Yucca way too small, Energy Sec admits

[Norman Cohen <ncohen12@comcast.net>]

Mark Graffis wrote:



> Energy secretary admits that nuclear waste will pile up even after

> Yucca Mountain opens

>

> Friday, May 17, 2002

>

> By H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press

>

> WASHINGTON -- Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham acknowledged on

> Thursday that a proposed Nevada waste dump will be too small to

> accommodate all the nation's nuclear waste and might have to be

> expanded.

>

> Under intense questioning from Nevada's two senators, Abraham conceded

> that the Yucca Mountain repository as currently envisioned could

> handle only a fraction of the waste expected to be generated by

> commercial power plants and the government in the coming decade.

>

> Thousands of tons of "this stuff is still going to be (stored) around

> the country," Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., told Abraham, who acknowledged

> that probably would be the case.

>

> The Bush administration has argued repeatedly that the proposed Nevada

> repository should be built so that radioactive waste now at commercial

> power reactors and federal sites in 39 states can be consolidated and

> better protected at a single location.

>

> About 45,000 tons of radioactive waste currently are kept around the

> country. Another 20,000 tons are expected to be generated by power

> reactors before Yucca Mountain can be opened, Abraham said.

>

> If a federal license is obtained, the Yucca facility would be

> scheduled to accept its first waste shipments in 2010. Abraham said it

> would receive a minimum 3,000 tons of waste a year for 23 years. The

> industry has estimated that reactors produce about 2,000 tons of new

> waste annually.

>

> Ensign and his Nevada colleague, Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, said

> those figures debunk the administration's national security argument,

> since thousands of tons of waste will remain without a central

> repository even after Yucca Mountain becomes filled to capacity.

>

> Still, insisted Abraham, any waste taken to Yucca Mountain would be

> waste no longer kept in less-safe temporary facilities, including some

> near highly populated or environmentally sensitive areas.

>

> After the hearing, Abraham opened the possibility that the Yucca

> Mountain facility eventually might be expanded. Congress has limited

> its initial design to 77,000 tons of waste, but Abraham said a future

> energy secretary after 2007 can consider expansion. Abraham said the

> Nevada site has room for more than the initial 77,000 tons. It was

> unclear how such a move would affect the project's licensing or the

> likelihood of further legal challenges by Nevada.

>

> President Bush designated the Nevada site as the country's central

> nuclear waste repository and said he would seek a federal license for

> it. As was its right under a 1982 nuclear waste law, Nevada filed a

> formal objection. That can be overridden only by majority vote of both

> chambers of Congress.

>

> The House already has overridden the Nevada veto. The Senate must vote

> before July 26, or the Nevada objection will stand. The Nevadans are

> waging a difficult fight. A survey in this week's National Journal

> magazine showed that 48 senators already planned to vote against

> Nevada, with 32 undecided.

>

> Abraham reiterated his conviction that the Yucca Mountain site, which

> has been studied for two decades, is geologically safe to hold the

> waste, which will remain highly radioactive for thousands of years.

>

> Nevada's senators have long argued that even if Yucca Mountain were

> built, thousands of tons of used reactor fuel would still be kept at

> reactors around the country. They also have argued that shipping

> wastes through 43 states would pose greater risks than leaving the

> caches where they are.

>

> Abraham rejected the claims that the waste would pose a transportation

> hazard. The government and nuclear industry has had "30 years of safe

> shipment of spent nuclear fuel ... without any harmful radiation

> release," said Abraham.

>

> Copyright 2002, Associated Press

>

>

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