Waste storage plan called risky

If the Energy Department implements a plan to store high-level nuclear waste above ground outside Yucca Mountain while a permanent repository is being built, the health of Nevada residents would be at risk, state officials say.

The DOE is weighing storing nuclear waste above ground near Yucca Mountain to save money on a permanent repository at Yucca now estimated at $58 billion, the Las Vegas Sun has learned.

Construction of a permanent repository designed to bury 77,000 tons of radioactive commercial and defense waste would be stretched out over two decades -- with completion sometime after 2030 -- to make it more affordable, according to a DOE plan.

Meanwhile tons of waste would be shipped to Midway Valley, a stone's throw from Yucca Mountain, in a section of the Nevada Test Site not contaminated by nuclear testing. There it could be stored in shielded containers on the valley's surface or in pools of water, similar to the pools at the nation's 110 nuclear reactor sites.

Two Nevada officials see safety as the major problem with the DOE plan. There's a question of protecting the environment from radiation releases, and the potential for earthquakes in Midway Valley could stop the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from allowing the DOE to store waste there.

A 5.6 magnitude quake on June 29, 1992, rattled Little Skull Mountain, less than 12 miles from Midway Valley, and damaged a field office in the area, said Joe Strolin, administrator of the planning division for the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects.

"The big issue is whether the site could be licensed for storage under current regulations," Strolin said.

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site being studied to become the nation's high-level nuclear waste repository. The DOE is in charge of studying the site's suitability and would oversee the construction of the repository, if it is approved.

The plan, offered by TRW Environmental Safety Systems Inc., the primary Yucca Mountain contractor, is tucked within two technical reports on the rising cost of the project, dated May and December 1999.

TRW's proposals would likely not be approved, said Bob Loux, director of the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects.

"The DOE could not meet the current Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements for siting nuclear (waste storage) at the Test Site," Loux said.

TRW's proposals are being driven by costs, not science, Loux said.

Under TRW's plans, the DOE would gain time to work out safety and scientific concerns for a permanent dump. Meanwhile, the nation's high level waste would be stored at a convenient location for moving it to Yucca Mountain.

The reports focus on the high cost of titanium drip shields. The drip shields, designed to protect canisters holding nuclear waste from corrosion from ground water, were added in the mid-1990s after government scientists found more water than expected in Yucca Mountain. The shields would cost an extra $7.5 billion, the reports say.

By comparison the entire Yucca Mountain Project, including scores of scientific studies and the construction of an exploratory tunnel, has cost about $6 billion since 1982.

In a TRW report released this month, DOE downplays the use of titanium shields, touting the strength of the metal alloy that will be used for the waste canisters.

In addition, higher costs for drilling tunnels, building surface space to switch nuclear wastes from shipping to disposal containers and other costs add $12.3 billion to the proposed $43 million to $49 million estimate in 1999, the reports say.

The two reports, written as cost analyses, propose several measures to compensate for the high cost of the drip shields, including storing the waste above ground temporarily and building the repository in phases, spreading the cost out over two decades.

In delaying construction of the entire repository -- on a design, which the DOE has not yet finalized -- the reports suggest the waste could be stored in Midway Valley until the repository was completed sometime after 2030.

The report sets out two scenarios. In both, workers dig a tunnel, fill it with waste, and move on to the next tunnel. Through the digging process, waste waiting to be deposited would be held at Midway Valley.

In one scenario, workers would begin closing off the tunnels after 50 years. In the second, workers would close off tunnels after 125 years. The wait between filling and closing the tunnels is to allow the waste to cool.

The repository design does not yet establish how many tunnels would be dug.

The temporary storage of nuclear waste at Midway Valley also was proposed in a December 1998 TRW report that suggested that waste could be trucked to Nevada by 2007 -- three years before the current plan to complete a proposed repository.

In several reports, TRW suggested that bringing shipments of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain up to three years earlier than the repository's expected opening in 2010 could save more than $500 million.

Jeff Gorman of Dominion Engineering in Maryland said the scientific questions about titanium and the metal alloy have not been answered.

"I have not as yet studied the design of the drip shield so I can't comment on the thickness they have selected," Gorman said. "Possibly in a year or two my colleagues and I will have some insights."

In September state consultants reported that in test results the metal alloy the DOE is planning to use in its containers for burying the wastes disintegrated in water from Yucca Mountain in less than a month, Loux said.

After the waste is on site, metal alloy waste containers themselves could disintegrate inside the mountain before the repository's 10,000-year lifespan is complete, state scientists maintain. Nevada officials have opposed any repository at Yucca.

Loux also points to studies by both state and independent consultants for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency that would license a repository at Yucca, that hint at possible weakening of the titanium shields from interactions between ground water, heat from the nuclear wastes and the rock's chemistry.

"The jury is still out," Loux said. "The data say the containers won't work, not just that the supposition that the containers are going to last for 10,000 years. Without reliable containers and without drip shields, there is no repository."

In addition, the project faces an inspector general probe and possibly an investigation by the General Accounting Office.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson have asked the inspector general to investigate the "apparent bias" of TRW. Nevada's congressional delegation has said it will ask for the GAO report.

The investigations were prompted by a Dec. 1 copyrighted Sun story disclosing documents that suggested the DOE was collaborating behind the scenes with the nuclear industry to recommend Yucca Mountain.

Federal law prohibits the DOE from taking sides in the site selection process.

The Sun obtained a 60-page draft of a DOE overview that concluded Yucca Mountain was a safe site to store radioactive wastes even though a massive scientific study had not been completed.

Attached to the overview was a two-page memo from TRW that suggested the overview could be used by Yucca supporters to sell the project to Congress.

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