Yucca Mountain News Clips
Thursday, April 13, 2006
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
April 13, 2006
Reprocessing plans tied to Yucca delays, scientist tells panel
Official counters that technology for spent fuel recycling still needs to be addressed
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's ambitious plans to reprocess nuclear waste may be tied in part to dissatisfaction over the lagging repository project at Yucca Mountain, a leading scientist and former Energy Department executive said Wednesday.
The administration is moving too fast to develop unproven technology through its Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, or GNEP, said Ernest Moniz, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"Right or wrong, the program being discussed has created an impression of being hellbent to reprocess current spent fuel, perhaps created by Yucca frustration," Moniz said in a presentation to a National Academies of Science panel.
Moniz, who was an energy undersecretary during the Clinton administration, said DOE risks getting locked into a course and GNEP could prove to be a wasteful "white elephant."
"Let's take at least 10 years to develop a robust laboratory-scale research program and in time we will decide what makes sense," he said. "There is no guarantee that a cycle of this kind will ever pass muster."
In a rebuttal, Vic Reis, a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, dismissed the idea that Yucca Mountain was a factor in propelling GNEP.
"This isn't just about fixing Yucca Mountain," said Reis, who also served in the Clinton administration. "We have to do that anyway." The planned used fuel repository is about eight years behind schedule and faces possible legal and licensing obstacles ahead.
Rather, Reis said, the administration wants to seize an opportunity to partner with other nations that have needs for nuclear fuel and waste disposal and that share U.S. concerns about the spread of nuclear material that could be used to make bombs.
"This is not going to be an easy task," Reis said. "If we are just going to go after this in a business-as-usual, let's-do-research-and-development sense, I don't think we will get there."
Moniz, Reis and DOE adviser Burt Richter, a Nobel Prize laureate and physics professor at Stanford University, delivered GNEP presentations to the academies' nuclear and radiation studies board.
Their interplay illustrated the debate raging this spring among scientists, policy members, interest groups and members of Congress about nuclear fuel reprocessing.
The House and Senate are expected to vote later this year on whether to spend at least $250 million the Department of Energy has requested as a down payment on the GNEP effort.
The Department of Energy wants to have test fuel cycle facilities and advanced nuclear reactor pilot plants online by 2017, at a cost of about $13 billion. Further development could cost billions more.
GNEP envisions developing fuel recycling technology called Urex-Plus in partnership with France, Japan, Russia, China and the United Kingdom.
As far as disposal, Bush officials have advertised that reprocessing could shrink volumes of spent fuel and reduce its radiotoxicity to where Yucca Mountain easily could accommodate waste that would be generated by new nuclear plants that industry hopes to build.
Richter said the United States needs to revive its nuclear waste reprocessing efforts "and GNEP is a very good start.
"One of the things it is very important for critics to recognize is that the United States is no longer the big gorilla that controls what happens in the nuclear energy business," Richter said.
"I don't consider it to be an economic catastrophe for us to spend a few billion dollars to rebuild a totally decayed nuclear infrastructure in the United States," he said.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
April 13, 2006
Yucca Mountain a must for nation, energy chief says
Nuclear power use to grow, official predicts
By Keith Rogers
Review-Journal
On his first trip to Las Vegas as energy secretary, Samuel Bodman admitted Wednesday that there have been flaws with the quality of the science in the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project. But he vowed to hold the course for opening a repository because the nation, he said, increasingly will rely on nuclear power.
The 67-year-old chemical engineer from Massachusetts said a bill to speed the process and clear the way for expanding the planned repository from holding 77,000 tons to more than 120,000 tons of deadly nuclear waste and spent fuel assemblies is key to achieving that goal.
The Bush administration's nuclear power cost-sharing initiative to license three or four civilian nuclear reactors by 2010 "is going pretty well," he said.
"The problem is we don't need three or four nuclear plants in my judgment. We need 14 or 24. We need a large number. And that's the driver behind Yucca Mountain," Bodman said.
His comments came at a meeting with the Review-Journal's editorial board on the eve of a trip today to the Nevada Test Site and Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Asked whether the concept of disposing nuclear waste inside the volcanic-rock ridge or any geologic setting where it must be contained safely for hundreds of thousands or a million years defies good science, Bodman said: "I can tell you I know about science. I have training in science. This will be done according to good science, or it will not be done."
He bristled at comments by critics of the federal nuclear waste disposal plan.
The critics contend that the Energy Department is so intent on pushing the Yucca Mountain Project through, despite quality assurance problems, that it will step on state powers to obtain a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, take water from the state for the repository and withdraw land for a rail line to haul waste to it.
Changing the law to expand the repository "is not a big deal," Bodman said. "It is a significant difference, but I do not consider this a major part of the legislation."
The Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency, the force behind the state's official opposition to the project, contends that the new legislation is "an unconstitutional usurpation of Nevada's sovereign prerogatives (that) obscenely circumvents Yucca's scientific flaws."
Bodman's reaction to that comment was: "It's wrong."
"I think that's an incorrect assessment," he said. "First of all, we're not being exonerated from anything. We have had failings in the past. I've acknowledged that. ... Under this legislation, we will continue to be subject to the NRC's licensing effort."
Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency, said Bodman's remark indicates that he must not be familiar with case law on state water rights. Western lawmakers, he said, are unified that federal attempts to commandeer a state's water are unconstitutional.
"If he does not think there is a constitutional issue there, then he is more unaware of federal law than he ought to be," Loux said.
After e-mails among U.S. Geological Survey scientists surfaced last year and brought into question the quality of scientific work, Bodman has acknowledged that the Yucca Mountain Project is "broken."
On Wednesday, he could not pinpoint when the project became broken but said his acting civilian waste management director, Paul Golan, expects to have a license application for Yucca Mountain ready for review in 2008, four years late.
Although legislation is a piece of the "fix," he said, a larger part is a "clean canister" design approach to the management of Yucca Mountain for which a schedule will be made public this summer.
He was vague about his plan to fix what is broken. "As of today I can't answer the specifics of the question," he said.
Earlier he said, "I have been disappointed in what I inherited with respect to management practices that have been used in the past."
"The culture of this organization was not what we wish it to be," he said. "It is reflected in the USGS e-mail. ... It's clear that we're not dealing with an organization at that point in time that was ready to go forward with a license application."
Golan said he will change the project's culture not by decree but through transparent leadership "and by the small things you do, by rewarding people who bring things up. ... It's leading by example. It's holding people accountable. It's mentoring them."
Loux was unconvinced. "This is the umpteenth time the project has been refocused, re-evaluated, re-committed," he said. "Everything continues along like it did in the past. While they may be sincere in trying to correct these things, you can't solve the problems at Yucca Mountain with leadership tools. The problem is you can't fix bad science."
Peggy Maze Johnson, executive director of Citizen Alert, a statewide environmental group, waited Wednesday outside the Review-Journal with two staff members to confront Bodman.
Maze Johnson said they wanted to question him about why the Silver State is a constant target for proposed federal programs that would put Nevadans and the state's environment at risk.
She referred to the Yucca Mountain Project and the planned Divine Strake non-nuclear explosion. The blast at the test site is slated for June 2, but it was put on hold by state environmental officials until they are shown that the explosion will comply with air quality standards.
Despite allegations by anti-nuclear activists that the test is intended to develop a bunker-busting nuclear bomb, Bodman said Divine Strake is for conventional weapons development.
Maze Johnson said the Energy Department is trying to move forward with both proposals by bypassing environmental laws.
"Nevada seems to be a target these days," she said. "Why is it that they (federal officials) keep trying to jam these things down our throats? It's not appropriate. It's not legal."
Review-Journal writer Antonio Planas contributed to this report.
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KRNV
April 13, 2006
Energy Secretary to make Yucca announcement
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman is planning to make an announcement at Yucca Mountain Thursday.
It will be Bodman's first trip to the planned nuclear waste dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. He'll also tour the Nevada Test Site.
Bodman is expected to defend the administration's plans for the site.
Last week, the administration said it wants to store tens of thousands more tons of waste at the site than initially proposed.
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KLAS-TV
April 13, 2006
Secretary Tours Yucca Mountain Repository
Edward Lawrence, Reporter
Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman toured the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository Thursday with some of the top scientists at the site. Secretary Bodman did not make any public appearances in Las Vegas. In fact, for Eyewitness News to get access we had to have a background check and get cleared through security on the Nevada Test Site.
The secretary played word games and reminded us that 2000 Nevadans currently work at the site. Secretary of Energy Bodman emerged from the Yucca Mountain Repository tunnel by train. The former engineer toured the site where the Department of Energy wants high-level nuclear waste stored.
Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman said, "How can you assure the people in this area and the people in Las Vegas that this project is safe? It will be assured or we will not build it."
Secretary Bodman traveled 1-3/4 miles into the project. There are more than five miles of tunnels. In addition to evaluating it, he says he's gathering information.
"We will not tolerate the things that have gone on here in the past. That has been a blight on the good name of the people who have worked here," Bodman said.
Last year, scientists associated with the project were found to have made up quality assurance reports.
Secretary of Energy Bodman continued, "Can you or anyone trust the science given the discovery that some of the quality assurance work was falsified? That is a fair question. We will get an answer to that question."
He needs those answers because the information in the falsified reports is vital to safely storing nuclear waste.
"Now I'm going to work very hard to earn the trust of the people in this state and region," Bodman stated.
Bodman didn't stay long enough to answer all of the questions Channel 8 Eyewitness News had. For the questions he answered, Bodman focused on accountability; "We plan to leave nothing to chance."
The Secretary of Energy was in Southern Nevada for about two hours. He answered Eyewitness News questions for about 35 minutes. However, we did not get specifics on assuring the safety of the project and what exactly makes it sound science.
This was Bodman's first visit to Las Vegas and Yucca Mountain and he says it will not be the last time he is here.
Email reporter Edward Lawrence at elawrence@klastv.com
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KVBC
April 13, 2006
Energy Secretary promising big changes at Yucca Mountain
The man now heading up the controversial Yucca Mountain Project is promising change at the troubled site. Department of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman made his first visit to the proposed nuclear waste depository on Thursday morning.
Bodman says new scientific testing is already being done to make sure the Yucca Mountain site will be a safe place to store nuclear waste. The Energy Secretary says he's also cleaning house to get rid of workers who aren't meeting quality standards. The secretary said all this after taking a brief tour inside Yucca Mountain.
It was his first visit to the site which is located about an hour and a half north of Las Vegas. The Department of Energy plans to store more than 100,000 tons of nuclear waste there.
Critics question the science behind the Yucca Mountain Project and worry about the safety of Nevadans. Bodman admits there have been many problems but he says he's confident the project will move forward.
"I understand what the term sound science means personally and we will get an answer to that question. I do not have it now but this is part of the process. All I can tell the citizens of Nevada is that I'm here to learn as much as I can. I have an open mind on this matter and I would ask that they have an open mind on this matter."
Just last week the Department of Energy sent a Yucca Mountain bill to the US Congress. Among other things, they're looking to expand the capacity of the site and ensure they have enough water from the state. But critics contend this bill is just an attempt by the Department of Energy to legislate around the problems at Yucca Mountain.
This summer, the Department of Energy plans to lay out an official schedule and budget for the construction of Yucca Mountain. They hope to have their license application ready for review by 2008.
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Public Citizen
April 13, 2006
Public Citizen Condemns Bush Administration Attempts to Weaken Public Health and Safety Laws for Yucca Mountain
Secretary Bodman Will Visit Site Today to Tout Legislation That Would Speed Construction of the Controversial Nuclear Dump
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Samuel Bodman will visit Yucca Mountain in Nevada today to support new legislation from the Bush administration that would undermine public health and safety to accelerate the licensing and operation of a nuclear waste dump there.
The “Nuclear Fuel Management and Disposal Act’ (S. 2589) was introduced in the Senate last week by Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and would eliminate health and safety laws and regulations for licensing and operating the site. It would also give the DOE unfettered access to utilities´ ratepayer fees while removing limits on the amount of nuclear waste to be buried at the dump.
The bill´s most egregious provisions would:
-Abolish state, local and tribal government transportation authority over the shipment of nuclear waste by rail, highway and barge from around the country to the dump site, and give all authority to the DOE, in contradiction to a recent National Academy of Sciences report that advocated a central role for state and tribal governments;
-Exempt the Yucca site, as well as potentially all DOE sites, from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, thereby allowing hundreds of millions of pounds of hazardous heavy metals from waste containers to contaminate groundwater used for drinking and irrigation;
-Waive state and local air quality laws for the site;
-Remove limits on the amount of nuclear waste that can legally be stored at the Yucca dump, which is currently set at 70,000 metric tons;
-Reclassify the Nuclear Waste Fund, which is collected from electricity ratepayers for nuclear waste disposal, to ensure a dedicated source of funding for the project despite a long history of waste, fraud and mismanagement by the DOE and its contractors;
-Codify the Nuclear Regulatory Commission´s (NRC) “waste confidence rule’ into law, stating that there will be a dump for spent fuel “in a timely manner,’ thereby politicizing what should be a scientific and technical determination and enabling the building of new plants; and,
-Allow the DOE to change the site design even after the NRC issues a construction license according to a specific design.
While the DOE seeks to use this legislation to speed construction and double the capacity of the dump, Yucca Mountain is mired in scientific fraud and mismanagement. In March 2005, U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS) scientists were accused of falsifying data on the rate of water infiltration and the climate at the Yucca site. Faster water movement would cause radioactive waste to enter the groundwater, which is used for drinking and irrigation. The inspectors general of both the DOE and USGS are currently investigating, while the Federal Bureau of Investigation has initiated a criminal inquiry.
In January 2006, the NRC issued a scathing report of an audit by Yucca´s main contractor, Bechtel SAIC LLC. The NRC found that researchers overestimated the ability of metals to isolate nuclear waste in engineered containers, which prompted the DOE to issue a stop work order on all container research. Despite other serious problems with quality assurance and design control practices, the DOE extended Bechtel´s contract for another year, with an option for a second year.
“The bill introduced in the Senate is yet another example of the DOE trying to force a square peg into a round hole. The DOE´s incompetence and mismanagement should not be rewarded by a loosening of public health and safety laws and regulations or by ensuring a steady stream of money for the project from the Nuclear Waste Fund,’ said Michele Boyd, legislative director of Public Citizen´s energy program. “Instead, Congress should stop the Yucca Mountain project. It should also convene an independent investigation of scientific fraud in research at the site and the waste of taxpayers´ money that has plagued this project for 20 years.’
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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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