Yucca Mountain Project has DOE seeing double
Nevadans who fear the Yucca Mountain Project might have twice as much to worry about now.
The Department of Energy is almost doubling the size of the proposed repository as it completes new environmental studies and long-term cost estimates of burying nuclear waste in Nevada.
The department on Thursday issued a draft study that the project's director said analyzes the potential environmental effects of a repository built to hold up to 135,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel and other highly radioactive waste.
Energy Department officials also are finalizing long-range cost estimates for Yucca Mountain on the assumption it could be expanded at some point, project Director Ward Sproat said.
The repository project's price tag could total in the range of $77 billion, a 35 percent increase from a 2001 estimate.
"Doubling the size of Yucca Mountain will only double the danger," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. "This is not a bad dream; it's a nightmare."
A federal law passed in 1982 set the Yucca Mountain capacity at 70,000 metric tons.
Gregor Gable
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