Thursday, Feb. 24, 2005 | 11:03 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department still needs to provide the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with more information and answers about the risks posed to Yucca Mountain by possible aircraft crashes and the volcanic nature of the region, but that documentation does not have to be delivered before submission of the license application for the nuclear dump, the commission said.
The Energy Department turned in answers to all 293 unresolved technical and scientific questions to the commission last year. The commission has deemed 209 complete but still needs more information on several topics.
All but nine of the 41 "high risk" questions, known as key technical issues, are complete, Daniel Rom of the commission's High-Level Waste Division, told the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste this morning.
Rom said the remaining nine involve the "difficult issues" of volcanism and aircraft hazards. Models used in the department's answers also need clarification and some of the included information needs to be available to the public.
The commission labeled questions "high-risk" where answers may change the overall risk estimate of the project. The department aims to store 77,000 tons of nuclear waste inside Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The commission is still reviewing 31 of the 92 "medium-risk" questions and 38 of the 160 "low-risk" questions. Rom expects to have all the reviews done by April 15. The commission will either mark them as complete or ask the department for more information. When a issues is deemed complete, it does not mean the commission agrees or disagrees with the department's research but that all the appropriate information is there to give the answer a full review.
Rom said the commission does not expect the department to give written responses to the commission's requests for more information on the open agreement before the department would submit the project's license application.
The department expects to submit the application to the commission by the end of the year. Last August, Joseph Ziegler, director of the Office of License and Application Strategy told the commission the department would not wait for all the questions to be deemed closed before submitting the application. The department intended to submit the application last December, but a variety of obstacles delayed it.
Solving the key technical issues has been a major point of contention for Nevada. Bob Loux, executive director of the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects has repeated told the commission that the issues need to be complete before the commission could accept a license application based on policy set in 2001.
Rom said there is no protocol regarding whether the department has to address them in writing. Bret Leslie, also of the commission's High Level Waste Division, said reviewing the documents for the questions is not the same as reviewing a license application. Questions can still be asked later, although the hope is that there are consistencies between the key technical issues answers and the questions, according to the staff.
In other action, the waste committee, during its Wednesday meeting, prepared a presentation it intends to give the full commission next month, including a briefing about the possibility of volcanic activity at Yucca. Commission Chairman Nils Diaz requested the update. The possibility of magma in the repository is highly unlikely, Energy Department officials and the electricity industry-funded Electric Power Research Institute, have determined. But the committee's presentation indicates that "important uncertainties remain" about the probability and consequences of volcanic activity, and about validating models that have been used to study the issue.
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