Editorial: There he goes again …

Friday, Sept. 9, 2005 | 5:55 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

Sept, 10-11, 2005

The fiasco that arose from Michael Brown's appointment was not a learning experience for President Bush. On Thursday he nominated a person to lead the Yucca Mountain project who candidly admits he knows next to nothing about the permanent storage of nuclear waste.

Edward F. Sproat III is Bush's pick to head the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. This is the office that oversees the department's plan to open Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the nation's permanent burial site for high-level nuclear waste from power plants.

Yucca Mountain is a disaster waiting to happen. For starters, it is located in an earthquake zone. Many scientists say the department's plan to encase the waste in metal casks to compensate for the mountain's porous geology is flawed. And transportation of the waste across the country for decades also poses grave national-security risks.

Sproat admitted to the Sun that he is "John Q. Public" when it comes to knowledge about Yucca Mountain. As a consultant to the nuclear-power industry, and as a former executive at nuclear power-plants, his expertise lies in producing the waste. Even if he were an expert in waste disposal, why is he being recommended at all when the nuclear power industry is pushing hard to open Yucca Mountain? The job requires a neutral scientist, one not driven by a pro-Yucca agenda.

Like Brown, Sproat believes that all he needs is on-the-job training. "I am hoping at some point I will get a briefing book to be better prepared for the (Yucca Mountain) details," he said. This is ridiculous. But we suppose it would be just as ridiculous to expect Bush to recommend an open-minded person with knowledge of all aspects of nuclear waste storage, including its dangers.