told him, 'We've got to get them some money.' "

Gov.-elect Kenny Guinn promised bipartisan support on this issue, as did Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who replaced Republican John Ensign in the House.