The Nuclear Waste Technical Review board meets in Las Vegas Jan. 25 to discuss scientific uncertainties in the assessment of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear dump site.
The meeting will begin with a briefing by Department of Energy representitives on scientific and technical studies under way at Yucca Mountain 100 miles north of Las Vegas.
The Department of Energy wants to bury the nation's commercial high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain if it can win approval for the site.
DOE is reviewing the draft environmental statement which asserts the site is a suitable location for a nuclear dump. The "uncertainty" review will deal primarily with challenges to that analysis which hold that the DOE has understated potential earthquake, groundwater and volcanic dangers at the site.
Groups battling Yucca Mountain, including the state of Nevada, argue the scientific evidence shows far too much danger to Yucca Mountain from earthquakes and groundwater contamination to allow long-term permanent storage of dangerously radioactive waste there
The meeting will last two days at the Alexis Park Hotel in Las Vegas.
