Yucca Mountain News Clips
Friday, May 23, 2003
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Las Vegas SUN
May 22, 2003
News briefs
Review board criticizes Yucca
The independent Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board said the Department of Energy's technical basis for a Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository remains "weak to moderate" in a report to Congress released Wednesday.
The report covers the board's activities in 2002.
The board's criticisms of the Energy Department's Yucca Mountain program are not new. Previous board reports have criticized the DOE's case for a license application, expected to be submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December 2004.
The board said large uncertainties exist in how a waste package and the repository would perform at temperatures above the boiling point of water.
The board also said the Energy Department could improve its confidence in how the repository would perform by strengthening plans to shield the wastes at the repository, called "defense-in-depth."
The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board is an independent panel of scientists. The board was created by Congress in 1987 to oversee the work at Yucca Mountain, site of a proposed national nuclear waste repository.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
May 23, 2003
Nuclear utilities challenge licensing board decision
Associated Press
A federal board ruled Thursday that a planned storage site for spent nuclear fuel rods in Utah's west desert meets the safety standards to withstand possible earthquakes.
The ruling doesn't, however, pave the way for the consortium of nuclear-power utilities to gain a license for the facility.
The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board turned down Private Fuel Storage on March 10 by ruling the site under a flyway to an Air Force training and bombing range is vulnerable to a fighter-plane crash.
Private Fuel Storage has filed an appeal to that ruling. In the appeal, to be reviewed by the board on May 29, PFS is seeking a license for a smaller facility that it said would make the probability of a fighter-jet crash less than one in a million.
The board's earthquake safety ruling rejects the assertions made by Utah officials in a 2002 hearing. The state argued that the design of the facility would not withstand the seismic activity likely to occur in the area.
"We believe that if a major earthquake were to occur in the area, our facility would be far safer than interstate highway bridges and other important buildings and structures in Salt Lake City,"said PFS Chairman John Parkyn. He added that he was pleased with Thursday's ruling.
Along with the rulings on plane crash and earthquake risks, other issues from earlier hearings need to be resolved before the site can be licensed. The board says Private Fuel Storage's financial qualifications and environmental aspects of a proposed rail line to serve the facility also need to be addressed.
"Private fuel storage still has a number of obstacles to overcome and we'll be fighting every step of the way,"said Natalie Gochnour, spokeswoman for Gov. Michael Leavitt."We will continue to pursue every available means to prevent this material from coming to our state."
Private Fuel Storage says it needs new storage for spent fuel rods piling up at eight utilities across the country. It would use the Skull Valley site until a permanent storage repository can be built at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
The Energy Department hopes to open Yucca Mountain by 2010, but the proposed storehouse must still get an NRC license and could get delayed.
Private Fuel Storage proposed a 100-acre pad for 4,000 upright concrete casks containing spent fuel rods on the reservation of the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes.
The Skull Valley Band of Goshutes, an impoverished tribe whose reservation is located in the barren desert 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, sought the economic benefits of the project and signed a deal with PFS in 1997 to pursue the plan.
"I'm glad that we are getting these issues resolved,"said Leon Bear, chairman of the band of Goshutes."This decision brings us one step closer to the approval of a license and an opportunity for our people."
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State of Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects
www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/
nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us
775-687-3744
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