Friday, February 07, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Yucca study poses 'staged' facility idea

Report suggests repository be built in modules

WASHINGTON -- An influential science panel on Thursday recommended developing the Yucca Mountain Project in stages, adding small-scale test phases and raising the idea of storing more radioactive waste above ground at the repository site than proposed up to now.

The National Research Council said an "adaptive staging" strategy would allow the Department of Energy to incorporate the latest science in its repository designs while allowing for missteps to be reversed without causing big cost overruns or delays.

"The way to implement repositories wherever they may be, including Yucca Mountain, is a stepwise approach, acknowledging there will be learning along the way," said Charles McCombie, a Switzerland-based physicist and consultant who led a 14-member study panel.

The 201-page report, titled "One Step At A Time," lends backing to evolving Energy Department proposals to build an underground repository and its above-ground components in modules while increasing emphasis on ongoing science research, experts said.

"DOE has been hearing the conversation going on in the international community about the importance of doing this project one step at a time," said Kevin Crowley, director of the research council's board of nuclear waste management.

The Energy Department welcomed the study as a general endorsement of its path although specifics will need to be reviewed further, spokesman Allen Benson said.

"A lot of things we're already doing or looking at," Benson said. "We're very pleased the scientific community is behind what we're doing."

To succeed, however, a staged repository would require DOE to enhance its credibility and "improve working relationships with stakeholders," including state officials in Nevada, the report said.

Nevada officials, who have filed several lawsuits to derail the storage of highly radioactive spent fuel in the state, said Thursday they oppose the idea.

Bob Loux, head of the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects, said staging promotes a "piecemeal" course that amounts to building a repository on the fly. He said it conflicts with current license rules and environmental laws.

"If there was an expectation from the get-go that this was going to be an experimental process and you do this on an ongoing basis, that might be one thing, but that's not the way the law was written," said Loux, who had not yet seen the report.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said above-ground placement of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain would run afoul of federal law that prohibits locating "monitored retrievable storage" at the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"As I understand the report, it reaffirms what we already know, which is the DOE has no idea how to handle the building of a geologic repository," Reid said.

DOE is planning an above-ground complex to receive shipped containers of nuclear waste, repackage them for burial and "blend" highly radioactive materials to manage repository heat load.

For "flexibility," a staged repository may require even larger above-ground "buffer storage" capacity that would allow managers to receive waste even if there were delays in placing it underground, or if waste had to be pulled from burial, the research council said.

"The first shipments could be sent to the buffer storage at the site as soon as the repository receives the first license to receive and emplace waste," about 2010 under DOE projections, according to the report.

Without discussing specific costs or schedules, the research council said a staged repository would increase costs over the next few years "but it may also avoid expensive errors over the long-term or reduce delays (and hence costs) caused by programmatic inefficiencies or societal conflicts."

Though the project would proceed in stages, the scientists said DOE should be required to earn required licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission based on safety analyses of the entire enterprise.

The science board recommended DOE follow through on the idea of a pilot stage after licensing that would place small amounts of radioactive waste in the repository to study performance over several years.

One potential drawback to a staged repository, the scientists concluded, is that nuclear waste may remain accessible to humans over longer periods of time.

"If the time scales become very long (centuries). ... workers could be exposed to higher doses of radiation and security concerns could increase," the report said.