Yucca Mountain News Clips
Thursday, June 19, 2003
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New London Day
June 19, 2003
Dominion Seeks OK To Store Spent Fuel
Power Company Wants State, Local Permission To Build Facility At Millstone
By PATRICIA DADDONA
Day Staff Writer
Dominion Nuclear Connecticut has notified Waterford and East Lyme that it is seeking state and local permission to build a dry storage facility onsite to hold its spent nuclear fuel.
Dominion notified the two towns by letter Tuesday that it plans to seek a license from the Connecticut Siting Council to house up to 20 dry casks in separate, 20-foot-high concrete modules through the year 2013. A dry cask is a cylindrical, concrete canister 18 feet long and lined with steel.
Nuclear generators around the country routinely store radioactive fuel rods in so-called “spent fuel pools’ of water. Licensed generators are also allowed to place dry storage facilities on site as long as their power plants are still generating electricity, said Scott Burnell, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Several companies nationwide have done so, said Burnell and David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists.
In Connecticut, the siting council is charged with evaluating public need for the project, site selection and visual and environmental impacts. Prior to submitting its application in August, Dominion has 60 days – or longer, if necessary – to explain details of its proposal to the two towns.
Waterford First Selectman Paul B. Eccard said Wednesday he is not necessarily opposed to temporarily housing radioactive fuel rods in dry storage. What he and some anti-nuclear citizens advocacy groups fear is that the proposal would open the door to more radioactive waste here and eventually create a permanent dump.
“The town would be receptive to having some storage always on site, managed safely while here, as long as most of it is continually removed,’ Eccard said. He added a caveat, however: “At the end of Millstone Point's life as a generating facility it must not be left as a nuclear waste dump.’
Safe but temporary onsite storage is what Dominion is proposing, said Dominion spokesman Pete Hyde. The company has no plans to store waste generated by other companies or its out-of-state divisions here in southeastern Connecticut, he added.
Dominion was the first company in the nation to use dry cask storage, at the Surrey Power Station near Norfolk, Va., and North Anna Power Station in Louisa County, Va., Hyde said.
“We strongly believe this is a responsible, safe, interim storage solution while we wait for the opening of Yucca Mountain,’ the spokesman said. Dry cask storage is “a rugged and very durable design, so we're optimistic about being able to build and store the fuel responsibly.’
The federal government has required nuclear generators to safely dispose of radioactive waste but has provided no authorized site to do so. The Department of Energy is expected to submit its application for a license to build a national storage site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada by December 2004, said Burnell. The project could take another decade.
“The DOE was supposed to take the fuel in 1998,’ Hyde said. “We're hoping the DOE follows through on its obligation. We have the fuel here. We have to deal with the fuel.’
Dominion hopes to begin construction in February and load the first four dry casks in early 2005, Hyde said. Another five dry casks could be added by 2010.
The NRC would monitor construction if state and local authorities authorize the project, Burnell said.
The company's state application would be a first in Connecticut. Unlike Connecticut Yankee in Haddam, which was decommissioned long ago, Dominion is still operating and generating more waste, siting council Executive Director S. Derek Phelps noted.
Hyde compared the look of the proposed dry-storage facility to a row of front-loaded washers at a laundromat, but on a much larger scale.
Each concrete module would be 20 feet high, 18 feet wide and 20 feet deep, and contain one dry cask. The modules would be located side by side on a concrete pad 275 feet long and 50 feet wide at the eastern end of the site, behind the three power plants. Each module would have an opening into which to horizontally insert dry casks, Hyde said.
“Ours are going to be among the most robust in the industry because the roof of the module will be five feet thick and the side walls up to two feet thick,’ he said.
To load 32 fuel assemblies, or rods, into a cask, specifically trained employees would submerge the cask in the spent fuel pools and load it with rods under water. Helium gas would force the water out and help cool the rods. The cask would then be capped with concrete and taken to a module for storage, Hyde said.
Initially, the company would only build enough storage modules for 10 dry casks, Hyde said.
Lochbaum, a nationally recognized expert in the nuclear industry, said dry cask storage is gaining acceptance in the absence of a long-term national disposal site. Over 200 dry casks have been loaded since 1986, he said.
In the likelihood of either an accident or a terrorist attack, the fuel is generally deemed safer in a cask than in a pool because of the heavy-duty barriers, Lochbaum said. Though designed with accidents in mind, the horizontal storage, thickness of the modules and casks themselves offer substantial protection from terrorist acts, he said.
If there is a technical failure at one of the power plants, Eccard noted, dry storage gives Dominion “an important safety valve to move the rods into a safe (place) while repairing or remedying the problem.’
“The Achilles heel in the process,’ Lochbaum states, “is when you're lifting the cask into or out of the pool. If you accidentally dropped it, the thing weighs about one hundred tons. You could do some damage, cause the water to drain out of the pool. It's the fuel that remains in the spent fuel pool that's the problem.
“Fuel can heat up and catch on fire or melt down and release the radioactivity into the atmosphere. The consequence could be as bad or worse than a reactor accident because you have more radioactive material available to be released. All the fuel ever used by Millstone is still at Millstone because there's been no place to send it: nearly 700 tons.’
Hyde said the company is aware of the weak point and would take extra steps to make sure the casks aren't dropped. It would take up to a week to transport a single dry cask from the pool to a module, he said. In the event of fire the company has “backup and backup for backup.’
Susan Perry of Waterford, founder of the Citizens' Regulatory Commission, and member Geri Winslow said they support dry storage over keeping the waste in pools where it's more vulnerable. Their group was most active when Millstone Station was shut down several years ago as the NRC investigated concerns from a whistleblower about proper operation of the plants.
“If they're going to take the fuel out of the pool, that's a positive thing,’ said Winslow. “But that all depends on the process. If I have more information on it I would like to take a stand but I don't know enough.’
The siting council will conduct public hearings as it spends up to six months reviewing Dominion's proposal, said Phelps. Local land use agencies also can make recommendations to the council.
Towns and interested parties have a right to seek legal standing. All parties have a right to appeal the siting council's decision in Superior Court, Phelps said.
p.daddona@theday.com
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NEPA News
June 19, 2003
Biggest spenders on legislative ads usually prevailed in Congress
Lobbyists and advocacy groups spent more than $105 million on ads to influence Congress in 2001 and 2002, and the biggest spenders usually won legislative battles, according to a report released Thursday.
Spending on the legislative issue ads was not distributed equally to the different sides of issues, and the side that spent the most money usually prevailed in legislation passed by the 107th Congress, the study by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania found.
For instance:
_ Congress didn't pass legislation to impose stricter regulations on air emissions. Eighty-nine percent of the ad spending on the measure opposed the new rules.
_ Congress passed legislation to establish a nuclear waste dump in Nevada, which was promoted by 96 percent of the ad spending on that issue.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director at Annenberg, said the report's findings raise the question of whether "the public interest (is) well served when the message of one side is shouted and the other side whispered."
The report examined more than 5,000 print and television ads that appeared in Washington and aimed to influence lawmakers or public opinion. The report estimated only the cost of placing the advertising, using prevailing rates, and did not consider the cost of producing the ads.
The study found that environment and energy issues garnered the largest segment of advertising money, more than $20 million, followed by health care, economy and business, telecommunications, education, and government spending.
About 94 percent of the money spent on energy and the environment ads was spent by energy or business interests, the report said. Nonbusiness groups spent the remaining 6 percent.
At least 670 groups or companies paid for ads, with the 20 largest spenders shelling out over half the money spent. Among television ads alone, the top 10 biggest spenders bought 77 percent of ad spending.
Some ads were not forthcoming in revealing their sponsorship, the report found. Some purchasing organizations used "vague or potentially deceptive" names.
The report didn't directly measure the ads' effectiveness in swaying public or lawmaker opinion, partly because the ads are only one component of larger lobbying efforts.
But Lori Slass, director of Annenberg's Washington Office, said, "Over $100 million in two years indicates that someone thinks these ads have influence."
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On the Net: Annenberg Public Policy Center: http://www.appcpenn.org/issueads
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Senator Harry Reid
June 18, 2003
For Immediate Release Wednesday, June 18, 2003
CONTACT: Tessa Hafen or Shannon Eagan (202)224-9521
REID, ENSIGN ANNOUNCE OVER $13 MILLION IN FUNDING TO NEVADA COUNTIES
Fiscal Year 2003 Payment-In-Lieu-of-Taxes funding released
Washington, D.C. - Nevada Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign announced today that all of Nevada's 17 counties will share payments totaling $13,132,942 as their part of the Federal Government's Payment-In-Lieu-of-Taxes (PILT) program for FY 2003. This year's PILT payments are an increase of over $1.6 million from FY 2002.
The funds, administered by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management, compensate counties for non-taxable Federal lands located within their boundaries. PILT payments are authorized by Congress, which recognized that counties and other local government entities with substantial acreage of Federal land could not collect sufficient taxes to provide needed services or were taxing fewer residents at higher rates to provide services.
"The PILT program is one of the key ways that the federal government can be a good neighbor to local communities," Senator Reid, a senior member of the Interior Appropriations Committee said. "These payments help fund law enforcement, hospitals and schools, firefighting, and other vital services that local governments provide. Whether they make a living off the public lands or simply enjoy them for recreation, Nevadans deserve to have this important program fully funded."
"These funds are critical to the budgets of local governments in Nevada," Ensign said. "It is essential that the funds, based on the vast amount of land controlled by the federal government, be available to provide community services throughout the state. In the future, I would like to see legislation enacted that will permanently provide and greatly increase PILT funding for Nevada."
The BLM administers the PILT program because it is the largest single Federal land management agency, with responsibility for over 264 million acres of public land. Payments are made for BLM administered lands, national forests, parks, and wildlife refuges; land used for Federal water projects; and some military installations.
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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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