10 Dec (NucNet): A limit on storage capacity at the planned US Yucca Mountain deep geological repository should be raised or removed completely, the Department of Energy (DOE) said yesterday.

In a report sent to President George Bush and Congress, energy secretary Samuel Bodman said: �Unless Congress raises or eliminates the current statutory capacity limit of 70,000 metric tonnes of heavy metal (MTHM), a second repository will be needed.�

Mr Bodman said the current �arbitrary cap� is not based on any technical considerations, and the layout at Yucca Mountain in Nevada can be expanded to accommodate a three-fold increase in current capacity.

The DOE�s report was required under the country�s Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA). The NWPA also set the current capacity limit for Yucca Mountain until a second repository enters operation.

However, the DOE says inventories of commercial and federal government spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) in the US are projected to exceed the 70,000 MTHM limit by 2010.

If the capacity was tripled then Yucca Mountain would be able to handle the waste from the existing fleet of reactors, even if they were allowed to operate for 60 years.

Even with increased capacity, however, a second repository may be necessary if more nuclear plants are built.

By expanding the scope of the Yucca site, the DOE said the government will have more time to consider the need for an additional site, how much additional capacity may be needed and what waste management approaches to pursue.

Because of delays to the repository, which will not open before 2020 at the earliest, the government could owe commercial damages to utilities of 11 billion US dollars (8.6 billion euro) or more, and that amount will grow by half a billion dollars a year for every year Yucca Mountain is not open.

Details of the report are available on the DOE�s web site (http://www.doe.gov).

� by John Shepherd

>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)

Regulators Accept Yucca Mountain Application For Formal Review (News No. 71, 8 September 2008)

'No Alternative� To Yucca, Says Head Of US Radwaste Programme (World Nuclear Review No. 43, 7 November 2008)

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