DOE warned of predicted volcanic activity at Yucca Mountain

Thursday, Aug. 3, 2000 | 11:15 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A Nuclear Regulatory Commission consultant urged the federal government to pay more attention to the possibility of volcanic eruptions at a proposed high-level nuclear dumpsite at Yucca Mountain.

Chuck Connor, an NRC consultant from San Antonio, told the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board Wednesday that the regulatory commission's experts have predicted as many as 10 volcanic eruptions could occur at the proposed repository site in 10,000 years.

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site under consideration to store 77,000 tons of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants and defense activities. If it passes scientific muster, it would be the world's first high-level nuclear waste repository.

The job of the independent Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board is to oversee the scientific studies that will help determine whether a Yucca Mountain repository is feasible.

Connor was commenting on a Department of Energy computer-simulated model designed to show what would happen inside the mountain if a repository is built.

The DOE model assumes there would be some lava activity around nuclear waste canisters, but forecasts only one violent eruption in the Yucca Mountain area in 10 million years.

Frank Perry of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said DOE's research shows that the youngest volcano cone in the area formed about 75,000 years ago less than 20 miles southwest of Yucca Mountain. In all, the DOE believes six different volcanic events -- none of them eruptions -- occurred in the area within the past 1 million years, leading them to the forecast of one violent event in 10 million years.

Connor disagreed with that estimate, and his comments reflect what appears to be a tougher stand the regulatory commission is taking with the DOE on the Yucca Mountain project. The NRC will have to license any operation the DOE hopes to open.

DOE's technical coordinator Abe Van Luik noted before the board that the NRC is challenging the DOE on factors that have been eliminated from its computer model. NRC officials also have challenged the DOE on matters such as the metal alloy it plans to use for containers to bury the waste and on how long it takes for ground water to flow through the mountain.

But the NRC is not the only agency with tough questions for the DOE.

Review board member Priscilla Nelson asked how volcanic activity would change the ground water flow through Yucca Mountain.

The DOE's Robert Andrews replied that such a change is considered by DOE to be of little consequence.

The agency throughout its presentation downplayed the danger of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes based on its 20 years of research, saying such events would not disrupt thousands of containers buried 1,000 feet beneath the mountain's surface.

Kathy Gaither, a DOE Sandia Laboratory geologist, said that an earthquake on a major fault like Solitario Canyon at the repository site would only cause the earth to move about three feet.

The shaking would not cause the buried containers to break, she said.

However, the technical review board remained unconvinced that the DOE's predictions will protect the public. Board Chairman Jared Cohon noted that without a design for a repository, there is no way to determine dangers from the buried waste.

Van Luik said he expects the repository design will change as more information about volcanos, earthquakes and ground water is gathered.

"You will redesign as you go, and there will be changes," Van Luik said.

The lack of information and clash of scientific views unsettled Judy Treichel, director of the nonprofit Nuclear Waste Task Force, an information clearinghouse in Las Vegas.

While Yucca's scientific information is impressive and confusing, she said, there is almost no public confidence in the project. "In Nevada there is no confidence," she said.

"The public feels frustrated. They feel they are not heard. We all know this is a political process, but the public needs to be included in a meaningful way."