Panel of scientists warns of quake

Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2003 | 9:24 a.m.

An independent scientific panel warned Monday that major earthquakes could occur at Yucca Mountain, posing a threat to the safety of a planned high-level nuclear waste depository there.

Serious questions remain about 54 earthquake faults at or around Yucca Mountain, scientists with the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board said Monday during their meeting in Las Vegas.

Board Panel Chairwoman Priscilla Nelson said she expected the Energy Department, which is overseeing the project, will find even more faults as tunnels are drilled at Yucca Mountain to hold the radioactive waste.

"Most of the faults run north and south and most of the drifts run east and west, so you're probably going to hit more than one," Nelson said.

Five of the known faults could create an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 or higher on the Richter scale, said Ivan Wong, a senior consulting seismologist.

The Energy Department is doing calculations for quake potential over the next 4,000 years. Current regulations require nuclear waste to stay put inside a repository for 10,000 years.

"We're not done with earthquake issues," said William Boyle, Energy Department director of license acquisition for repository development. "It's a work in progress."

The Energy Department is trying to measure how serious damage from a temblor could affect Yucca Mountain by comparing regulations already in place for nuclear reactors, said Robert Kennedy, another scientist on the project.

One plant being studied is the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in San Luis Obispo County, Calif.

In 1975 the U.S. Geological Survey discovered a fault capable of generating an earthquake greater than magnitude 7.0 near Diablo Canyon.