Opening of First Nuclear Dump Delayed Till 2003

The Energy Department announced Wednesday a five-year delay in opening the nation’s first high-level nuclear waste dump, saying the timetable for construction and implementation could not be met.

A report to Congress said plans for a permanent storage facility to receive radioactive waste in 1998 were “not realistic and not achievable,” even though required by law.

Energy Secretary John S. Herrington will be questioned about the delay today when he testifies before the Senate Energy Committee.

Revised plans call for a facility to begin storing waste in the year 2003 and site selection for the $100-billion facility to begin in 1995.

Three sites being considered are Hanford, Wash., Yucca Mountain, Nev., and Deaf Smith County, Tex. President Reagan will recommend one site to Congress after all three have been studied.

Officials from the three states complained that the decision was political, and they have been campaigning for a change in the method the department is using to select the final site.

As conceived by the Energy Department, the site would hold spent radioactive fuel from about 100 commercial nuclear plants. The repository is expected to store wastes safely for 10,000 years, but the plan has come under fire because of the risk that radioactive waste could spill or leak.

Sen. Brock Adams (D-Wash.), who is opposed to putting the dump in Hanford, said the five-year delay shows that “this whole system they have set up is not working and they admit it.”

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) hailed the delay as “a definite victory for the state of Nevada,” and said it would result in more careful analysis of site selection procedure.