Nuke expert calls storage selection a ‘historic error’

Friday, Jan. 11, 2002 | 9:30 a.m.

An independent nuclear expert says Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's decision to recommend Yucca Mountain as the nation's nuclear waste repository is a "historic error."

Arjun Makhijani, nuclear physicist and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Md., called on the Department of Energy to postpone the Yucca project and select an entirely new site.

"Put simply, it is the wrong choice," said Makhijani, who has researched DOE's work at Yucca for several years.

Abraham on Thursday notified Gov. Kenny Guinn that he will recommend Yucca Mountain as the permanent repository for 77,000 tons of the nation's nuclear waste.

In most cases, man-made and geologic shields provide sufficient barriers in regard to storing radioactive waste.

"That is not the case with Yucca Mountain," he said.

In studies during the past 15 years, when Yucca appeared to fail in relation to preventing stored waste from escaping into the air for at least a period of 10,000 years, the government changed the rules, Makhijani said.

"Moving the goal post doesn't make for a better site," Makhijani said. "This is a site that even by the DOE's own estimates will do little to keep wastes from moving into drinking water."

The DOE is relying on a combination of nickel and other metals, in addition to titanium shields, to protect the buried waste from water that may be prevalent inside the mountain. However, volcanic layers within the site are very porous and are, in effect, pathways for water.

"Combine oxygen, humidity and heat from the nuclear waste and it equals rust," Makhijani said, adding that corroded containers could release radiation much sooner than the 10,000-year regulatory limit.

Many of Makhijani's observations are in accordance with a list of 293 technical issues that must be resolved by the DOE before Yucca could receive a license, supplied by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

A report released last month by the General Accounting Office stipulates that the DOE and NRC must agree on issues involving the viability of the buried containers, how fast water moves through the dry zones and the saturated zone, volcanic activity, the potential for earthquakes near the site, how fast radiation would escape into the air and water, how heat from nuclear waste will affect water in the mountain and how to design a repository.

Both the NRC's technical staff and the NRC's Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste said in November that a substantive effort by the DOE is necessary before an application for a license would be approved.

Bechtel SAIC, DOE's chief contractor at Yucca Mountain, said it would take until 2006 to answer questions posed by the NRC. Bechtel officials are preparing a new management strategy for the repository. It is due in March.

Lake Barrett, DOE's acting director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, this week called the information needed for resolving the technical issues insignificant when compared to the extensive work completed after 15 years of scientific study.

Cutbacks in DOE's Yucca budget have delayed some scientific work at the mountain, Barrett said. For example, this year the Bush administration asked for $450 million to fund the project, though Congress approved $375.

Nevertheless, the DOE plans to submit a license application in 2003 and open the repository by 2010, Barrett said.