DOE delays seeking Yucca license: Budget shortfall may hinder 2010 opening of site

Monday, May 7, 2001 | 11:05 a.m.

Lack of funding has pushed back the Energy Department's application for a license to open a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain by a year and could threaten the proposed project's 2010 opening, a DOE official says.

The Energy Department needs $1 billion a year for the next seven years to get the project through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's rigorous licensing procedure, according to Victor Trebules, the DOE's Office of Project Control.

The DOE, which would build and operate the repository if it is approved, is $98 million short, and as a result, the agency has postponed its plan to file its license request from 2002 to 2003, Trebules said Friday.

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site being studied to store 77,000 tons of commercial nuclear reactor fuel and defense waste.

"To maintain the 2010 opening, more money is necessary from Congress each year," Trebules told state and local government officials after the DOE released four reports updating scientific information about Yucca Mountain.

This year the DOE received $390 million for scientific studies after requesting $430 million. In 2000 Congress approved $351 million compared to a $409 million request.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., was behind the move to freeze the Yucca Mountain budget for this year, as well as yanking money used to advertise public tours of the project.

Reid, ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, plans to continue trimming DOE funding for Yucca Mountain, committee spokesman David Cherry said.

The Senate Energy and Water Subcommittee meets on Thursday, and Reid plans to question the DOE on the need to increase its budget, Cherry said.

Reid said he will examine the DOE's funding request carefully.

"I'm going to see what I can do," the senator said.

While studies inside the 5-mile-long exploratory tunnel continue, the DOE had planned to spend the extra money for designing a repository with enough detail to satisfy the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Trebules said.

Instead, the DOE funneled money to support ongoing scientific work, and the license request was put on hold, he said.

In addition, more than $11 billion has been added to cost estimates for the repository, bringing the total to $58 billion, Trebules said. The bulk of the increase is $7 billion to install titanium shields to protect buried containers from water moving through the mountain.

Other expenses include $2.7 billion for steel reinforcements to protect machinery and workers inside the repository, $1 billion for regulatory hurdles and management and $1 billion to expand surface facilities, including an extra pool for storing spent reactor fuel until it is prepared for burial.

"What is clear from these new reports is that the overall cost of this proposed repository has ballooned to more than $50 billion and will likely continue to climb as design work continues," Reid said in a statement Friday.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said that the rising cost for Yucca Mountain "shows this project is out of control. Yucca Mountain is not the answer to our nation's nuclear waste problem."

In addition, Reid, the assistant Democratic leader, noted no limit for radiation releases from a repository has been set and no specific transportation routes have been proposed.

None of the DOE's reports released Friday addresses effects from transporting the nuclear wastes or what would happen if there were an accident before trucks or trains reached the site. There is no rail line to either the Nevada Test Site or the mountain.

Meanwhile Gov. Kenny Guinn vowed not to let the Legislature remove his $5 million request for state funds to fight the repository on legal and public levels. The bulk of the money would be used to hire the best attorneys specializing in nuclear matters, Guinn said late Friday.

Some of the money would be used to support a nationwide information campaign to explain the dangers of shipping high-level nuclear waste across 43 states.

"We're going to fight back," Guinn said. "We are going to put up the best fight you've ever seen."

With the thousands of pages of documents from the DOE, state officials will analyze the scientific evidence for indications that building a repository will harm the state, the governor said.

"If they take any action that substantially causes harm, the state will be prepared," Guinn said, adding Nevada plans to go to court.

Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said the DOE ignored earthquake hazards and water in the mountain, forming the basis for the state to take legal action.

"As Nevada's chief legal officer, let me reiterate that this office is committed for the long haul and is preparing to challenge the Yucca Mountain Project with all the resources at our disposal," Del Papa said.