Will the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste repository open?

by Plutonium Page

Recently, the news came out that government employees working on the Yucca Mountain project sent e-mail to each other indicating that they had fabricated data in order to make it appear that it was safe to bury radioactive waste there. The New York Times had the story, including excerpts from the e-mails. For instance:

"Don't look at the last 4 lines. Those are a mystery," wrote the scientist, who the subcommittee said was an employee of the United States Geological Survey, a part of the Interior Department. "I've deleted the lines from the 'official' QA [quality assurance] version of the files." "In the end I keep track of 2 sets of files, the ones that will keep QA happy and the ones that were actually used," he wrote. The message was dated November 1999. In an e-mail message in March 2000, a government worker wrote that he did not know when software he had used had been installed. "So I've made up the dates and names," he wrote. "If they need more proof I will be happy to make up more stuff, as long as its not a video recording of the software being installed."

There's news today that the e-mails have damaged the credibility of the project so much that the project may be put on hold indefinitely.

Look below the fold.

The news is significant, since site characterization studies have been going on at Yucca Mountain for 20 years. Those e-mail have put a serious crimp in the D.O.E.'s plans.

The UK Guardian has the story:

The planned nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada won't be built unless the Energy Department is confident of the supporting science after investigating e-mails that showed workers discussing fabricating data, an official said Tuesday.

Under angry questioning from Nevada lawmakers, deputy director Theodore Garrish said the department was preparing to apply for a license to run the dump, but ``we have not made a final decision yet as to when or whether to file those documents, and some of that will be based on this investigation.''

``I can assure you we will not go forward unless we can have the feeling ourselves first that this repository will be safe,'' said Garrish.

Sounds a little vague on their part. However, Gov. Kenny Guinn (who's a moderate Republican, and opposes the Yucca Mountain project) had some harsh words:

Officials from Gov. Kenny Guinn on down expressed outrage Tuesday during a House Government Reform subcommittee hearing.

``The fact that data may have been intentionally fabricated in service of shoring up predetermined and politically driven conclusions calls into question the very legitimacy of this entire program,'' Guinn said.

Obviously, the logical move would be to call for an investigation:

... Nevada lawmakers called Tuesday for additional reviews. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., who chaired Tuesday's hearing, said he wanted an independent commission similar to the presidential commission that investigated the 1979 accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island.

Why do I keep emphasizing that Republicans are outraged? Because George "it's pronounced 'nu-ku-lar' " Bush strongly supports the Yucca Mountain project. Of course, no one wants high level nuclear waste in their backyard, which might explain why some Nevada Republicans are opposed to the project. Regardless of their motives, they might get their wish.

And Bush might have to say "nu-ku-lar" in another context.

Comments

[DHinMI]

A couple reactions. First, I'm surprised this has never generated the outrage of Nevadans that I assumed it would. Every poll I've ever seen shows that they don't like it, but they seem to have a fatalistic approach to it, and it didn't seem to hurt Bush all that much for having advocated it.

My other reaction is that suspending progress on developing the site seems to present a contradiction--if we need the facility because of a growing stockpile of nuclear waste, then what's going to happen to the nuclear waste that in the meantime is piling up?

This seems to be one of those cases where there doesn't seem to be any good solution (other than, from the perspective of the Bushies, leaving the problem for the next administration).

[Plutonium Page]

DHinMI,

First of all, regarding outrage, I'm surprised too. People have been LOUDLY pissed off for years here in New Mexico regarding the WIPP site, which was meant for low-level waste, but Senator Pete Domenici (R) tried to get high-level waste stored there (he didn't succeed, but that's another story).

Secondly, regarding suspending the project... well, it's the "not in my backyard" thing. No one, absolutely NO ONE, wants that stuff anywhere near their state. It's a no-win situation, as far as I can see. Until there's foolproof way to store it, no one will want it.

[Chris Clarke]

People in Nevada don't get loud about much, but opposition to Yucca Mountain is one reason that Harry Reid can act as a Democrat to the degree he does.

The thing with Yucca Mountain is that operators of nuclear power plants do not want to store spent fuel on-site at reactors, because spent fuel storage is politically unpopular and they'd rather deal with one angry neighborhood than two hundred. (As the Yucca Mountain timetable slips, some folks are looking at the Skull Valley Goshute reservation in Utah's West Desert as an alternative, at least for the short term: the Goshutes are dirt-poor and there are only 25 of them.)

But there's nothing keeping the nuke operators from continuing to store the waste on-site, in the same casks that they'd ship to Nevada. And some of the nuke companies are starting to realize that even though they want a centralized dumpsite, they want even more to continue operating existing plants - and to try to commission new ones as long as a nuke-friendly cabal owns the Executive and Legislative branches. There's even a way in which on-site storage is preferable from an environmental standpoint. The casks are the same as the ones that would be used in Yucca Mountain, but they're out where they can be monitored for leaks. Also, they're not hauled from New Hampshire to Las Vegas on the interstates.

[Chris Clarke]

Oh, and this is just the falsification of science that has made the news. Whistleblowers have been hollering about falsification at Yucca Mountain for twenty years.

[James Dohn]

I Like Pie!