Report: Yucca is behind schedule

Monday, Dec. 24, 2001 | 11:22 a.m.

The Energy Department's drive to open a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain by 2010 is partly fueled by a desire to reduce its liability to power producers, a federal audit says.

But work on a repository, which has not been approved yet, is years behind, and it likely would not open until 2015, a General Accounting Office report says.

Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has been plagued with delays for years, but the problems have not been properly reported -- a violation of the Energy Department's own rules, the GAO report said.

The department's liability comes from 18 lawsuits filed by nuclear utilities unhappy that it failed to take the wastes at power plants by 1998, the original deadline for the federal government to do so.

The nuclear industry is seeking at least $50 billion in damages. Energy officials estimate it could pay $2 billion to $3 billion.

"The actual damages could be higher or lower, depending on when DOE begins accepting spent nuclear fuel," the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, said.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., requested the GAO probe.

The Energy Department has spent $8 billion studying Yucca since 1982. The total cost is estimated at $56 billion, but Bechtel SAIC, the primary contractor, said it could reach $63 billion, the report says.

Only $11 billion remains in a fund paid by utility-user fees to build a repository, the report said. The rest will have to be paid by taxpayers.

The final GAO report, released Friday, recommends the Energy Department indefinitely postpone recommending Yucca as the site for a high-level nuclear waste dump.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said recently there is no deadline for a recommendation to President Bush, however, he is widely expected to do so this winter.

The report also reveals for the first time that Yucca managers failed since 1997 to either Abraham or former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson of delays and higher costs expected to license and build a repository, as required by department rules.

The first indication since March 1997 of any delay to open a repository came in a September report by Bechtel SAIC.

The GAO report said it would be January 2006 before the department could send a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a Yucca repository.

The department has not accepted Bechtel's new projection, the GAO said. But auditors agreed with Bechtel's new estimate.

So much scientific information is missing that the department probably could not submit a license request, the GAO report said.

An application must be filed 90 days after the president and Congress recommend the site.

"On the basis of the information we reviewed, DOE is unlikely to achieve its goal of opening a repository at Yucca Mountain by 2010 and currently does not have a reliable estimate of when, and at what cost, such a repository can be opened," the report said.

The repository opening could be delayed until 2015, it said.

The Energy Department, meanwhile, has asked the National Academy of Sciences to study the feasibility of storing up to 77,000 tons of nuclear waste on top of Yucca until the agency can receive approval for a repository, the report said. The academy's report is expected next winter.

The department audit responded in general to the issues raised by the GAO.

Energy Undersecretary Robert Card wrote that delaying the site recommendation will delay opening a repository, and he cited concerns from 129 communities where waste is stored.

"Yet the report gives no weight to the interest of the communities where this waste is located in having a decision on a site for a repository made promptly, one way or the other, as soon as it can be made responsibly," Card wrote.

Card said the site recommendation does not include a final repository design, which would include results of ongoing studies. "The site itself is not licensed; instead its features may affect design of the facility which is licensed," he said.