Commission hears public outcry over Yucca Mountain

Wednesday, Oct. 13, 1999 | 11:38 a.m.

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission advisory panel heard public frustrations over the burial of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountaina -- a massive public project that has never been done before anywhere in the world.

The nuclear industry and nuclear regulators see their mission as taking care of a serious national problem. Many Nevadans see it as the nation dumping on a small state with little clout.

What most of the public doesn't know, state technical expert Steve Frishman said on Tuesday, is that the role of Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has changed drastically. "The objective is to no longer isolate radiation, but to delay releases," Frishman said, using the Department of Energy's own drawing of escaping radiation to prove his point. "This picture scares the hell out of me."

The Department of Energy plans to submit a license for opening a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain about 2003, if the site passes scientific muster. Most people believe the remote, rugged mound of volcanic ash layers will contain the radiation, Frishman said.

"Does the general public see the same thing we do?" he asked an advisory committee to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "The answer is no."

DOE Sandia National Laboratory environmental risk expert Paul Davis said technical people ignore the big risks from a project such as Yucca Mountain. Most scientific opinion is based on belief, not fact, he said.

NRC Nuclear Waste Advisory Committee Chairman John Garrick reassured those attending a workshop at the Alexis Park Resort, saying the commission is asking the DOE what can go wrong, how likely it is for something to go wrong and what the consequences of a disaster at the mountain would be.

"We consider the public the ultimate customer, the decision-maker on nuclear waste," Garrick said.

Yet most of the public cannot find a way to get in on the debate, critics said.

Since Congress singled out Yucca Mountain as the only site under study for a national nuclear waste dump, residents face an involuntary risk, Nuclear Waste Task Force Director Judy Treichel said. The task force tries to inform people about the government project.

"You need to tell people what the risk is then let them decide whether to accept it," Treichel said.

"If people came and said we don't want it (the repository) here, what is the first thing we do?" Treichel asked.

The NRC advisers said it was beyond the commission's duty and its regulations to advise either the public or the DOE on how to tackle Yucca Mountain.

"Is there any channel for people to go?" Treichel persisted. "That is why more people are not here. They feel like they are not heard."

The public distrust of the DOE and even the Nuclear Regulatory Commission comes from the vested interests held by the experts trying to communicate the risks, Eureka County nuclear waste director Abby Johnson said. Most experts dismiss risks from radiation.

Crescent Valley is the centerpiece of Eureka County in north-central Nevada. Most residents have no phones, let alone the Internet, Johnson said, making communications hard.

"People live in Crescent Valley because they want to get away from the federal government," she said. "The risk of living in a valley with nuclear waste is one risk they don't want to assume."

Johnson wanted to know who has the power to stop Yucca Mountain. "How can any of us say 'No' to Yucca Mountain?" she asked. "As long as there is no way to get to 'No' on this project, risk assessment is a farce. People are not stupid. They do understand."

Neither the DOE nor the NRC is interested in finding anything wrong, she said. "If we were looking for flaws in the project, it would have already been stopped," Johnson said, referring to rapid water flow and earthquake faults running through the mountain, nearby volcanos and transportation risks posed from moving 70,000 tons of radioactive waste to the mountain.

Pahrump resident Sally Devlin said she became interested in Yucca Mountain when she learned she lived on one of the possible transportation routes. "And I said, 'Over my dead body.' "

Besides bringing a permanent NRC office to Nevada, Devlin urged regulators to make the DOE responsible morally, fiscally and ethically for the integrity of the mountain.