DOE’s chief pushes Yucca

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, May 2, 2001 | 11:34 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- As Vice President Dick Cheney continues to hint that his much-awaited national energy strategy would include increasing nuclear power output, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham stressed that developing a high-level nuclear waste dump in Nevada is among his department's highest priorities.

Energy companies will have a difficult time constructing new nuclear power plants and relicensing old ones without a single, permanent burial ground for high-level waste, Abraham said today.

"First and foremost, we have to deal with the issue of nuclear waste," Abraham told reporters during a break in testimony before the House Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development.

It was Abraham's first appearance before Congress to justify his proposed $19.2 billion budget for next year. Abraham is proposing an overall budget that is actually a slight decrease from last year, but high-priority projects such as the proposed waste repository at Yucca Mountain received budget increases, Abraham said.

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site the federal government is considering for burial of the nuclear waste that is piling up at the nation's 103 commercial nuclear reactors.

The DOE this year is expected to recommend to President Bush that the desert mountain is a safe place to bury the waste, despite loud objections by many in Nevada.

Abraham proposes a $54 million increase in DOE projects at Yucca over last year for a total $445 million budget for the waste dump study.

He shared some of the details of the Yucca budget in written testimony to the congressional panel: about $280.5 million will be used to develop the license application, which the DOE needs to complete and submit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"The commision will use the sound scientific analysis in the license application ... to make an independent assessment of how the repository will protect public safety and health and the environment," Abraham said.

About $75 million will be used for projects associated with officials recommending the site, Abraham said.

The question of what to do with thousands of tons of nuclear waste scattered around the nation is a key question lately because the Bush administration has hinted that it would like to see more nuclear power plants in America, despite public fears about nuclear accidents and waste.

The issue of Yucca Mountain will be specifically addressed in Bush's comprehensive national energy strategy, now being developed by a task force led by Cheney. That report is expected within a week or two.

Abraham said much has changed in the more than 20 years since a nuclear power plant was commissioned in the United States.