Yucca Mountain News Clips
Monday, June 30, 2003
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Las Vegas SUN
June 27, 2003
Columnist Benjamin Grove: Withholding of Yucca information won't fly
Weekend Edition
June 28-29, 2003
Benjamin Grove covers Washington, D.C., for the Sun. He can be reached at grove@lasvegassun.com or (202) 662-7245.
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NEVADA OFFICIALS FOR YEARS have cataloged what they believe to be the numerous flaws in the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository project, ranging from the obvious to obscure.
On the obscure end of the range is the possibility that a jet could crash into the surface facility of the site. I wrote a story earlier this month about a June 2002 study of the jet-crash scenario, drafted by top Yucca contractor Bechtel SAIC. It concluded that more analysis was needed of the Nellis Air Force Base jets that fly within 30 miles of Yucca.
But it turns out there's a whole lot more analysis of Yucca aircraft hazards already out there -- specifically, three other Yucca project reports I had not seen until last week.
I had heard about the June 2002 report and requested it specifically from the Energy Department using the Freedom of Information Act. Charlie Fitzpatrick, one of Nevada's Yucca Mountain lawyers, had requested all reports relating to aircraft hazards, and he eventually obtained the other three through a FOIA request of his own. I looked through them last week.
In a nutshell:
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A 62-page September 1999 report, "Monitored Geologic Repository Aircraft Crash Frequency Analysis" ultimately concluded that a jet crash at Yucca is "not a credible event."
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A 48-page February 2003 report, "Frequency Analysis of Aircraft Hazards for License Application" concluded that the chances of a plane crashing at Yucca are so remote that the issue doesn't warrant "further consideration."
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A December 2001 report, "Consequence Analysis of Aircraft Crash into Transportation Cask" was heavily redacted, so it's conclusion is unknown. Citing mostly national security reasons, the department withheld all but 23 pages of the 101-page report, leaving nothing but dull descriptions of airplanes that could conceivably crash in Nevada.
Since the most recent February 2003 report, we have learned that unlike the DOE, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does see a need for "further consideration" of aircraft hazards. The NRC is tasked with the awesome responsibility of licensing Yucca and agency officials are required to take the issue seriously. The NRC in March delayed the licensing of the proposed temporary waste storage area in Utah not based on project flaws cataloged by Utah officials, but because NRC officials wanted more analysis on -- of all things -- possible jet crashes.
NRC officials have told the Energy Department that they want more data about the likelihood of a crash at Yucca, too -- and much more information about the consequence of one. In a May 19, 2003, internal memo, NRC high-level waste branch chief Janet Schlueter requested that the same NRC specialist who reviewed the Utah jet-crash analysis, Dr. Kazimieras Campe, spend 480 hours over the next 12 months reviewing DOE jet-crash analysis at Yucca.
As for the mysterious December 2001 report, it naturally raises more questions than it answers. Among them: If the DOE has studied the issue of a jet crash into a moving waste container, where is the consequence report about a crash at the massive, fixed-target surface facility at Yucca?
And why the redactions? The department won't release the interesting parts of the report because it would cause "considerable harm and circumvention of matters of national security and risk the protection of sensitive critical infrastructure information," according to the DOE letter to Fitzpatrick.
It should be noted that the critical infrastructure doesn't even exist -- Yucca is still seven years or more from being constructed. If the report says the attack would be a fiery awful mess, shouldn't state leaders and emergency responders nationwide know that? And shouldn't that information be released so the public can hold the department accountable for devising a waste container that best withstands an attack?
"By withholding the information, they are essentially saying, 'We are reserving the right to go to field with the cask we have, regardless of the consequence analysis,' " Fitzpatrick said.
And if the report concludes that the massive high-tech waste containers would hold up well in such a highly unlikely attack, then shouldn't that information also be public, and in the hands of terrorists?
Fitzpatrick last week filed an appeal to obtain the missing material.
In the end, aircraft hazards still may seem like an obscure issue. It probably won't be the show-stopper that Nevada officials have long sought. But it matters because it's one more factor in the larger case that Nevadans have made against the project.
And it matters because it matters to the NRC, the last federal agency to decide the fate of Yucca Mountain.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
June 28, 2003
Answering Yucca questions still may not change minds
At last, Department of Energy officials have decided to deal directly with Nevadans on the issue of Yucca Mountain. Finally recognizing safety is a big issue for people objecting to burying nuclear waste in a desert repository, officials have agreed to answer about 200 scientific and technological questions.
They´re finally consulting the people, which is what government is supposed to do. But, it´s not likely Nevadans will like the idea any better after hearing the answers.
It´ll take about 18 months to entertain the questions and discuss them. The articulated goal is to smooth the way for the 2004 license application deadline. It´s been kind of hard to complete the necessary process when congressional representatives are questioning and staging hearings and probing questionable audits every step of the way.
The real goal is to put us at ease. To persuade us that the facility and its operations would be safe. And, to quiet us, so they can go ahead with plans to ship the trainloads of nuclear waste, anyway.
It´s good the DOE finally is taking the time to listen and to talk. Nevadans will learn a lot more about transporting, storing and handling nuclear waste. They´ll add that to what they already know about faulty canisters and reactors and capsizing trains. So, officials will have to come up with some radically different information to change the minds of Nevadans about the project.
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Las Vegas Sun
June 27, 2003
Nevada House delegation urges cut in Yucca Mountain funding
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada's House delegation said Friday that 18 congressional representatives want to slash the budget for a proposed national nuclear waste dump northwest of Las Vegas.
Republicans Jim Gibbons and Jon Porter, and Democrat Shelley Berkley said they sent a letter asking leaders of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water to cut funding to the Yucca Mountain project.
Gibbons called the Energy Department program "irreparably flawed" and Berkley and Porter called spending money on it wasteful.
They said Congress should require the Department of Energy to answer questions about the danger of transporting nuclear waste to Nevada and about unresolved technical and scientific issues.
Joe Davis, spokesman for the Energy Department in Washington, D.C., insisted the Yucca Mountain project is scientifically sound and dismissed the push to cut funding as misguided.
"Their rhetoric doesn't match the reality," he said.
Davis also said that while 18 members of Congress sent the letter, he thought representatives from the 39 states in which nuclear waste is stored would support funding to move it to Nevada.
Committee Chairman David Hobson, R-Ohio, and the ranking Democrat, Peter Visclosky of Indiana, were not immediately available for comment Friday.
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham warned the committee in February that budget cuts were threatening to delay development of the repository 90 miles from Las Vegas.
Department officials say they plan by the end of 2004 to submit an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to begin operating the repository in 2010.
Congress last year overrode Nevada's objections and approved plans to entomb 77,000 tons of commercial, industrial and military nuclear waste beneath an ancient volcanic ridge near the Nevada Test Site.
Nevada is also suing the federal government over the decision. Arguments are scheduled in September in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.
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KVBC
June 27, 2003
NRC Inspector General To Inspect Yucca Mountain
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's inspector general is going to investigate whether the agency fully checked claims of flaws in nuclear waste containers used in five states. NRC inspector George Mulley says he'll look at whether the NRC properly performed its oversight role.
Two public interest groups asked for the probe last week. One is leading the effort to stop the federal government from building the Yucca Mountain national nuclear waste dump in southern Nevada.
They cite a three-year-old Exelon Corporation audit that found flaws like bad welds in casks used at nuclear plants in Illinois, Georgia, New York, Oregon and Washington. A former Exelon auditor tells the newspaper he was retaliated against for reporting the flaws.
The casks were designed by New Jersey-based Holtec International and fabricated by US Tool-and-Die.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Las Vegas SUN
June 26, 2003
NRC inspector probing report of flaws in nuke waste casks
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's inspector general said Thursday he will investigate whether the agency appropriately responded to claims that nuclear waste containers currently in use in five states are flawed.
"We'll look at what did the NRC do to assure itself that there was follow-up" by the companies that build and use the casks, NRC inspector in Washington D.C., George Mulley, told the Las Vegas Sun.
The NRC is responsible for licensing and regulating nuclear facilities, including plants and onsite waste storage areas.
Two public interest groups, including one trying to stop the federal government from building a national nuclear waste dump in southern Nevada, requested the probe last week.
They pointed to a 3-year-old audit by Exelon Corp., a leading nuclear plant operator, which alleged flaws including possible welding problems in containers being used at plants in Illinois, Georgia, New York, Oregon and Washington.
The Sun reported that former Exelon auditor Oscar Shirani discovered nine flaws in a waste container used by Exelon and designed by New Jersey-based Holtec International and fabricated by Pittsburgh-based U.S. Tool & Die. Holtec is a likely bidder for the Yucca waste container contract.
Shirani told the newspaper that Exelon transferred him from the nuclear division to a finance division and eventually squeezed him out of the company because of his findings.
He said the company did not adequately respond to his audit findings, which indicated the waste casks might not stand up under stress or strain. Shirani brought his concerns to the NRC in December 2001.
"All the casks that are (currently) loaded are there in violation of the codes," Shirani said.
Holtec and Exelon representatives say the companies responded properly to the audit findings, and Exelon officials say they did not retaliate against Shirani.
Shirani said Exelon falsified records, which the company denies.
Similar containers would be used to transport and store nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"We're hopeful there will be a thorough investigation," said Lisa Gue of Public Citizen, which along with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service requested the investigator general probe.
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Las Vegas Mercury
June 27, 2003
Backstory: Odds and ends
By Michael Green
Most Nevadans are trying to figure out just what is wrong with the Legislature. But odd political behavior is more widespread than that.
¥ George W. Bush may visit Nevada to observe an anti-terrorism exercise at Indian Springs. Perhaps he will take time to raise more money for his campaign to win the White House legitimately. An aide to GOP Rep. Jim Gibbons, who may or may not challenge Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, said the congressman will be by Bush's side and support his campaign, despite Bush lying to Nevadans about whether he supported dumping high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.
Interestingly, talk of Bush's possible visit followed reports that the Environmental Protection Agency was to issue warnings about rising global temperatures. But the White House edited the report. One critic called the EPA's submission to this always-apolitical White House--just ask them--"junk science." A better term would be "sound science," which Bush promised to rely on when he lied about how he would make his decision on Yucca Mountain.
The oddity is not the administration lying, or Gibbons putting party loyalty ahead of his state's well-being. The oddity is, if Bush comes, many Nevadans will bow in his direction and vote for him next year because he's in the White House when he actually deserves impeachment, conviction, arrest and indictment for the deaths of our war heroes in Iraq and recklessly endangering the lives of the rest of us.
Getting rid of Saddam Hussein is a noble idea. But Bush and his lackeys attacked the United Nations for failing to find weapons of mass destruction. Now they haven't found any weapons themselves, and say that isn't the issue anyway; what mattered was ousting a dictator. Then why not say so in the first place? Apparently, Bush considers those who voted for him too stupid to be trusted with the truth. Not that he has any familiarity with it himself.
Meanwhile, the hunt for Osama bin Laden continues. Bush must have put O.J. Simpson in charge of it; look at his success in finding the real killers.
¥ No sooner did Janet Moncrief take her seat on the Las Vegas City Council than Steve Miller, a controversial ex-councilman, attacked her. No surprise there, except he claimed to have been a silent cog in her campaign; the surprise is Miller could be silent. But now he considers her a sellout. Why? Because she received fundraising help from a consultant for Mayor Oscar Goodman, among other crimes.
The oddity is, if Miller thinks Moncrief would sell out that easily, how could he ever have supported her? Has it occurred to anyone that as a new councilwoman, Moncrief might be well-advised to talk and listen to people who have been involved in the process?
¥ The teachers union is beloved among those who like it and hated by those who don't. That means it's acting like a union. Whether or not you agree with a union, its job is to protect its members, which means demanding that the Legislature fund education as the union wants and threatening havoc if it doesn't. But last week, the union became...odd.
In targeting 10 legislators with whom the union is upset, it rescinded its endorsement of Assemblyman Bob Beers. Beers is a Republican who started the session by questioning the decency of casino workers and sees no problem with Nevada being ranked among the states with the worst quality of life.
Beers and the union are entitled to their opinions. But his Democratic opponent in 2002, Howard Bycroft, happens to teach high school history. How can the teachers union endorse an assemblyman with whom it differs on most issues, and bypass one of its own? Then, how can it be silly enough afterward to rescind the endorsement?
The answer is, this odd behavior has happened before and will happen again. On a more personal note, I spent a brief sentence as local political action coordinator for the Nevada Faculty Alliance--not a union, but an organization to which many professors around the state belong. I went along with endorsing a few candidates whose views I--and most of the members--found wanting. Why? Because they were going to win no matter what we did, so why not get on their good side?
After I left the NFA, it chose not to make an endorsement in a primary. But that primary involved Paul Aizley, a former NFA president. Some members were outraged: He was one of their own. He ended up receiving the endorsement in the general election, which incumbent Thalia Dondero won. But the NFA's actions--and Dondero's vicious and untrue attacks on Aizley in mailers--left a bitter taste. And I confess: Another time, I fought the endorsement of an NFA member on the grounds that he had forgotten he belonged to the organization. He resented that, as did some of his friends in the NFA, and I am glad.
The problem lies with sleeping with the enemy. Just because professors, pipefitters or Playboy playmates endorse someone for election, that doesn't mean the candidate will be on your side in the future. Members of the teachers union could reasonably ask why Beers received an endorsement in the first place. He didn't suddenly change when this legislative session began.
And you thought the Legislature was odd. At least folks in Carson City can take heart: The weirdness isn't limited to their town.
- Michael Green teaches history at the Community College of Southern Nevada.
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Las Vegas SUN
June 26, 2003
Probe of nuke waste casks is set
By Benjamin Grove
<grove@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN
WASHINGTON -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's inspector general said this morning that he will investigate whether the agency appropriately responded to charges that a nuclear waste container used in five states is flawed.
The issue is relevant to the dispute over Yucca Mountain because waste containers would be used in the transportation and storage of nuclear waste if the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas becomes the nation's high-level nuclear waste repository.
Two public interest groups requested the probe last week, based on a 3-year-old audit by Exelon Corp., the nation's leading nuclear plant operator.
Former Exelon auditor Oscar Shirani discovered nine flaws in a waste container used by Exelon and designed by New Jersey-based Holtec International and fabricated by U.S. Tool & Die. Holtec is a likely bidder for the Yucca waste container contract.
The alleged flaws included possible welding problems in the waste cask. The same type of casks are currently in use at plants in Illinois, Oregon, New York, Georgia and Washington.
Shirani said Exelon transferred him from the nuclear division to a finance division and eventually squeezed him out of the company because of his findings. He alleges that the company did not adequately respond to his audit findings, which indicated the waste casks might not stand up under stress or strain. Shirani brought his concerns to the NRC in December 2001.
Holtec and Exelon representatives say the companies responded properly to the audit findings, and Exelon officials say they did not retaliate against Shirani. Shirani said Exelon falsified records, which the company denies.
"All the casks that are (currently) loaded are there in violation of the codes," Shirani told the Sun.
The NRC's inspector general's office plans to launch an investigation of whether the NRC properly performed its oversight duties, NRC inspector George Mulley said today. The NRC is responsible for licensing and regulating nuclear facilities, including plants and on-site waste storage areas.
"We'll look at what did the NRC do to assure itself that there was follow-up by the companies (Holtec and Exelon)," Mulley said.
Lisa Gue of Public Citizen, which along with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service requested the IG probe, said she was encouraged to hear the NRC would look into the matter.
"We're hopeful there will be a thorough investigation," Gue said.
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Las Vegas SUN
June 26, 2003
More time given to fight nuke dump
State has $1 million remaining to use in legal battle over Yucca Mountain
By Cy Ryan
<cy@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Capital Bureau
CARSON CITY -- The deadline for the state Office for Nuclear Projects to spend $1 million of state money in the fight against a high level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain has been extended to June 30, 2005.
The Legislative Interim Finance Committee had allocated $3 million to the office in 2002 to help the state in its legal and public relations battle but set June 30, 2003, as the cut-off date for spending the money.
Former Attorney General Brian McKay, who is chairman of the advisory committee on nuclear projects, said the committee has $1 million remaining and wants to use that money to continue the legal battle, including upcoming hearings before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Before the regulatory commission begins hearings, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., will conduct hearings Oct. 3 on the four lawsuits filed by Nevada in the state's effort to derail the Energy Department's bid to to build the repository.
The original court hearing was scheduled for September, but it has been delayed, said McKay and Bob Loux, director of the state office.
When it agreed Tuesday to allow the state office to have an extension to spend the money for two years, the interim finance committee also removed a requirement for matching funds for the remaining $1 million.
At the time of the original $3 million allocation, it came with the condition that matching money would have to be raised, Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said. McKay said that about $2 million was collected as the match.
"We're probably capped out," McKay said.
The $1 million is not the only money that the state has lined up for the Yucca Mountain fight. The 2003 Legislature has allocated $2 million to Attorney General Brian Sandoval for the same cause.
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Las Vegas SUN
June 25, 2003
Audit says funds wasted in cask program
Las Vegas SUN
WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department wasted money and resources in its quest to develop nuclear waste containers, according to a new audit.
The department, which manages the Yucca Mountain project aimed at creating a national high-level nuclear waste repository, also directs research and development of waste storage and shipping containers.
The audit noted among its findings that the department developed three different interim storage containers at three department sites. Also, two other department divisions -- the Yucca Mountain project office and the department's naval reactor program -- were simultaneously pursuing different waste-shipping cask designs, according to the Energy Department's Inspector General audit released Tuesday.
The department had no comprehensive plan for cask development, the audit said. A "significant portion" of a $13.8 million waste package design budget might have been saved if the department had eliminated redundancies, the audit said.
"The opportunity still exists for the department to avoid potentially redundant development activities for transportation casks by consolidating two development programs with an estimated combined cost of $9 million to $24 million," the audit said.
The audit recommended that the department's assistant secretary for environmental management and the director of the Yucca Mountain office be given sufficient authority to integrate cask development, and that they consider coordinating on a single cask design with the naval reactors program.
In an official response, Yucca project managers disagreed with the recommendation that they coordinate with the naval reactors program. Naval nuclear waste and commercial power plant waste are too different for the two divisions to work together on the same cask design, the managers said.
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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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