WASHINGTON, D.C., March 1, 2000—A preliminary
environmental analysis of the Yucca Mountain, Nev., site under
consideration as a repository for used nuclear fuel confirms
the scientific consensus that high-level radioactive waste can
be disposed of safely in an underground facility. In so doing,
the draft environmental impact statement prepared by the U.S.
Department of Energy takes the nation a giant step closer to a
policy decision scheduled for July 2001 on the use of Yucca
Mountain in the government's nuclear waste management
program.
The draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) further
shows that the potential environmental impacts resulting from
repository operations at Yucca Mountain "are so small as to
have essentially no adverse impact on public health and
safety," the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) said in comments
submitted to the federal government.
"Long-term radiation levels associated with the repository
are shown to be less than one percent of naturally occurring
background (radiation levels)," said Steven Kraft, director of
spent nuclear fuel management at NEI. The additional annual
radiation levels from operation of the site over thousands of
years would be less than the radiation exposure a person would
receive from roundtrip coast-to-coast air line flight.
Kraft said the Energy Department's environmental analysis
"contains significant and compelling scientific evidence that
supports moving forward with a repository at Yucca Mountain."
However, improved presentation of many elements of the DEIS
would serve the dual purpose of helping the public to better
understand the environmental analysis and helping Congress and
the White House to make needed policy decisions regarding the
federal government's nuclear waste management program, he
said.
"Our expert review of the impressive collection of
scientific evidence encompassed by this DEIS finds that it
supports what the world's pre-eminent scientists have long
agreed upon: that deep geologic disposal is a safe way to
manage used nuclear fuel… (But) it is imperative that the
Department of Energy improve its presentation of this
evidence, so that it can also be better understood and
evaluated outside the scientific community," Kraft said.
In addition, the Energy Department should better explain
the chain of events that led to the focus on Yucca Mountain as
a possible repository for used fuel from commercial nuclear
power plants and high-level radioactive waste from U.S.
defense programs. Yucca Mountain is a barren mountain ridge
located on the federal Nevada Test Site, about 100 miles
northwest of Las Vegas.
"This environmental study is not an isolated event in the
Yucca Mountain decision-making process," Kraft said. "Congress
was fully cognizant of the considerable previous study of
alternatives when, in 1987, it directed the Department of
Energy to study only Yucca Mountain and, in 1992, reaffirmed
this direction."
Notwithstanding such suggestions, "the document's basis in
scientific fact and state-of-the-art analysis is truly
impressive," Kraft said. "This research should give
decision-makers confidence in the ability of the proposed
repository to safely store nuclear fuel and protect public
health and safety."
The repository, which is scheduled to open in 2010 at the
earliest, is permitted under federal law to store 70,000
metric tons of nuclear waste. Currently, about 40,000 metric
tons of used nuclear fuel is being stored at 72 commercial
nuclear power plant sites in 33 states. Only about 2,000
metric tons of used fuel is produced each year at 103 nuclear
power reactors in the process of producing one-fifth of U.S.
electricity. A national policy decision on Yucca Mountain is
needed to keep the repository program on track for a 2010
opening.
Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the federal
government was obligated to begin disposing of used nuclear
fuel no later than Jan. 31, 1998, yet the federal govern-ment
still has not met its obligation to begin stewardship of the
fuel.
Already, more than 30 nuclear reactors have exhausted
existing storage capacity in on-site used fuel pools.
Forty-one reactors are using or are developing on-site dry
storage technology to supplement the fuel pools, a
multimillion-dollar expense being imposed on consumers, who
already are paying the federal government via a charge on
their monthly electric bills for the federal repository
program. Since 1983, consumers of nuclear-generated
electricity have committed more than $16 billion to the
federal government for this program.
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