State official hopes study will resolve nuke dump concern

But Bob Loux said a study suggested by the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board should help to finally settle the issue.

A series of 11 reports by state consultant Jerry Szymanski suggested there's evidence of geothermal water in the area where the federal government wants to store nuclear waste beneath Yucca Mountain.

If true, that would disqualify the site because geothermal hot water might eat through waste containers and spread radioactive material into the groundwater beneath southern Nevada.

The review board, which is advising the federal Department of Energy in its studies of Yucca Mountain, concluded there's "no evidence to support the assertion that the water table has risen periodically hundreds of meters from deep within the crust."

The board also said there's no credible support for arguments earthquakes have caused large fluctuations in the water table that could flood the proposed dump.

The board said crystalline formations within the Yucca Mountain rock were probably created by surface water flowing down into the rock rather than being pushed up from below.

Loux said his experts still disagree. But he said he was pleased the board recommended the state and DOE study the age of calcite formations in the rock which indicate water reached the repository level sometime in the past.

"If those calcites are 20 million years old, I'm probably in agreement that we don't have an issue here," said Loux. "But if they're only a few thousand years old, that's different."

An age of millions of years ago would mean the last geothermal activity in Yucca Mountain happened when it was formed by volcanic activity in the area and that it's been quiet since. A few thousand years would tend to indicate ongoing geothermal activity within Yucca Mountain.

"The board report actually was helpful in that it framed the issue that's going to be key to the whole thing. They've boiled it down to a single issue - age," said Loux.

He said the University of Nevada, Las Vegas probably will take on the task of age-dating the calcite formations, but his consultants should participate in the process.

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