By MARK WAITE

PVT

As President Obama’s planned cut in funding for the Yucca Mountain project began to signal the end of the repository, former Yucca Mountain Principal Scientist Mike Voegele talked about a need to preserve its history.

The long-term nuclear repository has been a part of Nye County politics since the passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982. Yucca Mountain was selected as the site in 1987.

The budget cuts also meant the U.S. Department of Energy would be abandoning the Yucca Mountain Information Center on Postal Road, which just opened in 2006. The DOE transferred their lease to Nye County and exhibits valued at over $350,000,

“As the program began to be shut down, my understanding is that commissioners made a decision they wanted to keep those exhibits for the people of Pahrump so there would be some history of the Yucca Mountain project available,” Voegele said.

At the same time, county commissioners awarded a $222,680 contract in March to Franklin Construction Services to erect a 50-by-95-foot metal addition to the Pahrump Valley Museum. The idea of moving the Yucca Mountain exhibits to the Pahrump Valley Museum addition was pitched to six members of the Pahrump Valley Museum and Historical Board.

Museum founder Harry Ford thought it was a great addition to the local history. He said Commissioner Gary Hollis was very involved in the project after failing to attract the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas.

” I think it fits in very well because Gary Hollis … when they were going to build the museum in Las Vegas, he tried and tried and tried to get that built in Nye County. So we have talked on occasions, maybe he can get a piece of it,” Ford said. “We told them we would be very pleased and very happy if that would be moved into the museum.”

Voegele said in addition to the displays formerly housed at the Yucca Mountain Information Center — the actual fuel rods in which the nuclear waste would have been stored and the mock-up of the tunnel boring machine — there are plans to offer more interactive video displays. That’s the main cost, about $100,000, of the $251,000 commissioners earmarked during a May 4 consent agenda item approved without discussion.

Nuclear waste office workers are constructing the exhibits. Voegele said the old exhibits on Postal Road were quality displays constructed by crews who work shows on the Las Vegas Strip.

Voegele said there will be seven or eight interactive video displays, which can cost $10,000 to $12,000 apiece. There will be a new video display on radiation safety, another adding Nye County perspectives on the transportation segment, a video display on defense waste processing, what the handling of nuclear waste looks like.

“Our goal is to have sort of a video screen where you can look at probably 15 different points in time, and you touch the screen and what will come up is a little video of somebody who was doing something in the program at that time, telling you in their own words about that part of the program,” Voegele said.

Voegele said he is getting in touch with different Yucca Mountain project managers. He also wants to get the Indian perspective on the repository. There will also be video of Commissioners Joni Eastley and Hollis explaining the Nye County perspective.

“One of the things we’re trying to do, the information center always required staff to be there. We’re trying to make these exhibits stand alone. You won’t need someone to hold your hand and walk you through them,” Voegele said.

Historian Bob McCracken will receive $60,000 for preparing oral histories from people involved in the Yucca Mountain project as part of the $251,000 project. The disassembly of the exhibits and removal costs had been estimated at $14,000, the move to the museum and rebuilding of the exhibits another $16,000. The museum build-out was estimated at $21,000 and modifications another $11,000.

A mockup of a fake cave will evoke the feeling of being in the access tunnel, while museum patrons watch a video on the wall. Voegele sees even more opportunities.

“One of the things I did early on was go to the Atomic Testing Museum and see if we could arrange for some loan-type exhibits, and they’re very willing to do that. One thing we would envision is a rotating exhibit from the Atomic Testing Museum. One thing that’s more important, they have the old exhibits that they used to use before the Atomic Testing Museum was built. We were told we can have those. So we really think we’re going to have a Nevada Test Site museum in here as well,” Voegele said.

Ford said the addition will include a theater with seating for 100.

The Lincoln exhibit will move from a back room in the old building to the new addition along with new displays, which will be possible in taller exhibit cabinets, he said. There will be storage space as well.

Voegele thinks it will be a good place for school trips to learn about Yucca Mountain and radiation.

“You’re always hearing about tritium coming into Oasis Valley. We want people to be able to go somewhere where they can understand what these terms are,” Voegele said.

“If Yucca Mountain comes back, Harry Ford and I were talking this morning, we’re not giving this back,” Voegele said of the materials.