Yucca Mountain News Clips - Friday, October 3, 2003

Yucca Mountain News Clips
Friday, October 3, 2003
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Las Vegas SUN
October 03, 2003

DOE is not likely to define nuclear waste

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

WASHINGTON -- Legislators do not plan to give the Energy Department authority to classify radioactive waste as high-level or low-level material without consulting the affected states.

The Energy Department has been trying to get language into the final energy bill that would allow it to deem some high-level nuclear waste in storage tanks at three former nuclear weapons sites as low level and leave it on site instead of moving it to Yucca Mountain, the potential federal nuclear waste storage site about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

A July court ruling said the Energy Department could not leave certain waste at the sites under the federal nuclear waste law, so the department asked Congress to "clarify" the law rather than challenge the ruling, department spokesman Joe Davis said.

The House accepted a motion offered by Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., telling energy bill negotiators to not accept the department's request for the authority, based on the impact it could have on Idaho, Washington, South Carolina, where those plants are located, and possibly other states.

Gov. Kenny Guinn said Thursday he was concerned that Nevada could end up getting more waste newly classified as low level at the Nevada Test Site, which stores some low-level waste from nuclear weapons plants.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham sent a letter Thursday to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-La., a member of the energy conference committee, saying the department is not trying to reclassify high level waste in order to move it somewhere other than Yucca Mountain. He also wrote than anything deemed low-level would have to meet certain standards.

The Energy Department has argued that without the change in the law, it could not proceed with its accelerated cleanup plans at the former nuclear weapons plants and could actually put more waste into Yucca Mountain than intended.

The site can legally hold 77,000 tons of nuclear waste, which is estimated to exist by the scheduled opening in 2010, so even if the Energy Department could reclassify waste it would not stop other spent fuel from coming to the state.

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House air quality subcommittee, said the energy bill conferees "had no intention" of putting the department's language into the final bill and it was "unlikely" to be included, unless there was discussion with the affected states.

However, the approved motion does not legally prohibit the conferees from including the change.

The Energy Department also had asked for the authority from the Senate, but Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee spokeswoman Marnie Funk said the committee refused to add the language added to the conference report as well.

But Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., spoke in favor of Islee's motion to block the Energy Department's request, stopping the Yucca argument.

"Some might claim DOE's plan would stop more waste from going to Nevada," Berkley said. "The truth is Yucca Mountain is already full."

Rep. Jim Gibbons's, R-Nev, chief concern was the department opting to change its own rules again.

"Its set a very bad precedent to allow the Department of Energy to come in and change the standard," Gibbons spokeswoman Amy Spanbauer said. "The department-- continually tries to move the goal post in the middle of the game."

Spanbauer said if DOE gets this change, who was to say it could not come in a month or a year from now and say the legal 77,000-ton limit for Yucca Mountain needs to be increased or try alter other rules in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.

"It's a slippery slope," she said.

An aide to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the senator was likely not to support DOE's proposed change, also because it was another example of the department not living up to its commitments.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
October 03, 2003

Energy Department Request: States block nuclear waste proposal

House leaders vow to consult states before considering request to redefine nuclear waste

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- House leaders on Thursday promised to consult with states before considering an Energy Department request to redefine nuclear waste, a move that could affect the cleanup of three former nuclear weapons sites.

The leadership sought to avoid an uprising by Washington state and South Carolina lawmakers, who said the Energy Department plan could leave thousands of gallons of highly radioactive sludge material vulnerable to accidents on reservations in their states. A site in Idaho also would be affected.

Nevada officials said they are watching the matter with growing interest. Although they said the controversy appears unlikely to have immediate consequences for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, it could lead to increased volumes of nuclear material being stored at the Nevada Test Site.

Gov. Kenny Guinn announced opposition Thursday.

"With this new authority it is impossible to predict what other harmful decisions the secretary (of Energy) could make that would result in Nevada shouldering an even greater nuclear burden," Guinn said in a letter to Nevada's congressional delegation.

Energy Department spokesman Joseph Davis said Nevada should be siding with his department on this matter because its plan could reduce high-level waste volume requiring burial.

"If we don't win, I guarantee you more waste will be going to Yucca Mountain," Davis said.

State officials said they disagree. Bob Loux, head of the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects, said the Yucca Mountain repository will be filled to its 77,000-ton capacity with nuclear waste already awaiting disposal.

However, some think it could spur consideration of a second repository, or expansion of the Yucca Mountain facility, located 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

During a 15-minute House debate, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, told protesting lawmakers "it is unlikely" that House leaders would agree to legislation Energy officials have proposed.

"But if we consider it, we will work to ensure the states are consulted," said Barton, who is chairman of the House energy and air quality subcommittee.

House leaders further agreed to a formal motion that suggests negotiators working on a major energy bill not take up the Energy plan. The motion is not legally binding, officials said.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham asked Congress in August to clarify the definition of high-level nuclear defense waste. The request came after a federal judge in Idaho rejected part of an Energy Department cleanup plan for 90 million gallons of waste stored in tanks at aging production and processing sites.

The Energy Department is siphoning out 99 percent of the radioactive liquid waste and processing it into glass logs for storage at Yucca Mountain or elsewhere.

The department proposed encasing the remaining sludge in mortar and cement and storing it at the sites. That plan provoked a suit by environmental groups and American Indian tribes, charging it was illegal treatment of high-level nuclear waste.

Davis said the impasse will increase delays, costs and risks to workers at the former production sites.

After Energy began circulating proposals last month, Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., launched the protest that culminated in Thursday's debate.

Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., called the Energy Department proposal "a major change in plans."

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., offered sharp criticism of the Energy Department.

"The residents in Washington, South Carolina and Idaho are now finding out what the people of Nevada have known for years. The Department of Energy makes up the rules as it goes along."

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Pahrump Valley Times
October 3, 2003

Nye won't team on nuke transport
Commission Rejects Three-County Accord

By Mark Waite
PVT

An inter-local agreement that would create a regional transportation authority between Nye, Lincoln, and Esmeralda counties and the City of Caliente was rejected by Nye County Commissioners Tuesday. The accord was supposed to help rural counties plan nuclear waste shipment routes to Yucca Mountain.

The agreement stemmed from an informal meeting between representatives of the four government entities at the Stateline Casino in Amargosa Valley, during a break in the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board meetings across the street at the Longstreet Inn and Casino Sept. 16-17.

Nye County Commissioner Patricia Cox said Margaret Chu, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, suggested the parties mentally abolish county boundaries and work together as a region. Other counties bordering Nye County that receives oversight funding of Yucca Mountain, such as Clark, Eureka, Lander and White Pine weren't included in the discussion.

Nye County Commission Chairman Henry Neth voiced concerns Nye County would be outvoted on the commission. He said Lincoln County has a clear agenda when it comes to shipping nuclear waste: offloading it from rail to truck in Caliente.

Neth said the agreement would've put the onus on the counties to designate a route for shipping the nuclear waste. Cox said the fact only Lincoln, Esmeralda and Nye County would be involved in the authority would indicate Nye County was preferring routes through Caliente, not investigating the pros and cons of other possible routes, which include two rail methods from Las Vegas and one from the north, from Carlin on Interstate 80.

Commissioner Joni Eastley said she'd prefer the county instead work with a tri-party agreement. That agreement, already in place, requires unanimous approval by all three county commissions. She called the proposed inter-local agreement "consultant top heavy."

Cox said she felt the transportation authority would create another layer of bureaucracy.

Neth said Congress would designate a preferred route for shipping the nuclear waste anyway. But he added Nye County, in a resolution passed in the late 1990s, expressed a preference for the Caliente/Chalk Mountain Route, in which the nuclear waste would be offloaded from rail onto truck and shipped from Caliente through the Nevada Test Site to Yucca Mountain. Neth said the test site route would avoid Nye County communities and the NTS already has security personnel in place.

Fred Dilger, however, a principal planner for Clark County who was listening in on the conference call, said the DOE listed Caliente/Chalk Mountain as a "non-preferred route" that wouldn't be subject to further study.

Commissioners are also eyeing up upcoming conference committee negotiations between the U.S. House and Senate over a bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio that among other things would eliminate the two Yucca Mountain rail routes passing through Las Vegas, including through Jean, which would pass through Pahrump Valley.

Nye County Commissioners did approve an agreement with DOE in which the county would receive $100,000 for a preliminary transportation assessment on Yucca Mountain. Commissioner Candice Trummell voted against the study, questioning why the county would study routes that might later be rejected.

Les Bradshaw, director of Nye County Natural Resources and Federal Facilities, said DOE has outlined plans to disburse $2.9 million over five years to Nye County for the transportation studies - if funding is available. The next step would be the acceptance of $400,000 to fund a strategic transportation plan sometime in 2004.

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Pahrump Valley Times
October 3, 2003

Readers React
Defending the commissioners, their lobbying trips to D.C.

Criticism misplaced

Whoa, ignorance is bliss is the phrase that comes to mind I guess. The tag team of letters criticizing Commissioners Cox and Trummell showed just how little some people know about how government operates and how things get done. The lack of class and respect in those two letters was unfortunate, but when criticism like that takes place it's relatively easy to roll off because the criticism lacks any basis or credible foundation.

Just a couple suggestions and consider them perhaps life lessons: If you are going to criticize, make it constructive; let's build people up, not tear them down. If you aren't going to follow that rule and still criticize, why don't you run for elected office and try to make a difference yourself? We always have the right to vote in our democracy.

The two commissioners take pride in their county and the town they live in and then take a genuine and serious interest in making a difference and helping lead the county. They would never refer to it as "Failureville" as referenced in one of the letters. If people want to get involved they should attend a commission meeting or town board meeting. Get involved, ask questions, get the facts.

Keep up the good work Commissioners Cox and Trummell. Lead on as you continue to grow in your leadership positions. And I applaud Chairman Henry Neth for allowing the two commissioners to go back to D.C. for meetings. People in D.C. need to put a face on Nye County. For instance, when it comes to Yucca Mountain, the site is frequently referred to as only 100 miles from Las Vegas. Well, it's in Nye County, and we deserve special recognition and compensation for being the site county.

Our elected officials' jobs are demanding enough without cheap shots, but they all realize it comes with the territory. Let's be supportive as our entire board works and grows together to build a better future for the county, and let's all be proud and positive when we refer to our community.

Rebecca Smith

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'Junkets' not junk

You can take the guys out of the country but it seems you can't take the country out of some guys.

As much as I disagree with those recent "junket" letters to the editor, I applaud the paper for publishing them because all sides need to be heard. Now with that having been said, or typed, it's clear that some people just don't have a clue about how government works and how things work in the political arena.

Your commissioners should be applauded for traveling back to the nation's capital and speaking to our delegation and others about issues facing the county. I would think that the other commissioners have gone back in the past and more trips will be necessary in the future.

Elected officials should stay the course. If the country boys don't like it then they have the right to be heard, and I think the best place to be heard is in the quiet voting booth.

Rebecca Wamsley
Las Vegas

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Pahrump Valley Times
October 3, 2003

Pahrump to get technical school?

PVT

It's up to school board members to name new schools, so for right now Supt. Rob Roberts is calling it the Nye County Technical Institute.

Roberts provided a rough outline for the trade school of sorts during Wednesday's school board meeting.

Though it's barely in its formative stages, the project is being pursued as a collaborative effort between the Nye County School District and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Roberts said the idea received a warm reception during a meeting he had recently with John Arthur, deputy director of DOE's Office of Repository Development in Las Vegas.

The technical institute would serve as a supplement to regular high school instruction, and provide apprenticeship programs for students and adults interested learning a trade.

Roberts envisions a school that would offer 18 different technical programs, not all of which would be directly applicable to the nuclear waste repository DOE plans to build at Yucca Mountain, roughly 20 miles from district schools in Beatty and Amargosa Valley. Among the disciplines he would like to see taught at the institute are building trades, advanced culinary arts, graphic arts, electronics, emergency medical services, industrial diesel mechanics, computers and computer networks, and computer-aided drafting and design.

Roberts said he plans to continue meeting with Arthur, who he said also seemed receptive to other forms of assistance DOE might provide to the district.

The superintendent met with Arthur as part of directive from the school board to pursue federal compensation outside of what the county already receives for Yucca Mountain.

Similar cooperative efforts were forged between the department and schools in the Carlsbad, N.M., site of DOE's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Roberts said.

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Seattle Times
October 03, 2003

Wash. lawmakers stop Bush from reclassifying nuclear waste

By Alex Fryer
Seattle Times Washington bureau

WASHINGTON — Members of the Washington state delegation took to the House floor yesterday to turn back a Bush administration effort to reclassify high-level nuclear waste at Hanford and two other sites nationwide.

A motion sponsored by Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, to instruct lawmakers now hashing out a final energy bill not to tinker with existing definitions of nuclear waste passed in a unanimous voice vote.

Representatives Richard "Doc" Hastings, R-Yakima, and Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, also opposed the reclassification proposal by the federal Department of Energy (DOE).

House Republican leaders said it was "unlikely" the energy bill will include any language about nuclear waste, although yesterday's motion was nonbinding. The issue arose Aug. 1, when DOE Secretary Spencer Abraham wrote to Speaker Dennis Hastert asking Congress to grant the department greater authority to determine whether radioactive wastes are high-level and thus require disposal in a deep, underground facility such as Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

The department feared that a recent federal-court decision could force it to transfer far more material into Yucca Mountain than previous estimates had assumed, a scenario that "will be orders of magnitude more expensive than the $39 billion lifecycle costs currently projected," Abraham wrote.

State attorneys general from four states with high-level waste — Washington, Idaho, Oregon and South Carolina — protested in a prepared statement, contending that the proposed legislation would "give the Department blanket discretion to exempt such wastes from long-standing management and disposal requirements."

There are 54 million gallons of high-level nuclear waste at Hanford. It is unclear whether the DOE proposal would have included all the waste or 500,000 gallons in the bottom of the 177 underground storage tanks.

Last month, Hastings, whose district includes Hanford, wrote to the DOE indicating that he would not support the department's efforts to insert language in pending legislation.

"I encourage DOE not to expend any further energy towards such a course of action — such an effort would be futile and not productive," he wrote.

Inslee said his motion yesterday represented a "tactical and strategic victory" because it forced into public view legislative maneuvering that had been largely behind closed doors.

But Hastings wasn't so sure the vote was reason to celebrate, contending that confrontation between federal cleanup authorities, state officials, and members of Congress distracts everybody and benefits no one.

"To be here on the House floor to condemn the language that DOE has suggested doesn't solve this problem," Hastings said.

"This is not a victory for the states; this is not a victory for DOE. The most important thing we can do is to ensure that this cleanup goes on in an timely manner."

Alex Fryer: 206-464-8124 or afryer@seattletimes.com

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Las Vegas SUN
October 02, 2003

House to vote on nuclear waste reclassification

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

WASHINGTON -- The House could vote today to urge lawmakers working on the pending energy bill not to include a new federal definition of "high level radioactive waste" sought by the Energy Department.

The agency wants to be able to reclassify some nuclear waste, which would allow it to leave some radioactive material at old weapons plants or ship it somewhere other than Yucca Mountain, the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas designated for the nation's high-level nuclear waste repository.

Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., is fighting that effort through a "motion to instruct conferees" to exclude the Energy Department proposal from the final bill. If approved, the motion does not legally obligate conferees to leave the language out of the energy bill, but "sends a strong signal" that the change is not welcome, Inslee press assistant Brian Peters said.

Reps. Jon Porter and Jim Gibbons, both R-Nev., were still evaluating the language this morning while an aide to Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she would support the effort.

"As the people of Nevada know all too well, whenever DOE runs into an obstacle, it tries to change the rules of the game," Berkley said. "DOE must learn to live within the law, and I will oppose any effort to allow them the authority to reclassify this nuclear waste."

Gov. Kenny Guinn sent a letter to Berkley, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., saying he supported Inslee's efforts.

Guinn wrote that more nuclear waste already exists than the 77,000 tons Yucca can legally hold, so the change would have little effect on the mountain. But he was concerned that the change would allow a greater amount of low-level waste to be sent to the Nevada Test Site.

"With this new authority it is impossible to predict what other harmful decision the Secretary could make that would result in Nevada shouldering an even greater burden," Guinn wrote.

Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis confirmed the department is trying to get the change into the energy bill conference report.

Since August the department has been trying to find a way for Congress to "clarify" federal nuclear waste laws after a July 2 ruling by the U.S. District Court in Idaho that said the department had no authority to deem some high-level nuclear waste in storage tanks at three former nuclear weapons sites as "incidental" and leave it on site as it had planned. The change would grant that authority.

Inslee said called Energy Department actions "disturbing."

"To do this in a dark room with three or four people in the bowels of the Capitol without any access by the minority party is undemocratic with a small 'D,' " Inslee said."This is the wrong way to do business."

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Las Vegas SUN
October 02, 2003

Bush's Nevada trip to be first as president

Associated Press

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - George Bush plans his first presidential visit to Nevada in late November - for a Las Vegas fund-raiser - and GOP Gov. Kenny Guinn's office said Thursday he's excited about the event although still opposed to Bush's backing of a nuclear dump in this state.

"Gov. Guinn is excited to host the president in the state for the first time since he was elected president," Guinn spokesman Greg Bortolin said. "Clearly, the governor disagrees with the president on the Yucca Mountain issue, but he is solidly behind the president and is working on his re-election."

Bortolin said he spoke to the Bush re-election campaign to confirm a Thanksgiving week visit is planned, reportedly Nov. 25 at a $2,000-per-person luncheon.

Nevada is one of just a few states that have not seen a presidential visit, and Democrats contend Bush has hesitated to come here because of possible protests by foes of nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Bush didn't visit Las Vegas when he was campaigning in 2000, but did visit Lake Tahoe to raise $300,000 for his campaign and another $240,000 for the Republican Party.

When a reporter tried to question him about the Yucca Mountain Project, Bush said, "I put out a statement. You've got my statement."

His predecessor, President Clinton, made eight presidential visits to Las Vegas. He raised more than $2 million here while in office.

Although Democrats said the Yucca Mountain Project would move forward if Bush were elected president, Bush won 50 percent of the vote in Nevada. Democrat Al Gore took 46 percent, Ralph Nader took 2 percent, and the rest were scattered among minor candidates.

After Bush won, he recommended Yucca Mountain as a storage site for the nation's nuclear waste. The first waste shipments are expected to arrive in 2010.

Although the state has just five electoral votes, Nevada has been identified as a battleground state in the upcoming presidential election.

Vice President Dick Cheney visited Las Vegas July 21 and raised $300,000 at an event at the home of wealthy liquor merchant Larry Ruvo, state finance chairman for the Bush-Cheney campaign.

Environmental groups organized protests outside the gated Spanish Trail community, but Cheney went out another exit and didn't see them.

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Las Vegas SUN
October 01, 2003

Yucca backers lobby Congress on funds

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

WASHINGTON -- Yucca Mountain supporters canvassed Capitol Hill Tuesday urging lawmakers to support the $765 million slated to go toward the project, saying anything less will wind up costing everyone more money.

The coalition's push does not sit well with Nevada's congressional delegation.

"The proponents of dumping nuclear waste in Nevada don't care how much money is wasted or how many lives could be at risk from shipments of radioactive garbage to Yucca Mountain," Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. said in a statement. "It would be a mistake to remove Yucca Mountain from the budget process and would do little or nothing to encourage close scrutiny of how these funds are being spent."

Based on the strong support of House Appropriations Energy Subcommittee Chairman David Hobson, R-Ohio, for the project, the House approved $765 million for Yucca Mountain. The intention is to store 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel at the site, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Senate energy and water spending bill, passed earlier this month, includes $425 million for the project, which marks a decrease from the department's $591 million request. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is the top Democrat on the committee that crafted the bill, recommended the lower funding and will continue to push for it in conference. Reid, like the other Nevada lawmakers, strongly opposes the site.

The Energy Department estimates the project experienced a $781 million shortfall over the past 10 years due to appropriations cuts, according to industry group the Nuclear Energy Institute.

During conference negotiations, selected members of both chambers will meet to iron out the differences between various projects in the bill.

"We send the biggest and strongest over there £to the Senate-- because that's the heaviest lifting," said LeRoy Koppendrayer, Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition chairman. He and other Yucca supporters want to make sure the higher figure stays in place to keep the project moving forward.

This includes language in the House bill that sends $70 million for waste transportation planning, including initial work on a Nevada rail spur; and $30 million for Nevada to blunt the social, economic and environmental effects of constructing a national nuclear waste dump in the state.

"No matter which £transportation route-- is picked, it is going to be challenged," Koppendrayer said "So pick one and let the show begin."

Bruce Josten, U.S. Chamber of Commerce executive vice president of government affairs, said the funding cut would also delay the overall development of transportation routes.

Energy Department officials have repeatedly said any cut in the funding could cause the department to miss its December 2004 deadline for submission of a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Koppendrayer said that would mean the DOE would miss its target to open in 2010, leaving waste sitting at the nuclear power plants. It would cost more money to add more onsite storage, he said, adding many utilities did not anticipate having to add more spent fuel storage since the Energy Department was supposed to take the waste in 1998.

"Our own analysis indicates that delaying repository operations five years to 2015 would cost $4 billion or more in additional interim used fuel storage costs," said Terry Freese, the Nuclear Energy Institute's director of legislative programs.

The current fiscal year ends today, but Congress has approved a continuing resolution that keeps the budget working until it can approve new figures.

Freese said the program would still be on track based on a continuing resolution through the end of October but "a repeat of last year could affect the application."

Congress did not pass the current year's budget until February, four months late.

Meanwhile, the group also wants Congress to support legislation that would redefine the contributions to the Nuclear Waste Fund. Since 1983 nuclear ratepayers have contributed roughly $20 billion to the fund, which is supposed to fund the project. Congress then allocates the money annually, allotments that are routinely cut in the Senate.

In the past, the Energy Department has sought to have access to the money without a congressional vote, but those moves to get the Yucca Mountain Project "off budget" have repeatedly failed.

This year the Energy Department in February to at least make it easier to restore money that may be cut in the budgeting process. However, that proposal has been ignored.

Now the Nuclear Energy Institute is trying to come up with other options to make the fund more accessible, Freese said.

"The program has to remain under government oversight," Freese said.

He was optimistic a proposal could be introduced before the end of the session, but could not give specifics as to which member might offer the language or details on what it would include.

Berkley objects to any version of this idea, saying the government must "scrutinize every dime."

"Those seekng to increase funding for Yucca Mountain should have to compete with the real infrastructure needs of the nation contained in the energy and water spending bill."

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Las Vegas Sun
September 30, 2003

UNLV scientists asked to study Yucca radioactivity

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

AMARGOSA VALLEY -- The Energy Department has signed an $850,000 contract with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to find out where radioactive chlorine found at the proposed nuclear waste repository site at Yucca Mountain originated.

The new contract, announced at a meeting of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board earlier this month, may settle a dispute between two Energy Department laboratories.

DOE scientists discovered Chlorine-36 in earthquake faults and fractures inside the mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, in 1998. Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists said the radioactive chlorine came from atomic bomb tests in the Pacific Ocean in the 1950s. They said the chlorine had been carried by rain clouds to Nevada, then traveled with rainwater into earthquake faults almost 1,000 feet inside the mountain.

Follow-up tests by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory indicated the chlorine did not come from atomic weapons, but from cosmic rays crashing into the atmosphere and entering the repository, research geologist James Paces of the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The source of the chlorine could make an important difference in determining the safety of Yucca Mountain as a site to contain 70,000 tons of the nation's high-level nuclear waste.

Both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which must license Yucca before a repository is built, and the technical review board are concerned that the fast pathways allowing contaminated rainwater into the mountain could threaten the integrity of the repository.

If the chlorine came from nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific, it moved through the Yucca Mountain rock to the depth where the Energy Department plans to bury nuclear waste in less than 50 years. A Yucca Mountain repository is supposed to prevent radiation from escaping into the environment for 10,000 years or more.

Nevada officials, who oppose the repository, say that that if the chlorine is from the nuclear tests, that could be important in their battle to halt the nuclear dump.

Energy Department officials said that while the university's study is under way, their ongoing work to design the repository will compensate for water from the mountain's surface flowing rapidly through earthquake faults and fractures.

Paces insisted the chlorine originated from cosmic rays. But Los Alamos geochemist Robert Roback said the latest test results show the chlorine came from nuclear weapons and one sample recorded the highest level of the chemical in five years of study at Yucca.

"They're tough measurements," Paces said. "I think there is an answer and we will find it."

Results of further tests by the two Energy Department labs, reported at the board's meeting in Amargosa Valley this month, did not settle the issue and the scientists continue to argue.

"We're not there yet," Roback said. "Perhaps a third party is the best thing yet."

That is the reason UNLV has been asked to conduct its tests.

Klaus Stetzenbach of the university's Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies is leading the university's team effort, which includes chemists and geologists who could take 18 months to complete an independent analysis of the chlorine.

Although the university's research may offer a clue to the chlorine's source, the design of the repository will include estimates of rapid water flows through the mountain, said Bill Boyle, the Energy Department's director for licensing and repository safety after it closes.

"Whatever it is, it is something not immediately obvious," Boyle said. "Whatever it is, it is a difficult measurement."

The Energy Department's Bo Bodvarsson, who is studying the rate of rainwater flowing through the mountain, said, "We still do not know the details of the flow."

Donald Shettel, a hydrologist contracted by the state, said the Energy Department has other issues besides Chlorine-36 to address, especially when it comes to how fast buried nuclear waste containers will corrode.

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Las Vegas SUN
September 30, 2003

Letter: Negotiate now for benefits from Yucca Mountain

I'm disappointed in the way our elected officials have dealt with Yucca Mountain. Here we have the country's largest public works project, estimated at $56 billion, and a project that is inevitable, and our elected officials continue to fight a losing battle.

First, what better place than the Nevada Test Site? It has been used for nuclear missions since the 1950s. Second, once you look past the smoke and mirrors that our state is using, one can see that this federal project can diversify our economy and significantly enhance the research being done in our university system.

Spending millions to fight a scientific project in the courts and holding three-day legal-eagle meetings in Virginia doesn't seem like a good use of our tax dollars.

I hope our state's new year is blessed with a loss in the federal court system and then maybe our elected officials will change their stance on Yucca Mountain. They should acknowledge that it's time to start a responsible dialogue with the federal government and private industry aimed at significant benefits for all Nevadans.

Contrary to what our state and county officials would want you to believe, residents of New Mexico have benefited economically from the repository at Carlsbad. Will we ever benefit from Yucca Mountain?

Rebecca Smith

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CBS News
Oct. 1, 2003

Nuke Waste 'Class' Dispute

(CBS) The Energy Department wants the power to reclassify some nuclear waste so that it doesn´t have to be stored deep underground, a move critics say would undercut Congressional control of spent radioactive material, a newspaper reports.

The New York Times reports the Energy Department made the request to Congress last month after a federal judge's ruling that, the department says, has tied its hands. Congress appears likely to resist the move, but critics warn the department will try to gain the authority again.

High-level radioactive waste must be encases in glass and shipped to the lone federal facility for handling it, at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. But that site is not open yet and will not be able to accommodate all the country's reactor waste.

Hoping to preserve capacity at Yucca mountain, the Energy Department tried to reclassify some reactor waste water stored in Idaho. Labeling some of the waste "incidental," the department planned to leave it in the tanks where it is now stored. But a federal judge ruled in July that the DOE's plan violated federal law.

Similar waste waters and sludges, the remnants of nuclear weapons production, are stored in South Carolina and Washington state. According to The Times, the July ruling could also affect a facility in upstate New York where contaminated buildings may be left in place.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., told The Times: "This is DOE's attempt to pawn off highly contaminated stuff on the state."

New Mexico Democrat Sen. Jeff Bingaman, said that "if the DOE has the authority to change the classification of the waste at will, that pretty much undercuts any Congressional control of the issue."

But the Energy Department argues that the July ruling poses a huge obstacle to their plans to treat and store radioactive waste. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham warns the delay could increase the current estimated $39 billion price tag by 10 or 100 times.

The Energy Department normally treats liquid waste by turning it into a stable solid and either incinerating or burying it in steel and concrete casing. Normally, low-level radioactive waste is disposed of in special landfills or mixed with ash, loaded into steel drums and stored in concrete until it can be disposed.

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New York Times
October 1, 2003

Energy Dept. Seeks Power to Redefine Nuclear Waste

By Matthew L. Wald

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 — The Energy Department has asked Congress to allow it to redefine some nuclear waste so it can be left in place or sent to sites intended for low-level radioactive material, rather than being buried deep underground.

Department officials say they thought they had flexibility in classifying what constituted high-level nuclear waste, but in July, a federal district judge in Idaho ruled that the department's plan for treating waste there violated the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, a 1982 law requiring the deep burial of high-level waste.

The argument concerns tens of millions of gallons of salts and sludges left over from weapons production that are now in tanks in Idaho, South Carolina and eastern Washington. High-level waste is supposed to be encapsulated in glass for burial. The department has chosen Yucca Mountain, Nev., as the repository site, but the site has not yet opened and when it does, it will not be big enough for all the solidified wastes and spent reactor fuel.

In the Idaho case, the Energy Department had said that some of the high-level waste was "incidental" and need not be removed from the tanks. The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Snake River Alliance, a local environmental group, along with two Indian tribes, successfully argued that the order violated a longtime policy that high-level waste must be deeply buried.

The ruling also could affect waste from a defunct civilian reprocessing plant in West Valley, N.Y., near Buffalo. The waste has already been solidified, and department officials said Tuesday that the resulting glass logs would be shipped for deep burial. But the officials said that contaminated buildings and equipment there might be left on site.

"This is D.O.E.'s attempt to pawn off highly contaminated stuff on the state," Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said on Tuesday. "We are fighting it."

Senator Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, the ranking minority member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said that "if the D.O.E. has the authority to change the classification of the waste at will, that pretty much undercuts any Congressional control of the issue." Mr. Bingaman said that one result could be wastes being shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, near Carlsbad, N.M., that did not belong there.

A department official said, however, that it would not change what was acceptable at the Carlsbad plant, which is designed for plutonium and other long-lived materials.

The Energy Department asked Congressional leaders in August for the authority to decide what constituted nuclear waste. A spokeswoman for the energy committee, Marnie Funk, said on Tuesday that the committee's Republican majority would not accept the Energy Department language, but opponents said that was just one of a series of proposals that the department would make.

Spencer Abraham, the secretary of energy, said in August in a letter to Speaker J. Dennis Hastert that the Idaho case could mean decades of delay in removing the waste from the tanks, and cleanup costs could be 10 to 100 times higher than the $39 billion now estimated.

An Energy Department official said the ruling had left the department paralyzed.

"The district court decision doesn't say which of the stuff from reprocessing has to go to Yucca Mountain," the official said.

Tom Cochran, a nuclear expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, "Basically what they're doing is allowing the D.O.E. to abandon high-level waste and treat it under standards written for low-level waste."

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Pahrump Valley Times
Oct. 01, 2003

Editorial: A please-do-soon list for local government

In the event Rural Health Management Corporation fails to obtain a loan to build and manage Pahrump's long overdue hospital, wouldn't it be wise to seek out a qualified company that could step in and take over? You know, ask representatives from, say, Valley Hospital in Las Vegas to wait in the wings? Just in case?

Assemblyman Rod Sherer, R-Pahrump, paved the way for that very scenario to occur when he convinced his peers in the Nevada Legislature to exempt the valley from the state's dreaded certificate of need process.

Lives have been lost, crews from the Pahrump Valley Fire-Rescue Service are overwhelmed, and as time goes by the situation will morph from crisis mode straight to catastrophe.

It would be prudent for local government officials to assume a proactive stance regarding this matter, and the sooner the better. We have 30,000 residents and no hospital. That is insane.

Other imperatives local government might want to consider:

• Somebody needs to account for the hundreds of thousands of dollars that have been handed out to consultants involved in local oversight of the Yucca Mountain Project. With the exception of a handful of scientists who actually tell the county commission what they do with the money, it seems nobody really knows what is being accomplished. Worse, few at the county level seem all that interested in finding out. Smells like cronyism to me.

• For well over a year the Pahrump Town Board has posted a vague notice on the meeting agenda noting that members might go into closed session to discuss personnel issues.

Decisions appear to have been made in closed session on at least one occasion in clear violation of the law's intent.

In a related matter, the town of Pahrump recently refused to reveal the identities of two men who were unlucky enough to be picked as finalists for the vacant town manager position. Somebody is providing rather loose interpretations of the law.

It seems in Pahrump you don't need a power outage to be left in the dark, at least where the Pahrump Town Board is concerned. Note to town staff: Please provide us with detailed agendas and information the public has an obvious right to access.

To be fair, the current board members inherited this problem, and so did their staff. The Green Acres agenda is a holdover from the days when Pahrump's zip code was E-I-E-I-O.

• Last week the Pahrump Valley Times published the briefest sheriff's report in recent memory. Nine arrests were made and only one was for an alleged felony. Here's the story: A Pahrump woman whacked her husband with a broom and a shovel after chasing him around the yard. Apparently she caught the poor guy.

Sheriff Tony DeMeo said the lack of criminal activity was probably a fluke, though he conceded there were more cops on the street last week than their has been in quite awhile. A combination of events had to occur before the department could produce the manpower, which should remain the same for the foreseeable future.

This is good news since study after study proves a higher police presence leads to lower crime rates. And that's something commissioners need to think about. The 10 cops nearly ready to hit the streets thanks to a million dollar COPS grant might have been the last jobs the government approves. A push is on in Congress to abolish the program.

• The Nye County School District should dump its controversial pay-to-play policy regarding high school athletics. Too many kids are not playing sports because neither they nor their families can come up with the $150 fee. Some kids, without sports to keep them busy, might wind up on the wrong side of the law. Besides, it's un-American.

• The Nye County Commission needs to acquire a better understanding of where the money is. If the bean counters currently on staff can't provide them with that information, reliably and consistently, find someone who can. Accountability is nonexistent to a large extent, and the problem is getting worse. I'm guessing all that transferring of funds can get pretty confusing.

• For the past couple of years both town and county government have taken a stab at finding available grant funding to pay for an endless list of services that go wanting.

Not much success has been found, so maybe the time has come to rethink the problem. We've had our fill of promises in this regard, but results have been dismal. It seems if we do get a grant that would actually do us some good, the strings attached make it unappetizing at best.

Clearly, there is no evidence to suggest corruption is an issue in Nye County. But there is an admittedly decreasing amount of incompetence at all levels, and petty political game playing to boot.

This, of course, leads us to the ever-expanding FBI investigation into possible voter fraud, which could go anywhere and might even lead to a call for a grand jury investigation into any number of issues. A grand jury can be a dangerous, indiscriminate carnivore.

Perhaps the time has come for a feeding.

Write to Doug McMurdo at dmcmurdo@pvtimes.com.

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Pahrump Valley Times
Oct. 01, 2003

County Reorganizes Way it Deals with Impacts from Above
A fresh look at federal issues

By Mark Waite
PVT

Nye County officials have long complained about news reports that describe Yucca Mountain as being 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, ignoring Pahrump and other communities far closer to the planned nuclear waste dump.

Two steps are being taken to help combat that feeling of being left out. Nye County Commissioners have voted to create a Federal Impacts Advisory Board to advise the commission on impacts from federal facilities such as the Nevada Test Site. And they are also considering a proposal to create a Nye County Environmental Research and Monitoring Institute (NERMI for short), which would become the center for Yucca Mountain research in Nye County.

The Nye County Community Protection Plan suggests the establishment of a research and development center for technologies associated with the reuse or storage of nuclear waste in the county. The monitoring institute would help accomplish that goal, according to Les Bradshaw, Nye County Director of Natural Resources and Federal Facilities.

"It's an attempt to make Yucca Mountain more Nye-centric," Bradshaw said "We have to give DOE a reason to work with us."

To date, Nye County has largely relied on scientists from the Harry Reid Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the Desert Research Institute or the University of Nevada-Reno, Bradshaw said. "This is intended to bring more work, more money, to Nye County to be able to deal with the issues of Nye County." He explained. "Nye County can be involved in long-term repository assessment."

The proposed county ordinance would set up a five-member NERMI advisory board, comprised of members with doctorate degrees specializing in both engineered and natural barriers to nuclear waste; a physician and a specialist in environmental issues affecting Nye County.

Bradshaw compared the idea to an environmental monitoring program in Carlsbad, N.M, where low-level waste is being buried in salt domes.

But NERMI advisory board members would be appointed by the Nye County Commission, leading some skeptics to worry that the board might not be truly independent.

"We're specifically not trying to build another university," Bradshaw responded. "We're trying to build this institute so it's responsive to the citizens of Nye County.

"University professors will pursue their own agendas. They're not responsive to the local community," he said.

The institute could be involved in the development of infrastructure around the site, the review of Yucca Mountain's licensing, and long-term confirmation of the repository's performance, Bradshaw said.

He broached the idea at the recent Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board meeting held in Amargosa Valley.

While Bradshaw is taking the lead on NERMI, Nye County Commissioner Patricia Cox said 17 individuals have already expressed an interest in serving on the 15-member Federal Impacts Advisory Board. That board will identify, assess and consider economic, social, public health, safety and environmental impacts on Nye County from federal agencies.

The ordinance creating the Federal Impacts Advisory Board notes the overwhelming impact on Nye County from federal bodies such as the Nellis Air Force Test Range, Yucca Mountain, the Nevada Test Site, Tonopah Test Range, national forests and U.S. Bureau of Land Management property. Members of that board would serve two-year terms and meet at least quarterly.

The Federal Impacts Advisory Board would review documents prepared by the federal agencies with impacts on Nye County; represent Nye County before federal agencies; and assess the impact of decisions by federal agencies.

"It's our job to go through and research what are the impacts and how can we start getting benefits from the Nevada Test Site," Cox said.

The existing Nevada Test Site Citizens Advisory Board doesn't have enough consideration of Nye County, Cox said, noting, for example, that most of its meetings are held in in Las Vegas. Three members of the Nevada Test Site CAB come from Pahrump: Bill King, Marian Lawrence and John Pawlak.

"Most of the federal agencies are based in Clark County, even though the facilities are in Nye County," said Jim Marvel, Nye County director of natural resources. "Unfortunately most of their input comes from Clark County."

Marvel noted a recent economic development study that showed Bechtel Nevada as Nye County's largest employer, with 900 to 1,000 employees. The company is based in North Las Vegas.

While Bradshaw works more with U.S. Department of Energy programs like the oversight of Yucca Mountain, Marvel mostly works on natural resource projects in northern Nye County. Marvel said his current workload includes the Beatty Habitat Conservation Project, Central Nevada Recreation Partnership, the Central Nevada Strategic Transportation Planning Guide and the Tonopah Star Trails Project, an economic development plan to lure stargazers to Tonopah.

"We have so many things going on in the county and so many impacts by outside entities that impact us," Marvel said.

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Las Vegas SUN
October 01, 2003

Efforts to redefine nuke waste criticized

New York Times News Service

WASHINGTON -- Key senators are balking at an Energy Department proposal that would allow the agency to reclassify nuclear waste in some cases -- a move that would allow the agency to avoid sending some material to Yucca Mountain.

The department wants to reclassify the waste so it can either leave it in place or send it to low-level waste sites.

Department officials say they thought they had flexibility in classifying what constituted high-level nuclear waste, but in July, a federal district court judge in Idaho ruled that the department's plan for treating waste there violated the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, a 1982 law requiring the deep burial of high-level waste.

The argument concerns tens of millions of gallons of salts and sludges left over from weapons production that are now in tanks in Idaho, South Carolina and eastern Washington state. High-level waste is supposed to be encapsulated in glass for burial. The department has chosen Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the repository site, but it has not yet opened and when it does, it will not be big enough for all the solidified wastes and spent reactor fuel.

The Energy Department asked congressional leaders in August for the authority to decide what constituted nuclear waste. Marnie Funk, spokeswoman for the energy committee, said Tuesday that the committee's Republican majority would not accept the Energy Department language, but opponents said that the department had made a series of proposals and would continue to do so.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said in August in a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois that the Idaho case could mean decades of delay in removing the waste from the tanks, and cleanup costs could be 10 to 100 times higher than the $39 billion now estimated.

Robert Loux, director of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, said the move by the Energy Department will not have any bearing on Yucca Mountain.

He said there is more than enough nuclear waste to fill Yucca Mountain even if some of this material is re-classified as as low-level radioactive.

"This is just another attempt by the energy secretary (Spencer Abraham) to skirt the rules like he did on Yucca," Loux said. "It's more about the secretary of energy not wanting to follow the rules."

The state will present its case in January to the U.S. Appeals Court in Washington D.C. to stop the Energy Department from continuing work at Yucca Mountain to turn it into a high level nuclear dumping ground.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., the ranking minority member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said that "if the DOE has the authority to change the classification of the waste at will, that pretty much undercuts any congressional control of the issue." Bingaman said that one result could be wastes being shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, near Carlsbad, N.M., that did not belong there.

A department official said, however, that it would not change what was acceptable at the Carlsbad plant, which is designed for plutonium and other long-lived materials.

An Energy Department official, speaking on condition that she not be identified, said that the ruling had left the department paralyzed. "The district court decision doesn't say which of the stuff from reprocessing has to go to Yucca Mountain," the official said.

Tom Cochran, a nuclear expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, "Basically what they're doing is allowing the DOE to abandon high-level waste and treat it under standards written for low-level waste."

"This is DOE's attempt to pawn off highly contaminated stuff on the state," Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday. "We are fighting it. The bottom line is, just as they should take care of logs, they should take care of the buildings and machinery that made the logs."

Sun reporter

Cy Ryan contributed to this story.

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San Diego Union Tribune
October 01, 2003

San Onofre power plant builds above-ground storage vaults to keep used nuclear fuel on site

By Matthew T. Hall
Union-Tribune Staff Writer

Each pellet is so small, and looks so harmless, and so much of its fuel-producing uranium-235 has been spent by years of electricity generation at the San Onofre nuclear power plant.

But looks are deceiving.

When 199 thumbnail-sized pellets are stacked inside a fuel rod, and 180 fuel rods are bundled into a fuel assembly, and 24 fuel assemblies are loaded into a giant canister, the container weighs 42½ tons and is highly radioactive.

In the end, each canister holds more than 850,000 pellets of spent nuclear fuel that will remain radioactive for tens of thousands of years.

Operators have used up a lot of pellets here since 1968, though they won't say how many, and the spent fuel assemblies have always been cooled and stored in enormous underground pools.

But now, spent fuel from a decommissioned reactor at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is being packaged in canisters, sealed and stored in giant concrete bunkers on the site. By 2005, these vaults will hold 395 fuel assemblies, of which 188 are taking up space in 400,000-gallon pools needed to cool spent fuel from Units 2 and 3.

Spent fuel from Units 2 and 3 will stay underwater for now, but federal regulators who approved the dry storage for the oldest fuel on site are considering a request to store it all the same way starting in 2006.

Without the change, the pools for Units 2 and 3 would be full by 2008, according to Ray Golden, a spokesman for the plant's majority owner, Southern California Edison.

Spent fuel pools at U.S. nuclear power plants were designed to store at least a decade's worth of used fuel. But nationwide, pools are running out of room, and operators are increasingly turning to above-ground storage until the high-level radioactive waste can be transported to a national dump.

That facility is five years overdue and won't be ready for at least 10 years, which has operators at the country's 104 licensed nuclear power plants scrambling to house more fuel on their sites. Unlike other countries, the United States does not reprocess spent nuclear fuel to squeeze more power out of it.

In the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the federal government said it would begin accepting spent fuel at a central repository in 1998. Now, the government expects to begin storing 77,000 tons of spent fuel at Yucca Mountain in Nevada in 2010. By then, 78 plants will have fuel pools with no more room, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute based in Washington, D.C.

Activists opposed to nuclear power say moving the fuel poses safety and security risks from attacks or accidents. Industry officials say the process is safe and necessary because above-ground storage is easier and cheaper.

David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the watchdog group Union of Concerned Scientists, said dry storage is much safer than the underground pools, which have more room for error because they have more moving parts and more fuel assemblies.

"Once you get them loaded and stored on the concrete pad out back, there's not much that can go wrong," he said.

Dry storage has been used worldwide for nearly 30 years. About two dozen U.S. plants have added above-ground storage vaults for their used fuel since 1986. Building one outside storage container can cost more than $1 million.

Spokesmen at the local facility and at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission say San Onofre is the only nuclear power plant in the country that makes the spent fuel containers on site instead of awarding a contract.

Golden said Southern California Edison builds its own to control costs and ensure quality. He said it could consider selling them to other plants for extra revenue.

San Onofre's storage area is behind a high fence, patrolled by an undisclosed number of security guards, surrounded by closed-circuit television cameras and monitored by intrusion and detection systems.

The vaults are built to withstand submersion in 50 feet of water, winds of up to 360 mph and earthquakes stronger than predicted, Golden said.

At a briefing on spent fuel storage at an annual industry conference in San Diego this summer, Nuclear Regulatory Commission official Bill Brach said the safety of the country's dry storage casks is under review.

The commission is studying the effects of fires and other events on the dry-storage casks, Brach said.

At the same conference, Jorge Morales, San Onofre's spent fuel project manager, said the 20-foot tall storage tombs would have more rebar, or reinforcing steel rods, than a bank vault.

"These are not trash cans," he said. "These are very sophisticated."

In all, 19 vaults are being built. Seventeen will contain the fuel rods. Two vaults will house radioactive steel components taken from inside of the decommissioned Unit 1 reactor, which was shut down in 1992.

The reactor was powered down because plant owners figured modernizing it would be too costly. Since then, support buildings have been torn down, radioactive waste has been trucked away and plans are being made to ship the 950-ton reactor vessel to a nuclear dump site in South Carolina at month's end.

Matthew Hall: (760) 476-8234; matthew.hall@uniontrib.com

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Las Vegas SUN
September 30, 2003

Editorial: NRC nomination calls for political hardball

Las Vegas SUN

We support a bipartisan approach to problem solving but occasionally an issue cries out for old-fashioned political hardball. Sen. Harry Reid is playing hardball regarding a vacancy on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will decide whether to license Yucca Mountain as the nation's nuclear waste repository.

Reid wants the president to appoint Greg Jaczko, who holds a doctorate's degree in particle physics and who has been the senator's science adviser for two years. The Bush administration, without the courtesy of an explanation, rejected Jaczko. Reid is retaliating by vowing to hold up Bush's nominations for administrative posts, including Bush's nomination of Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

It's unfortunate that it's come to this, but Nevada is a small state that has had the odds stacked against it right from the first day that Yucca Mountain was chosen as a potential site. Reid's choice of Jaczko is fair and should be respected. Jaczko has built a reputation that extends beyond his scientific credentials -- he is known for his bipartisan political philosophy. It's too bad the Bush administration hasn't embraced this admirable trait.

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New Mexico Channel
September 30, 2003

Proposal Would Send Radioactive Waste Near Carlsbad

Changes Could Make High-Level Waste Cheaper To Dispose

CARLSBAD, N.M. -- The Department of Energy is seeking changes that would allow high-level radioactive waste to be shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad and elsewhere.

The high-level waste that now must go to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada could be relabeled and sent to WIPP. The proposal is in response to a July federal court ruling blocking a DOE plan to reclassify high-level waste to make it faster and less expensive to dispose.

New Mexico Republican Sen. Pete Domenici said he is not satisfied that the initial proposal would adequately protect public health and safety. The DOE defended its proposal as a safe alternative to sending some of the waste to Yucca Mountain.

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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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