PHILLIP GOMEZ / PVT The interior of the new Yucca Mountain Information Center is designed to look and feel like the inside of a Yucca tunnel, with exhibits and interactive multi-media stations to explain how it all would work. Advertisement

Despite political setbacks in the drive to see Yucca Mountain become a nuclear storage reality, the U.S. Department of Energy's principal contractor, Bechtel Science Applications International Corp., has moved ahead on the public relations front by opening a new 5,000-square-foot information center in Pahrump across the street from the post office.

The information center opens to the public on Monday with hours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Thursday saw a special open house for invited VIPs -- representatives of the stakeholder counties most affected by Yucca Mountain and invested in the federal Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, which would oversee waste-handling and transport operations.

The new facility replaces the old information center in the plaza at the Pahrump Station on Postal Drive, just down the street. That was only 600 square feet and saw about 300 visitors per year, serving as the staging area for bus tours to Yucca Mountain in the fall and spring seasons.

The bus tours will continue, says facility manager Claire Sinclair, and now visitors in Pahrump will be offered a more enriching experience learning about the government project, its history and the natural history of the geographic area east of Beatty.

Moreover, the new building houses 2,500 square feet of office space for 16 staffers and a 35-person-capacity conference room.

"We're working in a very positive direction," says Sinclair. "This makes sense that the county most affected by Yucca Mountain has a good resource for people to find out about the project. It certainly shows our commitment to Nye County by putting together a facility like this and preparing for additional staff to be employed in Pahrump."

Staff positions will be advertised when Bechtel determines the specific skills needed by the people to be hired, Sinclair says.

Department of Energy officials recently announced plans to upgrade the staging area at the repository site itself, 54 miles north of Pahrump. DOE plans to spend $100 million over the next several years to construct and improve 33 miles of roads, install more than 20 miles of power lines and replace existing facilities with six new buildings, according to a new 70-page environmental assessment.

The buildings are to include a 43,000-square-foot operations center, a 10,000-square-foot fire station and a 43,000-square-foot maintenance and repair shop.

Back in Pahrump, Sinclair says, "I'm hoping this (new Pahrump facility) will be the base for our outreach programs." She says Bechtel has a 25-foot trailer equipped with science and technology displays explaining Yucca Mountain, its geology, hydrology and safety features, which she intends to use for field trips to local schools.

As for the new bricks-and-mortar building, brand-new exhibits tell the story of the arid land on the edge of the Nellis Air Force Range from prehistoric times to 1997, when DOE's giant boring machine cut its way under and through Yucca Mountain in construction of the main tunnel.

A 12-minute film presents an overview history of the site's selection and development. Exhibits placed in a tunnel-like interior design continue the story with DOE's plans for transportation of the nuclear waste to the site and an explanation of the repository's operations.

Like more sophisticated museums devoted to an area's human and natural history, Indian artifacts are on display, along with specimens of local flora, broadening the Yucca Mountain story for visitor interest.

Other exhibits present more technical information in more easily grasped, three-dimensional forms, explaining how the facilities for nuclear waste storage would be designed and appear upon completion.

The museum is intended to be self-guided, but staff will be available to answer visitors' questions, Sinclair says.

One special exhibit, a business person's contact station, permits on-line access to DOE regarding vendor applications and government regulations for doing business with Yucca Mountain.

Other Yucca Mountain information centers exist in Las Vegas and in Beatty, but Pahrump's is the first new center to be built in over a decade, Sinclair says.

"We're excited for people to come and visit us," she says. "There's no charge to come. We're looking forward to serving the community."