Monday, August 01, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Yucca Mountain facing new delay
License application date pushed back
By ERICA WERNER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department probably will not submit its license application to build Yucca Mountain until March 2006 at the earliest, several months later than the most recent target date, according to an updated project timeline.
The Energy Department plans to update a Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing board on the timeline this week. An Energy Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to interfere with the licensing process, disclosed the timeline.
Under NRC rules, the Energy Department cannot submit its license application to build the nuclear waste repository until it publicly releases background documents for the application.
DOE must certify, six months before submitting the license application, that relevant documents have been disclosed through Web-based Licensing Support Network, which can be seen by the public at http://www.lsnnet.gov.
Under the updated timeline, the certification would not happen until September or later, the official said. That would make March 2006 the earliest date DOE could submit its license application.
DOE had hoped to submit the license application in December, and it certified in June 2004 that it had made the background documents available as required. That certification was rejected as inadequate by an NRC board.
After that setback, DOE said it would aim for this December. That date has slipped as well.
The Energy Department official said no new date has been set. The official said the department's priority is to ensure that this time, the certification passes muster.
The official said the Energy Department has completed 85 percent to 90 percent of the work of entering the millions of relevant documents into the Licensing Support Network.
Yucca Mountain, planned for 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has been beset by several problems, including an appeals court's rejection last year of the government's proposed radiation safety standard for the repository. This spring, internal e-mails became known suggesting government workers had falsified data.
