Waste site pick faces delay

Jeff German and Mary Manning

Friday, Dec. 22, 2000 | 10:39 a.m.

Nevada officials believe a federal investigation into the Energy Department's ties to the nuclear industry will delay a recommendation in June to make Yucca Mountain the nation's nuclear waste repository.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who asked the DOE's inspector general to conduct the probe, said there's "no chance" the recommendation will be made on schedule.

"They can't issue that report until the investigation is done, and knowing how things work around here, the investigation won't be done for months," Reid said this morning. "The longer the DOE waits, the better off we are."

Bob Loux, Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects executive director, agreed.

"I don't think they'll recommend the site this summer," Loux said. "If the decision is made in June, it will be purely a political decision and not a scientific one."

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., added: "Politics has been driving this thing from the very start. If in fact a decision is made on schedule, it will be the result of a pattern of political maneuvering and abuse that has permeated the entire process."

Berkley said she expects the proponents of Yucca Mountain, the only site under study to bury 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste, will "do everything they can to provide a recommendation on schedule."

The decision is expected to be made by the still-unnamed energy secretary in the new Bush administration.

Berkley said the transition of presidential power could delay the recommendation, as well.

"It takes several months for the new administration to get up and running," she said.

Earlier this month, Reid, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, asked the inspector general to investigate the DOE's bias in the selection process involving Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson also asked the inspector general to look at the "apparent bias" of chief contractor, TRW Environmental Safety Systems Inc.

The investigation was prompted by a Dec. 1 copyrighted Sun story disclosing documents that suggested the DOE was collaborating behind the scenes with the nuclear industry to recommend Yucca Mountain.

Federal law prohibits the DOE from taking sides in the selection process.

The Sun obtained a 60-page draft of a DOE overview that concluded Yucca Mountain was a safe site to store the radioactive waste even though a massive scientific study had not been completed.

Attached to the overview was a two-page memo from TRW that suggested the overview could be used by Yucca supporters to sell the project to Congress.

Richardson said earlier this month that the inspector general's investigation will delay the release of a the 1,500-page Site Recommendation Consideration Report, which was supposed to be given to Congress this month.

Nevada's congressional delegation also is preparing to ask the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to conduct its own inquiry into the DOE.

In the wake of the controversy, Richardson has pledged that any recommendation of Yucca Mountain will be "based on sound science."

Loux, however, criticized the DOE for failing to reach results in scientific studies of Yucca Mountain that have been going on for almost 20 years.

"They need to reach conclusions about the studies before they recommend the site, at least that is how we read the law," Loux said.

Loux said a story in Thursday's Sun shows the DOE still isn't ready to recommend Yucca Mountain because the science isn't there.

TRW is proposing ways to bring nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain three years before the site would be ready to accept waste in 2010, the story shows.

"What we have been saying all along is that the DOE has to complete the site characterization and the design before they can make a recommendation," Loux said.

The new energy secretary will recommend the site, if it is scientifically sound, to the president. Then, the president will present the project to Congress. After that, Yucca faces three years or more of formal hearings before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission allows the site to accept waste.

"The DOE believes its mission is to build that repository, and when you run into problems, bring them to us and we will change the rules," Loux said. "The question is, will they be able to get away with it?