Thursday, December 19, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nuclear regulators back full-scale cask testing

NRC points to need to build public's confidence in Yucca project

WASHINGTON -- Full-scale tests of nuclear waste shipping casks would build the public's confidence in the Yucca Mountain Project even though less expensive computer modeling can gain results just as well, the government's chief nuclear regulators said Wednesday.

While expressing confidence in simulations that have been used to certify spent nuclear fuel canisters, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Richard Meserve noted "intense public concern" over planned shipments to a Nevada repository might justify exposing full-sized containers to fires, steep drops and water immersion to demonstrate durability.

The government wants to entomb spent fuel from commercial power reactors and highly radioactive defense waste at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

President Bush adopted the recommendation to build Yucca Mountain in February, and the House and Senate approved it over the veto of Gov. Kenny Guinn in May and July, respectively. The first shipment of nuclear waste could arrive in 2010.

The commissioners commented at a meeting with their five-member Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste that monitors the Yucca Mountain Project and related issues.

A discussion among commissioners and the technical advisers illustrated a debate taking place within the government on cask testing.

A testing plan developed at Sandia National Laboratories expected to be released this year is being revised and is expected to be made public by spring, industry officials said.

Contributing to the revision was criticism by the nuclear waste advisory panel that the test plan was "unrealistic."

"The proposed test protocols utilize extreme conditions, well beyond those that would be encountered in actual transportation," committee members said in a June 28 letter to Meserve.

The advisers also said full-scale cask testing "may be a suitable demonstration to increase public confidence in the safe transportation of spent fuel but will not contribute significantly to existing knowledge base."

On Wednesday, advisory panel member Milton Levenson told Meserve that the casks' expense -- purchase of a railroad cask alone would cost more than $1 million -- limits their effectiveness.

"If you do full-scale tests, the number you can afford to do is very limited; you have very few data points," Levenson said. "Highly instrumented work can be done on scale models and significantly cheaper."

But Commissioner Jeffrey Merrifield drew an analogy with a car buyer.

"You can meet with the best salesmen and automotive engineers to explain how the car is going to work, but to convince a person to buy, it requires them to sit in the car and drive it," he said.

Also at the meeting, the advisory board received a scolding for failing to invite Nevada officials to give a presentation at a transportation workshop last month.

"Nevada has a coterie of experts. It's a bit of a mistake not to involve them routinely," NRC member Ed McGaffigan told panel Chairman George Hornberger. "They may be out of the mainstream, but part of your function is to hear all points of view."

Bob Loux, head of Nevada's nuclear projects agency, complained after the Nov. 19-21 workshop where government and transportation and nuclear industry representatives delivered their views on waste shipping and safety research.

Nevada officials and environmental critics of the Yucca Mountain Project contend there are potential safety gaps that raise questions about the transportation effort.