DOE plans ‘temporary’ nuke dump at Yucca

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2002 | 11:02 a.m.

Source: Energy Department

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department wants to construct an above-ground nuclear waste storage area near Yucca Mountain as part of its effort to start shipping 77,000 tons of waste to Nevada by 2010.

Critics say the plan, which clearly emerged as a central part of the department's Yucca Mountain budget on Monday, would be akin to a large-scale temporary waste storage area. Congress has already voted down a plan to build a temporary facility.

Nevada officials said this is part of Energy's attempt to get Yucca Mountain approved before it goes through Congress.

"This is a classic sort of piece-mealing," said Bob Loux, Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects director. "It's kind of getting the nose under the tent."

Loux said he doesn't think that the plan would meet federal law regulating the repository. He said the state would sue if the plan goes forward.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said the attempt to license Yucca before scientific studies are complete, and to ship waste there before construction completion, was typical of the department's zeal to advance the project.

"We have said all along that the DOE thinks this is a done deal," Ensign said. "I'm used to the DOE dealing this way."

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has said he will recommend to President Bush that Yucca Mountain be named the nation's nuclear waste repository. That recommendation is expected this month. Congress will have the final say in the matter and could vote on the issue as soon as this year.

While critics say the Energy Department plans a kind of temporary storage site, its officials are careful not to call it that.

"This is not an interim site -- it's a permanent repository," acting Yucca project director Lake Barrett said. "But it has to remain on the surface before going underground. You are always going to have some (spent nuclear) fuel on the surface."

It is not yet known how much waste would sit at the surface storage area while tunnels are being completed, Barrett said.

Yucca tunnels likely would not be complete by the 2010 deadline, so when Bush unveiled his budget Monday, he asked Congress for enough money to keep the project on track, even if it means shipping waste to Nevada before the underground dump is complete.

"After enormous study, we are poised to recommend a permanent disposal site for nuclear waste," Abraham said Monday during a budget briefing. He also told reporters, "We have taken no job more seriously in the last year than that responsibility."

Nevada lawmakers opa Yucca repository, including any kind of temporary storage.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., noted the old phrase, "Don't count your chickens before they are hatched."

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has vowed to trim the Yucca budget. The Senate majority whip sits on the Appropriations Committee where he'll have the chance to do so.

Bush and Energy Department are asking lawmakers for $527 million for the next fiscal year for the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, which manages the Yucca Mountain project. About $425 million would be spent on Yucca development.

The money, a 41 percent increase from last year, would allow the department to shift its focus from studying Yuccato licensing and constructing it.

If Bush and Congress approve the site, the Energy Department could submit an application in late 2004 to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to bury the nuclear waste under the desert ridge, officials said Monday.

White House officials stress that Bush has not decided whether he will give approve Energy's recommendation. But he is widely expected to do so.

"Budgets are political documents," said Keith Ashdown, spokesman for watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. "The Bush administration is saying something with the document they released Monday."

White House officials referred questions to Energy Department, where officials flatly denied that the budget was an indication the president had already signed off on the project.

"No, the president hasn't made any decision," spokesman Joe Davis said.

Barrett said the budget process requires departments to submit budgets 1 1/2 years before they will get the money, so requests are routinely made in case projects get final approvals.

Barrett said Bush could make a decision "early summer or sooner, possibly" -- before lawmakers make final budget decisions.

"The project for '03 is predicated on the (Yucca) project going forward," Barrett said Monday. "We're very pleased with the support of this (Bush) administration."

Critics said it is inappropriate for administrations to request money for projects they haven't approved.

"How can the DOE can move forward with licensing and even construction is really absurd when there is so much work to do in finishing up the scientific studies," said Kevin Kamps, nuclear waste specialist with Nuclear Information & Resource Service.

The Energy Department is forging ahead with other spending plans based on the assumption that Bush will approve the site. For the first time, the department is budgeting money -- $6 million -- for planning a rail system in Nevada to transport thousands of waste shipments over several decades. There are no tracks to Yucca now, but the rail system could be in place as early as 2008, Barrett said.

If Bush and Congress sign off on Yucca, the Energy Department could ask Congress for more money later this year, Ensign said.

The Energy Department said it will apply for an license without the help of an outside law firm, at least for now. Chicago-based Winston & Strawn for two years shepherded the license application, but quit its $16.5 million contract in November amid controversy that the firm may have a conflict of interest.

While it represented the department on Yucca issues, it had also been a registered pro-Yucca lobbyist for the Nuclear Energy Institute, a top industry trade group. The firm denied having a conflict of interest.

Davis declined to say whether the Energy Department is actively looking for another firm as in-house counsel is handling the work.