Saturday, December 13, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

DOE to speed work on Yucca questions

Most research to be provided to federal regulators by August

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department plans to speed its work to respond to key technical questions that regulators have raised about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

DOE planners submitted a revised schedule on Nov. 18 to provide the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with added research and answers on 134 outstanding issues, such as whether waste containers will work and how the repository might be affected by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

The new schedule envisions DOE handing over its research on all but one item by August, four months before the department anticipates filing a repository application with the NRC.

The remaining issue, raised by NRC in October, will be answered in the application, a department official said. It could not be learned Friday what that entailed. Previously, the Energy Department's responses on about two dozen items were not scheduled to be submitted until next fall, just weeks before the application is filed.

At least two major items -- dealing with waste package corrosion and environmental conditions within repository tunnels -- were to be completed in April 2005 and August 2005, months after license submission.

Complete responses on those items now will be submitted next April, according to Joseph Ziegler, director of the Office of License Application and Strategy.

While some juggling was done on individual agreements, "significant improvement has been made in the overall schedule," Ziegler said in a letter accompanying the reworked schedule.

Bob Loux, head of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, expressed skepticism about the new DOE plan. He said it does not guarantee the department's work will be complete or acceptable to NRC regulators.

"There's two problems here," Loux said. "Just because the material is submitted to NRC doesn't mean it will be accepted. The date of submission is not a relevant target."

Also, Loux said, it appears DOE still will miss a deadline to have all relevant documents loaded into a shareable NRC database being developed for the agency's Yucca licensing. He said documents are required to be inputted six months before the license request is filed.

Regulators initially had raised 293 questions about how the repository would work to contain radioactive particles from decaying spent fuel. NRC officials said 83 have been settled and others are in various stages of review by the NRC.

DOE spokesman Joe Davis said Friday the new timetable stems from a plan unveiled in June to "bundle" the outstanding agreements into issue categories that scientists believe could be tackled more efficiently.

"We are trying to make sure the whole bundling operation as well as the key technical issues are presented to the NRC in a manner that paints a full picture," Davis said.

The revised schedule indicates DOE will submit most of its work between next March and August.