Yucca Mountain News Clips
Monday, September 29, 2003
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Las Vegas SUN
September 29, 2003
Reid stands by NRC nominee; will block Bush
By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN
WASHINGTON -- A 32-year-old nuclear physicist is at the center of a stalemate between Democrats in the Senate and the White House that could stall nominations to several boards.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said none of President Bush's executive branch nominees will move through the Senate until the White House considers Greg Jaczko, Reid's science adviser, for a seat on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Reid wants Jaczko, who holds a doctorate in particle physics, to fill an open seat on the NRC, the federal regulatory agency for nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities, reserved for a Democrat.
The hold includes the nominations of Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, who has been picked by the White House to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Navy Vice Adm. John Grossenbacher, President Bush's nominee for the open Republican seat on the NRC. Reid will not block judicial or military nominees, spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said.
Reid says Jaczko is the best person for the job, while critics of the nomination see it as a yet another battle in the senator's long war against the Energy Department's plans to store 77,000 of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The commission ultimately will decide if the Energy Department can build the storage facility once it receives the license application, now scheduled for December 2004. The NRC also oversees the country's 103 nuclear power plants.
The appointment process is at a standstill now, leaving the commission two members short of its five slots.
Jaczko does not like to talk about the political battle brewing around his nomination but called the support from Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., "flattering." He believes he can be an effective commissioner, despite conflict-of-interest charges by critics of his potential nomination.
"Being a commissioner is about regulating the industry and something I would take seriously. It's a serious responsibility." Jaczko said.
But his critics say his work for one of Yucca Mountain's most vocal opponents creates a built-in conflict.
"Once you work for Harry Reid, you're going to be tainted on an issue like Yucca Mountain," Tripp Baird, director of senate relations at the Heritage Foundation, a think tank in Washington, said.
In fact, Baird said the hold is nothing but "bare bones politics" and the nomination a new way for Reid to try to slow the Yucca Mountain process down.
"It's another front he is opening," Baird said, adding that Reid knew the recommendation would "draw the ire of the administration."
Jaczko worked with Reid during the height of the congressional debate on the project last year, and although the White House has not said specifically why it rejected Jaczko, his Yucca work is the likely culprit. The White House supports the Yucca Mountain plan, and President Bush signed the order to move forward with it last year.
Jaczko began in the field studying physics and philosophy as an undergraduate at Cornell University. While earning his doctorate in particle physics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Jaczko worked on some political campaigns and became involved with public policy activities on campus.
"I found I was spending a lot of my free time doing these things," Jaczko. said. "I felt I didn't necessarily want to be a research scientist."
He finished his thesis and graduated in 1999 but instead of heading to a research job, he decided to come to Washington.
"I wanted to do something that would help others," he said.
Jaczko applied for an American Institute of Physics fellowship and, in 1999, ended up working in the office of Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass, for a year, using his science background to gain more of the political expertise he desired.
There he worked on several issues including NRC oversight work, since Markey sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the NRC.
When his year on the House side was up, Jaczko was hired to work for Reid on the Environment and Public Works Committee, focusing on nuclear safety issues.
Months later Reid gave up the chairmanship to Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont when Jeffords left the Republican party to become an independent in the summer of 2001.
After the switch, Reid's office hired Jaczko to advise the senator on clean air, climate change, nuclear and other energy issues.
"There are people who get it and there are people who don't get it," said Kai Anderson, Reid's deputy chief of staff, referring to Jaczko's understanding of the political process in Congress. "Greg gets it. That's not a common attribute for someone who's a Ph.D. scientist."
Jaczko worked with five or six people on the Yucca debate, but his science background gave him a different perspective beyond the senator's staunch opposition to the project.
"It gave me comfort that I could understand the technical aspects," Jaczko said. "I can look at some of the more technical things DOE has done, such as risk assessment and analysis and understand it. There is a lot of science that still needs work."
The nuclear industry objects to his nomination, arguing there could be a conflict of interest because he has worked on Yucca Mountain issues. Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman Mitch Singer said it is nothing personal against Jaczko, just a question of bias.
Brian O'Connell, director of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners' Nuclear Waste Program Office, said Jaczko's age also gives opponents fodder.
A 32-year-old Senate staff member probably does not have the work experience to regulate the industry. Grossenbacher, the Republican nominee, has 30 years experience on a nuclear submarine.
The association supports the Yucca Mountain project.
Jaczko says his past work could actually help him.
"Yucca Mountain is (a) challenging, complicated issue that must balance public safety, scientific and security concerns," Jaczko said. "I believe that my background has prepared me to objectively evaluate a license for Yucca."
Jaczko said his training as a physicist and work as a congressional staffer have exposed him to many different viewpoints about Yucca Mountain, and that gives him a good background to balance the scientific and policy issues associated with regulating a geologic repository.
Those who work with Jaczko also say he can put his own thoughts aside.
"He works in a bipartisan fashion," Anderson said. "He's not ideology driven."
Jaczko said he has been able to work well with Republicans, pointing out that when he worked on a nuclear security bill where there was a lot of bipartisanship. "The guy is tremendously ethical," said Francis Slakey, a lobbyist with the American Physical Society, who teaches a science and policy class at Georgetown University with Jaczko. Slakey is also the Upjohn Lecturer in Physics and Biology at Georgetown
Slakey and Jaczko work with the students on their projects no matter what their political affiliation.
"If the class is any indication, he's not the kind of guy who's going to pop off, isolate Republicans and try to just jam up the process. That's not his style," Slakey said.
"Greg is not some sort of partisan character who will try to sway students away from the topics of their choice," Slakey said. "So if they were to choose an issue that clearly has a Republican ring to it. ... he would work with them and show them how to get things done.
"How often do you have a guy in Washington who is able to do that?"
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Las Vegas SUN
September 29, 2003
Letter: Science shows Yucca dump site is unsuitable
Contrary to the promises of President Bush and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository is a political decision with science running a distant second.
Our seven lawsuits, now consolidated to four, show that the full power of the federal government is arrayed against us. The state of Nevada filed lawsuits against the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Energy Department, President Bush, Energy Secretary Abraham and the United States because of the lack of scientific integrity in the process. Our federal delegation, Gov. Kenny Guinn and Attorney General Brian Sandoval all should use political leverage to ensure that fairness, equity and sound science will be the standards by which Yucca Mountain is judged.
There was a mistake, which was unfair and inequitable, in 1987 when Texas and Oregon were politically eliminated as potential repository sites to be examined. Instead, Yucca Mountain was designated as the only site to be examined. The Energy Department found in 1998-1999 that the geology of Yucca Mountain would not protect the environment. It is composed of welded and unwelded tuff (volcanic rock) that allows water to move through the mountain, which will pollute the ground water when the nuclear waste burial casks inevitably leak.
Nevadans must continue to be active in opposing Yucca Mountain because it will harm Nevadans, Americans and America for thousands of generations to come.
Frank Perna
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Tri City Herald
September 28, 2003
DOE seeks legislation to reclassify waste
By John Stang
Herald staff writer
In a closed-door congressional session, the Department of Energy is trying to get language inserted into legislation that will give it the power to reclassify untreated high-level radioactive tank waste into a less-dangerous category -- without treating it. A federal judge denied DOE that power three months ago.
DOE is trying to get the language added during a U.S. House-Senate conference committee, which is reconciling the two chambers' 2004 energy bills, according to the office of U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
This legislative maneuvering is prompted by a July 3 lawsuit ruling by U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise.
Two environmental organizations and two Indian nations filed a federal lawsuit against DOE, contesting DOE's claim that it can legally reclassify high-level radioactive tank wastes into low-activity radioactivity tank wastes prior to treatment. Four states, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and South Carolina, supported the plaintiffs' stance. Winmill ruled against DOE, which has appealed the ruling.
The wastes involved include 53 million gallons in Hanford's underground tanks, 34 million gallons in tanks at Savannah River, S.C., and 900,000 gallons in tanks at Idaho Falls.
"Unfortunately, this tactic of fighting the states and trying to do an end run around the other partners in the cleanup is not new to this administration," Murray said. "The truth is that the fastest, most effective way to clean up these sites is for the DOE to work in partnership with the states and federal regulators."
In a recent Senate water and energy committee meeting, Murray said: "I am concerned that this administration may try to change the ground rules so it could declare victory and walk away from (Hanford), without doing all the clean-up work that's required. That could happen if the administration changes the definition of high-level nuclear waste."
Cantwell press aide Charlotte Newman said: "It's inappropriate and premature for DOE to slip (the reclassification legislation) in a bill without public debate. This is too important to do it quietly."
Because the conference committee is controlled by Republicans, no Democrats, including Washington's two senators, are allowed into the discussions.
U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., is not on the conference committee, and is not participating in the committee's talks, said Jessica Gleason, his press aide.
However, he is discussing potential legislative language on the matter with DOE, she said.
But Gleason acknowledged that Hastings is undecided on where he stands in the feud between DOE and four states, including Washington, over DOE's claims that it can reclassify radioactive tanks wastes prior to treating the material.
Consequently, it is unknown what type of legislative language is being sought by Hastings.
On Aug. 1, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham wrote a letter to U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., requesting that Congress insert language into the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to give DOE the reclassification powers that Winmill ruled it did not have.
Roberson also contended that if Congress does not grant reclassification powers to DOE soon, that will put all of DOE's long-term nuclear cleanup plans in limbo. She said that will affect how much money that DOE will request from Congress early next year for the fiscal 2005 nationwide and Hanford nuclear cleanup budgets.
David Mears, the assistant attorney general representing Washington, said Winmill's ruling does not allow for the extreme scenario outlined by Roberson.
Plaintiffs, and the states, don't want DOE to have the power to reclassify untreated tank wastes without regulatory approval because they are afraid that the federal agency might arbitrarily declare that some high-level wastes don't have to be treated as such, Mears said.
"We accept there is some uncertainty about" ramifications of the ruling, Mears said. "But that uncertainty should not be resolved in a (Washington, D.C.) back room."
Right now, Hanford's 53 million gallons of tank wastes are estimated to contain 11 million gallons of high-level radioactive wastes and 42 million gallons of low-activity wastes.
All high-level wastes must be glassified to a condition in which it can be eventually shipped to an underground site at Yucca Mountain, Nev., for permanent storage.
Glassified low-activity wastes can be buried under less-stringent standards at Hanford, the current plan.
The glassification plant under construction at Hanford is expected to handle the 11 million gallons of the site's high-level wastes and 25 million gallons of low-activity wastes by 2028. DOE is studying other ways to treat and neutralize the remaining low-activity wastes by the 2028 legal deadline.
Roberson's worst-case scenario speculates that additional plants would have to be built to glassify all 53 million gallons plus cut-up portions of central Hanford's 177 underground tanks that hold the wastes.
This DOE worst-case scenario also contends that declaring all 53 million gallons as high-level waste would:
- Be too much for an already overcrowded proposed Yucca Mountain storage site to accept.
- Add $69 billion to DOE's nationwide tank waste clean-up budgets over the next few decades, including an extra $12.7 billion which will be needed for DOE's Office of River Protection at Hanford.
- Add $1 billion a year to Hanford's budget needs in order to store high-level wastes for additional years, plus build extra glassification plants.
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Energy Central
September 26, 2003
N.M. Firm Gets Yucca Contract
Portage Environmental of Espanola has been awarded a $160,581 contract from the Department of Energy to provide support services as part of the effort to open Yucca Mountain Repository for nuclear waste in Nevada.
According to the office of Sen. Jeff Bingaman, Portage Environmental will analyze the existing Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management waste certification requirements for the Yucca Mountain Repository. The Espanola company also will be expected to develop processes needed for waste certification for the repository.
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Pantagraph
September 26, 2003
Exelon seeks nuke site approval
By Eric Freehling and Edith Brady-Lunny
Pantagraph staff
CLINTON -- As a possible prelude to a second nuclear reactor at Clinton, Exelon Generation Co. filed an early site permit application Thursday with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission for land adjacent to the Clinton Power Station.
The NRC could take up to 33 months to approve it, said NRC spokeswoman Sue Gagner.
Early site permit approval does not authorize construction of a new reactor, Exelon Nuclear spokeswoman Ann Mary Carley said. Issuance of a permit merely means Exelon has proved the site, which Exelon owns, is suitable in both its environmental and emergency planning aspects for construction.
If granted, the early site permit would be valid for 10 to 20 years and renewable for another 20 years, said Carley, allowing Exelon to "bank" the location for future use.
"We want to look toward the future. We think this is a good generation spot, but we have made no decision, no plans to construct a facility," Carley said.
"This is a good site. We know we have a good work force here, but I emphasize we have not made a decision on construction," Carley said.
Exelon considers the Clinton site a good location, she added, because the location was originally designed for two reactors, but only one was built; it is located close to existing major transmission facilities; and it is in a region that needs reliable power.
Should Exelon decide to build at the site, it would have to obtain a combined operating license for construction and operation, following a separate process that involves additional public comment.
Still, Thursday's news was hailed by officials in DeWitt County.
DeWitt County Board Chairman Duane Harris said the possibility of a second unit could be a real boost to the county's economy.
"I'm thrilled to death to hear it," said Harris. "Another unit could help our economy by bringing people here to work and help the taxpayers, too."
No taxing body has been more affected by the county's deteriorating property tax base than Clinton schools. As the assessed valuation of the Clinton Power Station has decreased, the district has lost millions in tax money.
A tax referendum is scheduled for next spring to help stop increasing deficits.
News of a second reactor is positive, said Clinton School Superintendent Roger Little, but the hike in property taxes may come too late for the district.
"This is a great thing, but when it happens is key to us," said Little. "We can't be dependent upon the power plant. We need a tax rate that will support schools on its own."
Meanwhile the future ownership of AmerGen Energy Co., which owns the Clinton plant, is undecided.
Exelon and British Energy each own half of AmerGen, but British Energy has been looking for a buyer for its half.
Exelon officials said on Thursday the firm is still considering whether to match FPL Energy's offer of $276.5 million for the British Energy stake.
Exelon has a 30-day right of first refusal to buy British Energy's half of AmerGen at the same price. FPL Energy made the offer Sept. 11.
In addition to the Clinton Power Station, AmerGen also owns and operates Three Mile Island Unit 1 in Pennsylvania and the Oyster Creek Generating Station in New Jersey.
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Las Vegas SUN
September 26, 2003
Brief news stories from Las Vegas
UNLV-Federal Funds
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The University of Nevada, Las Vegas ranked 16th of 771 colleges in the amount of federal money it received, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education report.
UNLV received $19.7 million during the 2003 fiscal year, bumping it up from the No. 27 spot it held last year, according to the report. Comparatively, the University of Nevada, Reno, garnered $10.4 million, placing it at No. 46, up from No. 62 last year.
"I think part of what's great about this is it builds a tradition of funding research in much younger and newer states that will ultimately be advantageous for everyone," UNLV President Carol Harter said.
UNLV's $19.7 million will pay for 12 projects, some of which are designed to create "smart" munitions and vehicles. Other projects are designed to further nuclear energy research specific to the Yucca Mountain repository and advance knowledge on alternative energy and fuel.
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Las Vegas Mercury
September 25, 2003
Backstory: The totality of the lies
By Michael Green
Few ever have accused Gov. Kenny Guinn of being a professional writer. That may be wrong. His grasp of irony would inspire a Nobel laureate.
Recently, Guinn joined other Republicans--Rep. Jon Porter and Attorney General Brian Sandoval--to kick off the Bush-Cheney re-election effort for 2004. The other two co-chairs, Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Jim Gibbons, were absent, presumably preparing for a cage match to decide which of them will run for governor in 2006.
Sandoval, the lead dog in this sled race, feels his campaigning doesn't compromise his duties in suing the federal government over the nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. You may recall that when Guinn, Ensign and Gibbons backed the same ticket in 2000, they produced a letter in which Bush assured Nevadans that any decision on that subject would be based on "sound science."
Without any significant new scientific evidence, Bush since has chosen Yucca Mountain. That decision could, in theory, present problems for Nevada Republicans. But Guinn said he could get around that because voters should consider "the totality of the man."
Fair enough. Let us consider the totality of George W. Bush.
Almost immediately after the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, his administration began demonizing anyone who dared to disagree with his interpretation of reality. That meant accusing anyone who doubted the need for war with Iraq of encouraging terrorism. Or agreed with U.N. inspectors obviously unwilling to find weapons of mass destruction or admit to being lackeys for Saddam Hussein. Or questioned the wisdom of experts who knew Iraqis would welcome us with open arms to guide them to democracy, just like in Florida. Or reminded Bush he derided the Clinton administration for "nation-building."
Since then, Bush finally admitted what everyone but those who want to believe anything he says has known: No evidence exists to link Saddam to Osama bin Laden's bloody work. Once considered a model of rectitude, Secretary of State Colin Powell demonstrated before the United Nations that he fell for Bush's lies or would lie of his own volition. The United States has yet to find weapons and now wants United Nations help, provided the U.N. puts up money and the U.S. has control. And oddly enough, Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton, won numerous contracts for rebuilding Iraq without any formal bidding process.
Meanwhile, Bush--and several of his fellow chickenhawks--spent time in the National Guard avoiding any kind of service, but he sure was willing to try to land a plane on an aircraft carrier so he could be shown declaring the war over. More American soldiers have died in Iraq since that pronouncement than they did beforehand. To those who say their policies are wrong, Bush and his lackey, Condoleeza Rice, claim it's just "revisionist history."
Well, that hits historians where they live. But before historians revised their interpretations of the past, some of my most illustrious predecessors claimed slaves enjoyed slavery and all women wanted to be barefoot and pregnant. Of course, considering how much Bush admires Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who would have felt very comfortable wielding a whip on a pre-Civil War Southern plantation, Bush still may feel that way.
On the domestic front, Bush claimed all would benefit from a tax cut. My tax cut was spent on higher gasoline prices with no basis in economic theory or fact, except how it benefits the oil companies Bush represents. Thanks in part to that tax cut, the budget is no longer balanced. The deficit is in the trillions and the cost of rebuilding Iraq at the expense of needed domestic programs will make the deficit worse.
And I say all this with some fear. What used to be called the "PATRIOT Act" might entitle Attorney General John Ashcroft to think I am a terrorist for doubting his veracity. It's no longer called that, by the way, because Bush's handlers figured out that Americans increasingly associate the PATRIOT Act with their effort to destroy our civil liberties; what matters is selling the product. Given how they have protected his association with energy companies, Dick Cheney appears to be the only American with a right to privacy; the rest of us are too great a threat to truth and honesty to be trusted.
Indeed, that is the key point about otherwise decent men like Guinn, Ensign, Gibbons, Porter and Sandoval. It's too easy to say that since Bush lied about Yucca Mountain, no Nevadan should trust him. "The totality of the man" is that he cannot be trusted on any subject at any time. And to those who think other presidential liars were worse, no one died at the Watergate building or under Bill Clinton's desk; only Lyndon Johnson's lies about Vietnam have approached this kind of deadliness, and at least he tried to do something to help victims of poverty and discrimination. Bush's lies have helped get young Americans killed and increased the wealth of his closest friends for reasons that he has yet to be able to explain without his nose growing.
Some Democrats have whispered the "sound science" letter Nevada Republicans produced from Bush in 2000 never was seen and thus never existed. These men wouldn't lie. They would only live a lie, and campaign for it.
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Pahrump Valley Times
September 26, 2003
Commission to hold special meeting Tuesday
Nye County Commissioners will participate in a teleconference to discuss a transportation agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy and the formation of a Regional Transportation Authority, comprised of counties affected by transportation of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Any interested members o the public may listen to the discussion in Pahrump at the old courthouse complex, 250 N. Highway 160.
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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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