Yucca Mountain News Clips
Monday, April 28, 2003
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Pahrump Valley Times
April 25, 2003
State denounces plan for waste routes
By Steve Tetreault, Stephens Washington Bureau
YMP: Nevada panel disputes waste cask ability to withstand extreme fire
WASHINGTON - A panel of Nevada experts laid out the state's case on nuclear waste transportation before a government advisory panel on Tuesday, saying the Energy Department is underestimating the diffi-culties of devising strategy to ship radioactive materi-als to the proposed Yucca Mountain repository.
The state's nuclear waste chief and five paid consultants outlined challenges facing the Yucca Mountain Project, including developing a railroad line to the repository site, devising a combination of rail and truck shipments, and safety-testing the design of casks that will be utilized in moving spent nuclear fuel from sites in 39 states.
"We ask that when you hear glib assurances from the department or any other party that they know exactly how the transporta-tion system to Yucca Moun-tain will work, that you take that with a grain of salt," said Robert Halstead, Nevada's principal trans-portation adviser.
The Nevada consultants delivered a four-hour pres-entation to the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste, which monitors the Yucca program for members of the Nuclear Regula-tory Commission.
Echoing past criticism, the Nevadans said it will likely take more than the 175 nuclear waste ship-ments per year that DOE estimates to fill the reposi-tory planned to be built 20 miles north of Amargosa Valley and 20 miles east of Beatty in Nye County. The DOE figures "grossly under-estimate the nature, magni-tude and scope required to support the repository program." said Bob Loux, head of Nevada's Agency for Nu-clear Projects.
"This is all what we've heard before. There's noth-ing new here," said Allen Benson, Yucca Mountain Project spokesman. Benson said Nevada's estimates are inflated based on assumptions the repository will hold more waste than presently planned.
Halstead contended the Energy Department would be handicapped in develop-ing a rail line to Yucca Mountain because routes through southern Nevada will run afoul of private development. The Air Force will declare the Nellis range unsuitable for a proposed route while rough terrain and environmental issues will hamper suggested routes from Carlin and Caliente, he added.
As the Nevadans dis-cussed the risks associated with nuclear waste trans-portation, advisory board member John Garrick noted that hazardous materials already travel through Las Vegas and other cities largely unnoticed.
Garrick said nuclear waste should be put in that context. He warned against "putting too much empha-sis" on analyzing conse-quences of potential acci-dents without also weighing their risk in the first place. "We can lead the public down the wrong path very easily," he said.
Among other topics, a divide emerged between NRC staff and Nevada experts over analysis of the July 21, 2001 rail car derailment and subsequent fire in the Howard Street tunnel in Baltimore.
A Nevada analysis con-cluded that radioactive particles would have been released into the surround-ing neighborhoods if the trapped cars had been car-rying canisters of nuclear waste.
The state's findings con-trast with two studies released by the NRC in March. Those concluded that a nuclear waste cask would have withstood fire conditions in the tunnel that were calculated to reach 1,800 degrees Fahr-enheit.
A thermal analysis by NRC staff, coordinated with the National Transportation Safety Board, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analysis and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, "concluded there would be no release of radioactive materials."
Marvin Resnikoff, a nuclear physicist and Nevada consultant, challenged the NRC studies, saying the Baltimore fire burned hotter than nuclear waste casks are designed to with-stand.
Halstead said Nevada analysts have been in a "running dispute with the NRC" over availability of data that the agency used in its study. A meeting has been set for May 8 to compare the reports, he said.
Halstead also said Nevada is forming a proposal for testing cask designs against severe fire. The plan will be presented to NRC scientists forming fullscale tests for several nuclear waste shipping casks.
©Pahrump Valley Times 2003
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Pahrump Valley Times
April 25, 2003
DOE steps up plan to permit YMP
By Mark Waite, Reporter
Budget Cut Prompt Delays in Transportaion Study to Focus On Application
The U.S. Department of Energy plans to meet the deadline of submitting a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for Yucca Mountain by December 2004, DOE Institutional Affairs Specialist Bob Lupton told the Nye County Commission April 15.
The vision statement for the project outlining the timeframe is four years old, Lupton said. Since then budget cutbacks are affecting plans for the high-level nuclear waste repository in Nye County. A request for $591 million in funding for the Yucca Mountain project for 2003 was cut back to $457 million by Congress.
Lupton said as a result of the reduced funding, planning the transportation routes would be delayed to accommodate work on the license application.
Highway and rail transportation routes for the 77,000 tons of nuclear waste haven't been designated yet, but will be selected in the not too distant future, he said.
In its Community Protec-tion Plan, Nye County has requested nuclear waste shipments be by rail, using routes which avoid local communities. Nye County also asked to be consulted about the planned routes of the shipments.
A conceptual design document is expected to be completed soon, Lupton said. Nye County hopes the design will show that DOE is locating some of its ancillary facilities in the county.
"With the re-planning we anticipate we'll be cutting the tours back a little bit," Lupton said. The local Yucca Mountain Science Center, operated by Bechtel/SAIC, has spon-sored numerous Yucca Mountain tours for Pahrump residents.
Nye County Commissioner Candice Trummell said she noticed there was $2 million in DOE money allocated to Clark County to develop emergency services for the Yucca Mountain project. She asked why a county that doesn't even have low-level nuclear waste, where the mayor has offered to lie down to block nuclear waste shipments, would receive this money.
Lupton said that decision was made at the higher levels of the office of nu-clear waste management.
Asked by audience member Harley Kulkin whether Yucca Mountain would generate jobs, Lupton said, "I've heard estimates in excess of 2,000 employees once we go to fulltime construction of the site.
"Your commissioners are working very hard to make sure the maximum number of jobs are based out of Nye County," he said.
Real estate broker Trish Rippie inquired about providing buses to transport workers to Yucca Mountain from communities like Beatty, instead of Las Vegas.
The Nye County Commu-nity Protection Plan reported that 76 percent of the current workforce at Yucca Mountain and 81 percent of the workers at the Nevada Test Site currently live in Las Vegas.
"The workers get subsidized transportation from Las Vegas, workers that might otherwise live in Beatty or Amargosa Val-ley," Rippie said.
Nye County Commission Chairman Henry Neth said people began commuting from Las Vegas in the early days of the Nevada Test Site when there were very few facilities in Pahrump. It continued as a matter of habit, he said. County commissioners are working diligently on that issue, Neth said.
While Nye County Com-missioners have fought to get the word out that Yucca Mountain is in Nye County, not merely "100 miles northwest of Las Vegas" as is commonly reported, Amargosa Valley Town Board member Jan Cam-eron urged officials to be aware that the site is located in Amargosa Valley specifically.
Lupton said DOE officials are making an attempt to visit with the Amargosa Valley Town Board as soon as they arrive in the area.
©Pahrump Valley Times 2003
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Cybercast News Service
April 26, 2003
Inside Report
By Robert D. Novak
CNSNews.com Commentary
A French Contract
Despite deterioration of Franco-American relations, the U.S. government is about to award a $30 million, five-year contract for the nuclear waste program at Yucca Mountain in Nevada to a combine controlled by the French government.
The contract is to go to a team consisting of COGEMA and Framatome ANP, both headquartered in Paris. The firm, which owns all of COGEMA and most of Framatome, is controlled 79 percent by the French Atomic Energy Commission and 5 percent by the French government proper. Giving the contract to the French team was delayed by press criticism after news of it leaked.
The contract for a spent fuel dry transfer system is being contested by two other concerns (one U.S.-Japanese and the other U.S.-British), and it is not clear that COGEMA has the low bid. Bechtel, general contractor for the U.S. Energy Department, actually awards the contract. To protect its numerous industrial services provided to the French government, Bechtel may fear jeopardizing its relationship with COGEMA if it awards the Yucca contract elsewhere.
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AScribe
April 25, 2003
Society of Professional Journalists Announces Recipients of 2002 Sigma Delta Chi Awards
INDIANAPOLIS, April 25 (AScribe Newswire) -- The Society of Professional Journalists today announces the recipients of the 2002 Sigma Delta Chi Awards for Excellence in Journalism.
Washington Correspondence: "Yucca Mountain," Benjamin Grove of the Las Vegas Sun in Henderson, Nev. Coverage of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository.
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SFGate
April 27, 2003
Auditors removed after flaws surface in Yucca nuclear waste project
(04-26) 17:36 PDT LAS VEGAS (AP) --
Three examiners were removed from their audit positions after they uncovered new quality control flaws in the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project, one of the examiners said.
Their efforts resulted in the Energy Department's issuance of a "stop work" order in March to its main Yucca contractor, Bechtel SAIC, until problems are fixed.
A DOE spokesman said Friday the flaws involve the formation of program procedures and are not expected to slow the project.
But others said stop work orders are rare and signify important errors. They said the latest problems were symptomatic of quality control troubles that DOE has struggled with for years as it develops a nuclear waste repository for Yucca Mountain 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
A month after DOE issued its stop work order, members of the surveillance team were told they were being removed from audit and verification duties, said one of the workers, Don Harris.
The team is employed by contractor Navarro Research and Engineering Inc.
"The schedule appeared to be more important than the quality of the work," said Harris, who thinks his removal was linked to the audit.
Harris has asked an internal DOE board to investigate and passed on concerns to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The 14-year Navarro employee said he was told April 9 he was being removed from verification activities because he made "grievance statements" about DOE at a March 18 meeting involving the auditors and a Bechtel team discussing the stop work order.
Harris said Robert Hasson, Navarro's project manager for Yucca Mountain, told him Friday he was being returned to his old duties.
Hasson did not respond to messages, and a spokesman could not be reached at Navarro's headquarters in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Harris said George Harper, who was brought over from another Navarro program group to assist the surveillance team, also was removed from verification duties.
Verification manager Lester Wagner, who oversaw the surveillance team, also was pressured into a reassignment, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Wagner did not respond to a voice mail request. Harper could not be located.
DOE spokesman Alan Benson said Friday that federal managers played no role in any job action involving the auditors.
"Their removal had nothing to do with the stop work order. This was between them and Navarro," he told the Review-Journal.
The audit uncovered flaws in how Bechtel managers were updating "quality assurance" procedures for parts of the nuclear waste disposal program.
The stop work order remains in effect while Bechtel corrects procedures, Benson said. In the meantime, he said, previously approved procedures are being utilized and there has been "no effect as a practical matter."
Susan Lynch, technical programs administrator for the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said the episode illustrates ongoing Yucca Mountain quality control problems.
"This one is critical because DOE has had problems with the QA program since day one, and they've been promising in the past 20 years to fix them," she said.
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Las Vegas SUN
April 28, 2003
Columnist Benjamin Grove: Reid, Inhofe symbols of environmental fight
Benjamin Grove covers Washington, D.C., for the Sun. He can be reached at grove@lasvegassun.com or (202) 662-7245.
The 33rd observance of Earth Day passed relatively quietly last week in the nation's capital. With Congress on a spring break, there was pollen and pollution in the April breeze, but no hot air.
Still, battles among Washington politicians over environmental policy are more heated today than they were in 1970, when former Wisconsin governor and U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson helped found the first Earth Day. His goals: to raise public awareness and pressure elected leaders to focus on the environment.
Today those leaders are, in fact, debating many environmental issues, new and old. Look no further than Nevada's own Sen. Harry Reid and Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe.
Inhofe this year took the reins as chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, with Reid as one of the panel's top Democrats. They sit near each other, but their views on the government's role in environmental protection are often far apart.
Reid routinely ranks among the Senate's highest-scorers in environmental group report cards. Inhofe is among the Green lobby's least-liked lawmakers. As George Will wrote in a Newsweek column last week, Inhofe is a former developer who ran for the Senate in part out of vengeance for federal environmental regulations. "I'm personally the best thing that has happened to the environmental movement for fund-raising," Inhofe once said.
"Personally, I like him," Reid said of Inhofe. "We just have some different views about the environment."
The pairing of Reid and Inhofe on the environment panel often reflects the partisan split in Washington on the environment. The two men disagree on many of the details on the issues that make up this year's panel agenda (that is to say, Inhofe's agenda): Bush's air quality legislation, reauthorizing transportation programs, and chemical and nuclear plant security.
In an interview, Reid said that among his top environmental goals this year were pushing for more tax breaks and programs to spur alternative energy development; passing stricter rules and regulations for transporting nuclear waste; spending more money to protect Northern Nevada rivers and Lake Tahoe; and a continued ban on oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
"There isn't one thing that isn't going to be difficult (under Inhofe)," Reid said. "Everything's going to be tough."
The fight over whether to drill for oil at ANWR was an early example of that. Reid helped lead debate against drilling; Inhofe was a passionate voice on the opposite side. Inhofe was "extremely disappointed" when the Senate this month narrowly voted to keep ANWR drilling out of an energy bill. The vote was biggest victory for the Democrats on the environment this year, Reid said. "I hope it's dead," he added.
But there are plenty of other issues left to fight over. Reid and Inhofe also differ on the Clean Air Act. Environmentalists have accused the Bush administration and Inhofe of trying to weaken air pollution standards. Reid said Congress should "leave (the act) alone."
Reid and Inhofe also are not likely to agree on the programs of the Environmental Protection Agency, which was created in 1970 just months after the first Earth Day. The panel oversees the agency.
These days Administrator Christie Whitman is a lightning rod for controversy -- for doing too much in the eyes of some of her fellow Republicans, and not enough for many Democrats.
Reid called Whitman a disappointment. The EPA's budget request for fiscal year 2004 is less than last year's because the agency chief isn't a leader for the environment, he said.
"Christie Todd Whitman isn't living up to what we expected her to do," Reid said.
Of course, it's not just Inhofe and Reid who are slugging it out -- lots of politicians and activists at every level, inside and outside the Beltway, are at war over the environment.
President Bush last week said that three decades after the first Earth Day, "our air is cleaner, our water is purer, and our lands and natural resources are better protected." Meanwhile last week more than a dozen national environmental groups bashed Bush for his attempts to undermine air, water, toxic waste and land preservation laws.
As for Earth Day founder Nelson, now 86, he's still trying to get the attention of politicians. He stopped by the National Press Club here last week to shine a spotlight on his latest concern -- managing population growth. Nelson said the nation's 290 million people could swell to 500 million later this century. That means more cars, more roads, more infrastructure and more pollution, he said.
So far, Nelson hasn't gotten much attention for that issue. But Nelson got one wish -- Thirty-three years later politicians are talking more about the environment.
Now Nelson may be wondering: Is anybody listening?
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State of Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects
www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/
nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us
775-687-3744
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