I was an Animal Ecologist working for BSC on the US Department of Energy Yucca Mountain Project (YMP). BSC was a company formed by Bechtel and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) to manage the Yucca Mountain Project.

Yucca Mountain is located about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, on the western edge of the Nevada Test Site. This is an area of general interest because it is being considered as a permanent underground storage site (repository) for high-level nuclear waste. It is of environmental interest because it is located in the little-studied transition zone between the hot and dry Mojave Desert to the south and the cold and dry Great Basin Desert to the north.

As a vertebrate ecologist, I had two main roles on the YMP. First, I participated in the environmental monitoring program by collecting, analyzing, and publishing data concerning vertebrate populations (mammals, reptiles, and birds) and the impacts of the YMP on them. My second role was, as an ecologist, to participate on a large interdisciplinary team of scientists trying to find a solution to the national problem of the safe and permanent disposal of high-level nuclear waste. The ecology projects ended in 1999, and since then I have stayed with the project as a technical editor, mostly helping geologists, hydrologists, and engineers write reports.

As an ecologist, we studied vertebrate populations and vegetation to determine whether the YMP was negatively affecting the environment. In effect, we were the environmental watchdogs ensuring that DOE was conducting its activities in an environmentally sensitive manner. To do this, we studied lizard, small mammal, and desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) populations primarily using capture, mark, release, and recapture techniques. We also conducted a large radiotelemetry study of tortoise movements and habits.

Specifically, our vertebrate studies concerned various aspects of population and community ecology, and the effects of humans on the populations and communities. I primarily looked at questions related to how many rodents (mostly kangaroo rats, Dipodomys, and pocket mice, Chaetodipus and Perognathus) and lizards (mostly side-blotched lizards; Uta stansburiana) were out there from season to season. Other than habitat loss, we did not found any negative effects of the YMP on vertebrate ecology.

I was also involved in determining whether or not a radioactive-waste repository, as currently conceived and understood (i.e., underground geology, engineering design), would safely isolate radioactive waste from humans for at least 10,000 years, and possibly as long as 1,000,000 years. To do this, the YMP has been studying engineering design, geology, groundwater flow patterns, the effects of heat on underground rocks, earthquakes, and the above-ground environment at Yucca Mountain. Check out the Yucca Mountain webpage for the latest details.

Computer modellers then used our data to determine how well the total system will perform. That is, how long will the waste-package canisters last, and after they fail (we must assume that they will), how fast will radioactive material seep into the groundwater. Then, after the radioactive material gets in the groundwater, they modelled how fast these materials would move through the aquifer. Finally, the YMP is asking the question: if someone drills a well into the aquifer, how much radiation would they get from drinking the water, from using the water to irrigate a farm, or from using the water in some other way?

My part in this modeling effort was to help conceive and model the biosphere (the above-ground system where humans interact with the environment). In general, we worked from the assumption that people in 10,000 years will look and act substantially as we do (what else can we assume?), and that future land-use practices will be similar to current land-use practices. We were, in effect, saying: "If someone buried radioactive material in Yucca Mountain 10,000 years ago, how would it affect us today?"

To answer this question, we modeled a family farm and varied parameters to include scenarios ranging from a subsistence farmer (someone who grows and eats only locally produced food) to a suburban resident (who may have a backyard garden, but buys most or all food from a store). In either case, we assumed that they get their water from a contaminated well. We also set up the model so that we could include the effects of global climate change; that is, if rainfall patterns change, how would getting more or less rain affect the repository itself, and affect the biosphere?