By Mike Nartker
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Energy Department and Representative Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.) clashed today over whether the department’s final environmental impact statement on the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository has accounted for all of the U.S. sites where waste is currently stored (see related GSN story, today).

In its final statement, the department only considered handling and shipment of waste from 77 of a total of 131 sites, ignoring 41 percent, Gibbons said yesterday during a congressional hearing held by two subcommittees of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

The department left out 54 sites that store small amounts of waste, including research reactors and department laboratories, he said.  Spent fuel from these reactors probably would have to be transported first to another Energy site where it can be treated and packaged for eventual transport and storage to Yucca Mountain, Gibbons said.

“Hundreds or thousands of critical waste shipments and tens of thousands of transport miles were completely left out of DOE’s evaluation,” Gibbons said before the Highway and Transit and the Railroad subcommittees.  “DOE would apparently have you believe that this is no big deal.  Well, ladies and gentlemen, DOE is wrong.  It is a big deal.”

Today the department said its final impact statement is thorough and complete.  In prior environmental impact statements, Energy officials looked at all sites where waste is currently being stored, and the final statement on Yucca Mountain reflects that, said Energy spokesman Joe Davis, who added that the statement represents 24 years of work.

“I’m not quite sure what [Gibbons’] point is,” Davis said.

Research reactors contain hundreds of pounds of spent fuel with higher proportions of weapon-grade uranium, which increases potential damage from an accident or terrorist attack on a shipment, Gibbons said.  Universities located in or near major urban centers operate many of the research reactors, which means waste shipments cannot be routed around those urban centers as previously proposed, he said.

Research reactors, however, produce a minute amount of waste when compared with the total amount of nuclear waste currently stored in temporary sites throughout the United States, Davis said.  By 2050, research reactors will probably have produced about 5.5 metric tons of waste, compared to the current nationwide total, which is 45,000 metric tons of waste.

The Energy Department is “confident” that it can safely and securely ship the waste to Yucca Mountain when the repository is opened, Davis said.

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