CARSON CITY -- The complex computer program being used by the U.S. Department of Energy to provide information about its application for a license to build a proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain is so rife with problems that some Nevada leaders say no one outside DOE can use it.

Bob Loux, executive director of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, said as much in a letter this week to Dale Klein, chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

To acquire access to the DOE information, Loux said it would take an "unbelievable" collection of 752 computer processors and 30 master computer servers running in parallel on a Windows 2000 file server system that is virtually obsolete.

Loux said the Energy Department's so-called Total System Performance Assessment program "does not meet the basic requirements ... to form the basis for a government license." He said the model is so complex that no one, not even the NRC staff, can properly check it. "We doubt there is even anyone in DOE who has a comprehensive command of the entire model."

Nevada has been following the development of the new TSPA simulation program and reviewing documents to try to "decipher" the process. DOE's presentations on this program "raise grave concerns that the hardware configuration adopted by DOE ... is wholly inappropriate for a major safety-related license application that should be accessible for scrutiny by interested third parties."

Loux said DOE is modeling its computer cluster configuration after the "Beowulf Project," which "requires use of an immense cluster of computers and processors that no participant can reasonably expect to duplicate. In other words, simply running, or likely even inspecting, the structure of the ... TSPA for Yucca requires the coordinated use of literally hundreds of computers and processors and software, some of which is already obsolete."

Nevada officials and others charged with reviewing DOE's application may have to buy costly computer equipment or try to access DOE's own computer cluster just to access the information. Even then, Loux expressed concern that no other participant in the licensing process will be able to reproduce, store and properly evaluate DOE's information.

He said there's no guarantee that DOE will preserve the original Beowulf Computer Cluster architecture, or maintain it for a certain period of time.

Loux urged the NRC to investigate this problem before DOE files its application seeking a license for Yucca Mountain.