Editorial: A dose of reality for Yucca plan

Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2003 | 9:08 a.m.

How much room for error exists when planning to bury high-level nuclear waste underneath a mountain ridge in the Nevada desert? The answer is none. Especially when the proposed site, Yucca Mountain, sits just a thousand feet above an aquifer that nourishes a large agricultural region, has a history of seismic activity and is only 90 miles from Las Vegas, the fastest-growing city in the country.

Yet the federal government's fast-moving plans for Yucca Mountain are constantly being labeled as error-prone. The latest doubt is being cast by a letter now circulating in Washington. The letter, not yet in its final form, was written by members of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, a scientific panel appointed by Congress to advise the Energy Department.

Looming among the long list of environmental concerns about Yucca Mountain has always been this basic question: Can it be said with certainty that no harmful amounts of radiation will leak from the mountain, either by way of ground water or air? And of course the truthful answer is no, despite 25 years of research by the federal government into the mountain's geology and at least a decade's worth of research into metal alloys. The plan is for man-made casks, built of high-tech alloys, to envelop the waste as it leaves the nation's power plants and weapons facilities bound for Yucca Mountain. The Energy Department would have us believe that the casks and the mountain's geology will form a double barrier that will protect against radiation poisoning for the 10,000 years the waste needs in order to become harmless through decay.

The Sun has reported in the past the skepticism toward this plan that exists within scientific circles. The letter now being circulated in Washington, which has not yet been presented to the Energy Department, is reason for increased skepticism. It cites new laboratory tests that re-created the conditions, including a constant 300-degree temperature, the casks will have to withstand underneath Yucca Mountain. The tests concluded that the casks would be highly susceptible to corrosion. The letter says the new tests "cast doubt on the extent to which the waste package will be an effective barrier under the repository conditions presented to the board."

Typically, the Energy Department dismisses criticism and blithely pushes forward with its optimistic assessment that Yucca will be perfectly safe. We hope this time, however, that it will listen -- considering that the source of the concern is the very panel created by Congress to offer informed, independent advice about the disposal of high-level nuclear waste.