Utilities suit may affect Yucca funds

If nuclear utilities win court battles to pay them for temporary storage of spent fuel, Yucca Mountain's use as a repository of high-level nuclear waste could be jeopardized, a Department of Energy official said Wednesday.

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the sole site under study as the permanent national nuclear dumping ground.

The court battle could drain the funds now being used to study Yucca's safety and could force the DOE to seek alternatives, said Lake Barrett, DOE's acting chief of radioactive waste management.

A victory by the utilities also could mean that the Nevada Test Site, which has been rocked recently by earthquakes, could be used for temporary storage of the waste along with other sites around the country.

Ten utilities have filed for $8.5 million in damages to the Court of Federal Claims. The utilities went to court after the DOE failed to take thousands of tons of high-level nuclear waste off their hands, Barrett said.

"The results of the litigation could severely impact the funding and continuation of the program (at Yucca Mountain)," Barrett told the independent Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board meeting at the Alexis Park Resort on Wednesday.

The fund that feeds billions of dollars to study Yucca Mountain has between $6 billion and $7 billion collected from nuclear power ratepayers, Barrett said.

If the court finds in favor of the utilities, the DOE would have to provide containers for temporary storage and possible transportation to sites around the country. The costs would drain the fund, Barrett said.

Barrett wanted the board to know how serious the legal impact could be on the permanent nuclear disposal project. "An unfavorable legal decision could severely impact the funding and the future of this program," he said.

In addition, Barrett expects a tight budget for 2000 at Yucca Mountain.

President Clinton and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson are expected to request $355 million to study Yucca Mountain in 2000 on Monday, DOE sources said Wednesday.

Congress gave the program $358 million this year after the president asked for $380 million.

The tight budgets have forced the DOE to delay certain studies that could lead to a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by March 2002, Barrett said.

Surface design for an above-ground nuclear canister loading center and tests of water flow and rock characteristics in a tunnel that crosses the Ghost Dance fault may be delayed until 2000.

Meanwhile, how fast and how far ground water flows through Yucca Mountain is the major question for DOE scientists to answer.

Recent hot water discovered in wells drilled by Nye County researchers have raised new questions on where the ground water originates and how much of it exists in the mountain.

archive