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GAO Challenges Yucca Plans
FYI
Norm
> Source:
> <A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36269-2001Nov29.html";>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36269-2001Nov29.html</A>
> =========================================================
> GAO Challenges Plans for Storage Of Nuclear Waste
> Report Urges Bush Administration To Delay Decision on Nevada Project
>
> By Eric Pianin
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> November 30, 2001
>
> The General Accounting Office is urging the Bush administration to
> indefinitely postpone a decision on whether to build a huge, permanent and
> centralized nuclear waste storage site in the Nevada desert and is raising
> serious questions about whether it could ever be built as currently conceived.
>
> The remote site beneath Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has
> been eyed by Congress and the Energy Department for the past 20 years as the
> only candidate for the storage of all nuclear waste generated in the United
> States. The newly reenergized nuclear power industry, championed by the Bush
> administration, recently has been predicting that the site could be opened as
> soon as 2010.
>
> But according to a GAO draft report obtained by The Washington Post, the
> Energy Department "is unlikely to achieve its goal of opening a repository at
> Yucca Mountain by 2010 and has no reliable estimate of when, and at what
> cost, such a repository could be opened."
>
> The report presents a challenge to the administration's aggressive schedule,
> which calls for Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to recommend to President
> Bush this winter whether to formally designate Yucca Mountain as the site for
> 78,000 tons of radioactive waste.
>
> Abraham is certain to urge Bush to move ahead with the project, according to
> government officials and industry sources. But the GAO study has greatly
> complicated the administration's efforts, particularly because it reflects
> the views of Bechtel SAIC Co., the private contractor hired by the Energy
> Department to oversee the project.
>
> The study said Bechtel SAIC recently told the DOE that it would take until
> January 2006 to complete the detailed research and cost estimates and to
> resolve hundreds of outstanding issues before the administration could
> responsibly designate the site and then begin the lengthy process of seeking
> a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "DOE is not ready to make a
> site recommendation because it does not yet have all of the technical
> information needed for a recommendation and a subsequent license
> application," the study said.
>
> The GAO also warned that the plans for Yucca Mountain that officials have
> been showing to lawmakers and Nevada residents "may not describe the
> facilities that DOE would actually develop."
>
> Controversy over the proposed underground storage site has persisted for
> nearly two decades as the nation gropes for a way to dispose the radioactive
> waste from nuclear power plants and weapons facilities. Having no access to a
> centralized storage facility, plant owners are holding about 40,000 metric
> tons of spent fuel in temporary storage at 72 plant sites in 36 states.
>
> With so much uncertainty over the fate of the project, the report said, the
> administration is considering, as a fallback position, temporarily storing
> nuclear waste above ground at the site beginning in 2010.
>
> The project is widely unpopular in Nevada and has drawn strong opposition
> from lawmakers and state officials, including Gov. Kenny Guinn (R), Senate
> Majority Whip Harry M. Reid (D) and Rep. Shelley Berkley (D). The state is
> prepared to file a formal protest against the project if Bush decides to seek
> a license for Yucca Mountain -- a dispute that eventually would have to be
> resolved by majorities in the House and the Senate.
>
> With Reid and Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) vowing to
> block the project in the Senate, the prospects for passage appear bleak as
> long as the Democrats are in control. However, with conflicting concerns
> about the need for increased sources of energy and the importance of
> tightening controls over nuclear waste, experts say it is impossible to
> predict how Congress will eventually resolve the controversy.
>
> Reid, who commissioned the GAO study, said yesterday that the findings will
> provide him and other opponents with powerful ammunition in the effort to
> defeat a project that has already cost the federal government $8 billion.
>
> "I think it's the beginning of the end of Yucca Mountain," he said. "This
> report is a damning indictment of a process Americans relied upon to protect
> their health and safety."
>
> But Energy Department officials indicated that they will not be deterred by
> the GAO study and that by law the administration is entitled to make a
> decision on the site long before it completes all the studies and research
> necessary to apply for a license.
>
> "We're perplexed how GAO could find any technical or legal basis to support
> their conclusion in their draft report," said Joe Davis, a spokesman for the
> department. As for Bechtel SAIC's assertion that it will take years to
> complete the preliminary research necessary to decide whether to go forward,
> Davis said: "We don't agree."
>
> The Bush administration has embraced the project as vital to the president's
> plan to address the nation's long-term energy needs partly by expanding the
> use of nuclear power plants. In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,
> some industry officials have pleaded for fast action on the project to
> relieve them of responsibility for nuclear waste that could be targeted by
> terrorists.
>
> In June, the administration unveiled the final health and safety standards
> for the proposed depository that officials had hoped would allow construction
> of the project to proceed. With the new standards regulating all potential
> sources of radiation exposure from ground water, air and soil, administration
> officials said they hope they have overcome a difficult political obstacle.
>
> But the GAO report said the Energy Department is still gathering and
> analyzing technical information on nearly 300 separate issues. These include
> the expected lifetime of engineered barriers and waste containers, the
> physical properties of the site and the mathematical models used to evaluate
> the performance of the planned project.
>
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> Linwood, NJ 08221; 609-601-8537 or 609-601-8583 (8583: fax, answer machine);
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