As the federal government continues efforts to shut down Yucca Mountain, the Government Accountability Office released a report yesterday outlining alternative uses for the proposed repository site. The remote Nevada site includes two large tunnels 5 miles and 2 miles long, and has the potential for high security. The report, requested by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), made no recommendations and noted that “there was no broad consensus regarding the benefits and challenges of these uses among the experts we consulted.” The 30 stakeholder proposals considered fit into five categories, including nuclear facilities such as a reprocessing complex or interim spent fuel storage site, defense or homeland security activities, information technology uses, energy development for renewable or nuclear plants, and scientific research.
However, the report emphasizes a number of difficulties in developing alternative uses for the site, designated the nation’s nuclear waste repository in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Legal challenges to the Yucca Mountain shutdown still in the courts could “preclude or significantly delay alternative uses of the site.” There is also the potential for litigation regarding the 35 mining claims processed since the 2010 expiration of a land withdrawal order. Additionally, management challenges could arise because the site under the control of three agencies; the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and the Bureau of Land Management. And national security activities on adjacent land could also limit potential uses, GAO said.
