McGaffigan speaks out on Yucca

Monday, 29 January 2007 Management of the Yucca Mountain respository project should be reorganised, according to Edward McGaffigan of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

In personal views expressed at a Platts Energy Podium event on 22 January, Commissioner McGaffigan said management should transfer from the Department of Energy's (DoE's) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) to a government-owned company, and that it could be a good idea to "go back to the beginning" with the Yucca Mountain project.

Edward Sproat, the current director of the OCRWM, accepted that there were problems with Yucca but that these were being addressed. McGaffigan has said that Sproat was the most capable administrator he has seen in his ten years at the NRC.

One of the problems Sproat admitted was the selection of Yucca Mountain in Nevada by legislation. That had led to vehement opposition by local residents, many of whom feel they are having the nation's high-level radioactive wastes dumped on them. In other countries, such as Sweden, communities are invited to offer to host facilities in exchange for development packages. That has led to the situation where there is actually competition between towns that want nuclear waste storage facilities.

Pragmatically, Sproat said: "The site is Yucca Mountain. That decision was made in 2002. The next step is, can you licence a repository at that site? That's where we are now."

The DoE is currently completing its application for a licence to construct Yucca Mountain and possess the waste to be stored there. That is scheduled to be submitted to the NRC in June 2008, with the site entering operation by 2020 at the earliest. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 legislated that DoE have a final repository for used nuclear fuel ready by 1998.

McGaffian also highlighted another problem with the traditional management of Yucca Mountain: that the director of the OCRWM has been a presidential appointee. "Things nuclear have to be stable across presidencies and across Congresses because they take so long. Having a rotating set of leaders doesn't work well."

Further information

Department of Energy's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management