Yucca documents available on Internet

Stephen Curran

Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2004 | 9:41 a.m.

To access the Licensing Support Network database, visit www.lsnnet.gov. No passwords are needed.

Advocates on both sides of the Yucca Mountain debate now have a common database to support their claims, an Internet administrator for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday.

The Licensing Support Network database, which compiles the millions of documents included in the Energy Department's license application for the nuclear waste dump, is part of a multimillion-dollar investment in technology by the department. It is modeled after popular search engines that allow users to scan documents based on the precision of terms within the documents.

"We needed to make it so a bright 13-year-old could use it," Daniel Graser, the system's administrator, told a group of computer engineers at UNLV. "It levels the playing field."

The roughly $4 million database will eventually link more than 40 million pages of information from the 2.5 million individual documents that make up the application, Graser said.

More documents are expected to be added as the Energy Department moves forward with its license application for the proposed nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The system, which costs the NRC about $50,000 a month to maintain, is the latest form of a database initially set up in 1988.

The NRC is also expanding its "digital courtroom" technology that will link a yet-unbuilt hearing facility in Henderson to another in Rockville, Md. The computer technology, which Graser estimated costs about $500,000 for each hearing room, will provide real-time recording for the hearing impaired and allow expert witnesses to testify from thousands of miles away.

Funds are also allocated for improvements to the Maryland facility, he said.

The Energy Department has until Dec. 30 to submit its license application for the repository, which the department aims to open by 2010.