WASHINGTON -- Spray-on metal coatings that could resist corrosion for half of the cost of expensive alloys. Time-saving electron beam welding that could seal canisters in a single pass. Longer-lasting disc blades that might be able to cut through 2,000 feet of rock before wearing out.

New technologies and research paid for by the Department of Energy for Yucca Mountain show promise for researching the proposed Nevada nuclear waste site and for saving millions of dollars, said scientists taking part in the studies.

Much of the work being conducted in science incubators are in the early phases and could take years to explore. But DOE officials said fruit-bearing elements could be incorporated into the waste repository designs.

"The benefits are potentially enormous as far as performance and cost standpoints," said John Wengle, director of the Office of Science and Technology.

Wengle and other DOE officials and research team leaders delivered presentations Thursday at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which would conduct license hearings for the repository.

Some of the participants said research could allow DOE to hone repository safety calculations or fill gaps in research.

No one discussed what might happen if research turned up potential showstoppers for the project.

Researchers gathered by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are taking a new thrust at the physical characteristics of Yucca Mountain and how water might seep through its cracks and fissures into repository storage areas.

"Our work is really a demonstration that Yucca Mountain site is a real good site for disposal of nuclear waste," said Bo Bodvarsson, director of the earth sciences division at the lab. "This portfolio is going to help us demonstrate a significant increase in repository performance."

But as work proceeds, the Energy Department is drawing questions as to whether the follow-up research might complicate licensing for the repository, which would be built on studies the department conducted over the past 20 years.

How does DOE plan to integrate new features into a complex undertaking that faces scrupulous review, DOE officials were asked at the session by NRC staff and members of an NRC advisory commission.

"Clearly there is much more to the story than we have heard so far," said Lawrence Kokajko, deputy director of the high-level waste repository safety division in the NRC's Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.

Bob Loux, a repository critic, said, "It seems to me there is a huge disconnect between the science program and the Yucca project.

"If they are developing good ideas in science, they ought to have bought enough time to incorporate those into the program. Otherwise why do it?" Loux, director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said in a telephone interview.

The Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management is spending $21.3 million on Yucca follow-up work this year that is spread among the national laboratories and universities.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the University of Nevada, Reno, Nye County and Nevada-based Desert Research Institute are among the groups receiving funding.

Besides the earth science studies, topics include understanding how waste-bearing containers will corrode and how spent fuel will behave once it is placed in the repository and starts to decay.

"We are developing a community of experts who will address issues unknown at the moment but will inevitably arise as the project moves forward," said Rodney Ewing, a nuclear engineering professor at the University of Michigan.

"At the end of the day, if you are telling a story out to hundreds of thousands of years, the credibility of the storyteller is important," Ewing said.

DOE and the Defense Department are teaming up on development of iron-based amorphous metal coatings that are said to be corrosion-resistant, DOE official Jef Walker said.

The iron-based coating material could be bought for $8 a pound and sprayed onto waste containers, while costs for a nickel-based alloy are double that or more, Walker said.

DOE's design calls for placing alloy sleeves on waste packages entering the mountain.

Walker declined to estimate how much money might be saved but said the amount was "substantial, possibly staggering."

Similar metal coatings could be applied on tunnel boring machines to reduce wear and tear on cutting tool, Walker said. The cutting discs now must be replaced after slicing through 500 feet of rock.