Yucca Mountain nuclear waste plan risky -US agency

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

Wednesday August 11, 7:59 pm Eastern Time

Yucca Mountain nuclear waste plan risky -US agency

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. Geological Survey 
said on Wednesday the Energy Department's plan to build a vast 
nuclear waste repository in Nevada's Yucca Mountain was 
potentially risky, but no better option existed for dealing with the 
nation's nuclear waste.  

USGS Director Charles Groat, in a foreword to a newly released 
report by his agency on the Yucca Mountain plan, said the U.S. 
public ``should know that the choices are not clear cut and that 
none is without risk.''  

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing a draft 
environmental impact statement on the plan to store huge amounts 
of radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles (144 km) from 
Las Vegas.  

An eventual storage site, which would not be built until the latter 
part of the next decade at the earliest, could be used to house
spent nuclear fuel currently stored at reactors across the country.

About 38,000 tons (34,000 tonnes) of waste currently exists. That 
amount is expected to double in the coming years.

The Geological Survey, a division of the Department of the Interior, 
reviewed the Department of Energy proposal with a special view to 
the engineering and earth sciences elements of the plan.  

``If Yucca Mountain is developed as the nation's first underground 
repository for high-level radioactive materials, it would be one of the 
most complicated and expensive engineering projects ever 
undertaken by the U.S.,'' said Geological Survey researcher Tom 
Hanks, author of the agency's report.  

The only alternative currently available would leave the waste dotted 
at more than 100 sites around the country, he said. Hanks added 
that the alternative plan would pose greater risks to a broader range 
of society than consolidating the material all at one site.  

``Seventy thousand metric tons of high-level radioactive waste has 
to go somewhere,'' the report's authors said.

Late last year, Energy Department officials said Yucca Mountain 
was a promising site for a permanent storage facility, but added 
further scientific study was needed before construction started.  

A final recommendation on Yucca Mountain is not due to be made 
until 2001.

Environmentalists oppose the site for a number of reasons, 
including fears that ground water could be contaminated by leaking 
radioactive fuel, and its proximity to Las Vegas.

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

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