Alleged lies may kill Yucca
Nevada
N-site fiasco voids Goshute plan, critics say
By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune
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WASHINGTON - Scientists studying Yucca Mountain's suitability
as a permanent nuclear waste repository may have falsified documents, raising
a new challenge for the much-delayed project and questions about whether
it could affect proposed temporary storage in Utah.
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Wednesday that Energy Department contractors
discovered e-mails, written between 1998 and 2000, in which an employee with
the U.S. Geological Survey "indicated he had fabricated documentation of
his work."
Bodman said the department is investigating the data and documentation and,
if it is found to be flawed, it will be redone or supplemented. Other work
by the scientists in question is also being reviewed.
"I am greatly disturbed by the possibility that any of the work related to
the Yucca Mountain Project may have been falsified," Bodman said. "This behavior
indicated
in the
e-mails is completely unacceptable, and I have referred this matter to the
Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General for full investigation."
The Energy Department official in charge of the Yucca program told a House
committee Wednesday that the issue with the documents would, at the least,
delay the project.
"I assure you we will not proceed until we have rectified these problems,''
Theodore Garrish told the House Appropriations subcommittee, according to
The Associated Press.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said this delay and earlier problems
with Yucca Mountain should make it apparent that the planned facility will
never happen and it is time to look at alternatives.
"This proves once again that DOE must cheat and lie in order to make Yucca
Mountain look safe," Reid said. "We aren't just talking about false documentation
on paper, this
is about the health and safety of Nevadans and the American
people."
The extent of the delays remains to be seen, although Yucca's opponents in
Nevada said it could prove to be the stake in the heart of the project, which
is slated to hold some 154 million pounds of nuclear waste.
The fate of Yucca Mountain has a direct bearing on a proposal by Private
Fuel Storage, a consortium of electric utilities, to temporarily store waste
on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation 45 miles southwest of Salt
Lake City.
"Certainly, if Yucca Mountain is not going to go forward, then why would
you ship fuel 2,000 miles across the country to the PFS facility?" asked
Utah's Assistant Attorney General Denise Chancellor, who is leading the state's
opposition to the Skull Valley site. "The whole premise of PFS is that it's
a way station for Yucca and this seems to call that
into doubt."
Private Fuel Storage spokeswoman Sue Martin said the consortium hopes Yucca
Mountain stays on schedule, and the sooner it is completed, the less time
the Utah storage will be necessary.
"Delays in Yucca Mountain could mean that there is even more of a need for
interim storage such as our facility would provide," she said. "We have always
said that our spent fuel from PFS will go to Yucca Mountain or whatever repository
the federal government opens, because that is their ultimate responsibility
and we feel confident that they will come up with something."
PFS is seeking a 20-year license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
with an option for a 20-year extension.
Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, the state's
office opposing Yucca Mountain, said at the very least the Energy Department's
investigation will make it impossible for the Energy
Department to petition
for a license for Yucca Mountain in the near future, as had been planned.
He added it could upend the whole project.
The documents in question dealt with water infiltration into the proposed
site, which is central to objections Nevada has been raising. The state has
said the site is too porous to contain the nuclear waste indefinitely and
groundwater could corrode the waste casks.
"The fact remains that this country needs a permanent geological nuclear
waste repository and the administration will continue to aggressively pursue
that goal," Bodman said. "We are committed to the safety and protection of
the citizens of Nevada as we pursue the development of the Yucca Mountain
project."
Yucca has already suffered a series of setbacks that have pushed back its
earliest opening date until 2012, and Reid says he believes it will never
open.
He
has proposed
a plan to have the government take control of the waste and store it in casks
at the reactor sites.
On Monday, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. met with Bodman and urged the department
to explore a similar option. |
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