Yucca Mountain articles

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Friday December 18 2:54 AM ET 

More Study Of Nevada Nuke Waste Site Said Needed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy is 
expected to release as early as Friday its first detailed analysis on 
the long-standing proposal to make Yucca Mountain, Nevada the 
nation's permanent nuclear waste dump.  

Sources with environmental groups and the nuclear industry 
Thursday said they were told the DOE viability assessment would 
contain no ``show stoppers'' to prevent continued scientific study of 
the Nevada mountain site near Las Vegas.  

``Essentially there are no 'show stoppers,' but it says there needs 
to be more research and there is a lot of uncertainty,'' said a 
source with an environmental group.  

If eventually approved as the waste site, Yucca Mountain would be 
expected to safely house 70,000 metric tons of spent
radioactive fuel rods from commercial nuclear power plants and 
additional waste from the production of nuclear weapons. The
spent fuel would be radioactive for thousands of years.

Currently some 38,000 metric tons of waste from more than 100 
U.S. commercial reactors is awaiting removal, pending resolution of 
when the federal government will take the waste. DOE has said 
that under the ``best case'' scenario, the Yucca Mountain site 
would not be operational until 2010.  

A coalition of more than 200 environmental and consumer groups 
had asked Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to disqualify the 
Nevada site from consideration, citing research which showed 
rainwater had been detected at the level of the proposed waste 
repository, making it unsafe for radioactive storage.  

DOE spokesmen said the viability assessment, which is not the 
final decision-making document for naming Yucca Mountain the
permanent site, would be released within the next two weeks. DOE 
had no comment on the contents of the report.

Sources said the assessment runs to around 2,000 pages, and the 
summary alone runs 50 pages. Its purpose is to study the 
scientific, design and cost projections for constructing and 
operating a permanent Yucca Mountain repository.  

Final scientific judgement will come in 2001, when DOE releases a 
suitability report to Congress and the president.

States and nuclear utilities have been embroiled in a legal dispute 
with the DOE over nuclear waste removal for years. They charge 
that a 1982 federal law ordered DOE to start disposing spent 
nuclear fuel no later than Jan. 31, 1998, and said a positive viability 
study would clear the way for building an interim waste site near 
the proposed permanent Nevada site.  

Theodore Garrish, nuclear waste expert at the Nuclear Energy 
Institute, the industry trade group, said a positive assessment
should trigger waste removals to an interim site.

``Congress should move forward with legislation,'' Garrish said, 
noting investigation on making Yucca Mountain the permanent
site can continue while a separate interim facility is built and starts 
storing waste within four years.

Last month, the Supreme Court let stand a U.S. appeals court 
ruling that refused to force the DOE to start taking waste, but
did allow utilities to seek compensation for costs related to the 
storage of spent fuel at their facilities.

President Clinton has vowed to veto nuclear waste legislation that 
would build a spent fuel storage facility at the Nevada Test
Site. The White House wants to know first if the Yucca Mountain 
site can be used safely for waste disposal. 
------------------

Friday December 18 3:06 AM ET 

Nev. Nuclear Waste Site Going Ahead

WASHINGTON (AP) - After 11 years and more than $2.2 billion, a 
proposed burial site in Nevada for tons of highly radioactive nuclear 
waste is about to pass a key benchmark.  

Project scientists, perhaps as early as today, are expected to 
issue a report giving a green light to continue the project, although
a final decision on whether the site will accept the waste will not be 
made until 2001.

The interim progress report will acknowledge that scientific 
uncertainties remain, but that nothing has been found so far that
would suggest the site on Yucca Mountain in Nevada should be 
abandoned, according to sources familiar with the project.

The proposed waste burial site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas is 
the only location being considered for disposal of more than
80,000 tons of highly radioactive used rector fuel that has been 
piling up at power plants in 34 states.

The material will remain deadly for tens of thousands of years.

Critics, including a number of environmental organizations, recently 
urged the Energy Department to scuttle the project. They cited 
studies by outside scientists that raise the possibility that 
radioactive material might seep into groundwater during the many 
centuries the waste will remain dangerous.  

Project scientists have discounted some of those findings and have 
said they would examine others closely before a final
decision on the geological suitability is made in 2001.

Even if it passes scientific muster, the facility - which would 
entomb the nuclear material in a system of tunnels 800 feet
underground - would not be completed until 2010 at the earliest.

Over three decades, the government has spent almost $6 billion in 
its search for a permanent site for keeping radioactive waste. In 
1987, Congress limited the search to Yucca Mountain. Since then, 
about $2.2 billion has been spent in research, including 
construction of a five-mile tunnel into the mountain.  

The nuclear industry hopes the interim report - while significant in 
moving ahead with the project - also will boost chances for 
congressional approval of a temporary waste storage facility in 
Nevada, pending completion of the permanent repository. Nevada 
officials have strongly opposed temporary storage, fearing it will 
become permanent if Yucca Mountain is found unfit.  

The report - known as a ``viability assessment'' - suggests no 
scientific findings that project leaders believe should halt
consideration of the site for long-term nuclear waste storage, 
according to sources knowledgeable about the review.

But the report, these sources said, acknowledges significant 
``uncertainties'' about key issues such as the durability of waste 
containers, the flow of water through volcanic rock surrounding the 
repository, the likelihood of water seepage into the storage area 
and radiation exposure 10,000 years or more into the future.  

Nevertheless, the project scientists conclude the uncertainties can 
be significantly narrowed between now and when a final suitability 
decision is made in July 2001, the sources said.  

The project calls for wastes to be kept in metal cylinders, but those 
will deteriorate long before the some isotopes become safe. 
Therefore, the geology surrounding the burial site is critical in 
keeping the radioactivity isolated.  

Critics of the Yucca Mountain project have expressed fears that 
water might breach the repository and exacerbate container 
corrosion as well as allow material to seep into groundwater faster  
than previously thought. 

Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html