Yucca Mountain News Clips
Friday, July 25, 2003
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Las Vegas SUN
July 25, 2003
Worries voiced over nuclear waste transport
Nevada residents tell panel of scientists about their concerns
By Mary Manning
Las Vegas SUN
Urban as well as rural Nevada residents told a National Academies of Sciences panel how worried they are about plans to transport high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain Thursday night.
The Las Vegas meeting, which continues today, was the second conducted as part of the National Academy's Board on Radioactive Waste Management's two-year, $840,000 study of radioactive transport nationwide.
"The implications of the study are national," board chairman Neal Lane said.
The National Academies of Sciences is an independent body of scientific and technical experts who research issues requested by Congress or federal agencies. The nuclear waste study, however, was initiated by the National Academies itself, Lane said.
"There's enough time to do the study and it has important implications" for public perceptioins of the risks posed by thousands of shipments of spent fuel and defense nuclear wastes that will cross the nation for almost 30 years, Lane said.
The Department of Energy's own plans to move nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, are "immature," Lane said.
The Energy Department has said it has not had enough funding to complete the work necessary to submit a necessary license application. The application to build the repository must be submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by 2004 and decide transportation issues.
Las Vegas resident Art Rader, who studied historic rail routes while earning a master's degree in archaeology, suggested the panel examine remote track lines that avoid populated areas such as Las Vegas, Reno, Tonopah and Beatty.
Since thousands of shipments will arrive in Nevada to reach Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, "we are the end of the pipeline," Rader said.
Instead of shipping radioactive wastes through Caliente or Apex, 15 miles north of Las Vegas, Radar urged the panel to examine existing tracks across Northern Nevada, then adding a 150-mile line along an abandoned route from Hawthorne to Beatty where it could be brought to Yucca.
"In history lies the best way to get to Yucca Mountain," Rader said.
Albert Verrilli, a Beatty resident, said nuclear waste shipping is a major concern for rural residents.
"Transportation is the most critical and pressing issue," Verrilli said.
"It would be impossible to truck it through Beatty without major road redesign,' Verrilli said, referring to a 90-degree turn on the main road passing through the town.
Although there is no rail route to Yucca, the Energy Department is considering building one, but has not had the funds to complete its studies.
Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., weighed in from Washington via a letter sent to the board. The Nevada congressional delegation favors leaving nuclear waste at the reactor sites, securing it in dry cask storage until a technical disposal method is perfected.
"Do you really want to further the interests of terrorists with mobile nuclear weapons?" Porter wrote, referring to a possible sabotage or terrorist attack on truck or trainloads of nuclear waste.
Porter noted that trucks or trains loaded with nuclear waste will pass 50 million people living less than a mile from the proposed routes.
Las Vegas asked that the panel request the Energy Department redo the final Environmental Impact Statement because radioactive waste transportation was not fully addressed.
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Dallas Morning News
July 25, 2003
Nuclear debate powers up
By Sudeep Reddy
DALLAS--A few years ago, the nation's nuclear power industry seemed to be on a path toward steady decline.
The chance of a new U.S. nuclear power plant breaking through financial barriers and public opposition was so unlikely that the issue had dropped off the nation's political radar.
But today, the nuclear power industry is facing its best prospect for revival in a quarter-century, thanks to strong support from top legislators, newer technology and skyrocketing natural gas prices.
Government officials as powerful as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan are rallying for the development of new nuclear power plants, to promote energy diversity and fend off damage to the economy from upheaval in the natural gas markets.
For two decades, nuclear reactors have been the nation's second-largest source of electricity, behind coal. Their advancement in the 1970s helped eliminate oil as a major source of electricity generation, as dependency on oil imports rocked the economy.
With the nation increasingly dependent on natural gas today, and on the cusp of becoming a major gas importer, the nuclear power industry has gained support across the country in the name of the economy and energy security.
"I think it's likely that a new nuclear plant will be built somewhere in the U.S. within the next five to 10 years," said Wes Taylor, president of production at TXU Corp., Texas' largest utility.
"This country needs to build new power plants that use something other than natural gas," he said.
At least three utilities plan to seek permits for new nuclear reactors, and supporters in Washington are lining up to push the industry into a new era and prove the financial viability of nuclear power.
The U.S. Senate narrowly backed a plan in June to support theindustry through loan guarantees, research funds and the permanent re-authorization of the Price-Anderson Act, which limits the liability of nuclear operators.
The financial assistance could cover up to half the project costs of the first new nuclear plants -- through loan guarantees or lines of credit -- at a cost of $14 billion to $16 billion, according to the Congressional Research Service.
But critics of nuclear power are up in arms over the financial backing of an industry that had been on track for a steady decline.
The Senate energy bill is "one of the most strongly pro-nuclear pieces of energy legislation since 1954, when the Atomic Energy Act was first passed," said Lisa Gue, an energy analyst at Public Citizen, the consumer-advocacy group.
"This is completely the opposite of the kinds of energy policies that we need to reorient our energy dependence toward safe, clean and affordable energy sources," said Gue, whose group calls for more investment in wind, solar and other renewable energy technologies.
Critics already are organizing opposition to the new plants. On her family farm in Mississippi, Martha Ferris said she had always felt uncomfortable about Entergy Corp.'s nuclear power plant 35 miles away. But when she learned of the company's plans for a new reactor, she went from being a quiet observer to a community activist.
A new reactor hasn't been ordered in the United States since 1978. But nuclear power advocates say that the last two decades have brought a vastly different set of circumstances -- enhanced safety records, far more efficient operations and sharply improved performance levels. The nation's 103 nuclear reactors operate at 90 percent of their capacity today, compared to 56 percent in 1980.
Last year's rancorous debate over transporting and storing nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain underscored the public's sensitivity to nuclear plants and their byproducts.
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Washington Times
July 25, 2003
Nuclear waste shipping resumes
By Tom Ramstack
The Washington Times
The Department of Energy has lifted its moratorium on nuclear-waste shipments imposed after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The routes no longer include plans for moving the shipments by rail through downtown Washington.
"The moratorium is lifted," Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said.
The nuclear waste is being shipped from nuclear power plants and Defense Department installations to federal storage sites.
Virginia officials confirmed this week that nuclear-waste shipments have resumed through their state.
"Yes, we have been notified of at least one instance I'm aware of," said Kevin Hall, spokesman for Virginia Gov. Mark Warner. "But for obvious national security reasons, I would decline to provide any details."
Most nuclear waste produced by power plants at Calvert Cliffs in Maryland and North Anna in Virginia is stored on site.
In the United States, nearly all high-level nuclear waste consists of fuel rods used to control the amount of energy generated by nuclear power plants. When the rods become saturated with radiation, they must be discarded. However, they can remain dangerously radioactive for centuries.
The 103 nuclear reactors in 31 states produce 20 percent of the nation's electricity. Most of the waste not stored on site is shipped to federal storage facilities near Barnwell, S.C.; Hanford, Wash.; and Idaho Falls, Idaho.
A smaller amount of high-level radioactive waste is produced by the Defense Department during uranium processing for nuclear weapons.
The long-term solution will be underground storage at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert. However, the Yucca Mountain facility is not scheduled to open until 2010.
The issue of safety arose this month when residents in upstate New York complained about nuclear-waste shipments from a former Defense Department facility in West Valley, N.Y. The shipment of 125 spent nuclear fuel rod assemblies moved by rail this week to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.
Energy Department officials said the moratorium on shipments was lifted sometime before the nuclear waste was shipped this week. However, they would not disclose details of when nuclear waste is shipped or the routes used, except with local authorities who participate in security arrangements.
"Shipments are monitored 24 hours a day and escorted 24 hours a day," Mr. Davis said.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it imposed new security requirements last year on power plants shipping waste but gave few details.
"The augmented security requirements included increased communications and additional escort and monitoring provisions," commission spokeswoman Sue Gagner said.
Safety was an issue in the Washington area after the September 11 attacks. An Energy Department map of proposed routes for nuclear-waste shipments showed some of them would be carried on railroad tracks along Virginia Avenue, near L'Enfant Plaza and about a half-mile from the Capitol.
After September 11, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it would review and revamp its routes for greater security.
"The information I have on any movements is classified," said Dan Murphy, spokesman for CSX Transportation, the railroad whose tracks are used for many of the nuclear-waste shipments along the East Coast. "The one thing I can tell you is no nuclear waste moves through the Virginia Avenue tunnel."
Other routes would have carried nuclear-waste shipments by rail through Baltimore and by truck near Richmond and Baltimore.
Energy Department officials refused to give further information about routes used since the moratorium was lifted.
"We don't disclose that," Mr. Davis said.
The Energy Department hopes secrecy will help them avoid risks such as terrorists firing a missile at a cask carrying nuclear waste.
Bob Halstead, transportation adviser to the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, told Congress last year that a 1998 test at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland showed an armor-piercing anti-tank TOW missile could blast a hole in even the strongest of nuclear-waste transportation casks.
The missile cut a 4- to 6-inch diameter hole in a rail cask, Mr. Halstead testified to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The smaller truck casks are even more vulnerable.
Nuclear energy industry officials deny the casks create risks from a terrorist attack.
"These are extremely robust containers," said Steve Kerekes, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the policy organization for the nuclear energy industry. "On the relative scale of risk, this would have to be far down the list compared to anything else terrorists could do easily to cause public harm."
Since 1964, about 3,000 nuclear-waste shipments have been made, none of which leaked radiation, Mr. Kerekes said.
Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico is experimenting with the casks to determine whether they could be made stronger.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
July 23, 2003
NRC issues final plan for reviewing Nevada nuke dump license
Associated Press
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has released its plan for reviewing an Energy Department license application to build the nation's nuclear waste dump in the Nevada desert.
The document released Tuesday does not set licensing criteria for the Yucca Mountain site, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It instead aims to ensure"quality and uniformity"of commission staff reviews of the license application. The commission approved the document June 26.
Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis called it a"road map"for the license review.
It outlines how the regulatory commission intends to review the license application, including plans for before the repository opens and after it closes; research and development to resolve safety issues; and repository performance and administrative requirements.
The Energy Department plans to submit a license application by the end of 2004 and open the repository in 2010.
It would remain open for 50 years, with waste arriving until 2034. Plans call for entombing 70,000 tons of commercial, industrial and military radioactive waste in casks set in tunnels 1,000 feet beneath an ancient volcanic ridge. Scientists say the material will remain radioactive for 10,000 years.
Congress last year picked the site after recommendations from Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and President Bush.
A draft of the commission's plan was released in March for informational purposes but not public comment. The commission took five months of comment and held three public meetings in Nevada after a previous draft was released in March 2002.
Other federal laws set licensing requirements, which Nevada has challenged in court. Arguments in the case are due in September in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Jeff Ciocco, an NRC senior project manager, said the 472-page document is posted on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Internet Web site and includes graphics and flow charts to improve staff understanding and use. He said a detailed notice outlining the changes and public comment responses will appear in the Federal Register.
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On the Net:
Yucca Mountain project:http://www.ymp.gov/
Nuclear Regulatory Commission:http://www.nrc.gov/
Nevada opposition:http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste
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Las Vegas Mercury
July 24, 2003
Two-party protest
No partisan caterwauling at this Yucca Mountain protest
By Heidi Walters
The last time a group of local Democrats stood on a corner and protested a bigwig Republican fundraiser (January 2002, when House Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey dined in the gated Tournament Hills of Summerlin), a group of Republicans cropped up catty-corner to heckle and counter-protest. The Democrats yelled, President Bush betrayed Nevada on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump issue. The Republicans shouted, don't diss our man. The brief caterwaul was heated.
Quite a different scene unfolded Monday morning when Democrats, several environmental groups, about 50 members of the Culinary Union and a host of others gathered outside the walled-off Spanish Trail community at Tropicana Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard to protest a Bush-Cheney $2,000/plate fest, starring V.P. Dick Cheney, inside the home of booze maven Larry Ruvo, the campaign's state finance chairman.
This time, the Republicans joined the Democrats on the same side of the street. The Dems and enviros were still decrying the administration's gall in coming to Nevada to load up on local cash while trying to ram nuke waste down a mostly reluctant citizenry's throat. And the 'pubs weren't objecting.
"It's kind of interesting," said Dan Geary of the National Environmental Trust. "There are people from both parties here. We've about doubled our expected turnout--I had no idea it would be like this."
'Course, a closer inspection proved the 'pubs weren't entirely in concert with their sidewalk brothers and sisters. Sure, they were all melting consistently in the triple-digit near-noon swelter. And, sure, everyone seemed against the Yucca project. "I've been here for 27 years," said Anthony Bandiero, of the Young Republicans, who is 27. "I don't want Yucca Mountain to be here. I'm protesting Yucca Mountain. But I wouldn't say we agree philosophically with the Democrats." As far as Cheney goes, Bandiero said, "I want to support him on deciding Yucca Mountain based on science." He said he's chiefly concerned about the transportation of the waste.
That's also what concerns Irving Norwood, a Sierra Club member for 20 years. "The frightening thing is, there's going to be 50 shipments a year, and nearly all would come through here," he said.
The 100-strong crowd on the north side of the street cheered when a splinter group, carrying a coffin, silently walked up the south side and planted small white crosses in the grass bordering the high wall enclosing Spanish Trail. Several semi trucks tearing past on Tropicana honked in repeated friendly fashion. In fact, the only sign of an argument came when a man driving by in a pickup jabbed his finger out the window and cried, "No they weren't!" at a person holding a sign that said, "The Dixie Chicks were right!" Otherwise, the loudest it got was when the diverse, civilized crowd chanted briefly, "Not a done deal! Not a done deal!"
When the protest was officially over, one woman, Sam Michael, was still standing there holding her sign that said, "I'm not buying anything till Bush-Cheney are out."
"I'm not buying cars, I'm not buying stock, I'm not buying real estate," she explained. "I've just made up my mind. Thousands of people marched against the war, but that didn't stop them. They don't understand anything but money."
The unified protest belied a recent poll assertion that Nevadans are now resigned to negotiating with the government over the Yucca Mountain dump. Apparently, not all of them are.
But, then, what does Bush-Cheney care? The campaign still raised $300,000 in one short morning.
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Las Vegas Mercury
July 24, 2003
Quick and Dirty: A notebook of news and politics
Talkin' nukes
Today (Thursday) and tomorrow, a committee of scientists from the National Academies is meeting in Las Vegas to discuss transportation of radioactive waste through our region. The scientists are tooling around today along "potential" nuclear waste transport routes: stop 1, the Jean corridor and proposed Sloan/Jean intermodal site, where waste would be transferred from rail to truck; stop 2, Terrible's Casino in Pahrump, where future nuke waste truckers will be taking breaks to slog down much-needed liquid refreshment (nope, just kidding; it's where the academy scientists will meet with Nye County reps for a confab); stop 3 in Amargosa Valley and the Yucca Mountain entrance gate; stop 4 at U.S. 95 and Centennial in northwest Las Vegas to have a gander at a proposed truck route around Las Vegas; stop 5 at a "valley modified rail corridor; and stop 6 along I-15 at another proposed transfer site near Apex.
After Thursday's tour, there's a public comment session from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 4255 S. Paradise Road.
On Friday, the committee meets in the Plaza from 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. to talk about everything nuke waste transport related: Nevada's perspective, Yucca Mountain risks and impacts, full-scale testing of shipping casks, the Baltimore Tunnel fire, emergency management issues, development of a national transportation plan, county government perspectives, tribal perspectives and views from activist groups. Be there.--HW
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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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