Reid announced new $40 million study of Yucca Mountain

Angie Wagner

Wednesday, July 1, 1998 | 9:23 a.m.

LAS VEGAS - The Department of Energy will give several universities $40 million to study Yucca Mountain, a move that will get the future of the proposed nuclear waste repository out of politics and into science, Sen. Harry Reid said.

"It's going to take outside academic institutions to do a fair study," Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday during a news conference to announce the new research project.

The California Institute of Technology and the Harvard Geophysical Observatory along with Nevada's University and Community College System will study Yucca Mountain over the next five years.

Cal Tech has already done research on Yucca Mountain and found that the area was at risk for earthquake or volcanic activity, Reid said.

Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site the DOE is studying for long-term burial of the nation's nuclear waste.

Reid said the oversight work has been ruled by politics for too long.

"We have to be hopeful that science will be the ultimate determining factor."

Reid decided to make the announcement Tuesday because it was Energy Secretary Federico Pena's last day on the job. Pena resigned in April.

The new funds will be used to study faults, durability of nuclear waste canisters, migration rate of radioactive materials, potential for earthquakes or volcanoes and possible contaminants.

"I think it's quite obvious the DOE is not here jumping up and down and cheering about this, (but) they want to do what's right for Nevada," Reid said.

He said eventually more money may be needed for the project.

"We're now going to have the opportunity at Yucca Mountain to have scientific decisions based on science, not politics," he said.