Yucca Mountain News Clips - Friday, August 15, 2003

Yucca Mountain News Clips
Friday, August 15, 2003
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Las Vegas SUN
August 15, 2003

State says feds underestimate effect of nuke attack

By Mary Manning
<manning@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN

The Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, which opposes a Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, has reviewed a federal study released Thursday and concluded it underestimated the consequences of a terrorist attack on nuclear shipments.

The state's consultant took issue with the number of casualties from an attack on truck or rail casks and and the economic consequences.

The study by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, "may have significantly underestimated the human health and economic consequences of a successful attack on a spent fuel shipping cask," state transportation consultant Robert Halstead said.

The state is preparing a detailed analysis of the GAO report, Halstead said.

The report released Thursday said that the Energy Department has options to increase safety of the waste set to go to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The department plans to store 77,000 tons of nuclear spent fuel at the site, which the GAO called "one of the most hazardous materials made by man."

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, reviewed federal studies that assessed potential health effects of a terrorist attack or severe accident on spent fuel storage or transit at the request of Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House Energy and Air Quality subcommittee, after increased concern about security following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The state hired Radioactive Waste Management Associates of New York to analyze estimated sabotage or terrorist impacts, using Energy Department data.

An attack with a common military shell on a truck container carrying waste would result in 48 latent cancer deaths, the DOE concluded.

However, the state study indicated 300 to 1,800 latent cancer fatalities from a single blast. If a state-of-the-art anti-tank weapon were used, 3,000 to 18,000 latent cancer deaths could occur, Halstead said.

Estimating the radiation released from an attack on a single rail cask indicated contamination spread over 32 square miles, Halstead said.

Cleanup would cost an estimated $13.7 billion and failing to properly clean up the contaminated area would result in 4,000 to 28,000 cancer deaths over 50 years, the state study said. In the first year between 200 and 1,400 cancer fatalities could be expected.

Robin Nazzaro, GAO director of Natural Resources and Environment, said that studies by the DOE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission "have consistently found that the likelihood of widespread harm to human health from a terrorist attack or a severe accident involving spent nuclear fuel is low."

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Las Vegas SUN
August 15, 2003

Public Citizen Yucca expert is leaving post

Las Vegas SUN

WASHINGTON -- Anti-nuclear lobbying group Public Citizen has reorganized a portion of its energy divsion. The group's top Yucca expert, Lisa Gue, is leaving Monday.

Michele Boyd, formerly of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, will take over the lobbying aspects of Gue's former position. Brendan Hoffman, who comes from within the organization, will handle grassroots efforts related to nuclear issues.

"The battle will not be lost due to a change in staff," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. She added than Boyd and Hoffman have participated in day-long briefing sessions to get up to speed on the issue.

Gue, who worked for the group for three and a half years, is heading to graduate school in Ottawa to study public policy.

Judy Treichel, director of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, called Gue's departure "a dreadful loss" but said Public Citizen will continue to work hard on the Yucca issue.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 15, 2003

DOE argues for groundwater rights

Brief: Using wells to build, operate nuclear waste dump is beneficial

By Keith Rogers
Review-Journal

In stark contrast to the state's position, pumping 140 million gallons of groundwater a year from Nye County wells to build and operate a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain is a beneficial use, an attorney for the Department of Energy argued in a pre-hearing brief this week.

The argument by Reno attorney Brent Kolvet will be presented in a hearing that begins Wednesday in Carson City before State Engineer Hugh Ricci, who is expected to determine if DOE's applications for permanent water rights for the nuclear waste repository are within the public interest.

Nevada attorneys contend that building a repository for the nation's highly radioactive waste is a one-of-a-kind project that's not in the public interest and rejecting the applications is paramount to protecting groundwater supplies in the state for future generations.

A repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, would eventually contaminate the Amargosa aquifer, state officials say, contrary to claims by federal authorities that the repository would operate within safe water guidelines for 10,000 years.

Kolvet's brief, however, says that is a political ploy.

"What this boils down to when looked at as a whole is an attempt by the protestants to inject a political issue into an area where science has traditionally prevailed," his brief states. "The place for politics or political considerations regarding development of a repository is certainly not before the state engineer."

He will ask Ricci to weigh the "public interest" issue on 13 points based on a 1966 case, brought by the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, which has since become known as the Nevada Supreme Court's Honey Lake decision.

According to Kolvet's brief, the DOE's need for the water is a beneficial use because it would be used for industrial purposes "for meeting the Department of Energy's responsibilities under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act."

He claims the public interest in developing a repository isn't relevant "and in any event has been decided" given that Congress and President Bush approved the repository last year over Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 15, 2003

Groups urge panel to reject Yucca provision in bill

Review-Journal

Seventeen environmental and government watchdog groups sent a letter this week to members of a defense authorization conference committee urging them to reject a provision in a bill passed by the House that could tighten secrecy on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project.

"This troubling provision, not contained in the Senate legislation, would inappropriately grant expansive new authority to the Department of Energy to restrict public access to unclassified information related to a broad range of nuclear energy and waste activities," says the letter, sent on Wednesday.

The groups, which include Public Citizen, the Federation of American Scientists, the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, fear the provision could lead DOE to restrict information about transportation routes to the proposed Yucca Mountain repository or limit disclosures about possible threats from airplane crashes near the mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"This section of the House committee's bill is a damaging development for Yucca opponents," Public Citizen's Lisa Gue said in an e-mail Thursday. "Thankfully, the provision does not appear in the Senate version, and hopefully it won't be part of the final legislation."

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.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 15, 2003

GAO: Nuclear waste shipments largely safe

But report says they could be better protected

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Shipments of radioactive nuclear waste are generally safe from terrorist attacks, but there are ways the shipments can be better protected, a congressional report said Thursday.

Large steel casks used to house the nuclear waste make it unlikely that any terrorist attack or accident during shipment would have widespread health effects, the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm, reported. It relied on earlier studies by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Energy Department.

"These studies repeatedly found that transportation containers would be very difficult to penetrate, and in the worst-case scenarios where they may be penetrated, only a small fraction of the material would be released," the GAO reported.

However, the GAO said the shipments could be made safer by minimizing the number of them, providing terrorists with fewer potential targets. The office noted that rail shipments can carry five times as much waste as trucks.

The GAO said waste from closed-down reactors should be shipped first, allowing them to be decommissioned, thus reducing the number of sites that need to be protected.

However, the contracts the government has signed with the utility companies that run the reactors may make changing the methods and prioritization of the shipments impossible. John Coequyt, a senior analyst with the Washington-based Environmental Working Group, said he believes the GAO underestimates the severity of the threat posed by terrorists.

"How can we get this news that GAO isn't concerned about the possibility of an extraordinary event just the day after the FBI arrests someone trying to bring in missiles that could bring down a jetliner?" he said. "That's been our point all along, that this is very risky business, that terrorists who are after this country are serious, that they have very serious weapons."

The federal government is in the process of developing a permanent nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The facility is not likely to open until 2010.

When it does open, the shipment of nuclear fuel by rail and truck to Yucca Mountain will take up to 30 years. The Energy Department says there are more than 50,000 tons of the nuclear material at 72 sites in 33 states, many of them near urban areas in the Midwest and the East.

The Department of Energy has not yet selected cask designs for the Yucca project. Nevada officials and public interest groups have long raised questions about the safety of casks used to ship nuclear waste.

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Public Citizen
Aug. 14, 2003

New GAO Report on Nuclear Waste Transport Risks Fails to Address Key Problems With Yucca Mountain Scheme

Statement of Lisa Gue, Senior Energy Analyst, Public Citizen´sCritical Mass Energy and Environment Program

The public shouldn't be fooled if they see U.S. Reps. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) waving a new report and claiming that it shows that nuclear waste transport is safe. In fact, the two lawmakers, who requested the report from the General Accounting Office (GAO), set parameters that blocked the GAO from properly addressing the viability of transporting nuclear waste across the country.

The GAO report concludes that the risk of an accident during nuclear waste transport is low and that even if an accident or terrorist attack were to occur, the potential for widespread harm is low. Still, the GAO characterizes irradiated nuclear fuel as "one of the most hazardous materials made by man" and recommends that shipments be minimized.

The report recaps old studies and ignores critical problems with the transportation of nuclear waste that will arise if a national nuclear waste dump is built in Nevada as planned. This is just what Tauzin and Barton ordered. It is no surprise that the two lawmakers have consistently voted to support the building of new nuclear reactors, which will generate more radioactive waste.

What shouldn´t be overlooked is that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) relies on computer simulations and educated guesses to predict what will happen to transport casks in an accident or attack. This is inadequate. Real-world testing is needed because casks may not perform as designed. Recent experience with other unlikely events – the collapse of the World Trade Center, which was designed not to collapse, and the failure of components on the Columbia space shuttle that were designed to never fail – suggest that an accident or attack on a nuclear waste shipment could be far more devastating than predicted.

Even the GAO admits in the report that it did not assess the reliability of the data or the methodologies used in the studies it reviewed. Nor did the agency examine the economic or broader environmental effects of terrorist attacks or severe accidents involving nuclear waste transportation.

Shipping waste to Yucca Mountain will not mean that all waste is in one spot, as Tauzin and Barton claim; nuclear waste must cool on site at reactors for at least five years before being moved. If Tauzin and Barton were serious about reducing security risks, they would stop pushing for new nuclear power plants and the irreparably flawed Yucca Mountain proposal and instead lead efforts to improve safety and security at existing nuclear sites and promote safer, cleaner energy alternatives.

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Las Vegas SUN
August 15, 2003

100 appointed to state boards

Las Vegas SUN

Gov. Kenny Guinn announced the appointments of more than 100 Nevadans to various state boards and commissions Thursday.

Wildlife Commission: Tommy Ford, Dave McNinch and John Moran.

Environmental Commission: Ira Rackley.

Colorado River Commission: Jay Bingham.

Peace Officers Standards and Training: Jackie Crawford, Joe Callo and April Lavergne.

Northern Nevada Veterans Cemetery Advisory Committee: Dough Byington and Stan Jones.

Board of Agriculture: Dan Hetrick and James Johnson.

Historical Records Advisory Board: Hal Rothman, Sabrina Mercadante and Guy Rocha.

Southern Nevada Veterans Cemetery Advisory Committee: Mitchell Kuhn, Brad Benson and Daniel Johnson.

Tourism Commission: John Marz, Ferenc Szony and Punam Mather.

Employee- Management Committee: Matthew Diorio.

Board of Homeopathic Medicine Examiners: Diane Kennedy.

Motorcycle Safety Advisory Board: Sean Wallace, Gary Waddell and Harold Lichtenwald.

Commission on Mineral Resources: Dennis Bryan and Pat Fagan.

Committee on Catastrophic Leave: Phillip Brittenham and Ed Flagg.

Ethics Commission: Thomas Sheets.

Equal Rights Commission: Dennis Shipley.

Nuclear Projects Commission: Michon Mackedon, Brian McKay, Steven Molasky and Myrna Williams.

Taxicab Authority: Joanna Winn and Lia Roberts.

Nevada Council on the Arts: Shaun Griffin, Candy Schneider, Carol Johnson and Firouzeh Forouzmand.

Public Employees Retirement Board: Charles Silvestri and George Stevens.

Public Employees Benefits Program: Christopher Campbell, Bill Anderson, Myla Florence, Randall Kirner, and David Smith.

Board of Podiatry: Cathy Bax, Ray Roberts and Robert Larson.

Occupational Safety and Health Review Board: Tim Jones and Kimberly Rossiter.

Athletic Commission Medical Advisory Board: Margaret Goodman, Jefferey Parker and Todd Chapman.

Emergency Response Commission: Richard Mirgon and Jolaine Johnson.

Local Government Employee-Management Relations Board: Tamara Barengo.

Technological Crime Task Force: Charles Gipp, Ellen Knowlton, Terrance Mayom Don Means and Thomas Pickrell.

Industrial Insurance Appeals Panel: Cliff King, Tim Hughes, Dave Owen, Bob Selli and Carole Vilardo.

Board of Examiners for Social Workers: Amy Ellwood and Gilda Johnstone.

Board of Health: Dee Hicks and Joey Villaflor.

Board of Examiners for Audiology and Speech Pathology: Leslie Levin-Goldberg.

Advisory Committee on Personal Assistance for Persons With Severe Functional Disabilities: Paul Gowins.

Economic Development Commission: Leroy Goodman and Berlyn Miller.

Fund for the Institutional Care of Medically Indigent: Joni Eastley and Tommy Rowe.

Commission on Aging: Mike Franzoia and Despina Hatton.

Personnel Commission: James Skaggs.

Mental Health and Developmental Services Commission: John Brailsford.

Fire Services Standards and Training Committee: David Drew, Will Johnston and Gary Neilson.

Task Force for a Healthy Nevada: Elizabeth Fildes, Greg Griffin and Vishvinder Sharma.

National and Community Service Commission: Lacey Alderson.

Committee on the Protection of Children: Ronald Flores.

Industrial Relations Advisory Council: Richard Houts.

Board for the Regulation of Liquefied Petroleum Gas: Karl Hahn and Blari Plousen.

Land Use Advisory Council: Sheri Ecklund-Brown.

Commission on Postsecondary Education: Steve Soukup, Clara Andriola and Gary Waters.

Fire Services Board: Ross Rivera and Brad Geinzer.

Commission on Appraisers of Real Estate: Margaret Papez.

Developmental Disabilities Planning Council: Tiffany Hunter.

Board of Cosmetology: Elsie Lewis.

Board of Dental Examiners: James McKernan.

Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors: Bud Cranor, Tom Foote, James Gardner, Todd Kenner, Thomas Krob, Dean Neubauer and Roland Westergard.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 14, 2003

Denial of water for nuke dump urged

Hearing slated next week in Carson City

By Keith Rogers
Review-Journal

Allowing the Energy Department to tap groundwater in Nye County for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository is not in the public's interest and any such requests should be denied, Nevada attorneys said in a brief filed Wednesday with the state engineer.

The brief was filed in preparation for a hearing next week in Carson City before State Engineer Hugh Ricci who is expected to determine whether the "public interest" reason that his predecessor used in denying permanent water rights to DOE three years ago is still valid.

If Ricci decides that DOE cannot use the groundwater, the matter would probably end up in federal court. With no water, a repository could not be built. Dump opponents hope that's exactly what will happen.

"The Yucca Mountain Project is a unique project and presents Nevada with an unprecedented set of potential impacts," says the 17-page brief signed by Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams.

"To protect and preserve future beneficial uses of Nevada's vital groundwater, Nevada Agency (for Nuclear Projects) asks that the state engineer utilize the existing record in light of applicable Nevada law and find that DOE's proposed use of water should be denied," it states.

In a related case in federal court in Las Vegas regarding temporary access to 140 million gallons per year from five wells in Nye County, U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt in December allowed DOE to refill its potable water supply at Yucca Mountain.

Hunt ruled that until Yucca Mountain cases in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit are resolved, the water could be used to flush toilets and take showers but not for building a repository for entombing 77,000 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel and defense wastes in the mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

In court papers filed in January, Adams said the state engineer's finding in 2000 that permanent use of the water "threatens to prove detrimental to the public interest" still holds and that the only appropriate remedy would be a remand to the state engineer for reconsideration of his public interest analysis.

The state engineer at the time, Michael Turnipseed, denied DOE's request for permanent water rights, saying it was not in the state's interest to allow the government to build and operate a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

Late Wednesday, a spokeswoman for DOE's Office of Repository Development, Toni Chiri, declined to comment on Adams' brief and said one that would be filed by attorneys for the federal government wasn't available.

In a telephone interview, Adams said the state engineer "should take an expansive look at these applications because it's more than merely pumping water for some run-of-the-mill industrial use.

"It's the first repository for nuclear waste. ... The engineer needs to make findings that use of water is not beneficial to public interest because Yucca Mountain is such a one-of-a-kind project," she said.

Adams' brief notes that the Legislature has judged the Yucca Mountain Project not to be in the public interest.

"In the driest state in the union, where water is the lifeblood of all human and natural activities, it is small wonder that the public unquestionably has an interest in the proposed use of its most essential resource.

"This is particularly true where, as here, the proposed use of water -- to construct and operate the world's first high-level nuclear waste repository -- is potentially capable of undermining future beneficial uses of the public's water," the brief states.

It later notes that the state engineer is charged with preventing pollution and contamination of the public's underground waters.

The state has filed several challenges in federal appeals court over the planned repository. The Energy Department is not expected to submit a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for building the repository until late 2004.

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Las Vegas SUN
August 14, 2003

AG argues water-use permit for Yucca

By Cy Ryan
<cy@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Capital Bureau

CARSON CITY -- The state Attorney General's Office is arguing that the Energy Department should not be granted an application for water use at Yucca Mountain because the construction and operation of the proposed high level nuclear dump there at will lead to contamination of Nevada's underground water supply.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams says the "operation of this repository is potentially capable of undermining future beneficial uses of the public water."

Those positions were stated in the pre-hearing briefs presented Wednesday to the state engineer who will start hearings on the water application Aug. 20. Three days have been set aside for the hearings.

Lawyers for the Energy Department say State Engineer Hugh Ricci must concern himself only with state law involving his agency and that means his decision should be based solely on a determination of whether there is an adequate source of water for Yucca and whether there's a conflict with existing water rights.

Brent Kolvet, attorney for the Energy Department, said other agencies have the duty to protect the public's health and safety, not Ricci.

Ricci once before ruled against the Department of Energy but that was overturned by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the case is back before the engineer.

Adams, representing the Nevada Nuclear Waste Project Office, has urged the state engineer to permit evidence of water contamination into the record. She argues that the water used at Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, will cause contamination of the Amargosa aquifer. This project, she said will have "adverse consequences" on the public of Nevada.

But Kolvet says the federal Nuclear Waste Project Act gives the authority for protecting the water resources to federal agencies. He said this is an attempt by the state "to inject a political issue into an area where science has traditionally prevailed."

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Las Vegas SUN
August 14, 2003

Energy Department moving closer to picking law firm

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

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department may be moving closer to selecting a law firm to review the Yucca Mountain Project license application, but a firm fighting in court to get the contract is not in the running.

Law firms that "expressed interest in being considered in the informal competitive selection process," received a letter from the department with a July 18 deadline to submit qualifying documents. The department's letter, signed by General Counsel Lee Liberman Otis, said it "will need specialized legal services to aid and expedite this unique and important endeavor."

The letter also outlines nine conflicts of interest it advised the firms to disclose when applying, including representing the state of Nevada or any city within the state, representing the department or representing anyone suing the federal government or the department, among others.

The undated letter, obtained by the Sun, noted the department is conducting "informal competitive evaluations of different law firms rather than the more formalized competitive process" set out in federal regulations. It did not give a date for when the final selection would be made.

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is set to be the country's lone repository for spent nuclear fuel. Under law, no other site has been evaluated. The department anticipates submitting its license application in December 2004.

Chicago-based Winston & Strawn withdrew from the $16.5 million review contract in 2001 after the department's inspector general concluded the firm did not tell DOE it had lobbied for the pro-Yucca Nuclear Energy Institute. Winston & Strawn denied any conflict, but resigned anyway. The project has been without a lawyer since.

International law firm LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene and MacRae, which has been battling the department since 1999 for the contract after it lost the bid to Winston & Strawn, did not receive the solicitation letter. Both firms earned a perfect score on the previous bid evaluation for the project, but LeBoeuf's bid was $3.7 million higher.

LeBoeuf sued on conflict-of-interest charges, saying its rival firm should not have been selected since it had previously represented TRW Environmental Safety Services, the former main contractor working on the project.

DOE spokesman Joe Davis said that in May, after the secretary announced the informal selection process, interested firms were told to contact the department, including LeBoeuf.

"They haven't called us, they haven't written us, we don't know whether they are interested or not," Davis said of LeBoeuf. "They only thing they have done is run to court."

Last August a federal district judge ruled in favor of the department but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is set to hear oral arguments in the appeal Sept. 16.

After receiving the a copy of the department's recent solicitation from a third party, LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene and MacRae attorney's filed a letter with the court earlier this month, noting that the firm was unable to prepare and submit the appropriate documents by the July 18 deadline.

"The fact that the letter was not sent to LeBoeuf is the clearest possible evidence LeBoeuf has been disqualified from the contract," the letter states.

Davis replied: "That's ridiculous. We sent them a letter saying who to call. ... The only thing LeBoeuf is complaining about here is the process."

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Las Vegas SUN
August 14, 2003

Letter: Not on fast track, Yucca is long overdue

This is in reference to your Aug. 11 editorial on nuclear waste and Rep. Shelley Berkley's proposed legislation requiring a terrorism threat analysis before nuclear waste could be transported to Yucca Mountain for disposal. Berkley wants the analysis to be completed before the Energy Department submits a license application for the disposal repository.

You dismiss the observation by the Nuclear Energy Institute that the potential repository is located on federal property with existing security measures in place and that it adjoins the presumably secure airspace of the Nellis range. Since the facility won't be built for a few years and transportation won't begin for seven or more years, such analyses could be conducted if it hasn't already been conducted.

The editorial said Congress and the White House have "irresponsibly put the Yucca Mountain project on a fast track." The Nuclear Waste Policy Act passed in 1982 called for nuclear waste disposal to begin in 1998. The earliest anyone forecasts that a repository at Yucca might be ready is 2010. That would make it 12 years overdue. And you call that a "fast track?"

I can attest that one thing about this project started right on time and continues today: the utilities and ratepayers in states using nuclear power have paid into the Nuclear Waste Fund to pay for the repository that was promised but not delivered.

Brian O' Connell

Editor's note: Brian O'Connell, a professional engineer, is director of the Washington-based Nuclear Waste Program Office of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.

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Las Vegas SUN
August 14, 2003

Report: Nuclear shipments not very vulnerable to terror attack

By Robert Gehrke
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - Shipments of radioactive nuclear waste are generally safe from terrorist attacks, but there are ways the shipments can be better protected, a congressional report said Thursday.

The GAO said waste from closed-down reactors should be shipped first, allowing them to be decommissioned, thus reducing the number of sites that need to be protected.

However, the contracts the government has signed with the utility companies that run the reactors may make changing the methods and prioritization of the shipments impossible.

John Coequyt, a senior analyst with the Washington-based Environmental Working Group, said he believes the GAO underestimates the severity of the threat posed by terrorists.

But Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House Energy and Air Quality subcommittee, said in a statement that such objections to transporting nuclear waste are "a backdoor way to try and stop nuclear power," and said the GAO report should dispel concerns.

The federal government is in the process of developing a permanent nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, Nev., about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The facility is not likely to open until 2010.

Moving that amount of waste could take 175 shipments per year over 24 years.

---

On the Net:

GAO report: http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-426

Environmental Working Group: http://www.ewg.org

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Reno Gazette Journal
August 13, 2003

Board decides current law firm will continue Yucca representation

Associated Press

A Virginia law firm will continue to represent Nevada in it´s fight against construction of a high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, the state Board of Examiners decided Tuesday.

The firm of Egan, Fitzpatrick & Malsch of McLean, Va., will be paid up to $4 million over the next year to present Nevada´s case for stopping the project, said Bob Loux, executive director of the state´s Nuclear Waste Project Office.

Four separate legal challenges have been scheduled for oral argument Oct. 3 in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, he said.

The contract with the law firm was approved by Gov. Kenny Guinn and Attorney General Brian Sandoval, the two members of the board present for the examiners meeting.

Loux said the source of the funding for the contract is $2 million appropriated by the Legislature this session for the Yucca Mountain fight, $1 million appropriated previously by lawmakers and some federal funds.

The federal money will be used for scientific research in support of Nevada´s position that the planned repository represents a threat to the state´s underground water resources, among other concerns, he said.

The law firm charges $450 per hour. Joseph Egan, chairman of the firm, is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained nuclear engineer who once worked at a nuclear power plant.

The contract, which runs through Sept. 30, 2004, is a continuation of a deal first approved with the firm by state officials in September 2001.

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New York Times
August 14, 2003

Op-Ed Contributor

Nuclear Power Can Work

By John Deutch and Ernest Moniz

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.

The world needs both more electricity and less pollution. The goals are not incompatible, but the solution will require better management of demand, smarter use of coal as well as renewable energy sources, and increased use of nuclear power.

As Congress considers an energy bill when it returns from recess, it will be under pressure to expand or limit the use of nuclear power. The issue, however, is not simple. More nuclear power will be necessary — but more nuclear plants will be built only if more safeguards and incentives are put in place. The challenge is to make nuclear energy safer, cleaner and more economical.

We built a model to compare the costs of producing electricity from new nuclear, coal and natural gas plants. The model focuses on economic cost, not regulated or subsidized cost. According to our study, the baseline cost of new nuclear power is 6.7 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared to 4.2 cents for coal and natural gas (when the price of gas is $4.50 per thousand cubic feet). Plausible, but unproved, technology could reduce nuclear costs to those of coal and gas.

However, if a cost is assigned to carbon emissions — either through a tax or some other way, as in a current Congressional proposal that would limit emissions but allow companies to buy and sell the right to discharge more pollutants — nuclear power could become an attractive economic option. For example, a $50 per ton carbon value, about the cost of capturing and separating the carbon dioxide product of coal and natural gas combustion, raises the cost of coal to 5.4 cents and natural gas to 4.8 cents.

Even under these favorable circumstances, the regulatory uncertainty threatening the large-scale investment needed for a nuclear plant will require some government assistance. A production tax credit, similar to that extended to wind power, is a good idea. It would give private investors an incentive to complete a plant. If no plant is built and operated, no public money is spent. If the first plants are indeed built and operated competitively, more will follow and the possibility of reducing greenhouse gases increases.

Besides cost, there is the problem of nuclear waste. While it is technically possible to dispose of spent fuel safely, the issue is actually doing it. Successful operation of the planned Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada would be an important step.

But the Department of Energy's nuclear waste research and development program should consider solutions beyond mined depositories like Yucca Mountain. For example, burying spent fuel several kilometers deep in a dry well, called a borehole, may offer significant cost and environmental benefits compared to mined repositories. This and other possibilities should be systematically explored.

Finally, there is the challenge of nonproliferation, which is complex because of its international dimensions. There is no question that the current nonproliferation regime needs to be strengthened. Particular attention must be paid to enrichment technology and reprocessing. Enrichment, which converts natural uranium into reactor fuel, can produce uranium well beyond reactor grade, suitable for weapons. Reprocessing separates plutonium metal, which can be used directly in weapons, from reactor fuel. There is ample uranium available so that reprocessing can be avoided for at least the next 50 years.

In the near term, the priority should be to require signatories to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, like Iran, to accept inspections of suspected but undeclared nuclear facilities. For the longer term, advanced nations that operate nuclear facilities should offer to provide fuel to reactors in less developed nations — and to remove all spent fuel.

Nuclear power can make an important contribution to meeting the world's growing electricity needs while helping to reduce carbon emissions. But this contribution will be realized only if the United States and other nations focus on making today's technology work and avoid expensive advanced technologies that involve reprocessing, which presents serious proliferation risks.

It will be difficult, of course, to carry forward this nuclear agenda. Yet it will also be difficult to limit greenhouse gas emissions adequately while satisfying global energy needs for social and economic development. In both of these endeavors, American leadership is essential.

John Deutch, professor of chemistry at M.I.T. and former director of central intelligence, was in the Energy Department from 1977 to 1980. Ernest Moniz, professor of physics at M.I.T., was in the Energy Department from 1997 to 2001. They directed a recent M.I.T. study on nuclear energy.

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Las Vegas SUN
August 13, 2003

Newspaper insert touts fight against Yucca

By Launce Rake
<lrake@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN

The issue of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository is not a done deal, Clark County officials hope to convince residents with a advertising insert in today's newspapers.

The Clark County Nuclear Waste Division, which has for years fought the federal proposal to dump 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste in the mountain 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, included the 12-page insert in 150,000 copies of local newspapers today.

Erik Muller, the division's public information officer, said it is important to let the public know that, despite the approval by Congress and President Bush last year, the dump is not a done deal.

"It has been out of the public eye for some time now," Muller said. "We wanted to remind the public that it is still a pressing issue."

The Energy Department still has to file an application to build the dump with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a process that should conclude next year. The repository could take another four years to get approval and two years to build.

Muller said the licensing process will probably include more public hearings on the dump, hearings that the county would like residents to attend.

Meanwhile, the state is trying to block the dump in federal court. Oral arguments for the state's lawsuits are scheduled this fall.

"A lot of people think it's a done deal," Muller said. "There's a lot of misinformation out there."

The insert cost $12,000, Muller said, and is paid for through the county nuclear waste fund, which gets money from the DOE .

Federal law requires the DOE to provide funding to state and local government affected by the planned dump for local monitoring of the process. That came to $1.68 million last year, Muller said.

In May DOE inspectors found that Clark, Nye and Lincoln counties misspent $3.3 million of the federal oversight money on lobbying, lawsuit research and other activities not allowed.

About $33,000 is still disputed and will be resolved through continuing discussions between the DOE and Clark County, said Harry Kelman, a Clark County division staffer.

Energy Department spokeswoman Toni Chiri, in Las Vegas, said the ultimate decision on what is, and is not, appropriate use of the federal funding can be a long process.

She noted, however, that the material included in the insert did not appear to be controversial.

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Pahrump Valley Times
August 13, 2003

County gives students credit

Grant to CCSN Will Help Fund Dual-Credit Program

By Mark Waite
PVT

Maverick Snowden will be entering his sophomore year at Pahrump Valley High School this fall and already he has 12 college credits under his belt.

Snowden has been taking advantage of the Community College of Southern Nevada's dual credit program, which allows high school students to take courses good for both high school and college credit at the same time.

Last year, as a freshman, Snowden said he took courses in General Psychology and Music History 101. This year he plans to study Criminal Justice 101 and Business Law 101. Those courses may help in his pursuit of a career in law.

Snowden and 165 other high school students will be able to take advantage of the Dollars for Scholars program this coming school year, thanks to a $25,000 donation from Nye County Commissioners. An official check presentation was held at CCSN's Pahrump Valley Center on Aug. 1.

Members of the CCSN advisory board organized Dollars for Scholars last year to solicit donations to pay for the tuition of the dual-credit courses for high school students. While high school classes are free, CCSN courses normally cost $50 per credit, or $150 per course, not including books.

The program got a good start last year, with a $10,000 contribution from Nevada Bell and $8,600 more from local businesses. However that money has pretty much dried up, according to CCSN Pahrump Administration Kelcy Thompson.

County Commissioners voted July 1 to donate the money out of the Educational Endowment Fund, using the Payment Equal to Taxes paid to the county by the U.S. Department of Energy for the land value of Yucca Mountain. At the time of the vote, Nye County Commission Chairman Henry said the dual-credit program was "so stinking worthy" of money from the county endowment fund.

Thompson said having more money in the Dollars for Scholars program allows underclassmen to take the dual credit courses as well. Snowden said he was grateful for the financial help, noting that most college scholarships are only for upperclassmen. "There are no other scholarships that allow you to do that," he explained. "They're all for seniors and above."

By the time he enters college Snowden said he expects to have piled up 60 credits, enough for the first two years.

"It's giving kids an opportunity for secondary education or to go to college where they may not have had that opportunity," Nye County Commissioners Patricia Cox said during last week's check presentation.

"We will now be able to send 166 kids through the program just from what the county commission has offered," Cox said. She added, however, that more than 300 students have already applied to take advantage of the program.

Cox then issued a challenge the community at large to raise another $15,000. Already Thompson said real estate developers Tim Hafen and Donna Lamm have donated $300 apiece.

High school students are able to take two college courses per semester. In one year they can earn up to 12 credits.

The Nye County school board voted to allow students taking dual credit to enroll in any CCSN courses offered during ordinary school hours, Thompson said. For this coming fall semester that includes multiple courses in Spanish, history, computer science and art, as well as individual courses in business law, criminal justice and general psychology.

Thompson boasted that last year 80 percent of the high school students taking dual college credit courses received A's and B's.

Elissa Couch, a member of the CCSN advisory board, said her daughter Devon earned nine credits in one year toward her college education, noting it takes 26 credits for her to become a college sophomore.

Robert A. Anderson Jr., CCSN vice-president of student services, said the $25,000 donation serves as proof of a spirit of cooperation among community leaders. He predicted that higher education would continue to grow in Pahrump as the community grows.

"Higher education opportunities have been established here in this particular area and Nye County," Anderson said. "The very tapestry of society depends on county representatives, school board representatives (and) the kind of advisory committee we have - people who aren't necessarily paid big bucks."

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Pahrump Valley Times
August 13, 2003

Energy official denies witness intimidation

Head of Yucca Mountain Project Defends Treatment of So-Called Whistleblowers

By Steve Tetreault
PVT Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The head of the Yucca Mountain Project is seeking to defend the Energy Department on Capitol Hill against accusations it has tried to intimidate whistleblowers working on the 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 DOE'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 on 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 DOE contractor Navarro Research and Engineering, have said they became fearful by comments Chu made in a letter a few days before the hearing.

But Chu told Domenici that DOE 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."

"I am not aware nor would I tolerate any effort to intimidate DOE or contractor employees from testifying or coming forward to share their views," Chu said.

DOE spokesman Joe Davis said Thursday 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 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 DOE official told Domenici and what 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 program.

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

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Reuters
August 13, 2003

Security risk for Yucca Mtn nuclear dump low-GAO

(Recasts, adds Nevada comment)

By Chris Baltimore

WASHINGTON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - The risk of a terror attack or catastrophic accident arising from the Bush administration's plan to ship nuclear waste to a Nevada desert storage site is low, according to a report to be released on Thursday by Congress' investigative arm.

"The likelihood of widespread harm from a terrorist attack or a severe accident involving commercial spent nuclear fuel is low," the U.S. General Accounting Office said in a report circulated on Wednesday by Rep. Joe Barton, Texas Republican, who asked the GAO for the study.

Barton supports the administration's controversial plan to build a massive storage facility beneath Yucca Mountain in the desert 90 miles (150 km) northwest of Las Vegas. It would be the first permanent U.S. nuclear waste repository.

The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in Washington and New York have heightened security concerns surrounding nuclear shipments. Yucca Mountain critics have argued that terrorists could attack a train or truck enroute to Nevada and release a deadly radioactive cloud.

GAO said the risk of a terror attack is "very low." While attackers could penetrate the metal casks used to store the fuel, "their construction allows little release of spent fuel, with little harm to human health," the GAO said.

GAO said it based its conclusion on studies conducted by the U.S. Energy Department and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and did not independently confirm their technical accuracy.

Set to open as soon as 2010, the site would hold 77,000 tons (70,000 tonnes) of radioactive material from the nation's 103 nuclear plants. The Environmental Protection Agency says the repository must be able to hold the waste for 10,000 years, and the NRC still must approve the project.

The plan is bitterly opposed by Nevada, which has filed five lawsuits to stop it. Environmental groups warn the plan could expose millions of Americans to the higher risk of a severe radiological release.

The office of Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval in written comments said the GAO report took a "discrete" view of transportation risk and overlooked larger concerns about human health and the possibility of simultaneous shipment attacks.

Nevada said that nuclear waste should be stored in dry casks at current sites rather than at Yucca Mountain.

Spent fuel from the nation's nuclear plants is piling up -- there are over 50,000 tons (45,500 tonnes) of it stored at 72 sites in 33 states centered mostly near urban areas in the East and Midwest, the GAO 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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