DOE chief backs Test Site research

Thursday, Aug. 10, 2000 | 11:17 a.m.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is seeking an extra $40 million for the Department of Energy to track contamination in ground water at the Nevada Test Site.

After speaking to the United Steelworkers of America annual convention Wednesday, Richardson told the Sun he would work with Congress to secure the funds for research requested in December by Gov. Kenny Guinn. "I think it would be a goodwill gesture by the DOE," he said.

The DOE has been trying since 1993 to figure out which way the ground water flows and whether radioactive contamination is moving off the Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A computer model by the DOE to predict the spread of contamination failed in a review by independent scientists, who said the agency needs more information to make the model accurate.

Guinn asked the DOE to spend an extra $40 million next year on research to get the model working so that Nevadans can be warned of dangers to public safety from the Test Site, where 928 above- and below-ground experiments of nuclear weapons were conducted from 1951 until 1992.

Bob Bangerter, the DOE's project manager for the ground water program, said Richardson's support was good news. The DOE Nevada Operations Office had forwarded the governor's request to headquarters, he said.

Richardson also said that he will try to get the money to complete scientific studies at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the only site under study for a high-level nuclear waste repository.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., had frozen Yucca Mountain funding at $351 million in the Senate, but the House passed a $413 million appropriation in June. The DOE asked for $437.5 million. The appropriation must go through a conference committee to work out the differences before it goes to President Clinton.

The DOE will prepare a report card to Congress on the progress at Yucca Mountain by the end of the year, Richardson said. Studies to determine whether a repository at Yucca Mountain would be feasible are not expected to be ready until next year.

The final decision, Richardson said, "will be based on scientific studies, not politics," echoing vows by President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, the presumed Democratic presidential candidate, and GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush that a final decision on the repository will be based on science.

Earlier Wednesday Richardson announced $3.5 million for 21 companies in a public-private partnership to expand geothermal resources in Nevada, California, New Mexico and Utah next year. It is part of a renewable energy package that will supply electric power or heating to at least 7 million homes through geopower by 2010.

The goal is to supply 10 percent of the electricity needs of the West with 20,000 megawatts of geothermal energy by 2020, Richardson said.

Six of the companies are in Nevada. Daniel Schochet, vice president of one of those companies, Ormat, said that next year's research will be conducted in New Mexico, though his company is based in Sparks.

"The DOE's interest is creating a resurgence in geothermal," he said.

The Nevada companies will receive at least $12 million in private and public funds over the next four years.

Nevada is the crown jewel in the DOE's plan to expand alternative energy resources such as solar, wind and geothermal, Richardson said. "Nevada is the Saudi Arabia of geothermal," he said at the Desert Research Institute.

Tapping hot water deep within the earth, geothermal power will help wean the United States off of foreign fossil fuels, Richardson said. Geothermal is clean and abundant in Nevada, he said.

Nevada already produces 236 megawatts of geothermal power from 14 generating plants in 10 locations, most of them in Northern Nevada, said geologist Alan Coyner of the state Division of Minerals.