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Nuclear Waste: DOE Knows Yucca Mountain Will Leak, Expert Says The U.S. Energy Department has known since 1995 that the geology of Yucca Mountain would make an insufficient defense against radioactive contamination, a former head of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 28). The mountain’s rock formations were discovered to be “far inferior to that originally expected” for protecting air and groundwater from radioactive leaks, said John Bartlett, who headed the project from 1990 to 1993. Instead, Energy is relying almost solely on the features of waste storage canisters for protection, a move that makes the need for an underground waste burial site, such as Yucca Mountain, obsolete, Bartlett said (see GSN, Dec. 18, 2001). “Geographical isolation cannot and will not play any significant role whatsoever at the Yucca Mountain repository during the regulatory compliance period,” Bartlett said. “The project has become simply an array of engineered waste packages that happen to be located 1,000 feet underground.” In a 1982 order to the department, Congress required that the decision on a waste repository site should be based primarily on geologic characteristics, according to the Washington Post. A review that began in 1992 aimed at bringing the rules in line with stricter Environmental Protection Agency standards. In December, Energy changed to rules based on a combination of geologic factors and the manufactured storage canisters in order to meet new standards. Energy officials denied Bartlett’s claims and said they continue to support a protection system based on both natural and manufactured barriers (see GSN, Jan. 11). They added that Bartlett is a consultant for Nevada, which is opposed to the Yucca Mountain Project (see GSN, Feb. 4). “DOE followed the intent of Congress, the regulations put forward by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the opinion of the scientific community as a whole in saying that man-made and natural barriers would ensure that we could protect the public if we built [the repository at] Yucca Mountain,” said Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis. “Mr. Bartlett’s accusation … is wrong” (Eric Pianin, Washington Post, Feb. 6).
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