Yucca Mountain News Clips
Thursday, April 17, 2003
---------------------------
Pahrump Valley Times
April 16, 2003
Editorials: Comical Ali would be ideal Nye spokesman
By Doug Mcmurdo
Wars are hell and as such they are usually short on comic relief.
Operation Iraqi Freedom has proven to be the excep-tion, thanks to Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the Iraqi Information Minister who was recently forced into early retirement.
Saddam Hussein's mouthpiece has become a worldwide cult figure in recent days. Arabs love him for his insults: "Americans are alog (wild donkeys)."
Arabs and everybody else got a kick out of al-Sahaf for his ridiculous denials of coalition advances: "There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never."
For those who have been living in a cave for the past few days, Sahaf made the comment as U.S. tanks cruised down Main Street Baghdad.
Pundits have labeled him the Minister of Disinforma-tion, the Prince of Propa-ganda, and the Iraqi Goeb-bels, after Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propagandist.
My personal favorite is Comical Ali, and I believe attribution is due the BBC, because that was the web-site where I stumbled across the moniker.
It got me thinking. With so many people interested in putting Pahrump and Nye County in a positive light to outside investors these days, why not ask Comical Ali if he would like to move here and take over as our county spokesman?
This man, this rock of integrity, this wholesale optimist, would no doubt silence critics of town and county government - and then some. Here's a sam-pling of sound bites we might expect to hear:
"There is no dust being stirred up in Pahrump. The filth comes from those infidels in Las Vegas."
"The invading Califor-nians have been repelled. The Nye County Slightly Irregular Militia stopped the horde at the border. They committed suicide and are cowards."
"Of course we can spend all of our PETT money this month. That is millions of dollars we will receive every year for Yucca Mountain. Forever."
"What do you mean we need to conserve water? We live in a desert where the water supply is infinite."
"We are not surrounded by the Bureau of Land Management. What you see on those maps is nothing but Hollywood trickery. We will bulldoze the BLM."
"Yes, of course a brothel is the best place to go if you're looking for 72 vir-gins."
"The EPA is our friend."
"Voter fraud? What voter fraud?"
"Red and Genie Dyer are just misunderstood. We need more public servants like these two shining ex-amples of character and class."
I suppose we could con-tinue with this exercise, but what's the point? We could never hire this guy. Mo-hammed Saeed al Sahaf might be a funny guy, but he also appears to be loyal to Saddam to a fault, which is curious since al Sahaf is not considered to be in the fallen dictator's inner circle. Nor is he considered to be a particularly nice man.
According to a BBC News profile on Comical Ali, the former minister is a Shia Muslim, not a Sunni Muslim like Saddam and most of the former regime's leader-ship that has been in power for a quarter century.
Mohammed Saeed al Sa-haf was born a little over 60 years ago in Hilla, near Karbala, and not in Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, as were most of the dictator's closest advisors.
He studied journalism and planned to become an English teacher, but his calling changed in 1963 when he joined the Ba'ath Party.
He earned a reputation as being a party loyalist - and all he had to do to at-tain that status was
He served as Hussein's ambassador to two different countries and the United Nations, and held the trou-bled country's top diplo-matic post for nine years when Saddam, after Gulf War I in 1992, named him Iraqi Foreign Minister. He was dismissed from that post in 2001 amid heavy criticism.
In other words, Mohammed Saeed al Sahaf is infi-nitely qualified to work in Nye County.
"Pahrump will outgrow Las Vegas by July 3."
"The Americans will never ship nuclear waste to Nye County. We will slaughter them and their stomachs will roast in hell."
"Yes, retirees, Pahrump is nestled in a picturesque valley alongside the Pacific Ocean and enjoys the high-est quality of life and the lowest tax structure in America."
"Pahrump has a hospital. It always has had a hospi-tal. It has had a 500-bed hospital since 1969. You people are sick in your minds if you think there's no hospital in Pahrump."
It has been said the truth is always the first casualty of war. Mohammed Saeed al Sahaf seems to have solidified that theory like few others could.
Of course, Sahaf might tell Nye County headhunters what he told John Burns of the New York Times on April 9, just before he slipped out of the net: "I now inform you that you are too far from reality."
Write to Doug McMurdo at dmcmurdo@pvtimes.com.
---------------------------
ABS CBN News
April 16, 2003
Rewarding friends
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
WASHINGTON - Nations have alliances, based on short-term strategic or economic interests. But people have friendships, based on memories forged in times of trial. These are the times that make and break friendships among people.
Start with a small-nation example. Latvia was one of the Soviet “captive nations,’ ultimately freed by the US victory in the Cold War. Recently, as some of us had long urged, Latvia gained greater security when the United States lobbied for the Baltic nations to be brought under NATO´s umbrella, despite Russian disapproval.
Under President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Latvia has been an outspoken US ally in the campaign to liberate Iraq. But polls show a possible switch: Latvians, swept up in a wave of European pacifism, may send Americans a message by turning her out of office in June. Democracy gives Latvians the freedom to ride that anti-American wave -- but should the Russian bear growl, Americans would be free to remember that message.
A more costly example of strains on friendship comes from Turkey, the ally that the United States hoped would lead the Muslim world to secular democracy. After dickering about an entry fee, its new Islamist government refused the US request for transit of our troops to start a northern front in Iraq. Such cooperation would have shortened the war, saved lives and made Turkey a partner in extending freedom throughout the Middle East.
Then the Turks added insult to injury. Turkey´s military threatened to grab northern Iraq´s rich oil fields if the Kurds, recently ejected from the area by Saddam Hussein, dare to return to their stolen homes in Kirkuk.
Secretary of State Colin Powell was in Ankara recently, pouring soothing syrup, pretending the political betrayal doesn´t affect our “strategic partnership.’ And Israeli officials privately remind us of their quiet military relationship with Turkey, acting as if Ankara could still be relied upon.
But trust is shot. With our ships laden with troops and tanks offshore, Turkey suddenly embraced neutralism. Generations of Americans with memories of gallant Turks fighting alongside us in the Korean War -- and saving refugees after the 1991 Persian Gulf War -- are being replaced by a generation that will remember the slamming of Turkey´s door in our faces.
Of course, it is France, once identified with “the rights of man,’ that is most eager to bestride the world stage in gleeful confrontation with the United States, and led the defense of Saddam´s dangerous despotism in the United Nations. The majority of French people care not a whit for the consequences.
Some of those consequences will be economic. The United States will live up to its eight-year, $881-million contract with the French company Sodexho to provide domestic mess-hall meals to our Marine Corps (provided the souffles don´t fall). And most US consumers will not boycott French perfume or wine (though Australian merlot deserves a try).
But on future big deals that require a trustworthy ally, public opinion will drive public policy. Right now, our Department of Energy is about to award a $30- million contract to design a system for its nuclear waste program in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The consortium that wins will have the inside track on a billion-dollar deal transporting nuclear waste within the United States in years to come.
Three bids were invited by the Energy Department´s general contractor, Bechtel. One is from an American-Japanese group; another is from an American-British combine; the third is from a mainly French, partly German nuclear conglomerate named Cogema.
Assuming the expertise and price are in the same ballpark, which outfit should not get this sensitive project financed by American taxpayers? In light of President Chirac´s torpedo into the Atlantic alliance, the question answers itself.
What cements strategic and economic alliances is public sentiment among peoples. Britain and the United States are strategic allies, but Brits and Yanks are also genuine friends -- free to disagree and compete, but when wartime chips are down and alliance has a cost, held tightly together. That, as Winston Churchill and Tony Blair understood, is what makes the relationship special.
People have memories that profoundly affect international ties. Those memories are being forged right now, and Americans won´t forget our friends.
---------------------------
NWTRB
April 17, 2003
NWTRB to Discuss Thermal Aspects of Yucca Mountain
Repository Design at May Meeting
Karyn D. Severson
For Immediate Release External Affairs
On Tuesday, May 13, and on Wednesday morning, May 14, 2003, the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (Board) will meet in Washington, D.C., to discuss how heat from the radioactive decay of nuclear waste will affect the U.S. Department of Energy´s (DOE) design of a repository for disposing of spent nuclear fuel and high- level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Other technical and scientific issues related to the potential performance of such a repository also will be discussed. The meeting is open to the public, and opportunities for public comment will be provided. The Board was created by Congress in the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1987 to evaluate the technical and scientific validity of activities undertaken by the Secretary of Energy related to managing the disposal of the nation's spent nuclear fuel and high- level radioactive waste.
The Board meeting will be held at the Watergate Hotel; 2650 Virginia Avenue, N.W.; Washington, DC 20037. The telephone number is 202-965-2300; the fax number is 202-337-7915. The meeting sessions will begin at 8:00 a.m. on both days.
On Tuesday, the meeting will focus on the DOE´s planned repository design and operating mode for Yucca Mountain. The Board has invited the DOE to describe clearly the thermal aspects of the repository design and operating mode, how the thermal aspects of the design and operating mode were analyzed for waste isolation, and the results of the analyses. The half-day meeting on Wednesday will include discussions of other scientific issues related to a Yucca Mountain repository, including a presentation on corrosion research by a representative of the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses; a presentation on geophysical and hydrogeologic investigations by a representative of Inyo County, California; an update on the Yucca Mountain science and technology program; and a presentation by a representative of the Igneous Consequences Peer Review Panel. The session also will include a discussion of the DOE´s performance confirmation plans.
Opportunities for public comment will be provided before adjour nment on both days. Those wanting to speak during the public comment periods are encouraged to sign the “Public Comment Register’ at the check- in table. A time limit may have to be set on individual remarks, but written comments of any length may be submitted for the record. Interested parties also will have the opportunity to submit questions in writing to the Board. If time permits, the questions will be addressed during the meeting.
A detailed agenda will be available approximately one week before the meeting. Copies of the agenda can be requested by telephone or obtained from the Board´s Web site at www.nwtrb.gov. Beginning on June 16, 2003, transcripts of the meeting will be available on the Board´s Web site, via e- mail, on computer disk, and on a library-loan basis in paper format from Davonya Barnes of the Board staff.
A block of rooms has been reserved at the Watergate Hotel. A meeting rate is available for reservations made by April 21, 2003. When making a reservation, please state that you are attending the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board meeting. For more information, contact the NWTRB; Karyn Severson, External Affairs; 2300 Clarendon Boulevard, Suite 1300; Arlington, VA 22201-3367; (tel) 703-235-4473; (fax) 703-235-4495.
---------------------------
State of Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects
www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/
nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us
775-687-3744
---------------------------