Officials: Cask tests have PR value

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2002 | 11:15 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A dramatic full-scale test of the metal containers that would be used to ship nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain would serve little scientific purpose, but it would probably have a lot of public relations value, members of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel said today.

Scientists already know the massive containers would hold up in a severe accident, members of the NRC's Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste said at a briefing for the commissioners. Computer modeling and tests with smaller-scale versions of the metal casks have shown the casks would not crack or release radiation in a real-world fall or fire, the panel members say.

But Nevada officials are skeptical and have long prodded the NRC to oversee a new round of tests with full-scale waste containers. The last such tests were in the 1970s.

"I think new tests would serve some real technical purposes," said Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency.

As the Department of Energy moves forward with its plans to ship waste from sites scattered nationwide to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, new tests would mostly serve to set the the public's mind at ease, said George Hornberger, chairman of the NRC waste panel.

"We certainly see the value in demonstrating in a very public way that we can take these casks in a full-scale test and show people: look what happens -- nothing," Hornberger said, adding, "At least that is what we think will happen."

Hornberger's panel is important because it advises the NRC on Yucca issues, and the five-member NRC controls Yucca's fate. In the next few years the NRC will be responsible for granting construction and operating licenses to the Energy Department for Yucca.

The Energy Department still hopes to open Yucca by 2010. Nevada officials have mounted legal challenges to delay and ultimately kill the project. They have repeatedly appealed to the NRC to examine project flaws and questions about the waste shipping containers are a major flaw, they say.

The NRC seems to have relented to public pressure on full-scale testing, and tentatively plans to conduct the tests in 2004. Commissioners confirmed support for the tests today.

"We must be mindful of our stakeholders in Illinois and Missouri and Oklahoma and elsewhere" outside Nevada, too, commissioner Jeffrey Merrifield said.

Full-scale testing is far more expensive than testing smaller models, which is why model and computer testing is relatively routine.

At a workshop last month, the panel was "blown away" during a briefing on new computer technologies developed by U.S. national laboratories that allow scientists to create even more highly accurate modeling, Hornberger said.

Hornberger's panel drew the ire of Nevada officials because the Nevadans were not invited to that workshop, when government and industry experts briefed the panel on waste transportation issues.

Today, Commissioner Edward McGaffigan, Jr., chided the panel for not inviting Nevada experts to testify, and he urged the panel to routinely invite Nevada experts to future meetings. Several panel members agreed to do that.

"We should reach out more," panel member B. John Garrick said.