Friday, Sept. 9, 2005 | 11:15 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- The White House pick to head the Yucca Mountain project admits he doesn't know many of the details about the Energy Department's plan to store nuclear waste in Nevada, but he knows the nuclear waste problem needs to be solved.
The White House on Thursday nominated Edward F. Sproat III of Berwyn, Pa., to head the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. The office oversees the Energy Department's plan to store 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste inside Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Margaret Chu, who headed the office for three years, resigned in February.
In an interview with the Sun on Thursday, Sproat, 53, called himself "John Q. Public" on his overall perception and knowledge of Yucca. He knows getting the license application through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is the next big step.
"I am hoping at some point I will get a briefing book to be better prepared for the details," Sproat said. "Hopefully, I can get educated quickly."
He said he knows the program faces a number of challenges, but he has not had the opportunity to talk with department officials at great length on specifics yet. He has not met with President Bush or Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.
"All my information is based on what I read on the Web or in the press right now," said Sproat, who added later that he set his Google News Alert e-mails to include Yucca-related headlines.
If confirmed by the Senate, Sproat would inherit a complicated program tainted with two decades of political, legal and scientific bickering.
Nevada officials and numerous environmental groups strongly oppose storing nuclear waste at Yucca, while the nuclear industry wants the government to take used fuel off its hands as it was promised.
Sproat said if he lived in Nevada, he would have a lot of concerns on how the waste was going to be stored in the state and moved there.
"I think the people of Nevada have every right to understand that and have this process be as transparent as it can be," Sproat said.
Yucca has been plagued by budgetary and legal problems. Congress has cut funding in recent years. Nevada has sued on several issues and is threatening to sue over a newly revised radiation standard recently released by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Other lawsuits are pending, including a suit filed by the state last week against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over a Yucca-related agency rule.
And the Energy Department is still investigating Yucca worker e-mails that suggest quality assurance documents were falsified.
"There are some pretty blatant DOE absurdities going on," said anti-Yucca activist Kevin Kamps, a nuclear waste specialist at Nuclear Information and Resource Service. "The whole program is pretty outrageous, and it will be hard for it to stand up in court."
Staffers for Nevada lawmakers were researching Sproat's background Thursday.
Sproat can be assured of tough questioning as he makes his way through the hearing process, said Tessa Hafen, spokeswoman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Being Yucca Mountain chief is not an enviable job, said Jack Finn, spokesman for Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.
"He's going to be looking after a program that has been fraught with delay, faulty science, mismanagement and misdirection," Finn said.
Sproat has a long background in the nuclear industry, and as he told former colleagues he was considering the job, he acknowledged that "several said 'are you nuts?' "
But overall, he said, "Everybody in the industry said this issue of spent fuel needs to be resolved."
He said the position was "something I really wanted to try and go after" because he believes the future of nuclear power is important to the country.
Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman Mitch Singer said Sproat is "well-respected" in the industry.
"We certainly believe his leadership will be good," said Singer, noting he would be joining the project "at an important time."
Sproat is now a managing partner with McNeill, Sproat and Associates, a consulting firm in Pennsylvania he started in 2003 with Corbin McNeill, the former co-chief executive officer of Exelon, the country's largest nuclear power generator.
They worked to get a new type of nuclear power plant built at a national laboratory in Idaho in a previous version of the energy bill that failed. Sproat said he would dissolve the firm if confirmed for the position.
Prior to starting the firm, Sproat spent 2002 in South Africa as chief operating officer of Pebble Bed Modular Reactor.
Exelon invested $7.5 million in a joint venture with three South African companies to develop the new type of nuclear reactor that would use billiard-ball sized spheres containing nuclear material versus the long fuel rod used today. The reactor design is supposed to be safer than the traditional reactor and the fuel is supposed to be insoluble in water. Exelon eventually withdrew from the project.
Sproat was also involved with the 2000 settlement between PECO and the Energy Department over the government's failure to take nuclear waste as promised in 1998.
The agreement allowed PECO, which is now Exelon, to reduce payments into the Nuclear Waste Fund for all costs associated with keeping spent fuel at its Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.
Nevada officials often cite what it has deemed "the PECO alternative" as an example of what the government should do with nuclear companies still storing waste as opposed to moving it to the state.
Sproat was Exelon's vice president of international projects from April 2001 to January 2003. He led Exelon's interest in developing the pebble bed reactors in the United States, but the company later withdrew the idea.
From 1994 to 2001, Sproat held various positions at PECO Nuclear, including director of maintenance, director of engineering and director of strategic programs. PECO merged with Exelon in October 2000.
It's no surprise the Bush administration chose a nominee from the nuclear industry, said Public Citizen analyst Michele Boyd. Boyd asked: Why can't the Bush administration choose someone for the job who has an open mind about the scientific work that has been conducted at Yucca?
"Exelon clearly has a stake in getting Yucca Mountain open," Boyd said. "Yucca is the key for them, and it's clearly a bad site."
Exelon has been an industry leader in advocating Yucca Mountain. Exelon officials have said that construction of new U.S. reactors relies in part on continued progress on Yucca.
"My company is committed to supporting the Yucca Mountain solution," Exelon chairman and CEO John Rowe told the Sun last December.
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