DOE lists Yucca dump as one of its priorities

Suzanne Struglinski

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2003 | 9:19 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Opening the Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste dump by 2010 remains one of the Energy Department's top goals for the next 25 years, according to a draft of its 2003 Strategic Plan made public earlier this month.

Licensing and building the permanent repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, would help the department's goal of "providing for the permanent disposal of the nation's high-level radioactive waste," the plan says.

But it notes certain budget limits, regulatory requirements and possible litigation, among other items, could affect the project's completion.

"The industry is very happy DOE is putting the priority where we think it belongs -- opening Yucca Mountain by the target date," Mitch Singer, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, a nuclear power trade group, said.

He said if the department meets the 2004 license application deadline and eveything else follows the schedule, it could open on time.

"It's certainly doable," he said.

But an opponent of the repository disagreed with the priority.

"It's crazy that they want to do such a favor for the commercial nuclear power industry when there's so many things they need to do for the American people," said Judy Treichel, director of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force.

She noted the aging electricity transmission system responsible for the East Coast blackout earlier this month as a prime example of a task that needs attention more.

The state has a case pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which is a combination of several legal claims -- including a constitutional challenge -- made against the site.

Congress approved the site last year, and the Energy Department is now working on its license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which it anticipates it will submit in December 2004. If approved, the license could be issued as early as 2008.

The new plan also calls for the energy secretary to report to the president and Congress between 2007 and 2010 on the need for a second repository, which is required under the federal law. Yucca now has a 77,000-ton limit of waste.

As of 2001 about 40,000 tons of spent fuel sat at commerical power reactors, Singer said. Reactors generate about 2,000 tons of waste each year, so at least 60,000 tons of waste will be waiting for permanent storage in 2010. In addition, the federal government will have 7,000 tons of waste that will require storage.

The department will also develop a transportation infrastructure to ship the nuclear material to Nevada from about 72 sites in 33 states by 2010.

The department's other goals include maintaining the nuclear weapons stockpile, using a diverse supply of energy resources and speeding up the cleanup of former nuclear weapons construction and testing sites.