Energy Department
ORG
Energy Department
The Energy Department no longer has an estimate of when it can open the nuclear waste repository that it wants to build at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and it may never have an accurate prediction of the cost, the energy secretary. The deputy energy secretary, Clay Sell, hinted for the first time that the money that the Energy Department had been collecting from the nuclear utilities since the 1980s might not be enough to pay for the project, the last published cost estimate was $60 billion, in 2001. The department is facing lawsuits from utilities that want to recover extra costs created by the delay. Another complication is that the department recently told utilities that they should ship fuel to Yucca in containers that could go directly into the mountain for burial. The energy secretary said on Monday that the Energy Department no longer has an estimate of when it can open the nuclear waste repository that it wants to build at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and it may never have an accurate prediction of the cost. Last week the deputy energy secretary, Clay Sell, hinted for the first time that the money that the Energy Department had been collecting from the nuclear utilities since the 1980's might not be enough to pay for the project; the last published cost estimate was $60 billion, in 2001.