Yucca the Only N-Storage Plan for Now, Energy Officials Say

By Suzanne Struglinski Deseret Morning News

WASHINGTON — The Energy Department is not going to consider an alternative to storing nuclear waste in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain until Congress allows it, the head of the project said Tuesday.

That leaves any interim storage plan off the table — at least for now — but Utah still could see nuclear waste shipments come across the state en route to Nevada if the storage site ever opens. The department might also need a second repository to store waste if Congress does not lift a cap on the mountain’s capacity.

The Energy Department re-emphasized its commitment to the Yucca project Tuesday as it sent a bill to Congress containing legislative fixes, including an increase to the 77,000-ton limit on the amount of nuclear waste that can be stored there.

But as strongly as the department has vowed to move the project forward, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., a staunch Yucca opponent, has vowed to stop it in its tracks.

“The proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain is dying, and the Energy Department knows it,” Reid said. “This is just the department’s latest attempt to breathe life into this dying beast and it will fail. As Senate majority leader, I will continue to leverage my leadership position to prevent the dump from ever being built.”

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, came out against the Yucca Mountain project more than a year ago, after voting for it in the past. Utah’s House delegation also is against the project, but Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, supports it.

The bill, which Congress evaluated last year but did not complete, would remove the 77,000-ton cap on the amount of waste the department could store inside Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The bill does not specify an amount of waste to be stored inside the mountain, but Edward F. “Ward” Sproat, director of the Energy Department’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said without the increase he will have to go to Congress next year to recommend a second repository site.

Few states would want to host a nuclear waste dump — Nevada has been fighting Yucca for decades, and Utah fought against Private Fuel Storage’s plans to store waste in Tooele County.

Sproat said he plans for a “congressional education process” to help encourage members to vote to lift the cap rather than see a proposed site end up in their state.

The proposed bill also would change how Congress funds the project, allowing the department to more efficiently use money placed into a special fund by nuclear power users to build the storage site.

Allocating the right amount of money is key to meeting the newest opening date of 2017 — almost two decades later than originally promised — Sproat said.

The delay in opening the project is what prompted nuclear power companies to join forces and form Private Fuel Storage, a private venture that aimed to store nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Tooele County. The waste would be stored there until Yucca opened. The Interior Department canceled the company’s lease with the tribe late last year and also did not approve a land conveyance the consortium needed to move waste to the site, essentially stopping the project. PFS said it is considering its legal options over the decisions.

Sproat said accessing the rate-payer money for the project is a “must-have” in the bill.

The longer the department waits to open the site and begin collecting used nuclear fuel from nuclear power companies, the more taxpayer money will have to go to pay court settlements. Because the department did not pick up the waste as promised in 1998 — and still hasn’t — nuclear power companies have sued and some have settled with the government.

Sproat said the department estimates it will cost taxpayers about $7 billion in legal liability if Yucca doesn’t open until 2017, and half a billion for every year after 2017.

“That number is large and growing so there is a real financial driver incentive to move this program forward,” Sproat said.

Yucca has a series of obstacles to overcome, including opposition from Reid and the state of Nevada, before it can open. But current nuclear waste law prohibits the department from evaluating other options to store the waste.

Sproat said Congress would have to allow the department to look at a “plan B,” but the department is not recommending one at this time.

E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com

(c) 2007 Deseret News (Salt Lake City). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.