Yucca gets a global checkup

Monday, May 11, 1998 | 9:44 a.m.

Scientists from around the world were to visit Yucca Mountain today at the opening of an international meeting on radioactive waste.

Those on the tour stood at the crest of the mountain 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas and climbed inside the Exploratory Studies Facility, a 5-mile-long tunnel where U.S. Department of Energy scientists are studying how water and the volcanic rock behave.

The government scientists are trying to decide whether Yucca Mountain can contain 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste for more than 10,000 years.

Since Yucca Mountain needs approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, it won't be open to accept canisters filled with nuclear waste before 2010.

Every other year, the nuclear industry and the DOE sponsor a scientific meeting. This year's meeting is headquartered at Bally's hotel-casino.

In addition to scientists and engineers, those attending the conference Tuesday will hear from Shirley Jackson, chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Noticeably missing from the program are scientists working for the state. Funding is running out for state oversight of the program, unless the Legislature offers some funds in June.

Researchers from France, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden and Japan will tell delegates how other countries handle waste from nuclear reactors.

Aside from discussing high-level waste, scientists also will confer about the Waste Isolation Pilot Project that has taken 24 years to build in salt caverns near Carlsbad, N.M. The project is expected to accept wastes containing plutonium after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the New Mexico give final approval.

No other country has selected a site for a permanent repository for nuclear waste. Congress singled out Yucca Mountain in 1987 as the only site to be studied as a dump for high-level nuclear waste.

Countries such as France and Japan reprocess the irradiated fuel rods, removing 80 percent of the uranium that is not burned away in producing electricity.