MARK WAITE / PVT Lewis Darrell Lacy Jr. gestures to a map showing the locating of drilling sites to test aquifer flows near Yucca Mountain. Advertisement

Politicians can argue about whether the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository should be built, but Lewis Darrell Lacy Jr., newly appointed director of the Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Office takes a pragmatic attitude to the issue.

"There's a lot of expectation in most of the country that Yucca Mountain will move forward. I know there's a lot of people in the State of Nevada that don't like having it here. I don't know if that really matters. I haven't heard anyone mention another site," Lacy said.

The transplant from Houston, who goes by Darrell, was selected over 15 applicants by Nye County Manager Ron Williams. County commissioners ratified his selection May 21.

Lacy was a former assistant county attorney for Harris County, Texas. He supervised engineers out of the Houston office of ERIN Engineering and Research, working on risk assessments, operations and maintenance on utility plants, including nuclear power plants.

While Lacy has experience in oil and gas, working for companies like Lyondell Petrochemical, he said the price of oil is going to keep going up, making nuclear power a more attractive option.

"I think that as a country in the world that nuclear energy is going to get more popular again. I mean the last 20, 30 years there hasn't been much interest in nuclear because we had really cheap oil. But the cheap oil is behind us, I think," Lacy said.

What to do with the nuclear waste has been described in trade publications as "the Achilles Heel" of the industry. Many people in the nuclear industry feel there needs to be a total life cycle look at nuclear power, which will include reprocessing, he said. That could extend the life of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, which may fill up quickly with the 70,000 tons of high-level radioactive material.

Commissioners recently deferred taking a stance on the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership until Lacy can make a recommendation. The GNEP is a plan to recycle nuclear waste at facilities on-site. One of the nuclear waste reprocessing technologies could generate electricity, Lacy said, but Yucca Mountain opponents at the state level and the Nevada congressional delegation don't want county officials to support such a reprocessing plant at Yucca Mountain for fear it would spur on the project.

The cost of raw uranium increased several fold over the last two years, making reprocessing nuclear waste look more attractive as well, Lacy said. He added, "I think there's a strong chance that the materials going to Yucca Mountain will be economically viable for reprocessing."

He added, "I think the state of Nevada and the folks in this area need to understand there's quite a few other states that have nuclear power and nuclear waste and they all expect it to go here. If it does come here, our role is to try to make the best of it -- protect the citizens of Nye County by mitigating the impacts."

Besides the transportation of nuclear waste, the construction of the project will mean a lot of trucks on area roads hauling construction material, he said.

Some Nye County officials see the possibility of some positive economic spin-offs if the nuclear waste repository is built.

"We have a much better chance of influencing that if we're sitting at the table, negotiating with them, than if we're just sitting outside saying, 'No, no, no.' We have a really great relationship with the DOE at this time. They understand that Nye County as the site county has some expectations," Lacy said. "They're currently paying considerable amounts of money to maintain this office as well as the PETT funds that go to Nye County."

The DOE recently closed down Yucca Mountain information offices in Beatty and Las Vegas, but maintains one on Postal Road in Pahrump. A recent letter to the editor expressing concerns about the transportation of radioactive material through Pahrump indicates a need for more communication on the subject, Lacy said.

"The education and outreach is something I think that's important to us so the people of Nye County understand what the impacts might be," Lacy said. "The problem is some people here think Yucca Mountain is open and accepting waste, and it's not. It's still a study, and scientific work is going on to ensure the safety and well-being of the people around it."

The DOE is expected to submit the license application for Yucca Mountain next summer, Lacy said. Much of the testing and scientific work by the DOE is over, and the actual repository site has undergone employee cutbacks, he said.

Nye County undertakes its own investigations of the project. Much of that work involves studies of the hydrology, trying to determine where leaking radioactive material might leak out and which direction it would go. Lacy's job includes oversight of the consultants.

"If the repository works as designed, there will never be anything get in the water table, much less migrate off-site. But is anything fail-safe when you start looking at a million years down the road? That's what's tough," Lacy said.

He added, "I haven't seen anything today that tells me it's not safe. The scientists that we have on staff and working for me, none of them are too concerned either."

Tracer tests indicate the water flows are very slow, Lacy said. He noted the Nevada Test Site has been nearby for 50 years, actually putting radioactive material into the environment. Nothing has left the test site from those experiments, Lacy said.

"I think Chicago has more nuclear plants within a close distance than any other major city," Lacy said. "You go ask people in Chicago about nuclear power, they probably don't have any huge issues with it."

The water studies of Yucca Mountain will continue, the nuclear waste repository office will also continue monitoring Yucca Mountain as long as the project is operational, Lacy said.

"A lot of our concerns have already been listened to and incorporated but we will be making some comments for the license application. I'm sure the state will as well and any other interested parties."

Yucca Mountain has been called the most studied piece of real estate in the world. Nye County is also researching impacts from the influx of people and trucks, emergency response needs and other spin-offs from the project.

"My job description doesn't include economic development but it does include trying to mitigate the impacts of what the repository will cause onto Nye County, and with those jobs coming here there are things that Nye County can do to best deal with them," Lacy said.

The Mina rail route, which would transport the nuclear waste south through western Nevada to Yucca Mountain, is now a non-preferred route due to opposition of the Walker River Paiute tribe. But Lacy said, "I don't think you could say it's totally off the table yet.

"Once the decision is made to build (Yucca Mountain) I think there will be a lot of activity on the rail line because the DOE has expectations of using the rail line to bring in construction materials and assist with the build of the site," Lacy said.

The expectation is the license to construct could be issued in 2013, he said. The DOE doesn't appear to be totally averse to having the railroad used for multiple purposes, Lacy said.

"There's the potential for some benefits to Nye County if there is a rail line there," he said.

The nuclear waste director job has been vacant since Les Bradshaw resigned in March 2004, except for a period from February to May 2006 when Dale Hammermeister was in charge. Lacy said Dave Swanson did a good job running the office during the interim.

Lacy said of his new position: "It is a very steep learning curve, but I'm enjoying it."