Yucca Mountain Planners Urged to Go Slow, Careful

By Cat Lazaroff

WASHINGTON, DC, February 7, 2003 (ENS) - Nuclear waste disposal programs, including the one under construction at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, should be implemented in stages, so that decisions about how to proceed can be based on the latest available information, argues a new report from the National Academies' National Research Council. The report, released Thursday, concludes that setting rigid times lines for opening the Yucca Mountain facility would increase the risk of problems and undermine public trust in the controversial project.

The National Research Council (NRC) committee that wrote the report coined the term "adaptive staging" to describe this gradual approach, because it allows project managers to make adjustments throughout the waste disposal process, based on operational experience or scientific advances. Safety, environmental and cost concerns also can be taken into account in a timely manner, and managers can better respond to public input, the committee said.

Aerial view of Yucca Mountain, Nevada (Photos courtesy Yucca Mountain Project except where specified)

"Adaptive staging focuses on cautious progress based on continuous learning and on maintaining flexibility in the program, rather than on meeting pre-arranged, rigid milestones," said committee chair Charles McCombie, an independent consultant based in Switzerland. "While this approach calls for a measured pace of advancement, it will not necessarily delay the project."

The committee was not asked to comment on the choice of geological repositories as a preferred option for disposal of high level radioactive waste, or on the suitability of Yucca Mountain as a repository site. Its study addresses geological repositories in general, with specific applications to Yucca Mountain when appropriate.

The report, "One Step at a Time: The Staged Development of Geologic Repositories for High-Level Radioactive Waste," concludes that adaptive staging could help address some of the criticisms leveled at the proposed Yucca Mountain site, located 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The site is the only one now being considered as a permanent repository for some 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel now stored at power reactors across the country.

Already approved by Congress and the White House, Yucca Mountain still faces a number of legal challenges from environmental groups and the state of Nevada.

Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn (Photo courtesy Office of the Governor)

The NRC report offers some suggestions for alleviating concerns about the Yucca Mountain site, centered around the careful planning approach the committee dubbed adaptive staging. Adaptive staging is characterized by the simultaneous presence of seven attributes: continuous and systematic learning, flexibility, reversibility, "auditability," transparency, integrity, and responsiveness to public concern.

The committee called the decision making that separates each stage of the disposal process a "decision point." At each decision point, project managers collect and evaluate all relevant information acquired so far and use it to develop options for the next stage.

At the same time, they re-assess the safety of the geological repository, make their findings public, and engage in a dialogue with stakeholders. Introducing decision points throughout the project reduces the odds of large scale, costly mistakes, the committee said.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham with some of the Yucca Mountain documentation gathered over the past decade. (Photo courtesy DOE)

However, DOE's overall approach to the Yucca project is still more linear than adaptive, the committee said. This linear planning is illustrated by the department's tendency to propose unrealistic schedules and by a lack of public involvement in some decision processes.

The DOE's major milestones that involve interaction with other stakeholders correspond to licensing decision requirements; an adaptive staging plan would incorporate more, and more transparent, decision points.

The sooner DOE adopts adaptive staging for Yucca, the more effective this approach is likely to be, the committee said. It urged the ageny to follow through on the idea of a pilot stage, which could - after obtaining the proper license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission - consist of first placing some nonradioactive simulated waste in the geological repository, and then putting a small amount of radioactive waste in one section of the underground facility.

Project scientists have been studying faults and monitoring earthquakes in the region surrounding Yucca Mountain for 10 years.

The DOE should also consider reserving a fraction of the waste disposal area for public demonstration purposes, the committee advised.

To provide the recommended flexibility, adaptive staging may require a larger "buffer" storage capacity at, or near, the Yucca Mountain site. This additional storage would allow managers to receive waste at the repository even if there will be a delay in its being placed underground, the committee said. Buffer storage also offers a place for waste to be stored if it has to be retrieved from the underground facility.

Adaptive staging will not affect the security of the nuclear wastes, the committee added. The length of time before Yucca Mountain is ready to receive waste is already so long that more immediate measures will be needed if security becomes a heightened concern.

Deep inside Yucca Mountain, scientists inject a mixture of compressed air and a tracer gas into boreholes to test how fast fluids and gases move through the rock.

The committee made several recommendations for improving scientific knowledge and public outreach. For example, a technical oversight group - independent of the federal government - should be established by the DOE to review scientific aspects of the Yucca project, and a stakeholder advisory board representing local organizations, state governments, municipalities, and other concerned parties should be set up as well, the report says.

The long term science and technology program initiated last year by the DOE to address technical concerns at Yucca Mountain - beyond what is required to obtain license approval - should be given high priority and sustained funding, and should include social science research, the committee added.

Geologist studies cores from Yucca Mountain to determine its ability to contain radioactive waste.

For more information regarding the Yucca Mountain Project, visit: http://ocrwm.doe.gov/ymp/