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U.S. Lawmaker Warns Energy Department of Possible Slash in Yucca Mountain Funding
A member of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee has warned that the Energy Department may receive only a small amount of the funding it requested to build a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Feb. 19). The Energy and Water Development Subcommittee is considering a department request for $880 million for the project in fiscal 2005. In a recent letter, though, subcommittee Chairman David Hobson (R-Ohio) told Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham that the project might only only $131 million, an amount agency officials said would effectively end the program. Hobson, who supports the planned repository of 77,000 tons of nuclear reactor and defense waste, has asked Abraham for information on how the reduced funding would affect the project and the nuclear power industry, according to AP. “We’re working closely with chairman Hobson to address his concerns ... and advance the ball forward in getting the money we need,” department spokesman Joe Davis said (Josef Hebert, Associated Press/Washington Post, May 13). Meanwhile, scientists working for the state of Nevada, which opposes the Yucca Mountain project, yesterday conducted a public experiment in Washington to demonstrate that water would drip through the mountain to corrode the nuclear waste containers to be stored inside, according to the Las Vegas Sun. Project opponents argue that if the containers corrode, radioactive material could leak into the groundwater underneath Yucca Mountain. In experiments conducted at the National Press Club, April Pulvirenti of Catholic University and Don Shettel of the Geosciences Management Institute attempted to show how water would move through the material of the mountain above the storage area, and how water would corrode the containers, the Sun reported. “It will be many lifetimes before we face the repercussions of our actions, but our descendents will be faced with an environmental disaster of epic proportions,” according to a video prepared by the state outlining the experiments. The Energy Department has said, though, that the containers will remain intact for the required 10,000 years. “What the state of Nevada demonstrated this morning was good theater,” Yucca Mountain project spokesman Allen Benson said. “Our experiments and analysis demonstrate that the waste package will provide a robust barrier in excess of 10,000 years,” he said (Suzanne Struglinski, Las Vegas Sun, May 13).
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