Yucca Mountain News Clips - Monday, August 11, 2003

Yucca Mountain News Clips
Monday, August 11, 2003
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Las Vegas SUN
August 11, 2003

Editorial: Don't take risks with nuke waste

Las Vegas SUN

Rep. Shelley Berkley has introduced legislation that would require the federal government to undertake a thorough analysis of the threats posed by terrorism to the transportation of nuclear waste and its planned storage in Nevada. The Nevada Democrat also wants an anti-terrorism plan to be in place before the Energy Department could seek a license to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain.

A spokesman for the nuclear power industry dismisses the need for Berkley's legislation. As the Sun reported Friday, the Nuclear Energy Institute's Mitch Singer noted that Yucca Mountain is next to Nellis Air Force Base and the entrance to the dumpsite is beyond the Nevada Test Site's secured gates. "It's not exactly the kind of target that offers any type of success," Singer said. But it's precisely this kind of head-in-the-sand logic that could result in another devastating terrorist attack along the lines that happened 9-11. For that matter, the nuclear power industry is hardly the place the government should turn to for advice about anti-terrorism preparedness. Don't forget that in mock terrorism attacks against nuclear power plants -- conducted prior to 9-11 -- more than half of the time security guards at the plants failed to stop them.

Last year, despite evidence that the Energy Department's plan to get rid of nuclear waste presented a wide range of dangers to public safety, Congress and the White House irresponsibly put the Yucca Mountain project on a fast track. But President Bush and Congress shouldn't continue to dodge the threat to national security that would be created by the Yucca Mountain project -- and passage of Berkley's legislation would be a step in the right direction.

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Las Vegas SUN
August 11, 2003

Contamination found on shipment of spent nuclear fuel

By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN

WASHINGTON -- A recent Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection detected nearly twice the amount of allowable radiation limits on a spent nuclear fuel rail shipment cask in North Carolina.

The contamination was discovered at the end of July during a routine inspection of a shipment from Progress Energy's Robinson nuclear power plant in South Carolina, after it arrived at the company's Harris plant near Raleigh, N.C. The cask's inspection before leaving Robinson did not detect anything.

Progress spokesman Rick Kimble said nothing leaked from the container. It was not a breach, but instead was a cask that was not properly inspected or decontaminated before leaving South Carolina, he said. He said some material from the fuel pool got onto the cask and a "swab" test done before its departure failed to find it.

"We don't know why it wasn't picked up, but this is unacceptable to us," Kimble said.

He noted that the commission will conduct an investigation and that the amount of contamination involved was "fairly undetectable."

"If you put your hand on the spot for an hour, you would get less than one percent of the radiation of a chest X-ray," Kimble said.

Although the cask was smaller than what would potentially ship nuclear waste to the proposed federal repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the fact that there was contamination -- and the secrecy surrounding it -- concerns Judy Treichel director of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force and other nuclear critics.

"Here you have a cask the exceeds the limit, it is a violation and you can't know anything because it is referred to security," she said.

Treichel noted that the commission's event report even says that certain information cannot be disclosed over "nonsecure communications."

Since few details were made public on the incident, Public Citizen and North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network sent a letter to North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, saying it is "unacceptable for the NRC to withhold information from the public about surface contamination of a container."

"If Progress Energy can't keep the casks clean now in its relatively small-scale shipping campaign, what assurances are there that similar contamination incidents would not be routine if tens of thousands of nuclear shipments start moving to Utah or Nevada?" said Lisa Gue, senior energy analyst with Public Citizen.

A group called Private Fuel Storage hopes to build an interim storage facility on an Indian reservation in Utah.

Kimble said the entire shipping program is safeguarded and those who need to know details do know them.

"This it not a stop the presses type of thing, but the fact is they tell us nothing can go wrong and everything is safe and this (contamination) happens," Treichel said.

She noted that exposure to the legal limit of radiation, 10 milirem at about six feet per hour, "is not a big deal for a male athlete, but for a pregnant female it is a big deal."

She said most people would even be shocked to know there is an allowable limit of radiation.

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Reno Gazette Journal
August 10, 2003

Residents protest against nukes at UNR

Carla Roccapriore

About 70,000 people were killed by an atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, from a U.S. aircraft, three days after the one that leveled Hiroshima and killed or injured 160,000 people.

Six days later, on Aug. 15, 1945, Japan´s surrender ended World War II.

Concerned about a potential “nuclear nightmare,’ people voiced concerns Saturday through poetry, prayer and in writing about Bush administration plans to test weapons of mass destruction in the United States.

The rally coincided with ceremonies last week in Japan commemorating the 58th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki, Japan, which followed the bombing three days earlier of Hiroshima.

Many who attended the rally said the United States has a responsibility to the world to work toward nuclear disarmament.

“They´ve never stopped testing them,’ said Reno resident Richie Haber, 56. “They do sub-critical testing, which is just short of full-scale nuclear weapons.

“It´s very likely (this will continue) unless people like us start organizing, banding together and letting our Congress people know it´s not acceptable.’

About 100 people gathered at the University of Nevada, Reno´s Manzanita Bowl for the four-hour rally marked by music, speeches and informational booths sponsored by Citizen Alert and the Reno Anti-War Coalition.

According to the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Nevada Test Site is one of five finalists for the location of a modern plutonium pit facility to be in operation by 2020.

Plutonium pits are the triggers that are at the heart of modern thermonuclear weapons, according to Nuclear Watch New Mexico. The United States lost the capability to produce plutonium pits for its nuclear weapons stockpile in 1989 after a raid by the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigating alleged environmental crimes at the Rocky Flats Plant near Denver.

Howard Knudsen, a 19-year-old UNR student from Sparks, said he opposes additional nuclear weapons and thinks they might backfire on the United States.

“I´d feel less safe by far,’ Knudsen said. “The more weapons we have, the more likely we are to use them and if we use them on a country, it´ll mean more countries in the world will fight against us.’

Organizers also addressed the federal government´s plans to store radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain. They sold bumper stickers, pins and T-shirts reading things such as “Better active today than radioactive tomorrow’ and “Nevada is not a wasteland.’

Signs saying things such as “Tyranny provokes terrorism’ and “Peace is patriotic’ were staked in the ground. A table also was set up for people to write letters to their congressional representatives in Washington, D.C.

The Rev. Chuck Durante of Our Lady of Wisdom Catholic Church in Reno, said there needs to be more discussion in churches, synagogues and in the community.

“There must be a renewed use of people power to change attitudes of those who work for us,’ said Durante, 43, also chairman of the Life, Peace and Justice Commission. “Don´t be afraid to say that nuclear weapons are unmoral, unneeded or unheeded.’

UNR student Masako Ochiai, a member of the campus Japanese Student Action Network, said she and fellow students selected and read several poems on the microphone, such as Hara Tamiki´s “When we say Hiroshima,’ which dealt with suffering war victims.

Since arriving in the United States a year ago, Ochiai said she´s found Americans aren´t as apathetic as they´re made out.

“I didn´t know there was so many people in America paying attention to nuclear weapons,’ said Ochiai, 21.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 09, 2003

DOE seeks law that could tighten Yucca secrecy

Some lawmakers, watchdog groups raise concerns about proposal

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Energy is seeking a new law from Congress that could tighten secrecy on the Yucca Mountain Project.

A small piece of legislation expands DOE control on information about unclassified security-related aspects of nuclear waste storage facilities and factories that enrich uranium for nuclear fuel.

Some lawmakers and watchdog groups said they fear it could lead DOE to restrict information about transportation routes to the proposed Yucca Mountain repository or limit disclosures about possible threats to the Nevada site from airplane crashes.

The provision "gives the Department of Energy the authority to shut the American public out of the Yucca Mountain Project process," Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said in a July 22 letter to House Armed Services Committee leaders that was co-signed by Reps. Jim Gibbons and Jon Porter, both R-Nev.

Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said such broad concern is unwarranted. He described the effort as a "safeguards and security step we are taking post 9-11."

"When you are talking about nuclear facilities and transportation of hazardous cargo, any reasonable person will believe in a post 9-11 world some precautions need to be taken to address security," Davis said.

The DOE-requested provision was made part of a defense authorization bill that passed the House on May 21. The bill is awaiting a conference committee with the Senate that is expected to get under way when Congress returns from recess in September.

Organizations that oppose plans for a Yucca Mountain repository intend to send letters to conference negotiators urging them to kill the proposal, said Lisa Gue, policy analyst for Public Citizen, a government monitoring group.

"This would allow the Department of Energy broad discretion to not make public any information about the Yucca Mountain Project by playing the security card," Gue said.

Specifically, the legislation gives DOE broader authority to designate "unclassified controlled nuclear information," a category historically applied to nuclear weapons facilities, said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy.

"This is information that isn't made public for security reasons but also not classified so it can be shared with law enforcement and emergency response personnel who probably wouldn't have clearance," Aftergood explained.

The new legislation "would expand it to other DOE facilities that are not necessarily defense-related," Aftergood said.

Davis said DOE believes the 1954 Atomic Energy Act that sets rules for handling of nuclear information needs updating to reflect security considerations at waste storage and uranium processing plants. "Those old definitions don't cover us today," he said.

"It would be up to our office of security as to what information would be released if these new definitions are adopted," Davis said.

Gibbons, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, has complained to leaders the provision is overly broad, spokeswoman Amy Spanbauer said. Gibbons was traveling overseas and could not be contacted.

"His position is that if the information is so important to keep from the public, then classify the information," Spanbauer said. "If you keep it unclassified, there's no reason why the public shouldn't have the ability to access it."

Aftergood said the Energy Department "abused" the law in the past to withhold unclassified information.

"But in the last several years, DOE has eliminated most of that abuse," he said. "They're employing it in a fairly rational and circumscribed manner."

Aftergood said when he saw the legislation, "I looked at this and wondered how upset I should be, and concluded I probably should not," he said.

He added, however, that skeptics raise "legitimate questions. I think this is an authority that lends itself to abuse if it is not carefully monitored. Perhaps this provision could be tweaked."

Citing sources on Capitol Hill, Gue said DOE "came in with this language specifically for Yucca Mountain." A second congressional official said DOE has floated a compromise limiting the provision to the Yucca project and research reactors at universities.

Davis said the Nevada nuclear waste project is not driving the issue. "The DOE has facilities all over the country. We have a bigger job than just Yucca Mountain," he said.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 09, 2003

Berkley renews demand for anti-terrorist plan for Yucca

Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., has resurrected a bill that would require the government to develop a comprehensive anti-terrorist plan before applying for a license to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

The legislation seeks to stall the nuclear waste repository planned for Nevada by creating "massive hoops and hurdles for the Energy Department to jump through to demonstrate every possible safety aspect of Yucca Mountain shipping and storage is covered," Berkley chief of staff Richard Urey said Friday.

Berkley was traveling overseas and could not be reached for comment.

She introduced the bill on July 25, with Reps. Jim Gibbons and Jon Porter, both R-Nev., as cosponsors.

The bill directs the Homeland Security director to enlist federal, state and local law enforcers to prepare plans to counter possible terrorist attacks on nuclear waste shipments to Nevada, the proposed repository 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and water and power systems that would supply the project.

Further it requires the Federal Emergency Management Agency to come up with a coordinated emergency response strategy in case of a terror attack.

The Energy Department could not complete a Yucca Mountain license plan until both are done, according to the bill.

Berkley submitted a similar measure in October 2001 that died in committee without a hearing.

Urey said that while the bill probably won't pass, Berkley intends to provoke discussion.

"She hopes to open the eyes of some members," he said. "This lays out the issues they will likely have to address at some point. All these standards of safety should apply, and it's going to cost a lot of money but they have to be addressed."

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KSTP
August 09, 2003

Prairie Island indians have mixed fortunes

By Renee Ruble
Associated Press Writer

RED WING, Minn. (AP) - On the bumpy streets of the Prairie Island Indian Community, children on golf carts and scooters whip about the little knot of houses at the center of the reservation.

Although the homes are modest two-story affairs, many have shiny ATVs and sport utility vehicles parked out front, evidence of the money casino gambling has brought to the reservation.

But there's no recreational vehicle parked outside Lylis Warhol's house. There's a sweat lodge, and inside, a packed bookshelf is testament to how Warhol has used her share of casino profits.

"I bought all the books on Native American history the historical society had," Warhol said.

Despite the recent economic success in this tiny Mdewakanton Dakota community, about a 20-minute drive northwest of Red Wing, elders remember the days when they played with old tires as children on the gravel roads of a destitute reservation that didn't have electrical lights. Perhaps that's why Warhol, and others, hesitate to embrace the casino wealth.

They worry that the casino will wither, not unreasonable given the Legislature's recent flirtation with entering the business.

They say it's critical to invest in education and to look for new economic development opportunities - no easy task given their limited land and the nearby nuclear plant.

"Just leave us alone and let us catch up to the rest of society," said Darelynn Lehto, who serves on Prairie Island's four-person tribal council.

Nestled along the Mississippi River on 600 sandy acres - about half of it habitable - the Prairie Island Indian Community is one of the smallest of Minnesota's 11 Indian bands. It was incorporated just 67 years ago.

But the Dakota have lived on these forested bluffs for centuries. For the most part, tribal elders say Prairie Island kept to itself while communities like Red Wing and Hastings flourished on the other side of the railroad tracks.

"We've always been a tribe of leave them alone," said Freeman Johnson, a longtime leader of the band.

These days, Prairie Island is easy to find. Just follow the clouds billowing from a pair of nuclear reactors nearby.

Since Xcel Energy (then known as Northern States Power) arrived three decades ago, tribal leaders say Prairie Island has changed alongside their nuclear neighbor. Nobody wants to swim in the river anymore. Medicinal herbs that were collected for generations no longer grow. In Warhol's backyard, she says, a haze obscures the cherries.

Tribal members describe an electrical field that causes hair to stand up and gives shocks to children on the reservation's playground.

"You can feel it," Victoria Winfrey said, looking out the window at the power lines that stretch across the reservation. "You always hear the hum - all the time."

There's no proof that the nuclear plant is to blame for any of this, but the tribal council says there's no proof it isn't. They say Xcel officials never mentioned nuclear power when they pitched a steam-generation facility decades ago, and it's been a battle since.

Xcel said it didn't decide to make it a nuclear plant until the 1960s - roughly a decade after it first looked at the land a half-mile outside the reservation. Doing so included public notice and co-operation with Prairie Island on things like roads, Xcel spokeswoman Laura McCarten said.

Prairie Island has hired a contractor for what it calls the reservation's first thorough health study. It was part of an agreement earlier this year with Xcel to support the expansion of nuclear waste stored at the plant until 2014. The health study will take several years.

McCarten doesn't discount health worries by Prairie Island members, but she said studies have failed to link things like cancer and nuclear plants. Both the state and Xcel monitor the plant closely for radiation, with conservatively low thresholds for detection, she said.

"We're very confident we're not posing a health risk," she said.

Despite the nuclear plant, residents at Prairie Island say they have no plans to leave. In fact, more band members than ever want to return, keeping the reservation busy building units with nearly 100 families on a waiting list for a home.

About 170 of the band's 647 members currently live at Prairie Island.

"We live here. Whether there's danger or not, we live here," said Louie Foote, whose home is across the street from the tribe's community center and yards from the plant.

The Dakota were once widespread across Minnesota until pushed southward in battles with the Ojibwe two centuries ago. After white settlers arrived, treaties in the mid-1800s pushed the Dakota westward into a reservation along the Minnesota River.

Food, money and other provisions were promised by the federal government but never received, leading to the Dakota uprising of 1862. Hundreds of people were killed, treaties were voided and President Lincoln ordered 38 Dakota men hanged in Mankato in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Another 1,700 Dakota were imprisoned at Fort Snelling and eventually shipped to the Crow Creek reservation in South Dakota. Back in Minnesota, a bounty was placed on Dakota scalps.

Through it all, there were Dakota who never left Prairie Island, band members say. And in 1936, the federal government officially recognized the Prairie Island Indian Community.

Curtis Campbell Sr., whose great-grandmother was among those imprisoned at Fort Snelling, is one of the few fluent speakers of Dakota at Prairie Island. It wasn't until the second grade that he learned English while at Red Wing schools (where Prairie Island children still attend).

In a time he calls "B.C." or "before the casinos," Campbell recalls a struggling but close-knit Prairie Island. He says he's worried that the band is losing part of its identity in today's fast-paced world.

"The older people, they predicted things would change," he said.

It started with a smoke shop, then Prairie Island built a bingo hall. When Indian gambling took off, Prairie Island was right in the race with its Treasure Island Casino and Resort - today's top employer in Goodhue County.

In a decade, the median income jumped more than six times on the reservation from $10,611 to $76,186 per household, according to 2000 Census figures adjusted for inflation.

"Before, we had to beg," Freeman Johnson said. "We don't have to beg anymore."

Prairie Island became a political power as a major campaign contributor and lobbyist. One of the issues most important to the band is Yucca Mountain, the government's chosen site for a permanent repository in Nevada to bury the nation's most highly radioactive waste.

In the last election cycle, Prairie Island was among the top tribal political donors in the nation, contributing $144,000 in 2001-02.

Only two other Minnesota bands were as aggressive. The Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota gave $196,500 and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe spent $105,000, according to an Associated Press analysis of tribal political contributions compiled by the Federal Election Commission and PoliticalMoneyLine.

Prairie Island's presence is local as well. Goodhue County Commissioner Roseanne Grosso said the band was a major factor behind a community ice arena in Red Wing. And despite the newfound economic strength, she said the band's attitude really hasn't changed.

"They've just become politically savvy. They can afford to do it now," said Grosso, whose district includes the reservation.

Prairie Island provides full scholarships to band members for any level of higher education - as long as they graduate, or the money must be repaid. There's a children's tribal council to teach empowerment, and four times a year the band hosts a community meeting for anyone to voice concerns.

Unlike many of other Minnesota Indian bands that require a quarter-blood quorum before they're considered a member, Prairie Island is a descendant band. That means a person is automatically considered a member if his or her parent is.

The band is too small to require a blood-quorum, tribal leaders say, which also means that it is easier to receive a slice of the casino profits, which Prairie Island distributes to all of its members no matter where they reside.

Byron White was one of the children who used to play with old tires, rolling them across the sandbar that Prairie Island used to be. He never envisioned today's reservation in his lifetime, but he speaks with confidence of the generations to come.

White said he predicts new opportunities for Prairie Island that will open with education and include a growing number of band members venturing into business on their own.

"They'll find an even better way of life," he said.

On the Net: Prairie Island: http://www.prairieisland.org

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Las Vegas SUN
August 08, 2003

Berkley calls for analysis of Yucca safety

By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., is trying to slow down the Energy Department's plans to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain by requiring security reviews and response plans.

She has sponsored a bill, introduced just as the House adjourned for its August recess, requiring a comphrehensive analysis of the project's safety and vulnerability to terrorist acts and the development of a federal emergency plan, including one specifically for airborne attacks, to defend the site. Reps. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and Jon Porter, R-Nev., co-sponsored the bill.

"Before we start transportating nuclear waste across this nation and before we spend another dime on Yucca Mountain, we better know what we're going to do and how were going to do it." Berkley said, referring to security plans, during a call from Israel this morning.

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is slated to be the country's federal repository for spent nuclear fuel. By law it would hold 77,000 tons of the waste shipped from the 103 nuclear power plants across the country, along with Energy Department and Defense Department wastes. The department has spent about $8 billion on the project so far, with most coming from an account earmarked for the site from nuclear power ratepayer money, but some cost estimates put the project at $60 billion.

The analysis and defense plan called for in the bill would cover the site, transportation routes and shipping casks, waste storage containers and personnel working for the project, among other items, according to the bill language.

"Instead of making the United States safer, the proposed Yucaa Mountain project, as currently designed, would give terrorists an obvious, huge, easy-to-attack target that, at any point, could cause massive economic and civilian casualties within the United States," according to the bill.

Nevada's state officials and federal lawmakers vehemently oppose the site, although President Bush and Congress approved it last year. The Energy Department expects to submit a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the site in December 2004. If all goes according to department's plan, the site could open in 2010.

But should the bill be approved, the department could not submit a license application nor could the commission issue a license until "the secretary has certified all facets of the Yucca Mountain project are not vulnerable" to terrorist acts. The Homeland Security Department would also need to complete a report to Congress on the potential liability costs and damages resulting from a terrorism act against the site before the application could be submitted.

Mitch Singer, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group, said the bill seems to be more like another roadblock for the project, rather than a serious concern about security. He noted that the site is right next to Nellis Air Force Base and the entrance is beyond the secured gates of the Nevada Test Site.

"It's not exactly the kind of target that offers any type of success," Singer said.

Berkley said "Every delay helps our cause to keep waste out of Yucca Mountain, but this is not a frivolous piece of legislation."

She said the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the federal law that guides the project, does not include a security study or plan of any kind if something as "hideous" as the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were to take place at the mountain or during the waste's transportation to the site.

"The circumstances have changed dramatically," she said. "We're living in a much more dangerous world than we did in 1982."

Berkley introduced similar legislation in 2001, but it did not move through appropriate committees. The previous bill would not have allowed the department's site recommendation until the security reviews were done. The bill had seven co-sponsors, all Democrats except for Gibbons. Porter had not yet been elected to Congress.

Berkley said today that with Homeland Security Department now in place, which was not the case last time, it may give the bill a better chance. She said having Porter and Gibbons now to work with the Republicans will also help.

The current bill still needs consideration by at least three subcommittees, including the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, to which Berkley and Porter belong.

Tessa Hafen, spokeswoman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said a similar bill does not exist in the Senate, but that Reid supports the idea and may incorporate it in a larger waste transportation bill he may introduce later this fall.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 08, 2003

Yucca project head denies accusations

She says Energy Department hasn't tried to intimidate whistleblowers

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The head of the Yucca Mountain Project is defending the Energy Department on Capitol Hill against accusations it has tried to intimidate whistleblowers working on the planned nuclear waste repository.

"I have looked into those accusations, and I am confident that they are entirely unfounded," said Margaret Chu, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.

Chu offered the Energy Department's defense in a July 8 letter to Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., after Domenici asked Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham for an explanation of the whistleblower charge. A copy of the letter was obtained Thursday.

Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., had leveled charges of intimidation after two project workers declined to testify at a May 28 Senate hearing in Las Vegas.

Former Quality Assurance Director Robert Clark and Donald Harris, an auditor with Energy Department contractor Navarro Research and Engineering, have said they became fearful because of comments Chu made in a letter a few days before the hearing.

But Chu told Domenici that Energy Department and Navarro officials took actions to assure the employees that any decision to testify "was entirely theirs, and they made their own decision on the matter."

Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said Thursday that Chu's report "clearly shows that the implication that we tried to stifle or intimidate witnesses is false. Managers actually told witnesses they were free to testify without any detriment to their work."

Harris could not be reached Thursday. Clark declined to comment. In previous interviews, several Yucca Mountain Project workers said Harris received no communications from superiors that he was free to testify, and that Clark believed he received clear signals discouraging his appearance.

They also said a memo from Navarro supervisor Robert Hasson, while dated May 23, a Friday, was seen by workers only on May 27, the Tuesday following Memorial Day and one day before the Senate hearing. By then, Clark and Harris already had notified the committee they would not appear.

Reid took a dim view of Chu's report, spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said. Hafen said there were inconsistencies in what the Energy Department official told Domenici and that she told Reid in a May letter about the employees.

"Margaret Chu appears to be contradicting herself," Hafen said.

Reid and Ensign asked Attorney General John Ashcroft in June to investigate the matter but have received no response, Hafen said.

Chu's report to Domenici also sought to rebut criticism raised at the Las Vegas hearing by Bill Belke, a retired Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector, and Alison MacFarlane, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who studies the Yucca Mountain Project.

Chu said she wanted to "set the record straight" because the Energy Department was not invited to testify.

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Las Vegas Sun
August 08, 2003

Yucca official denies pressure on whistleblowers

By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN

WASHINGTON--The Energy Department did not intimidate Yucca Mountain project whistleblowers from testifying at a May hearing, project director Margaret Chu wrote in a letter sent to the Senate last month.

Chu, director of the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Mangement, sent the an eight-page letter to Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., on July 8. It was Chu's answer to his June 18 request that Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham respond to charges of whistleblower intimidation within the department.

"I have looked into those accusations, and I am confident that they are entirely unfounded," Chu wrote. "I am not aware of nor would I tolerate any effort by the Department or its contractors to intimidate DOE or contractor employees from testifying or otherwise coming forward to share their views."

At issue are the canceled appearance of Donald Harris, an employee of contractor Navarro Research and Engineering, and Robert Clark, the project's former quality assurance director, at the May 28 Senate Energy and Water subcommittee hearing in Las Vegas.

Harris was on an audit team that found flaws in the project's quality assurance program. He was reassigned from that team and then reinstated later.

Clark was transferred to another division in 2001, supposedly after urging corrective action for the program. Neither could be reached for comment.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., suspected that department supervisors coerced the whistleblowers to stay away from the hearing and, in an appearance on CNN in June, even asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate the matter further. Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said "not surprisingly" they have not heard back from Ashcroft.

Chu wrote that Senate staff and the senators approached two employees to testify and Reid also sent a letter to her asking that she "'compel' the testimony of Mr. Clark and that I 'encourage' the testimony of Mr. Harris."

After this, Chu insists in her letter that she felt it was important the department and Navarro "make clear to Mr. Clark and Mr. Harris, respectively, that DOE would not pressure them one way or the other and that whether they testified in this circumstance was their personal decision to make."

She also included a memo from Navarro Program Manager Bob Hasson, dated May 23, the Friday before Memorial Day and just days before the hearing took place that management "took no position on whether a Navarro Quality Services-- employee participates in the field hearing."

"Each of you should know that your decision to participate will not affect your employment status," Hasson wrote.

But in a separate letter to Reid, also sent May 23, Chu said it would not be appropriate for her to order Clark to attend the hearing since he no longer worked for the auditing group at Yucca.

"There are definitely some contradictions between the two letters," Hafen said.

She said the letter, which will be entered into the hearing record, and overall matter are still being examined.

DOE spokesman Joe Davis said pressure may have been put on the employees to testify when they didn't want to.

"Clearly the allegations that the Department of Energy and Yucca Mountain Project have intimidated witnesses are false and misleading -- in fact it could be the other way around," said department spokesman Joe Davis, noting that Reid and Ensign made the allegations even after Chu said it would not be appropriate for her to order anyone to testify.

He also noted that neither senior department staff nor anyone in the project office were invited to testify.

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Las Vegas SUN
August 08, 2003

Yucca project chief denies DOE intimidated whistleblowers

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The federal administrator of the Yucca Mountain project is denying the Energy Department tried to intimidate whistleblowers on the planned nuclear waste repository in Nevada.

"I have looked into those accusations, and I am confident that they are entirely unfounded," said Margaret Chu, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.

Chu offered the Energy Department's defense in a July 8 letter to Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., after Domenici asked Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham for an explanation of the whistleblower charge.

A copy of the letter was obtained Thursday in Washington, D.C., by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., leveled charges of intimidation after two project workers declined to testify at a May 28 Senate hearing in Las Vegas.

But Chu told Domenici that Energy Department and Navarro officials took steps to assure the employees that any decision to testify "was entirely theirs, and they made their own decision on the matter."

Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said Thursday that Chu's report "clearly shows that the implication that we tried to stifle or intimidate witnesses is false.

"Managers actually told witnesses they were free to testify without any detriment to their work," Davis said.

Harris could not be reached Thursday. Clark declined to comment. In previous interviews, several Yucca Mountain workers said Harris received no communications from superiors that he was free to testify, and that Clark believed he received clear signals discouraging his appearance.

They also said a memo from Navarro supervisor Robert Hasson, dated May 23, was seen by workers only on May 27, the Tuesday following Memorial Day and one day before the Senate hearing. By then, Clark and Harris already notified Reid and Ensign they would not appear.

Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said Chu appeared to contradict herself. Hafen said there were inconsistencies in what the Energy Department official told Domenici and that she told Reid in a May letter about the employees.

Reid and Ensign asked Attorney General John Ashcroft in June to investigate the matter but have received no response, Hafen said.

Chu said she wanted to "set the record straight" because the Energy Department was not invited to testify.

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Pahrump Valley Times
August 8, 2003

PV passes 29,000 population mark

Amargosa only other Nye community to see increase

By Doug McMurdo
PVT

Nearly 600 new residents moved to Pahrump in April 1 and June 30, helping the valley to break the 29,000 mark for the first time, according to Nye County Planning Director Ron Williams.

Growth elsewhere in Nye County remained stagnant, with the exception of Tonopah, which shrank by an estimated 40 people during the second quarter of this year. Amargosa Valley's population grew by an estimated nine residents, while Beatty lost seven.

Williams said the county's population on June 30 was 36,674, 29,147 of them in Pahrump. From a percentage standpoint, that gives Pahrump more than 79 percent of the county's total population.

Williams based his figures on data compiled during the 2000 federal census, and he said the latest figures are considered consistent with the census results. The formula used involves the number of active residential customers of electric utilities in Nye County multiplied by 2.37, the average number of persons per household.

Persons living in group quarters such as nursing homes or detention facilities are also included in the estimates.

County officials rely on the figures from Williams to monitor and assess baseline conditions for the Yucca Mountain Project, develop future population estimates, compare estimates made by other entities, and for public and private agency planning and management purposes.

Since Oct. 31, 2000, Pahrump's population has increased by 3,360 residents, while the number of persons living in the county as a whole has increased 3,454. Virtually every community in the county has seen a decline in population with the exception of Pahrump and Amargosa Valley, which grew by 52 residents over the past two years and 10 months.

The communities of Tonopah, Smoky Valley, and Beatty have been hardest hit by diminishing populations over the same period of time. Smoky Valley's populace decreased by 88 residents, Beatty's by 87, and Tonopah's by 60.

During the same 32-month period, Pahrump's population has grown by an average 100 residents per month.

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Pahrump Valley Times
August 8, 2003

Well at Lathrop Wells

Firm gets nod to start technology park work

By Mark Waite
PVT

TONOPAH -- A single bid was accepted by Nye County Commissioners Tuesday for installation of infrastructure at the proposed Amargosa Valley Science and Technology Park at Lathrop Wells.

Project Manager Don Watson, an economic development consultant from New Mexico, suggested commissioners award a $925,000 contract to Rafael Construction Company of Henderson and retain another $40,000 for contingencies.

Watson said Nye County has until September 2004 to use what's left of a $3 million U.S. Economic Development Administration grant first awarded in September 1999. Part of the EDA grant was used to build the Community College of Southern Nevada's Pahrump Valley Center in 2001.

The Lathrop Wells project involves drilling a well, installing water lines, erecting a pump house, laying electrical conduit and building dirt roads. Nye County has proposed initially developing the first 60 acres of the 350-acre high tech industrial park, located just east of U.S. 95. It's intended to lure businesses related to the Yucca Mountain Project.

The Nevada Department of Health will only authorize the tapping of the well at this time, not construction of the water lines, pending a report on water quality to determine whether Nye County will be required to treat water from the well, Watson said.

The industrial park is part of 800 acres conveyed to Nye County by a federal appropriations act on Nov. 29, 1999. The other 450 acres is designated for the Desert Space Station, a $40 million multilevel technology museum.

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Pahrump Valley Times
August 8, 2003

Pahrump's new commercial boom

Office space popping up everywhere

By Mark Waite
PVT

Commercial buildings are sprouting up like mushrooms after the rain in Pahrump. But while many real estate professionals and builders say that it has erased a past shortage, some say the recent commercial building boom may now be saturating the rental market.

At the heart of much of the recent growth is the new Wal-Mart Supercenter, a $5.9 mil-lion project that pushed the value of new commercial property built in Pahrump last year to $13.8 million.

One of the local businesses taking part in the building boom is Gallery of Home Fur-nishings, which has begun construction of a new 15,000-square-foot building on two lots along Calvada Boulevard just west of Sears. That left space at the furniture business's old location in Serenity Plaza for new businesses such as Chinese Wok Buffet and Curve's For Women.

Just down the street from the new furniture store site on the corner of Calvada and Pahrump Valley Boulevard, a sign is posted in front of a nearly completed office com-plex seeking to recruit tenants.

Andy Jordan, owner of Serenity Homes, began construction in January 2002 on a commercial shopping mall off Basin Road near the Nevada Department of Motor Vehi-cles and a mall geared for industrial tenants on Oxbow Street near the Saitta-Trudeau dealership. He is planning another commercial development behind the Wal-Mart Su-perstore on Dahlia Street.

"I think the commercial is still pretty good," Jordan said. "(But) it's been a little slow lately as far as leasing. I have a few (storefronts) on Oxbow that are still available, and I haven't had a lot of luck there."

Jordan said he was inspired to switch from building mainly homes to putting up com-mercial malls when he read that the Town of Pahrump was trying to steer people away from running businesses out of their homes. However one electrical contractor who rented a large amount of space from him on Oxbow Avenue moved out recently, while another tenant there is talking about relocating to Las Vegas, Jordan said.

Between Jordan's two developments, Shadow Mountain Construction built Copper Creek Plaza on State Street in May 2002. While one major tenant, SLT Computers, has since moved out, others, like a dentist, a chiropractor, a carpet store and a coffee shop have filled the void.

Meanwhile, developer Ray Wulfenstein has been gradually filling up Postal Drive with malls. Advanced Medical Center recently moved to a new building there, and Wulfen-stein Construction Company occupies much of a new mall across from the main post office. New businesses such as La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant have begun to fill in the gaps in between.

"We're pretty full in our buildings, and so we're quite satisfied with the current de-mand and expect it will continue," said Doug Maughan, controller for Wulfenstein Con-struction. "We are planning another large building in the vicinity of the post office."

Brent Steed, senior building inspector for Charles Abbott and Associates, said he also sees the continued demand for more commercial space.

"They're almost all rented usually. If you saturated the market you'll see vacancies. The ones at Albertson's, they've got renters and they're not even (finished building)," Steed said.

Laskowski Construction took out a permit to build a new mall at 1360 Highway 372 last October, largely occupied by Furniture-4-U which was finished early this year. Around a nearby corner, Bulldog Construction took out a permit in May 2002 to build another furniture store, Home Gallery, at 980 Pahrump Valley Blvd.

State Farm Insurance agent Joe Sladek II remembers when he built Valley Bank Plaza at 3250 S. Highway 160 three years ago. Sladek said his mall was pretty much filled up with tenants before the building was completed -- he needed more room for his insurance business, while his anchor tenant, Valley Bank, needed a location in Pahrump.

"When I built mine there was the need. I think over the last two, three years there's been quite a bit that's gone up that's taken care of what people have been wanting over the last few years. We're kind of at a saturation point now. You go by every (shopping) center and there's one or two vacancies. That tells me we've hit kind of a temporary threshold," Sladek said.

Sladek said he went through the proper channels -- the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission, Nye County Commission and State of Nevada for highway access -- to build Valley Bank Plaza, which the Calvada Architectural Review Committee claims is resi-dentially zoned property.

A proposed master plan for Pahrump would zone all that Highway 160 frontage com-mercial. Jim Talbert, project planning manager for Tri-Core Engineering, which is com-piling the master plan, said ideally, a community like Pahrump should have about 5 percent of its area zoned commercial.

"Depending on what you look at, 32,000 to 35,000 people, I think presently there is still less than an adequate supply of commercial development in the town," Talbert said.

Ron Williams, head of the Nye County Planning Department, said he felt the builders had been playing catch up with the need for commercial services. He noted that many commercial developers are building where water and sewer lines already exist.

Williams said when Nye County completed the courthouse in August 1999 that opened up East Basin Road to commercial development.

"That's what this master plan is supposed to do for us, is watch and monitor and see how things are growing and try to get it in the right places," Williams said.

"I think what you'll find between residential and commercial is an ebb and flow. Sometimes there's a glut," Nye County Commissioner Henry Neth said, a part owner in Provenza-Neth Properties. "Right now I think there's an overabundance of office space. One six month period there might be a glut of space and then the next six months you can't find a place to put your business."

But Neth said a lot of developers are snooping around, checking out land and infra-structure to offer clients.

"Right now we have a bit of an overabundance; in six months who knows?" he said.

Syd McGill, an investment specialist with Realty Executives, said he had plans a few years ago to construct a 33,000 square-foot development with 25 stores. "That project was ready to go four years ago when Mountain Falls went under," McGill said. "The commercial lenders, who were not local, put a stop sign on Pahrump because of the thought if (Mountain Falls developer Al) Collins fails, Pahrump is going down the tubes."

But after watching numerous developments spring up around town since then, McGill said, "I think that we're approaching the point where there's going to be vacancies. Then there will be a catch up period and they'll build again."

McGill said there could be another commercial area sprouting up around Mountain Falls golf course, where there are some big plans on the books.

If the Yucca Mountain Project gets under way, there could be some major commercial development on the north end as well, he 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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