Despite DOE e-mails, Yucca research deemed legitimate

Tuesday, June 7, 2005 | 9:57 a.m.

PAHRUMP -- Investigations by the Energy Department so far have found that scientific research into how water flows at Yucca Mountain is solid, despite e-mails by U.S. Geological Survey workers that suggest they falsified quality assurance documents designed to support the work's validity.

In the e-mails, which the Energy Department disclosed in March and were written by "a few" -- likely two or three -- scientists between 1998 and 2000, the workers suggested that they falsified quality assurance documents. The scientists were conducting vital research on how water would infiltrate the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository. The issue is important because it could help determine whether the site can safely isolate waste.

The Energy Department and USGS inspectors general are investigating, and the department is also conducting an internal review. But early findings suggest no cause for alarm, Yucca deputy director John Arthur told Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials on Monday during a teleconference meeting regarding the project's status. The commission is responsible for licensing and regulating Yucca.

"The quality assurance controls provided some assurance that the USGS technical products substantively complied with program requirements," according to one slide in Arthur's presentation. "The net infiltration estimates are technically defensible, being consistent with independently derived results and acknowledged as valid by a diverse technical community."

It's possible the department may have to re-do some of the work conducted by the USGS scientists if it is deemed necessary, but no decisions about that have been made, Energy Department spokesman Allen Benson said Monday.

Further, the e-mails offer no "objective technical reason" to question the fact that the Energy Department recommended Yucca in 2002 as the safest place to construct a national repository, according to Arthur's presentation. President Bush approved the site based on that recommendation.

Also, there is no technical reason to question an application for a license to construct Yucca, which the department plans to submit to the NRC early next year, according to Arthur's presentation. The application includes scientific research supporting Yucca as a safe repository site, including water flow data.

Nevada officials say the Energy Department officials have downplayed a significant problem. They say the integrity of the whole Yucca quality assurance program has been called into question, along with the science that the department claims proves the site safe.

In other Yucca news, Energy Department and Nuclear Regulatory Commission scientists appeared to disagree Monday about how fast water would flow through the Mountain.

Budhi Sagar, a hydrologist working for the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analysis in San Antonio as a consultant to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said his estimates indicate water would enter the repository more quickly than Energy Department estimates.

"We (his company's estimates) are slightly faster," Sagar said, but noted that the numbers are changing as scientific teams use different computer models for running water through the mountain.

Nye County Commission consultants also are testing the limits of barriers other than the mountain itself, such as nuclear waste containers, shields to protect the buried casks from dripping water and conditions within the repository, Sagar said.

The issue of "cool" versus "hot" repository designs also surfaced at Monday's meeting.

Nye County is asking the Energy Department to space nuclear waste containers in any future repository so that air can circulate around them and cool them off, rather than bunch them close together, which would raise the heat level in a repository, Nye County Commission Candice Trummell said.

The design of a "cool" repository, instead of a "hot" repository, is one of the issues under debate by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before the Energy Department can receive a license to build a repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas but about 40 miles closer to this Nye County town.

During a public input session, Jim Petell, an 11-year Pahrump resident, said he is concerned about safety in the future and whether casks transporting and containing the spent fuel from nuclear reactors will last.

"Transportation routes will not only go through Nye County, but all cities and towns across the country," Petell said.

Walt Kurver, who volunteers to serve on a committee overseeing a plan for the Southern Nevada Water Authority to tap rural water resources, said that ground water supplies are a major concern.

Rural counties such as Nye are not prepared for the influx of people, he said.

"Whatever happens with the water, there's lots going on on a regional scale," Kurver said.

Safety is a national issue, 25-year Pahrump resident Kitty Longhowser said.

Ten years ago Longhowser said she went to work with Bechtel-SAIC, the company that is managing the Yucca Mountain Project, as an administrator.

"It's always been about safety for the country," Longhowser said. "If Nevada has to help the country, then why not help the country?"

Nuclear power offers cleaner energy without acid rain, an end product produced by fossil fuels burning, she said.

"You're not afraid of a light bulb, but electricity can kill you," Longhowser said.

Longhowser said she wishes that state officials would negotiate for benefits for Nye County.

Dury Thompson, a retired head of an electronics company that chemically etched circuit boards, favors wind and solar energy, but sees a Yucca Mountain repository as "our niche" to launch an energy revolution from Pahrump.

Thompson moved to Pahrump from Minneapolis.

"I listened to Art Bell and thought, 'This must be the promised land,' " Thompson said of the talk radio personality broadcasting from Pahrump, who delves into UFOs, secrets at Area 51 and alien abductions.