Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Auditors find flaws in Yucca documents
Discovery could snarl DOE's license bid
By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Auditors said Tuesday they discovered flaws and shortcomings in technical documents the Energy Department is preparing for the Yucca Mountain Project, a finding that could complicate the department's bid to license a nuclear waste repository.
Evaluators from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission spent three weeks in Las Vegas between November and January reviewing how DOE and its contractors are pulling together pieces of a repository license application.
A 29-page NRC inspection report concluded that unless DOE changes procedures, regulators won't have information they need to weigh the application.
"This could result in the NRC issuing a large volume of requests for additional information in some areas," the auditors said.
In turn, that could delay Yucca Mountain licensing, they said. DOE has set a goal to have a repository opened in 2010, while some experts outside the department have said that is overambitious.
DOE expects to send the NRC its license paperwork in December, including more than 3 million pages of documentation to back up its claim that Yucca Mountain could safely store 77,000 tons of radioactive spent fuel and nuclear waste.
But after examining analysis model reports for three segments of the project, auditors said they found parts of DOE's work were unclear. In some other areas, the explanations were clear but background documents were lacking, they said.
Inspectors examined documentation for studies on how waste canisters will corrode over time and on how radioactive particles in the waste material will disintegrate. They also reviewed analyses on how long it may take repository tunnels to collapse.
Based on the pattern of flaws they found, investigators concluded other DOE analysis reports may have similar problems. DOE is preparing more than 120 analysis model reports detailing how it believes the repository will perform.
The NRC team also confirmed that DOE and Bechtel SAIC, the project's managing contractor, have not been able to eliminate repeat mistakes by their quality assurance workers.
Despite their criticism, auditors also said they found the technical information "much improved" over what DOE put forward in a 2001 repository performance assessment.
