A leaked memo has prompted allegations that the US Department of Energy (DOE) is biased in favor of approving Yucca Mountain as the national high-level waste dump. The allegations are to be investigated by the DOE’s Inspector General and the US General Accounting Office.
(541.5234) WISE Amsterdam – The memo that sparked off the investigation was leaked by an inside source from either the DOE or the project contractor TRW Environmental Safety Systems. The memo from the contractor to the DOE was attached to an overview of the DOE’s Site Recommendations Considerations Report, and claimed that the report “provides information that potential supporters can use in expressing support for a site recommendation”. This clearly contradicts the official line that the DOE and its contractors are objectively studying the site to determine if it is suitable for long-term waste storage.
“This outrageous memo demonstrates that the DOE’s ‘impartiality’ in assessing Yucca Mountain’s suitability for a high-level radioactive waste dump is a joke”, said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program.
Yucca Mountain is the only site under consideration for permanent storage of US high-level radioactive waste. According to Public Citizen, it appears as though Yucca Mountain is quickly becoming a done deal, even though scientific studies and regulatory standards have yet to be finalized.
“The latest evidence of industry bias within the DOE is extremely discouraging to members of the public who have conscientiously participated in the various hearings and comment periods to raise legitimate concerns about the repository proposal”, said Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). “It now appears that public participation has been solicited merely to lend legitimacy to a process in which the selection of Yucca Mountain is a foregone conclusion.”
The investigation into the allegations of bias began officially on 19 December, and is expected to delay the announcement, originally planned for June, of a decision on the suitability of the site. The job of deciding on Yucca Mountain will pass to the new administration of George W. Bush and his recently announced Secretary of State for Energy, Spencer Abraham (see article in this News Communique entitled “The Bush administration – nuclear to the core?“). During campaigning in Nevada in September 2000, President-elect Bush promised that he would veto legislation to allow temporary waste storage and would insist that any decision on a permanent repository would be based on “sound science” rather than politics.
Another controversial plan proposed by TRW was to start shipping nuclear waste toYucca Mountain up to three years before the repository opens, and store it on the surface in what NIRS describes as a “parking lot for nuclear waste casks”. The legislation needed to enable this – which NIRS calls the “Mobile Chernobyl” legislation – was previously passed by the Senate but stopped by President Clinton’s veto (see News Communique 525: In Brief). However, as NIRS points out in the article in this News Communique, the new Senate may well muster enough votes to defeat the bill.
Sources:
- Public Citizen press release, 19 December 2000
- Public Citizen statement, 19 December 2000
- Reno Gazette-Journal, December 2000
- Las Vegas Sun, 21 and 22 December 2000
Contact: Public Citizen, 1600 20th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009, USA Tel: +1-202-588 1000
Email: cmep@citizen.org
WWW: www.citizen.org/cmep