WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department has set a new schedule for the long-delayed Yucca Mountain repository, projecting a March 2017 date to begin accepting high level nuclear waste at the Nevada site.
But the new deadlines depend on a number of key financial, legal, political and regulatory obstacles getting resolved, officials said, meaning the project could fall even further behind if nagging problems resurface or if new obstacles arise.
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"What we based our schedule on is what we at DOE have control over, and that is significant," spokesman Craig Stevens said Tuesday night. "There are some things that will be out of our control."
The schedule that became public on Tuesday was the government's first tangible timeline for Yucca Mountain since the Energy Department two years ago abandoned a 2010 repository opening.
Early on in the project, a Yucca repository was supposed to begin operations in January 1998 but was repeatedly set back by lawsuits, budget shortages and DOE missteps on quality assurance, document handling and other project aspects. Recent delays were attributed to allegations that hydrologists fabricated research documentation.
The new schedule envisions Yucca Mountain opening 19 years beyond the original date.
"This is an ambitious schedule, but it's nice to actually see a schedule," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee. "This is the most detailed schedule on Yucca Mountain I have seen in recent memory."
DOE officials have said the new schedule was the result of a top to bottom evaluation conducted by new managers who were installed by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and who put schedule considerations behind fixing problems and getting the job done right.
The new schedule sets a June 30, 2008, date for DOE to submit a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an important milestone that kicks off a formal review.
Nevada officials who have fought the repository and the state's lawmakers were skeptical on the new timeline.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said it had "no basis in science or reality." Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., called it "overly optimistic" and it "could be easily derailed by a court ruling or act of Congress."
"While this schedule is based on factors within the control of DOE, reality paints a different picture," said Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. "Instead of wasting more resources and time, the DOE needs to stop lying to the American people and end this failed project today."
DOE appears to be pressing to get a license application to the NRC before President Bush leaves office, in order to have wheels turning before a new president takes over in 2009, said Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.
"I believe no matter what the circumstances are, between hell and high water, I do believe they will submit a (license application) before this president goes," Loux said.
"It's troubling that DOE has set such an ambitious date for submitting the license application, given the fact that Secretary Bodman himself called the Project 'broken' just four months ago," said Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev.
Ward Sproat, director of DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, was scheduled to explain the schedule at a House energy subcommittee hearing today.
The dates became public Tuesday after DOE shared them with congressional offices.
DOE said it formed a "best achievable" construction schedule. It anticipates receiving NRC approval for the repository by Sept. 30, 2011.
Construction of a railroad through Nevada to the site would commence by Oct. 5, 2009, and would be in service almost five years later, by June 30, 2014.
The repository itself would be built by March 30, 2016, and would begin receiving waste by March 31, 2017 after pre-operational testing.
"As we move forward the program now has definable, reachable target dates that will allow us to open the nation's repository for spent nuclear fuel," Stevens said.
DOE said the schedule assumes that:
• Congress will appropriate enough money each year to meet the schedule.
• The NRC will complete a license review within three years.
• Lawmakers pass legislation DOE has requested to withdraw land, claim water and obtain stronger powers for waste transportation.
The schedule also was dependent on DOE getting "all necessary authorizations and permits", and the "absence of litigation related delays," according to a DOE document.
"This is further proof that Nevada is winning the fight against Yucca Mountain." Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said through a spokesman. "This timeline is little more than a wish list."
"It is sheer fantasy, completely," Loux said. Nevada has pursued close to a dozen lawsuits against the repository, and plans more, he said.
"Every one of DOE's actions is a potential lawsuit point," Loux said. "There is certainly going to be more litigation."
Work remains on a number of major elements of the repository.
DOE is recataloging millions of e-mails and documents to be posted to a licensing database that must be certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC rejected an initial certification in 2004, saying the DOE database was incomplete.
Last fall, the DOE embarked on a major redesign that aims to have spent fuel loaded at nuclear reactors, transported to Yucca Mountain, stored at the site and eventually placed in the repository in special multi-purpose canisters.
DOE also is considering railroad alignments from Eastern Nevada to the site, and recently began reevaluating a route through the western side of the state.
