Feb. 28 deadline set to recommend Yucca

Thursday, Nov. 1, 2001 | 9:27 a.m.

Congress has set Feb. 28 as the deadline for recommending Yucca Mountain as the nation's nuclear waste repository.

Congress ordered the DOE to complete an environmental impact study and deliver a site recommendation on whether the mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is suitable for housing 77,000 tons of radioactive waste.

In its recently passed budget, Congress allocated $375 million for the Yucca project. To date, $7 billion has been spent on the proposed repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

According to language accompanying the budget bill, further scientific and engineering work is necessary to address concerns raised by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, an independent panel of scientists overseeing DOE's work.

The NRC wants to know how fast ground water flows through the mountain, how much water is contained at the repository site 1,000 feet beneath Yucca's surface and has questions into the possibility of volcanic eruptions.

The federal studies would not stop if the site is recommended, but "if the site recommendation is negative, the conferees expect the department to terminate promptly all such activities and take the steps necessary to remediate the site," according to the budget bill.

DOE spokesmen had no comment on the budget, saying they needed time to review the language.