Yucca Mountain alternative passes

Thursday, Sept. 16, 1999 | 11:34 a.m.

An amendment for studying cutting-edge technology to handle highly radioactive wastes at reactor sites, instead of shipping 70,000 tons of it to Yucca Mountain, has passed the House.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., offered the amendment Wednesday to the Department of Energy's authorization bill for researching and developing ways to change nuclear waste into something less deadly. It passed on a voice vote.

The DOE is studying Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the only site for a national high-level nuclear waste repository. If the site passes scientific muster, the mountain's repository could begin receiving highly radioactive waste from across the country in 2010.

"Today we have a tremendous nuclear waste challenge," Berkley said. "Our response, so far, has been to dig a hole, pour some concrete and put it underground. It defies common sense to think that in 10, 20 or 20,000 years -- or more -- that we can guarantee there will be no leaks."

The amended authorization bill now goes to a joint House-Senate committee to work out differences between the versions.

Berkley's amendment asks for $6 million in the next two years to explore both transmutation and other high-tech solutions to nuclear waste from 111 reactors piling up around the nation.

Transmutation is a scientific process that turns radioactive waste into less harmful materials by changing the basic building blocks of matter. In the past two years, scientists have improved the technology for transmuting nuclear elements at top Department of Energy and university laboratories nationwide.

Berkley also is asking for basic research into technologies more advanced than the DOE is working on.

Norway, France, Russia and China are looking at a miniature form of transmutation, one that would create a machine available to scientists that fits on the top of a laboratory table.

Berkley's amendment also defuses critics of transmutation who fear terrorists or rogue nations could use uranium or plutonium left over in the process to build more nuclear bombs. Her proposal does not allow isolating either uranium or plutonium from the wastes.

The House measure is the latest development between two competing bills on nuclear waste. The House version has been on hold until the Senate takes action on legislation offered by Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska.

Murkowski's bill allows the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- not the Environmental Protection Agency -- to set radiation limits on Yucca Mountain.