Permanent Yucca work could start before it is licensed

Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2000 | 11:25 a.m.

The Department of Energy may begin building an unprecedented high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain before scientific evidence proves that it is safe to license, an advisory committee of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was told Tuesday.

A viability study by the DOE allows the department enough flexibility to begin construction on the $50 billion project even if scientific studies are not complete, officials for both the NRC and the state's Nuclear Projects Office told the independent Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste.

Yucca Mountain is the only site being studied for the nation's first high-level nuclear waste repository. If it passes scientific muster, it could begin accepting 77,000 tons of waste by 2010. The NRC is charged with issuing both a construction license and then final approval before a repository is opened.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., joined the meeting by telephone, urging the NRC and its reviewers to move in an entirely different direction.

"Instead of continuing the Yucca Mountain Project, I urge that you begin to consider shutting it down," she said.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., today said the scientific process shows the administration and the DOE are moving ahead with bringing nuclear waste to Nevada before the studies are completed.

"That shocks me, because clearly the law says that you can't establish a site until the science is completed," Gibbons said. "That is terrible news for Nevada."

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said today that the NRC seems to be "moving forward on licensing before the (scientific) questions are even asked. Right now, we have more questions than we have answers."

The viability study and the DOE's draft environmental statement also repeatedly refer to scientific studies of Yucca Mountain as ongoing once a repository is built, Steve Frishman, Nevada's technical coordinator, said, but NRC regulations say the science should be complete before a license is granted.

Frishman and NRC staff members told the advisory committee that they doubted the data on crucial studies will be available to the commission until as late as June 2001, when the Energy secretary is due to make a site recommendation to the president. A license application could be submitted to the NRC as soon as 2002.

NRC staff said information on ground water flow rates and crucial studies on the ages and origin of tiny gas and water bubbles trapped in Yucca's minerals may not be ready until next summer.

Information on ground water is important because if water corrodes canisters holding nuclear waste, radioactivity could be released into the environment. The tiny gas and water bubbles, called fluid inclusions, could indicate whether ground water might rise to the level of the canisters within the lifetime of the repository.

DOE Project Manager Russ Dyer said today that Yucca Mountain is on schedule and the Energy Department expects to complete a progress report to Congress by December. Final environmental impacts and a site recommendation are expected next summer, unless Congress cuts the DOE's Yucca budget, he said.

Frishman called the DOE's approach to licensing a repository "incremental," and said Nevada officials fear important scientific study results will not be available for years.

"There's work undone that needs to be completed," Frishman said.

NRC staff member Neil Coleman noted that basic questions such as whether the mountain's rock drips without hot and radioactive containers in place have not been answered. But, he added, "Certainly the best thing to happen is excavate the mountain," to discover what Yucca's environment is like.

The DOE has placed cloth in some alcoves in the exploratory tunnel to catch any drops, but it will take time to find out if the mountain drips, Coleman said.

One consultant said the public does not trust the NRC to demand tough standards during the licensing process.

"The NRC is trying to become an educator of all things nuclear when the public may be concerned with the integrity of the licensing process itself," Michael Baughman, a nuclear consultant for Lincoln County, said.

Judy Treichel, director of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, said if regulators do not know enough about how Yucca behaves over thousands of years, the public will not accept a repository.

"There has never been a mountain or any piece of geology used in this way," Treichel said. "The public health and safety are what is up for grabs here.

"This project, unlike a (nuclear) reactor, cannot be turned off," Treichel said.

Advisory Board Chairman John Garrick agreed with Treichel, saying the measure of risks from burying the highly radioactive wastes "has to pass the test of accountability."

The problem is "who does the risk assessment and how it is performed," Garrick said.

NRC staffer Bill Reamer tried to reassure state officials that the commission would investigate every conceivable concern. For the NRC to meet its responsibilities, the DOE's application must be complete and of high quality, he said.