Thursday, July 28, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Yucca Mountain Project management defended

DOE official says delays are allowing time to `improve' program

WASHINGTON -- A Department of Energy official on Wednesday defended DOE management at Yucca Mountain, saying recent senior staff departures were to be expected and that long delays are allowing time to "tweak and improve" the nuclear waste program.

Eric Knox, associate director for the Yucca project, blamed outside forces for holdups. The Energy Department last fall postponed a self-imposed deadline of December to file a license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission following judicial rulings last summer that set back the repository effort.

A new timeline has not been set. Knox maintained delays are giving DOE "extra time" to scrutinize its license application.

"It's kind of like having a college exam coming up and all of a sudden the professor gets sick or the building catches on fire and you have to reschedule it for a week or two weeks or a month later," Knox said. "You have extra time to prepare for the exam. That's how I look at what we are doing right now.

"We are going back and improving quality and enhancing quality, not to say it was bad before," Knox said.

But Knox said the extra scrutiny is adding pressure for Yucca managers to "have it right" when they do submit a repository license application.

"One thing we cannot afford is to submit a license application and then two, three years down the process, it is rejected," Knox said.

Knox delivered the assessment to a conference organized by the Nuclear Energy Institute trade association.

In his presentation Knox downplayed the departure of senior managers from the Yucca project this year, including director Margaret Chu, deputy director Ted Garrish, quality assurance manager Denny Brown and licensing manager Joseph Ziegler.

"The staff changes mean that people have lives and they have other things they need to do and want to do," he said.

Knox is a former Yucca Mountain official who returned to the project in April from another DOE assignment. Paul Golan, a deputy assistant secretary overseeing environmental cleanup at DOE sites, was named in April to replace Garrish. Last week, Golan was named acting director of the Yucca project.

Bob Loux, a Nevada official who coordinates the state's opposition to Yucca Mountain, said the Energy Department was trying to cast a positive light on flaws that hamper the project.

"They can't maintain a schedule because they are not in control of events any longer," said Loux, director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. "Of course they are not schedule-driven because it is out of their hands."