UNLV could see Yucca boon

Jennifer Knight

Monday, April 15, 2002 | 11:09 a.m.

While UNLV President Carol Harter doesn't like the idea of a nuclear waste dump coming to Nevada, as an academic she sees the opportunity it holds for her university.

"As a university president, it is my job to prepare for the eventuality of Yucca Mountain and be ready to do the kind of research that will be helpful even if it goes somewhere else," Harter said.

Congress will decided whether to build a repository to hold 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in the next three months, and although opponents of the dump deride the idea of gaining "benefits" from the project, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas could see a boom in its research centers if the repository is built in Nevada.

"When there is a large federal presence of whatever kind of industry, the universities in the neighborhood naturally become involved in the research that is important to that particular venture," Stephen Rice, vice provost for research, said.

Rice said the possibilities for UNLV are boundless. Relationships with scientists would bleed into the colleges of science, engineering, information technology and the field of business management. UNLV's research reputation in nuclear science could benefit, as well.

Such large-scale projects draw in enough research money to attract high-profile professors, said Tony Hechanova, a research scientist heading up UNLV's nuclear transmutation project at the Harry Reid Environmental Science Center.

"When you bring in good professors who are doing good work, you also attract good students," Hechanova said. "By producing good students, you start increasing your reputation."

Three of Nevada's colleges are already involved in researching the Yucca science. Over the past three years, about 65 Yucca projects have been awarded to the university system, bringing in about $20 million in research money, according to officials. The University of Nevada, Reno has received $11.2 million, UNLV received $6.7 million and Desert Research Institute received about $2 million.

But, the convergence of the words "benefit" and "Yucca" is anathema to those fighting to keep the nation's high-level nuclear waste out of Nevada's back yard.

"I think this is counterproductive," said Nathan Naylor, spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. Reid and other Nevada politicians are leading the opposition to the dump. "The notion that Yucca is good for Nevada is wrong.

"Sen. Reid is focused on killing Yucca. He won't even consider picking meat off the bone. This is morbid even considering what we can get out of this."

The sensitivity of the question is not lost on academics. When asked whether UNLV's research centers would experience a boon from Yucca, Harter was diplomatic.

"It's a little like saying that if there were more cancer, it would benefit our cancer center," she said. "If it expands our activity, wonderful. But I don't want to imply that in any way we would benefit from Yucca Mountain coming here."

By way of proximity though, UNLV is at the center of the issue. Just 90 miles southeast of the site, the university is already playing a role in the debate as researchers have studied Yucca Mountain for the last five years. The research has come down on both sides of the argument.

One UNLV scientist concluded that a popular anti-Yucca argument -- that water could seep through the ground and corrode the cylinders holding the nuclear waste -- was unlikely.

Another UNLV study contradicted a theory that claimed the material being used for the cylinders was too corrosive to use in Yucca Mountain.

Conversely, UNLV's work has helped the fight over the years. The most notable project being championed by politicians against Yucca is the Advanced Accelerator Transmutation project.

The project is studying new technology that could reduce the radiation of spent nuclear fuel rods, reducing the time that the waste would be lethal and lessening the need for a repository.

If such research has cropped up as a result of Yucca Mountain only being studied, a working waste site could bring with it the unintended side effect of expanding research centers at UNLV, officials said.

Just look at sites such as Idaho Falls, Idaho, one of the sites of the Manhattan Project and now home to a still-active naval reactor facility just 50 miles northwest of Idaho State University.

The relationship between those two has been beneficial, Lawrence Ford, deputy chief research officer for Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho, said.

"There has been some research interaction between the naval facility and the university in the area of nuclear engineering," Ford said. "We would like to develop more of that."

The same holds true for other universities near similar sites. A branch of New Mexico State University in Carlsbad has experienced side benefits from a nearby low-level nuclear waste site.

Trucks filled with 55-gallon drums of contaminated clothes and tools from nuclear sites comes to the town of 25,000 each month. Scientists studying the safety aspects of the site have followed.

"It has affected us in the sense that people who come to the community with these types of skills benefits the university," Mel Vuk, university's provost, said. "If you want to take a class in nuclear science, you can do that. In a little town like this, that's unique."

But Harter sees UNLV's role as a global one that isn't necessarily tied to Yucca coming.

Whether the waste is buried in Nevada or some place else, Harter said researchers will continue to work on problems of transporting waste safely and reducing harmful radiation emissions of high-level waste.

UNLV's role is something that the Energy Department sees as well. According to a recent quarterly report released by UNLV, the department wants to establish a consortium of institutions patterned after a system in Russia, where each institution handles different parts of nuclear science and engineering.

The report notes that "the national consortium is precisely what DOE wants to establish in the U.S., with UNLV as the lead."

That designation, Harter said, shows that nuclear science is emerging at the university.

"There is a natural tendency to grow in those areas," she said. "But whether Yucca comes here or not, we can be a socially important stakeholder in solving the economic and environmental problems caused by the nuclear waste disposal problem that faces this nation."

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