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The Las Vegas Review Journal
www.lvrj.com
NUCLEAR
WASTE SITE: DOE official denies Yucca Mountain bias
Preliminary report worried opponents of Nevada repository
By STEVE TETREAULT
January 11, 2001
A top official in the Yucca Mountain program said
Wednesday that, although a draft report should have been scrutinized more
closely, an investigation will clear the Energy Department of charges it is
biased in favor of the proposed Nevada nuclear waste site.
The report "was not a very important document,"
but took on significance after it was made public and was seized upon by Nevada
officials who charged it showed Yucca Mountain managers are biased and cozy
with the nuclear power industry, said Lake Barrett, deputy director of the
Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.
On orders from Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, a team
from the department's Office of Inspector General arrived this week at the
Yucca Mountain Project Office in Las Vegas to investigate the matter and are
expected to be there about a month, a spokesman said.
"I have personal confidence the review will show
there is no scientific bias. This is my personal view," Barrett told a
nuclear waste symposium in Washington.
Barrett said the investigation, which will take an
undetermined length of time, will not cause undue delays in the nuclear waste
program. Richardson said he would not release a key Yucca Mountain site study
until the probe is complete.
"The science work continues," Barrett said.
"There is no sitting on our hands bemoaning what has been going on. We'll
be preparing documents for release as soon as we can. We are very proud of what
we are doing."
The controversial report was a 59-page internal document
meant to summarize a 1,500 page analysis of scientific work conducted since
1986 at Yucca Mountain. The ridge 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas is being
studied for storage of 77,000 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel rods from
nuclear power plants.
Barrett said the summary was assigned to "people with
liberal arts credentials who are good communicators," and was intended to
explain the site report in layman's terms.
"It was not a very important document, not a
technical document in and of itself," he said, but was similar to many
other routine drafts he usually "chucks onto the windowsill."
Critics seized on a statement in the document that
"all the evidence to date indicates that Yucca Mountain is suitable for a
repository," charging it was premature to reach that conclusion.
A two-page cover memo directed to government and
contractor reviewers stated the summary could be used in a campaign to build
support for Yucca Mountain as a repository site.
"The overview presents a Yucca Mountain repository as
the key component in DOE's proposed solution to the nuclear waste
problem," the memo stated.
Nevada lawmakers, joined by environmental groups, charged
the memo showed evidence the Energy Department was more interested in getting a
repository built than in conducting an impartial analysis. Sens. Harry Reid and
Richard Bryan, both D-Nev., demanded that Richardson take action.
Barrett said he had not seen the document, "but it
was the wrong note, no ifs, ands or buts about it." He did not identify
the authors, although they reportedly worked for TRW Environmental Safety
Systems Inc., the Yucca Mountain program's main contractor.
"This became a much bigger issue than intended in the
beginning," Barrett said, adding that the reaction in Nevada was not
surprising. "As you know, nuclear waste takes on strong forces
there."
Barrett discussed the controversy in a presentation to an
annual spent fuels management seminar sponsored by the Institute of Nuclear
Materials Management and attended by more than 100 scientists, government
officials and nuclear industry executives.
Other speakers included Kristine Svinicki, an energy
adviser to Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who said she expects Congress will wait
until later this year to tackle nuclear waste.
Svinicki said lawmakers will await the Energy Department's
scientific assessment of Yucca Mountain before deciding whether to push bills
to speed the nuclear waste project or establish a temporary repository.
The assessment is expected this summer, followed by a
recommendation by the energy secretary to the president whether to seek a
Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to begin building a permanent repository.
"If we don't have a successful program at that
milestone, and if Congress needs to legislate on the nuclear waste program,
they will legislate," Svinicki said.
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