DOE streamlines Yucca questions

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, June 24, 2003 | 11:11 a.m.

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The Energy Department today unveiled a streamlined strategy to answer unresolved scientific questions about Yucca Mountain that will help the department meet its next project deadline.

Instead of answering each of 194 questions individually, the department wants to "bundle" them into 14 groups. For example, three of the 14 groups include questions about seismic activity at Yucca, water seeping into the mountain and how the nuclear waste containers may corrode over time.

The resolutions of the questions -- commonly called "key technical issue agreements" -- is crucial to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ultimately approving a license that would allow the department to construct the planned underground nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Energy Department is scrambling to prepare an application for a license by December 2004. The department and the NRC originally agreed that the department would have to answer at least 293 remaining questions about Yucca's long-term ability to isolate waste.

That list has been whittled down to 194, Energy Department officials today told the NRC's Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste. The department wants to bundle 181 of them into the 14 groups and answer individually 13 questions that defy category.

The department still plans to answer all but 10 or so of the questions by December 2004, Energy Department officials said. About 10 questions will require studies beyond 2004.

The new plan, which has not been approved by the NRC, would save the department time and money on a project that has been plagued by delays and congressional budget cuts, said Timothy Gunter, another DOE project manager.

Gunter said the new plan was a more efficient approach without cutting any corners in answering the questions.

"There is no difference in the degree of completeness with which we intend to address these issues," Gunter said during a meeting break.

Still, at least one Yucca critic said the new plan allows the department to sacrifice quality in order to expedite the project. The department seemingly has already decided that Yucca is a safe waste site and is treating the unresolved issues as merely a set of hoops to jump through, said Lisa Gue, analyst for Public Citizen, a public advocacy group.

"We're increasingly concerned to the extent that this process seems to be turned on its head," Gue said. "It feels a little like you're building a foundation after you've constructed the house."

The NRC's waste panel advises the five-member commission on Yucca issues. Several members of the panel questioned whether the NRC would approve the new plan. The new plan may not match the NRC's plan for reviewing the Energy Department's answers, panel member George Hornberger said.

It's not known when the NRC might rule on the plan.