DOE may miss goal for Yucca license

Benjamin Grove

Monday, Sept. 20, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department may not meet its longstanding goal of submitting an application for a Yucca Mountain construction license, a department official said today.

Department officials have long said they plan to submit the application by the end of the year, but Deputy Secretary of Energy Kyle McSlarrow said that goal was now uncertain.

"We're reviewing where things stand," McSlarrow said today after a press conference in the Capitol. "I just don't want to say. We're taking a look at all this right now."

Energy Department officials have tried to maintain an ambitious timeline for the project, despite delays and budget woes. The department aims to open Yucca, a first-of-its-kind repository for the nation's most radioactive waste, by 2010.

The next step for the department is submitting the license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the end of the year.

But a federal court this summer threw that goal into question when it ruled that the project's 10,000-year radiation safety standard, established by the Environmental Protection Agency, falls short of a much stricter standard advocated by the National Academy of Sciences. The nuclear power industry's lobby group, the Nuclear Energy Institute, has signaled it plans to challenge that ruling in the Supreme Court, although the EPA does not plan such an appeal.

The department's year-end goal faces another hurdle: department officials are still scrambling to win the NRC's stamp of approval on its massive collection of Yucca research documents, housed on a database known as the License Support Network. The regulatory commission cannot begin reviewing a Yucca license application until six months after it officially recognizes, or "dockets" those documents.

Department officials had hoped to have the documents certified shortly after it submitted them at the end of June. The department has challenged an commission ruling that the department violated rules in submitting the documents.

McSlarrow appeared today at a press conference held to unveil a new University of Chicago report that concludes that building new nuclear power plants in America can be economically feasible.

The nation's 103 commercial nuclear power plants produce about 20 percent of the nation's energy without harmful greenhouse gases -- unlike coal plants, which produce about 50 percent of the nation's energy.

But no new nuclear plants have been constructed for nearly 30 years.

The staggering cost of constructing new plants and investment risk attached to questions about a new plant's economic competitiveness have been the biggest obstacles.

The report concludes those concerns can be overcome -- with some government help -- and that new plants can be economically feasible.

Two leading pro-nuclear lawmakers in Congress hailed the report as welcome news. Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., said the report showed it was possible for America to enjoy a renaissance in nuclear power. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said he would continue to advocate for nuclear power production tax credits, which the report said would help reduce new plant construction costs.

There is finally new momentum behind a push for new nuclear plants in America, with the rising cost of oil and environmental concerns about coal plants, Domenici said.

"We are getting close to a groundswell," Domenici said. "We used to be over there treading water."

The question of how the nation will deal with nuclear waste has been seen by some nuclear critics as another concern for would-be investors in new plants.

The federal government for two decades has been moving toward geologic disposal as the best way to deal with waste, which is now piling up at nuclear plants nationwide.

But Yucca's uncertain future is not considered a major economic obstacle to constructing new plants, one of the report authors, George Tolley, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, said.

"The political obstacle is great, but it is not a big economic issue," Tolley said.

Nuclear Energy Institute spokeswoman Thelma Wiggins agreed. "From a technical standpoint, there is no nuclear waste problem. We have a solution. We just need the political ability to move forward with it."

McSlarrow expressed confidence. "We're going to resolve the waste issue," he said.