LAS VEGAS (AP) — Engineers moved some planned structures at the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump after rock samples indicated a fault line unexpectedly ran beneath their original location, an Energy Department official said Monday.
Allen Benson, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Energy in Las Vegas, said adjustments to the project were made in June.
"That's why we do studies, to come up with information to make the repositories safer," Benson said.
The department responded to a published report that cited a May 21 letter in which U.S. Geological Survey maps showed the Bow Ridge fault "may be farther east than projected." The Las Vegas Review-Journal said it obtained the documents last week.