A recent court decision on the planned radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., presumes that the government should be able to provide something approaching perfection in its long-term plans for the project. Congress should provide a practical response to the ruling that will ensure safety for the foreseeable future while allowing the storage site to be used in the near term.
Indeed, the government anticipates no safety problems at Yucca Mountain for 10,000 years, based on the standard used to plan the site. The federal appeals court concluded that a longer period is required under the law that authorized the central storage site, but acknowledged that Congress could change the law and mandate that 10,000-year standard.
The ruling is the latest hurdle for the central site, now more than a decade behind schedule. The appeals court did reject numerous other objections in the lawsuit by Nevada and environmental groups, including a challenge to the constitutionality of the federal decision to locate the site there.
Existing problems in waste storage have been caused, in part, by the federal government's inability to meet a timetable for the central repository. The government is being sued by electrical utilities, including SCANA and Santee Cooper, that are having to provide costly on-site nuclear waste storage.
The federal government already has spent $9 billion to provide for the waste storage site in the interior of the mountain, located in a sparsely populated area of Nevada. It would accommodate waste from commercial reactors now stored at dozens of sites across the nation, and for highly radioactive defense waste, such as the liquid waste stored in vast quantities at the Savannah River Site.
While the decision may hearten those who oppose nuclear power and weaponry in all manifestations, it will set back efforts to manage existing waste with the assurance of safety and security.
Defense waste at SRS, for example, includes 37 million gallons of highly radioactive waste in 49 tanks, some of which are a half-century old. A recent report found cracks in 15 of the massive tanks, and Congress is considering a controversial cleanup plan for that material. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has endorsed a proposal to remove 99 percent of that waste for stabilization and eventual shipment to the permanent repository at Yucca Mountain.
That plan, too, is opposed for its lack of perfection. In cleanup of two tanks on site, virtually all the liquid waste was successfully removed. When attempts to remove the residue of radioactive sludge from two tanks on site weren't successful, the Department of Energy pumped concrete grout in and around the nearly empty tanks, diluting the remaining waste and sealing off the storage tanks. Practically speaking, the waste management effort achieved its goal.
Yucca Mountain also will achieve its goal of safe storage for the foreseeable future, but can't be expected to meet a standard of perfection until the end of time. It should be safe to say, however, that the government will deal with hazardous contingencies as they arise. Certainly, the state of Nevada will insist that DOE or any successor agency provides close attention in the years to come.
Potential problems in the far distant future can't be allowed to sidetrack the storage site, needed now. A central location is required for the safe and secure storage of nuclear waste, to supplant the numerous existing sites designed for interim storage.
Certainly the storage tanks at SRS would fall somewhat below the standard envisioned by the appeals court for long-term nuclear waste storage, considering that a recent review found that leaks already have occurred. That very real nuclear waste problem, and others, deserve a practical response.
Click here to return to story:
http://www.charleston.net/stories/071904/edi_19edit1.shtml