Energy Department Criticizes Leak of Yucca Mountain Concerns

A senior U.S. Energy Department official last week criticized the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board over the leak of a board assessment that the department’s design for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada could allow waste storage containers to corrode and possibly leak, Energy Daily reported today (see GSN, Oct. 21).

The assessment was contained in a letter the board was reportedly preparing to send to the department. In a reply to the board made public last week, Margaret Chu, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said she was “deeply disappointed by the premature release” of the board letter’s contents.

Chu said she was concerned that statements made in the board’s letter “might be misunderstood or misrepresented.” She also said the board’s analysis of the Yucca Mountain repository design was based on “extreme and unlikely environmental conditions” (Jeff Beattie, Energy Daily, Nov. 3).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.