UNLV studies may aid Yucca fight

Friday, Aug. 31, 2001 | 11:19 a.m.

Transmutation research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas could remove the need to ship thousands of tons of the nation's nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, a Department of Energy scientist said Thursday.

Denis Beller, coordinator for DOE's Advanced Accelerator Applications program at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, was the featured speaker during a UNLV seminar to explain the latest advances in transmutation, a process that decreases the toxicity of highly radioactive waste, including plutonium and uranium.

Transmuted nuclear waste could be buried in landfills, which have been certified by the government for the storage of low-level radioactive waste. The processed waste also could be used again to generate nuclear power. Landfills in Utah and South Carolina are currently storing low-level nuclear waste.

With four transmutation accelerators placed near the nation's 103 nuclear reactors, scientists could remove radiation from 1,000 tons of waste per year, Beller said. The first accelerator could be ready by 2015, he said, and the waste would eventually be stored in the landfills.

However, if approved by Congress and the president, Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, could open by 2010.

Congress this fiscal year allocated $6 million to fund research into transmutation accelerators. UNLV, which for the past two years has been part of an international network of research into transmutation technology, is scheduled to receive $3 million this year.

The total federal budget for transmutation research this fiscal year is more than $30 million. Congress will consider the budget this fall.

Scientists are asking Congress to include an additional $12 million -- UNLV's share would be $6 million -- as part of the 2002-2003 fiscal year budget to be used for transmutation research.

UNLV plans to open a new $1 million laboratory, where scientists will test lead and bismuth -- the metals are used during the transformation process -- within the year, university officials say.

Radioactive materials would not be used at the UNLV lab, UNLV associate professor William Culbreth said. Instead, chemists, engineers and physicists plan to study how the two metals react to chemical and mechanical stresses.

If UNLV receives the anticipated funding, school officials will hire three additional scientists who will focus on the transmutation research, said Anthony Hechanova, director of UNLV's program and nuclear engineer at the Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies. UNLV also has about 45 students working in the program.

Scientists have been researching transmutation technology since World War II, Beller said.

"The question is, Can you turn lead into gold?" Beller said. "Yes, you can. To do so, you need lots of neutrons and lots of money."

Sen. Harry Reid supports alternatives to a Yucca Mountain repository, spokesman Nathan Naylor said, but the senator said he is concerned about shipping nuclear waste in any form. Reid prefers storing spent reactor fuel in dry casks at the reactor sites, which is currently being done around the country, until a permanent solution is approved. Mary Manning covers environmental issues for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-4065 or by e-mail at manning@lasvegassun.com.