Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

DOE insists 2010 deadline will be met for Yucca waste

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department maintains it will meet its 2010 deadline for accepting nuclear waste at the proposed Yucca Mountain repository, despite contrary claims by a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Thursday.

"We are not going to submit a license application with a design plan that contains any uncertainties," Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said. "It will be a design plan that meets regulatory and environmental requirements"

The department anticipates submitting the application for the nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain in December 2004. The commission has three, and possibly four years with congressional approval, to review the application before it would authorize the department to build the facility.

On Thursday, NRC Commissioner Edward McGaffigan read from commission regulations that outline the licensing procedures for the site at a meeting with the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste, saying it is "almost a fact" the 2010 deadline would not be met if DOE needed to change anything after submitting the application.

He noted that the department could not move the waste to the site, if approved, until it receives a second approval from the commission, which could take years.

Bob Loux, director of the state Nuclear Projects office, said it was fairly clear from the work schedule "they're not even close" to getting things done on time, especially since certain documents need to be loaded into a licensing computer network by next June, or six months prior to its submittal.

McGaffigan said this is nothing Nevada's "dream team" of lawyers from Washington-law firm Egan, Fitzpatrick and Malsch does not already know.

Lawyer Martin Malsch used to be the NRC's staff attorney for almost 20 years and was its first inspector general.

McGaffigan also said the problems could be associated with the absence of legal counsel for the Energy Department on the project. Former legal counsel law firm Winston & Strawn withdrew from its contract with the department in November 2001. The project has been without a lawyer since. The Energy Department still has not selected a new firm.

But Davis said the department "believes the process is going to move along fine."

However, it will not continue to do so without money.

Congress still needs to find a middle ground between the $765 million approved by the House and $425 million approved by the Senate to fund the project. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., sits on the conference committee working on the final budget figures for the bill.

Davis said the project has been underfunded by millions of dollars over the years, despite the fact other members of Congress support the program.

"Sen. Reid has been very effective in cutting the (Yucca) budget for a long time," Davis said. "If we don't get funded we won't do anything."

Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said Reid is continuing to work to lower the House's "record-high spending levels" for the project. Formal conference negotiations have started but it is unclear when a final figure will be reached.

The Nuclear Energy Institute and other groups that support the site have lobbied hard to get full funding for the site, emphasizing that $14 billion is sitting in a fund created solely to support the site but not being used.

Also on Thursday, ACNW Chairman B. John Garrick told the commissioners that resolving the remaining key technical issues, examining the movement of the high-level nuclear waste and reviewing the licensing process and the performance confirmation plans are the committee's "first tier" priorities.

Garrick told the commissioners the department had completed 78 of the remaining scientific questions, also known as key technical issues with an additional 45 coming in this month. The Energy Department still has 170 questions to answer.

McGaffigan said resolution of all the key technical issues was never expected prior to the license application date and that some could be addressed at another licensing stage.

Loux said he does not see how the department will address major issues like corrosion, volcanism, waste package and repository design and others in the next year.

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