Editorial: Science in search of a solution

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 1999 | 10:04 a.m.

So far Congress has seen $6 billion wasted on the Department of Energy's investigation to determine whether Yucca Mountain in Nevada should store 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste. As Yucca Mountain's inherent geologic flaws for this task accumulate, the nuclear power industry and Congress instead have tried to rig the federal government's assessment, attempting to weaken the tough scientific standards a repository should meet before it's licensed. Permanently storing high-level nuclear waste at a central location has never been attempted before in this nation, and to do so in Nevada would be exceptionally dangerous.

That is why Congress should take seriously an emerging technology -- transmutation -- that could take high-level nuclear waste and turn it into low-level waste. The technology is still being developed, but the nuclear power industry fears that waiting for it to be perfected could result in further delays in opening a repository in Nevada. Yet transmutation is getting a boost. As the Sun's Mary Manning reported Monday, a draft report by an international group of nuclear scientists is urging the DOE to delay a Yucca Mountain repository and instead spend $280 million on research to prove transmutation's feasibility.

While these scientists believe Yucca Mountain still would be necessary to store less-radioactive waste, the fact is there would be no need for shipping this waste cross-country to our state. After all, Nevada shouldn't have to be home to a repository when the overwhelming majority of high-level nuclear waste is generated by commercial reactors east of the Mississippi River. Members of Congress should demonstrate that they finally are willing to let science determine the best way to dispose of high-level nuclear waste, providing enough funding to allow quality research into transmutation, a technology that could hold the answer to the nuclear waste storage riddle that continues to bedevil scientists and policymakers.