Saturday, December 14, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

YUCCA MOUNTAIN: DOE sets sights on new research

Federal officials say technological advances might cut costs at nuclear repository

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department has begun to gather ideas for new research that officials said could improve operations and possibly cut costs at the nuclear waste repository proposed for Yucca Mountain.

Nuclear waste director Margaret Chu has formed a panel to help a new science and technology initiative get off the ground, according to a consultant.

Robert J. Budnitz said the effort is being slowed because Congress has not yet set an Energy Department budget for 2003. While some research might be funded in the coming year, plans are for a full launch in 2004, he said.

"We are trying to feel our way to what would be sensible ideas in the first year," Budnitz said in a presentation Thursday to a National Academy of Sciences board on radioactive waste.

Budnitz said the program will focus on longer-term research, beyond DOE's preparations for a 2004 license application to build and operate a repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"The philosophy is to initiate projects with a perspective and results on the three-to-five-year horizon," Budnitz said. The DOE wants to cement ongoing science not just on the repository but on nuclear materials handling and transportation, he said.

Advances developed through new science could be incorporated into the Yucca project in coming years, he said. If licensed, a repository could be operational in 2010 and receive spent fuel and radioactive waste for burial until 2035 or beyond.

"None of us believes that technology won't run along and we'll be using different methods" in 2035 than in 2004, he said.

Budnitz said Yucca Mountain scientists have been solicited for ideas, while some have come from outside the program. Initial proposals include work to deepen understanding of the geologic zones below the 1,000-foot deep repository and improvements to casks that will contain highly radioactive waste.

Bob Loux, head of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, said state leaders are skeptical. He said the DOE appears to be looking for ways to tie up loose ends in its Yucca science.

"It appears to us what's going on here is they're using this science and technology program to deal with the stuff that should have been part of the site characterization program and what's left of it," Loux said.

Loux also questioned research expenditures when the DOE is struggling for funding to prepare a repository license and develop a nuclear waste transportation plan.

Budnitz said this week he did not know how much the DOE was requesting the Bush administration set aside for the work in a 2004 budget request now being reviewed by the White House.

Chu, who heads the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, and DOE undersecretary Robert Card announced the initiative in May.

Card said then that "tens of millions" of dollars would be needed each year to support research into new technologies that could advance the handling and storage of nuclear waste.

In a July presentation, Chu said stepped-up research could help project managers find cost savings in the $58 billion nuclear waste program, possibly as much as $10 billion.