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NRC staff gives Yucca overview a passing grade
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The plan to bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada passed an initial test on Monday when a safety review team gave a passing grade to an introductory part of the project's license application.
A staff of scientists and consultants for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission released the first volume of a five-volume safety evaluation report that will dissect the 8,600-page application submitted two years ago by the Department of Energy.
The Obama administration is seeking to terminate the project, and the commissioners who guide the NRC, an independent agency, are expected to rule soon whether the license process can be brought to an end.
In the meantime, the staff of the NRC has not been directed to stop its evaluation of the application. A second volume is expected to be released this fall.
The Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear power industry's chief lobbying arm, said the NRC was following procedure. "The project continues until it is officially ended and no earlier," spokesman John Keeley said.
The initial review issued Monday involved descriptions of the site, proposed construction schedules and summaries of the geology and hydrology research conducted over 20 years.
Before President Barack Obama decided to shelve the site, which is 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the Department of Energy proposed it for the burial of 77,000 tons of radioactive waste from commercial power plants and government weapons reservations.
Bruce Breslow, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, which opposes the project, said the initial report was not expected to be contentious.
"Volume One is not a big one for us," Breslow said. "It basically is general information making sure things were done under the rules properly."
Breslow predicted the next volume of the NRC staff report will be controversial.
It will evaluate the question of whether waste canisters proposed by DOE plus the mountain's geology could keep radioactive particles from escaping into groundwater over periods of thousands of years.
In a statement, the NRC said the report published Monday "does not represent a licensing decision or indicate what an eventual licensing decision might be."
No decision to grant or deny a license would be issued until the completion of a review and hearing process that would take four years or more.
Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.
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I can just imagine being a fly on the wall...Obummer - Well, Harry if you want this shut down I will need Obummercare passed. GReid - We can't pass Obummercare. The public doesn't want it. Obummer - GET IT DONE! I don't care who you have to bribe and how you have to bribe them!!! GReid - What about transparency? Obummer - You are so pale-skinned that you are the one who is transparent. GReid - (Thinking to himself) That must be the ngro part taking. Obummer - Well, I'm waiting. GReid - OK boss. But we are going to destroy even more jobs. Obummer - Do you think I care? Afterall, I am a communist. GReid - Oh yeah, I forgot. I'm just spineless and go with the flow. But what about the NRC? Obummer - If I can over-ride the Constitution, the NRC doesn't stand a chance. GReid - Should we just go with the playbook and use scare tactics? Obummer - Why not? It works all the time. Afterall, democrats are incapable of analysis and comprehensive thought. They wouldn't vote for us if they could actually think. GReid - Sounds good. Let's ram Obummercare through, and you take care of the NRC and Yucca Mtn. Obummer - Aren't you forgetting something? GReid - Oh yeah...(drops pants and bends over)
Did Harry subtract these jobs from the jobs he "saved"? Well, at least he's against the mosque near ground zero. I was there and it gives me strong feeling of anxiety just thinking about it being built. Does Harry actually stand for anything? Or is it just where his next vote is coming from?
There's groundwater out there? How much and where
does it go?
WEDO: Wrong, Yucca will produce Jobs for a very long time. It will also provide an outlet for UNLV student’s research, UNLV will be known for something beside "INVERTED UNDERWATER BASKET WEAVING" again.
I would first like to say that anybody that's against Yucca must be an idiot and that includes Obama. He's ok with every other country in the world having Nuclear power, even Iran, although I think theirs is for bombs. They all have nuclear waste so where do they put theirs. The people whom are in need of jobs in NV are so against this are out of touch. Where does Reid stand on this, is he against this also, if so, I put him in that idiot category also. Also, where do you people think we ought to put the waste, do you think it should just be scattered all over the country as it is now.
@wedo, 1. Spent nuclear fuel is a commodity. By law, waste stored in Yucca must be retrievable in case the U.S. decides to use existing or future recycling technology. 2. Today's economies sell all sorts of things: information, services, products, access to things. Nevada still could reap hundreds of millions of dollars off Yucca Mountain. ///////// The first and foremost question, however, is safety. The NRC should decide. Why Harry Reid and the Obama administration want to decide, in violation of federal law, is beyond me.
if nevada is going to recover it needs to produce something a commodity . the growth that has fueled our success for the last 25 years is over .yucca will not produce anything but danger for centuries . make something to sell to the rest of the world las vegas or you will never recover.
G man has been listening to the scare tactics spewed out by Harry Reid over the past several years. Harry likes to call the Yucca Mountain project a dump. In reality, nothing is going to be dumped anywhere. We are talking about STORING once used nuclear fuel in large, safe canisters. Reid has manipulated people into believing that the nuclear fuel would be dumped and could end up in ground water. It's simply not true. Harry Reid relies on ignorant people that he can brain wash into believing something that is not true. Let the scientists decide if it's safe, not Harry Reid.
The future of the project was supposed to be based on scientific facts instead of politics. As soon as the current administration took over, led by Reid, the thousands of high paying jobs were eleminated. Just what Nevada needs during its worst economic crisis in its history. Let the work continue and restore all of those jobs and revenue for the state. Let the scientific facts determine the final outcome..
G_person: they can bury it in my back yard. This is not a liquid its metallic its in a sheath then in a cask. There is a lot more to worry about in all of the uranium deposits underground all over Clark County, If you want to be absolutely safe then you need to push for the Government to dig all of it up and move it away from you.
Be aware that your tap water is filtered thru uranium deposits before it gets to Nevada, I don’t hear you complaining about that.