DOE gets new boss for Yucca

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2002 | 11:15 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department has created a new position to oversee Yucca Mountain, but it wasn't immediately clear why.

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," Yucca project chief Margaret Chu said in a written statement.

The Senate in March confirmed Chu to manage the Yucca program as the new director of the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. Chu had been manager of the Sandia National Laboratories' nuclear waste management program.

Energy Department spokespeople in Washington and Las Vegas were not available for comment today about why the new Las Vegas-based post was necessary.

The new position raised eyebrows among Yucca critics.

"If we appointed Margaret Chu to this position, why did they need to hire someone in addition to her?" asked Tessa Hafen, spokeswoman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Creating a new Yucca post may be another case of the Energy Department's mismanagement on Yucca, Hafen said. It was odd, she said, that the department would expand its management ranks at a time when department officials are decrying budget cuts and pleading with Congress for money to keep the project on track.

"Yet suddenly they find funds to create an entirely new position?" Hafen asked.

Lisa Gue, a policy analyst with Public Citizen, a watchdog group, said, "It does raise some questions about who is running the ship over there. It seems to be an indication that there may be some trouble in the ranks."

Arthur has been manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration's office in Albuquerque 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 project office in Las Vegas, said the department was declining requests to interview Arthur.

The Yucca project this year entered a new phase. 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 the 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.

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

Arthur has 24 years of experience with the Energy Department.

He served as manager of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., an underground repository for low-level nuclear wastes. Yucca Mountain would be the world's first dump for high-level waste, mostly highly radioactive spent-fuel rods from commercial nuclear power plants and nuclear submarines.

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.