DOE gets new boss for Yucca Mountain

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2002 | 9:29 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department has created a new position to oversee Yucca Mountain.

Department officials on Tuesday announced that department veteran W. John Arthur III in early December will start work as the deputy director for repository development, a new job title.

Arthur will lead the effort to develop and license the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, department officials said in a press release.

"John is an experienced and able manager with an extensive background in managing large, complex organizations and programs both at DOE headquarters and in the field," Margaret Chu, director of the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said in a written statement.

Chu is the department's top Yucca manager. The Senate confirmed Chu to the position and she was sworn in March 20.

It was not immediately clear why the department created the new deputy director position or how it fits into the Yucca management structure. An Energy Department spokesman in Washington was not available for comment today.

Arthur has been manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration's office in Albuquerque, N.M., since February. The NNSA maintains and secures the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile.

A call to Arthur's Albuquerque office was not returned. Gayle Fisher, a spokeswoman for the Yucca Mountain project office in Las Vegas, said the department was declining requests to interview Arthur.

Arthur has 24 years of experience with the Energy Department.

He served as manager of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., the first national underground repository for nuclear wastes. WIPP is a low-level waste dump, whereas the Energy Department aims to make Yucca Mountain the world's first underground repository for high-level waste, mostly highly radioactive spent-fuel rods from commercial nuclear power plants and nuclear submarines.

Arthur also was assistant manager for environmental operations and services at the Energy Department's Albuquerque operations office, and served as acting chief operating officer in the department's office of environmental management in Washington.

After 20 years of Energy Department research, President Bush and Congress this year approved Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the best site for a national nuclear waste dump. Now the department faces the complex task of submitting an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to obtain a construction license.

The application won't be submitted until December 2004, and the NRC could take up to four years to review it.

Arthur brings a "broad perspective and excellent management skills" to the licensing process, Chu said.

Arthur has published over 30 environmental technical documents for the Energy Department and served on international nuclear safety working groups, according to the department.

He has a bachelor of sciences degree in wildlife management. He earned his master of science degree in health physics from Colorado State University in 1977.