Yucca Mountain News Clips
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 10, 2003
Editorial: Energy bill
A plan to offer federal loan guarantees to encourage the construction of more nuclear power plants died this week in a congressional committee.
That's a tiny bit of good news for Nevada, targeted as the home of the nation's nuclear waste dump.
Yes, the energy bill set to soon emerge from a House and Senate negotiating committee will include other types of subsidies for the nuclear power industry. But the government-backed loans are dead, officials said.
And with good reason: Why should the taxpayers be put at risk if the reactors fail? Indeed, why should any power plant get such a subsidy?
Special breaks for the nuclear power industry -- the government has already shielded it from liability in the case of an accident -- distort the energy marketplace. And if Washington had left matters in the hands of the private sector decades ago instead of trying to pick and choose favorites, most Nevadans today would likely never have heard of Yucca Mountain.
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Las Vegas SUN
September 09, 2003
Nuke Plant Guarantees Out of Energy Bill
By H. Josef Hebert
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - A plan to help build nuclear power plants with federal loan guarantees has been shelved as part of Congress' energy bill, according to supporters of the program.
Still, lawmakers are continuing to discuss ways to help the nuclear industry develop the next generation of reactors, including expansion of government-sponsored research and tax benefits for such plants, according to people involved in the discussions.
The proposed loan guarantees had been included in legislation the Senate was considering but fell by the wayside when that version was abandoned in favor of one that contained only modest help for the industry.
As House and Senate negotiators work out final energy legislation, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has said he hopes to restore many proposals to help the nuclear industry that were in his earlier bill.
But no longer are the loan guarantees an option, a senior GOP staff member involved in the discussions said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Industry officials also acknowledged Tuesday that the focus was on other kinds of help to spur new reactor construction.
Domenici, who is chairing the energy discussions, also has pledged not to pursue a separate provision that would require the government to purchase a certain number of power reactors that are built.
Many Democrats have characterized the loan guarantees as a boondoggle for the nuclear industry that could cost taxpayers billions of dollars. And conservative Republicans, including Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., have objected in general to the government helping industry finance the building of power plants.
Still the subsidies had substantial support. An attempt in July by Sununu and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to strip the loan guarantees was beaten back by a vote of 50-48.
Domenici has said he plans to pursue other types of assistance to try to jump-start construction of new reactors. No utility has tried to build a nuclear power plant since the 1979 Three Mile Island accident, although several companies have filed papers with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission expressing an interest in a new-design reactor if economic conditions are right.
Among the issues still being discussed are Domenici's proposed $865 million research effort into ways to reduce the volume of reactor waste that will have to be buried at a repository in Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Critics maintain the so-called "transmutation" - a chemical process separating the most highly radioactive isotopes from the waste - poses nuclear proliferation risks.
Also still on the table is a proposal for the government to build a $1.1 billion reactor in Idaho that could produce hydrogen.
Industry lobbyists are searching for alternatives to the loan guarantees such as tax credits for electricity produced from such reactors, and accelerated depreciation for building them.
Domenici and other nuclear industry supporters hope such approaches would be viewed more favorably than the loan guarantees, which became a focus for criticism of the entire nuclear package in the earlier Senate bill.
Wyden had argued that the debate was not about nuclear power but whether "to put at risk the taxpayers of this country" if the reactor projects failed. Sununu questioned why any power plants should get such a subsidy.
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New London Day
September 10, 2003
Dominion Explains Need For Bunkers
It Wants The Capacity To Store Plants' Spent N-fuel Through 2045
By Patricia Daddona
Day Staff Writer
Waterford — Dominion Nuclear Connecticut argues in its proposal to the Connecticut Siting Council for 135 storage bunkers that the large number is necessary to house spent fuel generated at two of its three power plants here through the year 2045.
Dominion wants the full complement of bunkers in spite of a directive from the town that would limit the proposed $95 million storage site to its $24 million first phase. That would total only 19 bunkers and extend only through the year 2013.
The siting council will address Dominion's application to modify the “certificate of environmental compatibility and public need’ on Oct. 17 at Waterford Town Hall. The council on Tuesday granted Waterford status as a party to the application, which would allow the town to present expert testimony and cross-examine Dominion's experts.
Dominion applied to the council last month for permission to add dry storage to the uses of its site as an electric-generating facility. The company has proposed building 19 concrete bunkers the size of one-car garages, in which metal canisters of spent fuel rod assemblies would be stored. Dominion would add up to 116 more in phases — and only if needed, according to the application.
The distinction between the two arguments about the size of the storage needed goes to the heart of how Millstone Station operates and would operate in the future.
The plan to use dry cask storage would constitute a second stage of on-site storage to be used for spent fuel rods only after the rods have cooled for five years in water in spent fuel pools.
Most power plants still use spent fuel pools housed in separate buildings to cool the radioactive fuel rods used in the plants' core.
Although Millstone 1 is no longer operating, Millstone 2 is licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to operate through 2015, while Millstone 3 is licensed through 2025. Dominion plans to apply to have the Millstone 2 and 3 licenses renewed through 2035 and 2045 respectively, and would likely generate radioactive waste throughout that time.
Dominion defends its call for 135 bunkers and dry casks, stating it must preserve the capacity to ensure that there is always space available in the spent fuel pools as the power plants are refueled.
The storage site should also be available “if necessary ... to support changes in the use of the shutdown Millstone 1,’ the application states, without specifying what those changes might be.
“When we plan in the nuclear industry, we plan for every possible contingency,’ said Dominion spokesman Pete Hyde. “It doesn't mean we have plans for anything specific. We're just keeping our options open.’
Dominion insists the storage would be temporary, and used only until a national repository is available at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The fuel rods would then be removed “as quickly as possible in accordance with the schedule established by the federal government,’ according to the application.
Preparing for 135 bunkers by expanding a protected area and making physical improvements and environmental accommodations should only have to be done once, the company adds.
Waterford land use officials and First Selectman Paul B. Eccard argue that Dominion should be granted only the dry storage it absolutely needs as the spent fuel pools fill up. The company should not have, Eccard insists, “unfettered permission to be storing this stuff.’
Dominion has offered in its application to provide formal, annual reports instead of the five-year updates sought by the town, as well as updates on the status of the Yucca Mountain project and a five-year projection of the company's anticipated spent fuel storage needs.
The company hopes to load the first canisters into bunkers by November 2004.
p.daddona@theday.com
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 09, 2003
Yucca Mountain status report scheduled
Gibbons only representative allowed to speak
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- A House of Representatives panel will receive a status report Thursday on the Yucca Mountain Project and discuss how supporters in Congress might move the program forward.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Nils J. Diaz and officials from the Energy Department have been invited to testify before members of the energy and air quality subcommittee, a panel that monitors the Nevada nuclear waste repository program.
A committee spokeswoman said a representative of Bechtel SAIC, the project's managing contractor, also has been scheduled to speak, as well as executives with the Nuclear Energy Institute and the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition, a group of utility officials and regulators from states with nuclear plants.
"We want to make sure they are on track, find out where they are in the process and what we can do to help," the spokeswoman said.
Other speakers may be added, the spokeswoman said.
Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., plans to testify at the hearing after reminding committee leaders that Yucca Mountain is in his congressional district, spokeswoman Amy Spanbauer said.
"The congressman thought it necessary that since this issue is so important for the 2nd Congressional District, that he wanted to be there in person," Spanbauer said.
Gibbons plans to speak against the project, located 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, arguing that potential for terrorism will mar efforts to transport highly radioactive spent fuel to Nevada from waste storage sites around the country, Spanbauer said.
Gibbons may be the only Nevadan to speak. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Jon Porter, R-Nev., asked for time to present their views, but the committee has signaled they will not be allowed to testify, aides said Monday.
Berkley dismissed the hearing as a "love fest" put on by supporters of the Yucca Mountain Project.
"It is pretty apparent that they are not interested in a fair and balanced presentation regarding Yucca Mountain," Berkley said. "They are more interested in allowing those who are maniacally supportive of Yucca Mountain to provide Congress with one-sided views."
The Energy Department has set a December 2004 goal to submit a repository license application to the NRC, with hopes to have a repository built and operating by 2010.
However, the Energy Department faces financial hurdles to meet its goal, as well as political and legal opposition from the state of Nevada and environmental organizations that have challenged the repository's health and safety protections.
The House committee, led by Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, generally has been supportive of the Energy Department's efforts to develop the Yucca Mountain site for burial of 77,000 tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel and the government's nuclear waste.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 09, 2003
Waste Project Safety: Ex-worker at Yucca files suit
Whistle-blower says law firm's report on project's quality assurance defamed him
By Keith Rogers
Review-Journal
A former contract worker for the Energy Department's Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project has filed a defamation lawsuit against a law firm that was hired by the government to report on the project's quality assurance program.
Jim Mattimoe, a former employee of Navarro Research and Engineering, claims in a complaint filed Aug. 28 in District Court in Las Vegas that a nationwide law firm, Morgan Lewis and Bockius damaged his reputation. The firm, according to the complaint, "acted in reckless disregard" when it submitted its final investigation report, titled, "Safety Conscious Work Environment."
"The final report and the attachments defamed Mr. Mattimoe in that the representations and 'findings' in the final report were false and involved allegations that imputed Mr. Mattimoe was lacking in fitness for his trade, business and profession and imputed that he was involved in criminal activity," states the court papers filed by Mattimoe's attorney, Richard Campbell, of Reno.
An official for the Morgan Lewis and Bockius office in Philadelphia declined to comment on the complaint.
Mattimoe was fired on Aug. 24, 2001, three days before a Yucca Mountain Project contractor at the time, Science Applications International Corp., paid a subcontractor nearly $300,000 for legal and settlement costs involving another employee who had raised concerns about the quality assurance program that Mattimoe headed.
Under a whistle-blower law, Mattimoe filed a wrongful termination complaint against his former employer, Navarro Research and Engineering, which had taken over the Science Applications quality assurance contract.
Last year, Labor Department officials ordered Navarro to reinstate Mattimoe, expunge his personnel file and reimburse him for costs incurred.
Navarro initially pressed for an appeal, but ultimately agreed to settle out-of-court with Mattimoe on Feb. 26 for an undisclosed amount.
In the complaint filed last month, Mattimoe claims he "suffered severe or extreme emotional distress" through intentional actions that were made with malice and as such he should be awarded punitive damages.
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Las Vegas SUN
September 09, 2003
Nevada reps will speak at Yucca status hearing
By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN
WASHINGTON -- Nevada's three House members will address the status of the Yucca Mountain Project at a House subcommittee hearing Thursday after being initially frozen out of the process.
The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on energy and air quality, which had planned the Thursday hearing that was to feature the Energy Department, its contractors and the nuclear power industry, originally was not going to allow Nevada's representatives to speak, but this morning Nevada's delegation was invited to testify.
Aides to Republicans Jim Gibbons and Jon Porter and Democrat Shelley Berkley confirmed the Nevada representatives are set to give statements at the hearing after they asked the committee for permission to speak.
Berkley credited her staff's "relentless" work in contacting the committee to make sure the delegation was included, especially after being refused after first learning of the hearing late last week.
Although she would not go into detail on what her testimony would include, Berkley said she would address everything from a lack of scientific evidence on the safety of moving the materials to the amount of money needed to complete the site, "stressing the cost of this folly."
Berkley said the cost estimates for the project, including all of its aspects, could run as high as $300 billion. "Where is this money going to come from?"
Her testimony will also bring up the fact waste will still need to be stored at the 100 nuclear power plants across the country before being moved to Yucca.
"We will never close a dump site, we will only add a dump site," Berkley said.
The Energy Department project is designed to store 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, despite strong opposition from the state, residents and elected officials.
DOE intends to submit a license application for the project in December 2004 and, if approved, the site could open for the first waste shipments by 2010. Critics hope pending court cases could stop the project.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-La., and subcommittee Chairman Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, have supported the project in the past and previously held hearings on it as Congress weighed the decision last year. The House and Senate approved the plan allowing DOE to move forward with the project.
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Las Vegas SUN
September 09, 2003
Man fired from Yucca project files lawsuit
By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN
WASHINGTON -- Fired Yucca Mountain project contractor James Mattimoe sued Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, alleging the Washington law firm made false statements about his work on the Energy Department project that not only resulted in his termination but will affect the rest of his career.
Reno lawyer Richard Campell filed the defamation lawsuit Aug. 27 in District Court in Las Vegas. It lists 12 statements from a report completed in 2001 by the law firm for the department which Mattimoe says are false and misleading.
Mattimoe formerly worked for Navarro Research and Engineering, an Energy Department contractor working on the quality assurance program of Yucca Mountain Project. He alleges he was fired in August 2001 from the project after he began shining light on certain flaws in the Energy Department's plan to store 77,000 tons of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.
Energy Department officials hired the law firm to investigate Mattimoe and other quality assurance employees. The firm conducted numerous interviews in Las Vegas and issued a report of its findings in Aug. 28, 2001.
According to the defamation claim, the report includes statements that he abused his authority, retaliated against other employees and was defensive, among other items.
The report named Mattimoe specifically and by position title. The lawsuit says the report contains false information and implies he "was lacking in fitness for his trade, businesss and profession and imputed that he was involved in criminal activity and/or falsification of documents."
"Mr. Mattimoe was terminated by Navarroa based upon urging by the Department of Energy and on the Morgan Lewis Final Report," according to the complaint.
Mattimoe earlier challenged his firing and a Labor Department probe ruled that he had been unfairly terminated. He eventually settled with Navarro for an undisclosed amount.
Campbell said his client seeks money damages from the suit, but did not name a specific amount.
A call to Morgan Lewis was not returned.
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Las Vegas SUN
September 09, 2003
GOP prepares state for Bush campaign
By Sito Negron
Las Vegas SUN
The Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign rolled into town Monday on a wave of big-name Nevada politicians, unveiling a leadership team aimed at again securing the state for the GOP presidential candidate.
Although they did not have a specific answer to the lead question of the day -- when President Bush would appear in Nevada -- they promised he would be here "sooner rather than later" and pressed the Republican agenda during the news conference at Mandalay Bay.
Promising to highlight national policies the leaders said are popular with Nevadans -- and discounting the Yucca Mountain nuclear storage issue as one negative among a pile of positives -- the politicians said they'll spend the next 14 months telling the story of Bush's successes and leadership in ongoing issues such as the economy and homeland security.
"Whether it's an attack by terrorists, whether it's a recession, whether it's corporate scandal, our president has shown unwavering and strong leadership that is very important to the people of Nevada," said Ken Mehlman, national campaign manager for the Bush-Cheney ticket. "And the ultimate proof of that leadership is the group of people that has assembled here to help the president."
With that, Mehlman introduced Gov. Kenny Guinn, state Attorney General Brian Sandoval and Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev.
Sandoval chairman
"Leadership" was the word of the day, setting the stage for a campaign to identify Bush as a president who, in the words of Sandoval, uses "courage and conviction" to confront pressing issues.
"President Bush leads our country by principle, by doing what is right and by insisting on solving tough problems and not just passing them on to the next generation," said Sandoval, who is chairman of the Nevada Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign.
"Whether protecting our homeland from terrorist attacks, strengthening our economy through tax incentives ... improving Nevada schools, making health care costs more affordable and furthering the compassionate agenda, this president is committed and focuses on results."
The campaign plan is not only to focus on Bush's leadership, but also his "compassionate conservative" message with programs such as No Child Left Behind, which Bush promoted Monday in a visit to Nashville that was followed by a $2,000 a plate fund-raiser. Under the law, students attending schools that need improvement must be given the opportunity to transfer to better public.
Better organized
Guinn, who was the campaign chairman for Bush-Cheney 2000, said this time around the Nevada group is better organized, a development shown by what he called the "diversity" at Monday's Las Vegas event.
Sandoval, the first Hispanic elected to a statewide office in Nevada, was only one of several minorities named on the list of people on the Bush-Cheney Nevada Leadership Team.
Luis Valera, a Las Vegas financial planner who ran for Assembly in 2002, said the support for Bush-Cheney reflected a growing sophistication among Hispanics. Like the rest of the country, he said, such factors as financial status play a larger role in voting patterns than knee-jerk party loyalty.
An estimated 400,000 Hispanics live in the state, about 300,000 in the Las Vegas area. As in other parts of the country, political experts say they could be the difference in a tight race.
Bush narrowly won Nevada's four electoral votes in the 2000 election, a fact driven home by Guinn as he recalled a CNN reporter calling him to confirm that the state had gone to Gore.
"I said, 'wait,' " Guinn said. "They called back at about 11 (p.m.) and announced Nevada had gone for Bush."
As close as the 2000 presidential election was, with Bush winning the state by taking 49 percent of the vote, Nevada has trended towards Republicans, with most of the top statewide and national offices going Republicans.
The Nevada secretary of state website shows 362,308 registered Democrats and 370,399 registered Republicans as of July 2003, the most recent numbers available. There were about 5,000 Libertarians and 134,000 nonpartisan voters.
The issue that observers think could hurt Bush the most in Southern Nevada is his stance on the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump. During the campaign in 2000, Bush did not take a stance on the site, saying only that he would let sound science prevail. Months into his administration, he approved the site, a move Nevada Democrats have kept in the spotlight ever since.
Guinn said the state can oppose the site -- which it is doing in court -- and continue to support Bush. "At the end of the day the men and women of Nevada ... will look at the overall record," he said.
Adriana Martinez, the Nevada Democratic Party chairwoman, said that may be true. But Bush's overall record doesn't stack up well either, she said, and she thinks that the Yucca Mountain issue will work against the president.
"His team will be running from him on his (Yucca Mountain) decision," she predicted.
Mark Benoit, a political consultant who has worked mostly on Democratic campaigns, said. "If you had asked four months ago, I'd have said it would be very difficult for a Democrat to win."
Popularity waning
Now, he said, poll numbers are starting to show Bush's popularity waning as questions about the post-war situation in Iraq and the economy burn hotter.
"The press are now finally starting to question him," Benoit said. "Bush is fumbling with the answers now."
While the president has been solid in the polls, he has dropped recently, according to the Gallup organization. According to its website: "President Bush's job rating has settled down into the high 50s and low 60s as the rally effect that resulted from the Iraq war has faded. Bush's most recent job rating of 59 percent is slightly above Gallup's historical average approval rating of 56 percent for all presidents since Harry Truman, but is also below Bush's term average of 68 percent."
Ukniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas political science associate professor Jerry Simich said Bush could be helped by the influx of former California residents who retired to Nevada to escape taxes.
"They don't want to see what happened in California happen here," he said.
Ted Jelen, chairman of the UNLV political science department, said the economy could hurt Bush, although Nevada might not be hurting as much as the rest of the country. The unemployment rate has hovered around 5 percent in the state for the past couple of months, compared to an August unemployment rate nationally of 6.1 percent, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Yucca Mountain also could work against Bush if the environment becomes a national campaign issue, Jelen said.
"Bush's best bet for Nevada and the nation as a whole is if it's decided on the basis of foreign policy, so it depends on what types of issues emerge," he said.
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Las Vegas SUN
September 08, 2003
British hydrologists enlisted in battle against nuke dump
By Mary Manning
<manning@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN
A trio of British hydrologists spent last week in Las Vegas doing research for Nevada's scientific team in its battle against a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
Michael Thorne, director of Mike Thorne & Associates, said last week that a review of scientific reports gathered over the past 20 years by the Energy Department and other scientists had just started.
Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, was chosen by President Bush and Congress as the nation's first high-level nuclear waste repository. It is expected to open in 2010 if it is licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Thorne and his team -- Adrian Butler, a senior lecturer in subsurface hydrology at Imperial College, and Howard Wheater, hydrology professor at Imperial College, both at the University of London -- also visited Yucca Mountain Wednesday.
"We are just at the beginning," Thorne said in a telephone interview. "There is a great deal of science that needs to be looked at. DOE has put itself in a difficult position; they have selected a system that causes them to work at or beyond the limits of existing science to justify the project."
No other prospective nuclear waste burial site in world attempts to create a repository "in such a thermodynamically unstable environment," Thorne said, adding that questions persist about the adequacy of previous studies at the mountain.
Both volcanoes and earthquakes have occurred around Yucca Mountain in the past.
The state hired the experts to review both DOE and Nuclear Regulatory Commission data, said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.
The three hydrologists have reviewed nuclear waste sites in the United Kingdom and Sweden, Loux said.
"Based on what they have discovered so far, the DOE probably could not have found a more unstable site in the entire country," Loux said.
Groundwater combined with chemicals leeched out of Yucca's rocks could corrode containers holding radioactive waste in less than 500 years, Loux said.
The Energy Department studies say that radiation will not reach the groundwater, 1,000 feet below the proposed repository, for hundreds of thousands of years.
Nevada's studies will delve into the behavior of groundwater inside the mountain, Loux said, in preparation for a hearing on five consolidated lawsuits pending before a U.S. Appeals Court. After that, the NRC could take up until four years to examine Yucca studies before granting DOE a license to build a repository.
Thorne, who formed his company in 2001, has developed several studies on radioactive waste transfers in sludge and water in Great Britain and Australia. His specialties are radiological protection, the assessment of the radiological safety of nuclear waste disposal and how radiation moves in the environment.
Butler, a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society and a member of the British Hydrological Society, is studying ground-water flow and the migration of radiation in near-surface waters.
Wheater, a member of the American Geophysical Union and the International Water Academy, is an expert in unsaturated zone and groundwater movements.
The three could become expert witnesses during the trial, Loux said.
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Las Vegas SUN
September 08, 2003
Letter: Different views on nuclear waste, homosexuality
I have comments about two letters that you published on Aug. 27.
Charles B. Lewis equated homosexuality with murder and spousal and child abuse. What he fails to realize is that those acts are voluntary, whereas homosexuals are born that way. It's something in the genes.
Lewis says homosexuality is not part of the natural human order. I recently read about the theory that homosexuals came into being to provide additional hunters for starving clans, but without the danger of their ever adding more mouths to feed. This theory definitely makes more sense than Mr. Lewis' silly rant.
In the other letter, William Simmons warned of terrorist attacks against shipments of nuclear waste. He tried to compare a spent fuel shipping cast to such flimsy structures as buildings, trucks or railroad cars, which he warned could be targets of attacks. He said previous attacks have revealed the vulnerability of buildings and transport vehicles. He described them as "solid," when in fact they are quite hollow and poorly built when compared to a spent-fuel shipping cask. If he's really concerned he should think about where the spent fuel is currently stored -- inside one of those buildings he thinks is so vulnerable to a terrorist attack.
Oscar R. Fick Jr.
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Las Vegas SUN
September 08, 2003
Republican heavyweights roll out leadership team in Nevada to win 2004 presidential election
By Adam Goldman
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Republican Party rolled out its leadership team in Nevada on Monday, staking claim to the battleground state and promising to deliver its crucial electoral votes to President Bush in the 2004 election.
Republican heavyweights introduced the Bush-Cheney 2004 Nevada Leadership Team during a news conference at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino, touting the president's commitment to winning the state and vowing their support despite his approval of a controversial nuclear waste dump at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.
Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval will chair the team. Gov. Kenny Guinn, U.S. Sen. John Ensign and Reps. Jim Gibbons and Jon Porter will all serve as honorary co-chairs.
Team members said they'll help build a network of grassroots support, raise money and target the heavy number of Hispanic voters in southern Nevada that could prove critical to the president's re-election efforts. Sandoval was the first Hispanic to elected to a statewide office in Nevada.
"We are here to make sure that our state will be part of Bush country," Sandoval said. "Nevada will be a battleground. Organizing early is crucial."
Guinn said Bush fiscal policies will ensure that Nevada will go Republican in 2004. The state went to Bush in 2000, following a campaign promise by Bush to ensure "sound science" prevailed in any decision he made on a nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain.
After his election, Bush approved the Yucca Mountain project, prompting Democrats to criticize him for breaking his promises regarding the project.
Sandoval said he was committed to defeating the Yucca Mountain project in the courts, and his support for Bush had not changed that position.
Regarding the seeming flip-flop by Bush on the high-level waste dump, Guinn said he had asked Bush to take a different position. But when it comes to the first-term president's re-election bid, "we are looking at the totality of the man," Guinn said.
"His tax cuts are putting money into the economy," Guinn said. "We delivered the four electoral votes last time. We will produce those four electoral votes for the next president of the United States: George W. Bush."
Ken Mehlman, the president's national campaign manager, said President Bush would visit Nevada in the future. He declined to say when the president might come.
"I think you will see the president in this state," Mehlman said.
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On the Net: http://www.georgewbush.com/
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 07, 2003
Letter: AG's Yucca Mountain viewpoint skews the picture
DOE: Site, waste transportation are safe
To the editor:
Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval's Aug. 17 commentary regarding the scientific studies of Yucca Mountain and the transportation of nuclear waste was misleading and not supported by the facts. If the attorney general has credible scientific evidence to contradict the conclusions of the hundreds of scientists, engineers and independent reviewers involved in recommending the site, he has not presented it to date.
More than 20 years of scientific study at Yucca Mountain have involved many of the world's most capable scientific professionals and organizations. In addition, the University and Community College System of Nevada and Nye County have conducted in-depth repository studies. Their findings have been subject to scrutiny from regulatory and scientific bodies such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, and the National Academy of Sciences.
The scientific support for naming Yucca Mountain as a suitable site for the nation's repository is unprecedented and unimpeachable.
Mr. Sandoval is simply wrong in stating that the collective efforts of the scientists and their judgment is "neither safe nor based upon sound science." What expert opinion does Mr. Sandoval rely on to question the integrity of our scientists?
Mr. Sandoval's claim that the transportation of spent nuclear fuel is inherently dangerous is also wrong. Spent nuclear fuel has been safely transported within the United States and other countries for decades. There has never been a transportation accident involving spent fuel that has resulted in the harmful release of radiation.
The Department of Energy is proud of its scientific team and their work on Yucca Mountain. It's equally proud of its tremendous safe and secure record of transporting spent nuclear fuel. We will construct and operate a repository only if the NRC approves it through the issuance of a license. All of our documents are available to the public on our web site at www.ocrwm.doe.gov. We invite readers to investigate these issues for themselves.
The full picture of Yucca Mountain is much different from Mr. Sandoval's opinion.
W. John Arthur Iii
Las Vegas
The writer is deputy director of the Yucca Mountain Project.
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Las Vegas SUN
September 05, 2003
Rejection of Reid's nuclear nominee sets up standoff with Bush
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Sen. Harry Reid said he will hold up President Bush's nominees to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after the White House rejected Reid's science adviser for a seat on the panel.
Reid, D-Nev., continues to back Gregory B. Jaczko, a physicist, for the post, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported in Friday's editions.
Jaczko, 32, has been Reid's principal adviser on nuclear power and the Yucca Mountain Project since 2001.
"I'm not going to let them have a Republican until I get a Democrat," Reid said, noting there are two vacancies on the five-member NRC.
"He is eminently qualified. He has a strong record in public service," Reid said. "I can't imagine who we would pick who would be better qualified. The White House should have been elated."
The newspaper quoted sources saying Reid is expressing his displeasure by seeking to delay a Senate Environment Committee confirmation hearing for John Grossenbacher of Illinois, a retired vice admiral whom Bush wants to install as the NRC's new chairman.
"If they think they are going to have anyone filling their job in the near future, they will have to do it with a recess appointment," Reid said of the White House, referring to a process where the president can fill vacancies while Congress is out of session.
The five-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission is the government's chief nuclear energy watchdog, regulating reactors, the handling of nuclear materials and nuclear waste facilities.
In what commissioners have declared the agency's most challenging task, the NRC is preparing to weigh an Energy Department application to build and operate a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Reid, assisted by Jaczko, has worked to derail the project, which has been a priority of the Bush administration, the nuclear power industry and many states that host nuclear power plants.
At least one of the vacant NRC seats must be filled by a Democrat. In March, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., proposed Jaczko to the White House. Daschle received a rejection letter a month later from Dina Powell, an assistant White House personnel director.
Powell did not explain the White House rejection. Bush spokesman Ken Lisaius said Thursday the White House will not comment on personnel matters.
As for Reid's threat to delay another nominee, Lisaius said, "Our goal is to make sure all vacancies are filled. We'll continue to work with all parties to ensure the NRC is fully staffed and able to perform its function."
Officials said the NRC can continue to conduct business with its three remaining members, two of them Republicans.
The White House rejection of Jaczko first was reported Aug. 29 in the Wall Street Journal, with a brief item saying Bush allies in the nuclear industry "cried foul" over the potential appointment.
A spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute confirmed Thursday the industry opposed Jaczko because of his association with Reid in fighting the Yucca repository.
"We believe the White House should nominate qualified candidates who aren't biased one way or another on the job," spokesman Mitch Singer said.
Singer said he did not know for certain whether industry leaders conveyed their views to the White House. "I'm sure there were things that were said one way or another in the course of conversations," Singer said.
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Pahrump Valley Times
September 5, 2003
Yucca Mountain bill subject of Monday call
A special conference call to discuss a bill on Yucca Mountain has been scheduled by Nye County Commissioners at 8:30 a.m. Monday.
The public can listen to the conference in Pahrump at the old courthouse complex at 250 N. Highway 160.
The U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Water Committee in July passed a bill allowing $30 million for mitigation costs for the 10 counties surrounding Yucca Mountain. The committee report cited the Nye County Community Protection Plan as an example of funding for possible mitigation projects.
If the bill passes the full House and goes through the Senate, the funding would be on top of the usual Payment Equal to Taxes Nye County receives for Yucca Mountain and oversight money.
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Pahrump Valley Times
September 5, 2003
Commissioners Make Policy Change
Consulting now subject to bid process
By Mark Waite
PVT
TONOPAH - Nye County will now be required to seek competitive proposals for professional service agreements costing over $20,000, after a 3-2 vote of the Nye County Commission Tuesday.
Commissioners Joni Eastley and Roberta "Midge" Carver voted against it.
Commissioner Patricia Cox, who requested the item, said she's concerned Nye County enters a lot of professional service agreements without comparing firms. Cox raised the issue at the Aug. 19 county commission meeting in which some of the same consultants - Jim Williams, Don Watson and Cash Jaszczak - that previously worked on Yucca Mountain oversight projects were hired to work on a $100,000 Yucca Mountain transportation study.
Nye County Commissioners would be able to override the policy in cases of emergency, by a vote from four commissioners, instead of the simple majority.
Nye County Commissioner Candice Trummell agreed with the proposal but said the supermajority vote may require a separate ordinance. Trummell said she'd be happy to loosen the policy, allowing a supermajority vote even when there isn't an emergency time constraint.
Nye County Commission Chairman Henry Neth said the new policy could hamstring commissioners, who have the right under Nevada law to accept a single proposal for certain types of professional services. That right was given commissioners to better implement policy, he said. Neth voted in favor of the motion.
"If we do this all we're doing is creating another level of bureaucracy, another way to stall us. We don't get enough work done as it is," Neth said.
But Cox asked: "How do we know we're getting the best person for that job because we did not go through a competitive process?"
When Neth asked for examples, Cox mentioned a motion to hire Scott Weiss at the last meeting, to look into what licensing and other requirements are needed to reopen Pahrump Medical Center.
Trummell said a perfect example would be Agape Technologies, which estimated in January it would cost $45,000 to assist the county in implementing the new HTE software but costs have since ballooned to roughly $250,000.
"I'm sure other people have HTE experience and we didn't even go out and look," Trummell said. "I wouldn't say it's a malfeasance or a misfeasance, those are pretty strong terms. But it's not the best action we could've taken."
Neth said when the Agape contract was signed there was an urgency in getting the HTE system in place.
"I don't believe Agape just magically appeared one day and we have this company that can solve all our problems in 30 days," Trummell replied.
Neth said commissioners rely on county staff to make recommendations for contracts based on a sole source. It would take another 60 to 90 days to request competitive proposals, he said.
"For us to hamstring ourselves by having to go out for an RFQ (request for qualifications) on every single professional services contract is not being of service to this board," Neth said.
When Neth asked commissioners how they could ensure a company was the best qualified, Cox said it was a commissioners obligation to do that research.
Trummell said certain members of the board have been very vocal making statements commissioners shouldn't even be questioning the county's bidding procedures.
"That's a pretty strong statement," Neth replied. He said the county already has checks and balances in place, if a commissioner doesn't like a certain contract they can vote against it.
When it comes to Nye County Natural Resources and Federal Facilities Director Les Bradshaw, Neth said Bradshaw knows he'll have to seek competitive proposals on the second phase of the Yucca Mountain transportation study.
"I'd like to see us communicate when an issue comes up on a particular contract that we have a problem with," Neth said. "If commissioners have a problem with it they can always talk to each other."
Trummell said under the Nevada Open Meeting Law commissioners are only allowed to talk with one other commissioner.
Nye County Chief Civil Deputy District Attorney Ron Kent said there isn't any case law to determine the legality of imposing a supermajority requirement on future commissions.
Cox said, "Because I feel so passionate about this issue I still am going to stick with the motion and that an ordinance be developed."
Neth concluded the discussion, "It's time for us to look at a new way to do business, not a mere inefficient way."
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Pahrump Valley Times
September 5, 2003
Commission split on 24-hour health care proposal
By Mark Waite
PVT
TONOPAH - A suggestion to hire Reynaldo Martinez, president of Strategic Dimensions Inc., to lobby for funding to reopen Pahrump Medical Center, was defeated by a 3-2 vote of the Nye County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday.
Nye County Commissioners Henry Neth and Roberta "Midge" Carver voted against Commissioner Joni Eastley's motion to deny the request. Eastley said lobbyists for Russ Reid Company, who have already been retained by Nye County for $10,000 per month to lobby for federal transportation dollars, have agreed to take on this additional request free of charge.
Jane Wisdom and Bob Swadell lobbied strongly for hiring Martinez, a former chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D. -Nev., a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee whom commissioners had decided to approach for funding. The discussion lead to an angry tête-à-tête between Swadell and County Commissioner Candice Trummell.
Swadell said the funding wouldn't necessarily be tied to Pahrump Medical Center, but would be to establish night and weekend medical service in Pahrump regardless of the location. "It tends to get wrapped around the axle with this reopening of PMC," he said.
Trummell said in an Internet search of federal lobbyists she found Martinez had only represented one company in the past eight years.
"The people who get more things done in Washington are people you don't even know," Swadell replied. He added, "They (Strategic Dimensions) have to come to meetings in Tonopah; this is not an easy (meeting) to get to."
Trummell replied, "We have to rely on your word he was successful and I find that very hard to swallow."
Trummell said Sen. Reid's own staff said it was too late in the 2004 federal budget cycle to request funds. "They really discouraged us from pulling anything like this again," she said.
Trummell said if Nye County is successful at obtaining $1 million, the funds might have to be returned if the cost of reopening Pahrump Medical Center is higher than expected.
Wisdom read a letter of support from Pahrump developer Tim Hafen, who noted Martinez's career as Reid's chief of staff in Washington D.C. for 12 years and Reid's chief of staff in Nevada for four years when Reid was a congressman. Hafen wrote that Reid played a major role in obtaining federal funds to widen Highway 160 to four lanes between Pahrump and Las Vegas.
Speaking of Martinez, Hafen said, "He enjoys an enviable reputation with most of the principal staff members in both the Senate and House. He has recently been representing many major commercial ventures including companies that have an interest and capability in the test site and Yucca Mountain matters."
"The value that Mr. Martinez would bring in our current effort to obtain funding for medical support along with a lifetime interest and concern for educational matters would make his service to Nye County impossible to overestimate," Hafen wrote. "I firmly believe that having him in a consultant role for Nye County could dramatically improve our representation in both Washington and Carson City."
Swadell added, "I don't know of a single community government operation in the State of Nevada that wouldn't give a right arm and a leg to have this guy working for them."
Trummell charged Swadell with also representing a medical provider who planned on responding to a county proposal to operate PMC, a charge Swadell angrily denied. A Henderson resident who is a fixture at Pahrump meetings lobbying for various projects, Swadell responded to accusations he is "a carpetbagger," saying he pays substantial property tax in Pahrump.
Neth said the $15,000 for the services of a Washington-based consultant like Martinez for 90 days was "a very minimal price to pay for the potential outcome."
Commissioner Patricia Cox had concerns the county was unsuccessful before in asking Reid's office for funds for Nye Regional Medical Center in Tonopah. But Trummell said Russ Reid and Company has been working with Reid's office since January establishing a relationship on behalf of Nye County.
Wisdom questioned the effectiveness of Russ Reid. Eastley said the company has provided regular updates to the commission, which is waiting for news on federal appropriations bills once Congress returns from summer recess.
Swadell said Nye County has received less grant funding than anywhere else due to inadequate representation. "They never seem to get the right guys and the right players in place," 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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