Yucca Mountain News Clips - Wednesday, October 8, 2003

Yucca Mountain News Clips
Wednesday, October 8, 2003
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Las Vegas SUN
October 08, 2003

Editorial: No deadline break for Yucca application

Las Vegas SUN

The Energy Department's application for a licence to operate Yucca Mountain will be made to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has a rule that the department wants to skirt. The rule states that all information supporting the formal application must be filed electronically six months in advance. The Energy Department wants to submit its application in December 2004, even if it has missed the advance deadline by months.

The license application must provide answers to hundreds of technical questions about how the Energy Department intends to safely bury high-level nuclear waste under the mountain. To date there are 194 questions that do not have an answer. Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency, estimates there will be more than 30 questions yet unanswered by July 2004. By federal law, the NRC will have four years to complete its license review. It should not start that clock until such time as the Energy Department has submitted its application properly, with a full six-month advance electronic filing.

The initial electronic filing sets off a timeline by which Nevada, and other parties opposed to Yucca Mountain, must abide in filing opposing responses. Beginning that schedule, but with incomplete information, cheats opponents out of precious time. The Energy Department should be required to follow the rules to the letter.

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Salt Lake Tribune
October 08, 2003

Reid lifts hold on Leavitt nomination

By Christopher Smith

The Salt Lake Tribune

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has agreed to nominate a member of Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid's staff to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in return for Reid's lifting his holds on dozens of White House nominees, including Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, tapped to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

The deal reduces to four the number of announced holds on Leavitt's EPA nomination on the Senate floor, assuming Leavitt can clear next week's scheduled vote by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Democrats on the committee boycotted a vote on the Leavitt nomination Oct. 1 to force a two-week delay after complaining Leavitt didn't adequately answer dozens of written questions.

According to a staff member in Reid's office, the White house was in talks last week with the senator in the hope he would release the holds he had placed on all nonmilitary executive branch appointees. Reid threw up the roadblocks to protest the White House's previous refusal to nominate his congressional aide, Gregory Jaczko, to the five-year term on the federal board that oversees the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada. Reid wanted Jaczko, considered an expert in nuclear waste issues, to be appointed to an NRC seat normally held by a Democrat.

"The Democrats put forward their nominee, which was Dr. Jaczko, and the White House blocked that nomination, so now that the administration has agreed to nominate Dr. Jaczko, Sen. Reid has agreed to release all his executive branch holds," said the staff member.

The deal lifts one hurdle to Leavitt's confirmation, a blockade that Reid said had pained him because of his long association with the Leavitt family. At Leavitt's confirmation hearing Sept. 23, Reid said while the Bush administration's environmental record is "awful," he wished Leavitt well in what is generally described as a no-win job.

"The fact that you've decided to take this job is in no way impugning your intelligence," said Reid.

The White House has not formally announced Jaczko's NRC nomination and in a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper, Reid said: "I appreciate the efforts of the White House on agreeing to move forward with [Jaczko]. The NRC is charged with protecting the public health and safety, and I am confident Greg will make that his top priority."

Four other Democrats have pending holds on Leavitt's confirmation vote: Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina.

The White House has been in negotiations with Clinton in an effort to resolve her concerns about administration interference in public notifications of airborne hazards to New Yorkers after the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Even if the administration is successful in cutting a deal with Clinton to lift her hold on Leavitt, strategists familiar with the nomination process say it may be impossible to appease Lieberman, Kerry and Edwards, all of whom are seeking their party's nomination for president in 2004.

csmith@sltrib.com

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Carlsbad Current Argus
Oct 7, 2003

House says no to DOE waste plans

By The Associated Press

CARLSBAD — The House has ap-proved a measure objecting to federal Energy Department wishes to reclassify sludge currently considered high-level waste.

If reclassified, some of the waste, which is at the Hanford site in Washington, could be shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

The House measure was approved last week and is not binding.

An Energy Department spokesman said the department would continue to push for legislation that would reclassify the waste for faster and cheaper disposal. The legislation was drawn up after a federal judge blocked the reclassification in July.

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 says waste left over from the chemical processing of nuclear fuel is high level and must be disposed of in a repository specifically designed for it. Currently, the only site that qualifies is Yucca Mountain in Nevada, which is years from opening.

Last month, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, said he was not satisfied ’the initial proposal would adequately protect public health and safety.’

And Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said the plan should not move forward without the states and affected communities being involved.

Critics contend the plan could be the first step toward a fundamental change in WIPP‘s mission — allowing storage of more highly radioactive waste than originally planned.

Energy Department officials say some residues left behind when the most highly radioactive portion of the waste is removed should be reclassified because they don´t meet the legal definition of ’high level.’

Jessie Roberson, DOE assistant secretary for environmental management, said the Energy Department should be able to classify material based on the amount of radiation it contains and the best way to safely dispose of it.

The Energy Department wants to treat some of the waste as low-level, which could be left at Hanford, and other portions as transuranic, which could be shipped to WIPP.

The plan would send anywhere from 300 to 2,500 truckloads to WIPP, depending on whose figures are used.

Allyn Boldt, who retired from Hanford, calculated 2,500 truckloads could go to WIPP. It would all be ’remote-handled’ waste, which must be handled with remote-control devices to protect workers.

WIPP was designed to handle some remote-handled waste, but the Hanford waste would fill WIPP‘s entire allocation, Boldt wrote to the Hanford Advisory Board Tank Waste Committee, a citizen´s advisory group.

Bob Alvarez, a senior DOE adviser on cleanup issues in the 1990s, came up with similar results based on separate Energy Department data.

But a Hanford official, John Kristofzski, who works for federal contractor CH2M Hill on site cleanup, said the remote-handled waste would be about one-seventh that amount.

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Capital Times
October 8, 2003

Column: State should end moratorium on new nuclear plants

By Max Carbon, John Murphy, Michael Corradini and Paul Wilson

Imagine there was a source of electrical power that:

Provided reliable, high-quality power.

Produced no global warming gases or other atmospheric pollutants.

Reduced our reliance on fossil fuels.

Cost about the same, over the long run, as coal or natural gas.

There is no need to imagine; nuclear power is here today and is capable of doing much more to secure Wisconsin's energy independence. It is clean, safe, reliable and cost-effective. With the planned opening of the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada on the horizon, nuclear waste disposal will become practical and environmentally safe.

Nuclear power plants in Kewaunee and Point Beach supply over one-fifth of Wisconsin's total electricity needs, but there is a state-imposed moratorium on building new plants. The moratorium is a barrier to meeting the state's long-term energy needs. Here's why:

Nuclear power emits no greenhouse gases: Nuclear plants produce no carbon dioxide, or CO2, a gas that threatens to cause severe climate changes in the 21st century. At a Madison conference earlier this year, environmentalists and utility executives alike agreed that climate change may be the most important environmental crisis facing the planet. Nuclear power can help avert that crisis.

Nuclear waste can be stored safely at Yucca Mountain. In a May 2001 speech, former U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt called the facility a "safe, solid geologic repository." Many national technical societies agree: Nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain is doable. In contrast, there is no proven solution to handling the carbon dioxide waste from coal and natural gas plants. Further, solutions to handling other wastes from coal plants, such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, lead, mercury and particulates, are either to remove them from stack gases (a costly alternative and in some cases prohibitively so) or to discharge them into the air we breathe.

The transportation of spent nuclear fuel is safe. The shipping casks that will carry spent nuclear fuel from power plant sites to Yucca Mountain are nearly indestructible. Prototypes have been tested against collisions, explosives, fire, water, even being dropped from an airplane. In fact, over the last 20 years, over 3,000 shipments of nuclear waste have been transported safely.

Nuclear power is safe. Safe operation of nuclear power plants requires starting with an inherently safe design (such as U.S. light water reactors), minimizing abnormal events and maximizing plant reliability. The reliability (measured by plant capacity factors) has reached an all-time high of 91 percent for U.S. plants. In fact, there have been no known deaths from commercial nuclear power plant operations in the United States in their over 45-year history. No member of the public was harmed by radiation released from the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979. This is a superb record in the Western world.

Nuclear power is economical. Wisconsin Public Service Commission records show that electricity production costs at Wisconsin's two nuclear plants for 2002 were about 2.1 to 2.2 cents per kilowatt hour versus 1.5 to 1.7 cents at coal plants of the same vintage (these coal plants have not been modified to meet 1990 Clean Air Act standards) and over 8 cents per kilowatt hour at a natural gas plant of the same age. Costs at present-day wind energy plants without energy storage are reported elsewhere at 7 cents per kilowatt hour. New nuclear plants would produce electricity at about the same cost as would new coal plants. If natural gas prices reach levels predicted for the coming winter, nuclear electricity would be much cheaper than electricity from new natural gas plants.

Right now, most of Wisconsin's energy "eggs" are in the fossil fuels basket. It only makes sense to diversify with more nuclear power to insulate the state against likely cost increases in natural gas and coal. It's time to end the nuclear construction moratorium and use this technology to provide clean, safe and reliable power for Wisconsin.

Max Carbon is a professor emeritus, John Murphy is a researcher and Michael Corradini and Paul Wilson are professors in the UW-Madison College of Engineering. They are the planners for an Oct. 22-23 conference in Madison, "The Future of Nuclear Energy in Wisconsin." For more information on the conference, go to www.engr.wisc.edu/ep/neep/NE_conf.html.

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MSNBC
October 08, 2003

Public pressures nukes

While some rekindle concept, future for nuke plants uncertain

By Pete Millard
The Business Journal of Milwaukee

Oct. 6 — Nuclear power plants in Wisconsin have to begin relicensing in two years, but there are no assurances the utilities that own the plants will gain approval to keep the plants running.

While most utility executives consider nuclear plants environmentally clean, cheap to operate and safe, the plants' future in Wisconsin may be dim. That's because the public's perception of the facilities is they are expensive over the long term and present serious security risks in this era of rampant terrorism.

"It won't be easy going to the Public Service Commission to ask for approval to spend money to make modifications to keep them running," said Richard Abdoo, chairman and chief executive officer of Wisconsin Energy Corp.

Abdoo estimates the relicensing of his company's two nuclear reactors could cost up to $200 million.

Wisconsin Energy owns the Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant, a facility near Two Rivers that includes two nuclear reactors with the capacity to produce 1,022 meg-awatts of electricity. One of the reactors must be relicensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by 2010 and the second one will have to be relicensed by 2013. It takes a minimum of five years to complete the relicensing process.

The relicensing process involves obtaining a permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will dispatch a team of inspectors to oversee the process. Wisconsin Energy also must apply to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission for approval to invest in new equipment required for the relicensing of the plant.

Point Beach has been fined and temporarily shut down by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission twice in the past six years for management errors and other regulatory violations.

Wisconsin Public Service Corp., Green Bay, and Alliant Energy Corp., Madison, jointly own the Kewaunee Nuclear Power Plant. The 500-megawatt facility also must be relicensed by 2013.

Starting a discussion

Efforts are under way in academia to rekindle policy discussions on nuclear power.

A conference on the future of nuclear energy in Wisconsin is to be held Oct. 22 and 23 in Madison. It was organized by Mike Corradini, a professor and chairman of the University of Wisconsin-Madison nuclear engineering department. The conference is being funded by the University of Wisconsin Foundation and the S.C. Johnson Foundation.

"We sense people are afraid of the 'N' word," said Corradini. "Wisconsin's energy picture demands strong leadership, and we are trying to restart the nuclear conversation to see where we are headed."

Meanwhile, a western Wisconsin lawmaker would like to repeal a state law that he says hinders nuclear power development. Rep. Michael Huebsch (R-West Salem) plans to introduce a bill later this year that will overturn Wisconsin's moratorium on building nuclear power plants.

Wisconsin lawmakers and energy executives are being irresponsible when they ignore nuclear power as part of the state's long-term energy policy, said Huebsch.

The state's ban, which dates back to 1980, prevents new nuclear plants from being constructed until a permanent site for spent fuel is developed. Spent nuclear fuel rods are currently stored at nuclear plants in pools of water and dry storage casks.

The U.S. Department of Energy is designing an underground storage site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The department will have to apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for approval to build the storage site. The development process is under way and federal officials hope to have a nuclear dump operating by 2010.

Another big obstacle facing utilities over relicensing and building new plants is getting financial markets to lend the money, said Larry Foulke, president of the American Nuclear Society.

Currently in the United States, three energy companies have expressed an interest in building new nuclear plants and have begun to get approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"Each of the companies looking at new plants dwarf us," said Abdoo. "The reality is only large corporations will be able to build new plants because of the financial risks associated with operating them."

Earlier this week, Exelon Corp., Chicago, applied for an early site permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expand its existing nuclear facility in Clinton, Ill. Illinois has the most nuclear power in the country with 11 and provides almost half of the state's electricity.

Two other large utility holding companies -- New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., and Richmond, Va.-based Dominion Resources -- are expected to follow Exelon's lead by requesting permits to reserve spots for the next generation of nuclear reactors.

A federal energy bill now being considered in a conference committee of U.S. Senate and House of Representatives provides financial incentives for the construction of new nuclear power plants.

In June, the Senate Energy Committee endorsed a bill that earmarked $16 billion in loan guarantees to build six nuclear plants.

The United States has 103 nuclear plants that supply 20 percent of the nation's electricity, said a spokesman at the Nuclear Energy Institute, Washington, D.C. Three nuclear reactors at two Wisconsin plants supply 20 percent of the state's power.

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Las Vegas SUN
October 07, 2003

State demands all Yucca issues be answered

DOE shouldn't file for license until all safety questions resolved

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

WASHINGTON -- State officials called on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to make the Energy Department answer all outstanding technical questions about Yucca Mountain before the department files its license application.

In a letter to the NRC Friday, Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency, said the state "is very much concerned" over the Energy Department's plan to answer only some of the remaining technical questions, known as "key technical issue agreements," before submitting the site's license application.

The department is expected to submit the application for the high-level nuclear waste site in December 2004.

"DOE must be made to understand that it is an applicant like any other, which requires it to obey NRC's licensing rules," Loux wrote in a letter sent to William Travers, the commission's executive director of operations. "At stake are not only the rights of all the participants but the public health and safety."

At a Sept. 23 meeting at commission headquarters, Energy Department officials presented a schedule for forwarding answers to the commission on the 194 remaining issues for the nuclear waste repository planned for Yucca, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Energy Department officials said the department would address all of the questions before submitting the application, but they also said that some of the work would be completed after its license was submitted.

Loux estimated that more than 30 questions would remain unfinished by June 2004. He said this violates a commission rule that calls for all information needed to support the license to be logged into a electronic system six months prior to DOE handing in the application.

"The entire licensing procedural schedule may otherwise be thrown into disarray," Loux said, because the initial license filing sets off a timeline of when the state and other parties are required to file responses to the license application.

"If NRC accepts an incomplete application, the statutory deadline for completion of the NRC's review and hearing will be difficult, if not impossible, to meet, and the resulting blame for missing that deadline will rest with NRC, rather than DOE, where it more properly belongs," Loux wrote.

He said the answers on critical questions would be deferred on issues such as the corrosion of waste containers and the volcanic activity of Yucca Mountain.

"Indeed, waste container corrosion is perhaps the most important issue in the licensing of the repository," Loux wrote.

The 77,000 tons of nuclear waste set to be stored in the mountain will be housed in special containers designed to hold the highly radioactive material. Corrosion of the containers could lead to a radiation leak that could contaminate surrounding land or groundwater.

The NRC could not be reached for comment, and calls to the Yucca Mountain Project Office were not returned Monday.

But Janet Schlueter, chief of the commission's High-Level Waste Branch, said at the Sept. 23 meeting that the Energy Department's plans to continue addressing technical information after the license application submittal was consistent with the regulations.

And April Gil, the Energy Department's division director of regulatory interaction and strategy at the Office of Repository Development, said the license application was not contingent on the closure of all 293 issues.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
October 07, 2003

DOE pace prompts complaint

Officials say reports on nuclear waste dump won't be ready on time

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Nevada officials have registered a complaint over the Energy Department's work pace in preparing an application for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

More than 30 key technical reports will be "substantially unfinished" by next July, when the Energy Department is supposed to begin submitting documents, said Bob Loux, director of the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects.

Further, Loux said an updated Energy Department schedule disclosed last month indicates three "key technical issue" agreements won't be submitted until after the department plans to file a repository application in December 2004.

The state official sent a letter Friday to William D. Travers, NRC executive director of operations, stating the agency should refuse to accept a Yucca Mountain application until all studies are complete and their documentation can be posted.

Otherwise, Loux wrote, "the entire licensing procedural schedule may be thrown into disarray."

The NRC must license the repository, being built 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, before it can begin accepting high-level nuclear waste.

The letter was made public Monday.

The unfinished agreements include important studies on corrosion of special alloy canisters that will hold highly radioactive spent fuel within the mountain, and potential volcano impacts on the repository, state officials said.

Energy Department officials have said they plan to supply the NRC with information on unresolved issues before filing a license application, expecting to show that the matters are on a path to resolution.

"We will address every key technical agreement before the license application is submitted," Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said Monday. "Those that contend otherwise are wrong and are misstating the process."

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Reno Gazette Journal
October 06, 2003

Art show comprised of nuclear warning signs

Ken Ritter
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — Fanning through poster-sized artworks, Joshua Abbey pulled out a black-and-white image of a human skull with a radiation warning symbol carved through the hollow cranium.

Next, a pictograph depicting a human contaminated by radiation as a drill digs up a buried image of the same universal symbol.

“If you drill, you die,’ Abbey, director of the nonprofit Desert Space Foundation, said of the second work, by art student Maho Kishi. “That´s the legacy we´re leaving for future generations to contend with.’

Abbey is the curator of “Universal Warning Sign: Yucca Mountain,’ a design exhibition he will take outside of Nevada for the first time next week. It opens next Tuesday at the University of California, Los Angeles, for a free monthlong show.

Setting aside his own anti-nuclear opinions, Abbey decided to host a competition, soliciting designs for would-be warning signs and markers surrounding the Nevada site selected to be the nation´s nuclear waste dump. He got 300 responses, and a jury selected 50 finalists. The exhibition was first shown at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2002. It since has been displayed in Fallon and Eureka.

The competition was inspired by federal plans to entomb the nation´s most deadly radioactive waste in tunnels 1,000 feet beneath Yucca Mountain, an arid volcanic ridge 90 miles northwest of Abbey´s hometown, Las Vegas.

The Energy Department is preparing to submit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission an application to open the repository in 2010 and spend three decades filling it. Project scientists say the repository, once sealed, would remain radioactive for 10,000 years or more.

While politicians debated science and safety, Abbey began thinking about communicating with someone 10,000 years into the future.

“How can we project our consciousness for twice the length of recorded history?’ he asked, pulling out another of the images stored at a Las Vegas art gallery.

Abbey noted the Yucca Mountain message will have to endure as long as radioactivity — and perhaps twice as long as the oldest Egyptian pyramid or the oldest known Sanskrit writings.

He pointed to a four-panel artwork designed for the mid-level nuclear Waste Isolation Pilot Plant outside Carlsbad, N.M. It has a stick figure depicting Edvard Munch´s “Scream’ keeling over as radiation symbols flutter away from an excavated pit.

“It´s using simple imagery that doesn´t rely on language,’ Abbey said, adding that he hoped project officials would consider some of the designs from his exhibit.

As part of its license application to the NRC, the Energy Department will have to include a design for a warning at Yucca Mountain. DOE spokesman Joe Davis said ideas have included putting up blocks, building an earthen barrier around the site or posting signs with a universal language.

“In layman´s terms, for future generations we have to explain what is buried at the site, why it´s buried at the site and why they need to be aware of it if there´s an ice age or if they decide to drill for water there,’ Davis said.

No design has been selected, although the DOE spokesman said one similar to the markers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico was being considered.

Abbey said the image the government picks should be simple and powerful.

“People should be inspired to question the consequences of this action and analyze their role,’ he said, pulling out the work chosen best-of-show, “Blue Yucca Ridge,’ by Ashok Sukumaran.

It shows the mountain ridge cast in a cobalt blue hue.

“The goal is to educate people about the long-term ramifications of storing waste at Yucca Mountain,’ Abbey said.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
October 06, 2003

Effort aims to steer money toward dump

By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Supporters of the Yucca Mountain Project have launched a new effort to allow federal dollars to flow more easily to the nuclear waste repository program.

While details have not been disclosed, state and industry groups are promoting a new bill that would allow lawmakers to appropriate hundreds of millions of dollars each year from a special nuclear waste fund without running afoul of congressional budget restrictions.

Executives from the Nuclear Energy Institute and the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition, a group of utilities and state agencies, said they are showing House lawmakers the budget plan and expect it will be introduced as legislation later this year.

The effort has drawn fresh criticism from Nevada lawmakers, who oppose the Yucca project.

"There is no crisis forcing us to throw money at Yucca Mountain," Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said.

But project supporters said that unless purse strings are loosened on the nuclear waste fund, the Energy Department will fail to meet a 2010 goal to begin burying nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"The government's nuclear waste management program is at a critical juncture," said Terry Freese, Nuclear Energy Institute director of legislative programs.

Rules that Congress has set for itself to restrain spending have helped suppress progress on the repository at a time when the Energy Department is eyeing more than $1.3 billion in annual need for the program, industry officials said.

Budget cuts forced annually by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., also have contributed to shortfalls.

The Nuclear Energy Institute represents power plant operators whose spent fuel would be transported to Yucca Mountain. The Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition includes utilities and state regulators who pay particular attention to the fund that feeds the project.

State officials say the nuclear waste fund, built by utility customer fees, should ensure the Yucca Mountain Project is largely self-financed, but Congress fails to maximize spending each year. The current fund balance is $14.6 billion, according to a DOE report.

Similar efforts to alter budget rules for Yucca Mountain have been resisted in the past by members of Congress who oppose making structural changes to benefit specific programs.

Reid said Wednesday nothing has changed. "I'm still opposed to it, and Senator Domenici is still opposed to it," Reid said.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., is chairman of two panels with jurisdiction over the Yucca program. He also is a former chairman of the Senate Budget Committee who remains influential on budget matters.

Pro-Yucca lobbying last week renewed a focus on Yucca Mountain 14 months before DOE hopes to present the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with a repository license application.

House and Senate negotiators are preparing to discuss Energy Department spending levels for fiscal 2004, which began on Wednesday.

Entering negotiations, the House has approved Yucca funding of $765 million while the Senate has approved $425 million.

The Bush administration requested $591 million for the Yucca program and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has said DOE needs the entire amount to meet its timeline.

State officials are lobbying for the full funding approved by the House, said LeRoy Koppendrayer, a Minnesota public service commissioner.

"We're doing everything we can to hold everyone's feet to the fire," Koppendrayer said.

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Las Vegas SUN
October 06, 2003

Editorial: Location, location, location

Las Vegas SUN

No state has chosen to stand up and be counted as Nevada's staunch ally in opposing the burial of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Nevada has been left alone to fund its legal battle against a powerful federal government bent on sending the deadly material here by way of trucks and trains whose daily processions across the country will last for decades. We are without allies because none of the other states want the poison within their borders -- not because they have put their trust in the Energy Department.

This much is becoming clear as Congress moves closer to a decision on an Energy Department request that would likely affect most states and which would have an immediate affect on nuclear waste in Idaho, South Carolina and Washington. The department asked to have the sole authority over classifying the waste at former nuclear weapons plants in those three states. A classification of the waste as low level would mean it would stay on site. A classification as high level would mean the waste would ultimately be destined for Yucca Mountain, providing the government overcomes Nevada's legal fight and opens a repository there.

Suddenly, states are not so willing to go along with a DOE plan. There is no appetite among senators or representatives for giving the Energy Department that kind of sole decision-making authority in their states. They are hemming and hawing and mewling and stewing and we can see where it's all going to end -- with a decision to reject the Energy Department's request and preserve the right of states to share in the classification decisions. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said last week that House-Senate conference members considering the request "had no intention" of granting it.

We don't blame them a bit for not trusting the Energy Department. We've been telling the country all along that its decisions about Yucca Mountain are dangerously flawed. The other states' reaction to this Energy Department request is a good indication that they would be fighting Yucca Mountain as hard as Nevada is -- if it were within their borders.

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Las Vegas SUN
October 06, 2003

Deal moves NRC selection ahead

By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>

Las Vegas SUN

WASHINGTON -- The White House will accept the nomination of Sen. Harry Reid's science adviser for a spot on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in exchange for Reid allowing dozens of other Bush nominees awaiting confirmation to move through the Senate, senate aides said.

Early last month Reid declared that he would hold pending executive branch nominees until the White House considered his aide Greg Jaczko, for the commission's open Democratic seat. The White House rejected, without explanation, Reid's recommendation of Jaczko's nomination in April.

But Senate aides say the White House and Reid worked out a deal through talks all of last week to nominate Jaczko and lift the holds.

Jaczko is expected to be nominated by the end of the year, after background checks have been completed.

Jack Finn, spokesman for Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said the senator "played a significant role" in getting the two parties together to work out the deal, and emphasized he has supported Jaczko all along.

The five-member commission ultimately will decide if the Energy Department can move forward with construction plans for the Yucca Mountain project, which is set to store 77,000 tons of nuclear waste about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The NRC also oversees the country's 103 nuclear power plants.

The Nevada delegation strongly opposes the site. Jaczko's work with Reid against the project last year has sparked conflict-of-interest grumblings among the project's supporters, who oppose his nomination.

The deal lifted the delay holding up dozens of Bush nominees for slots at the Energy, State and Homeland Security departments. The Senate quickly approved 19 on Friday afternoon and will possibly complete more when it reconvenes on Oct. 14.

A White House spokesman said he could not comment on the agreement or the process surrounding nominations.

Through the deal, Reid has also agreed to not block the nominations of Republican Gov. Mike Leavitt of Utah, who has been tapped by the White House to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, although other Democrats, including John Edwards of North Carolina, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, both who are also presidential contenders, among others, will still block Leavitt for other reasons.

Reid was unavailable for comment today, but in a prepared statement he said he appreciated the White House agreement to move forward with the nomination.

"Dr. Jaczko is an emminently qualified scientist with the policy experience necessary to serve on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," Reid said in a statement. "The NRC is charged with protecting the public health and safety, and I am confident Greg will make that his top priority."

Jaczko has said his background as a congressional staffer and scientist would allow him to objectively evaluate the application for the project. He said his work has exposed him to many different viewpoints on the project so he could balance the scientific and policy issues involved.

But Mitch Singer, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear industry's trade and lobbying association, said the group wants only a clear, unbiased commission. He said its opposition against Jaczko is not personal, but that the organization does not want anyone with any "preformed" opinions on the panel.

If approved, Jaczko would serve a five-year term.

Meanwhile, Bush nominated retired Navy Vice Adm. John Grossenbacher in July for the open Republican seat on the commission.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, of which Reid is a member, will conduct the nomination hearings but nothing has been scheduled at this point.

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Reno Gazette Journal
October 05, 2003

Reid strikes deal with Bush administration over nuclear appointment

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — Sen. Harry Reid and the Bush administration have made a deal clearing the way for dozens of Bush nominees to take office in exchange for a Reid aide being nominated to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, members of Reid´s congressional staff said.

The agreement breaks a monthlong impasse that stalled executive branch Column Wrapnominations for confirmation to posts within the homeland security and justice departments and overseas posts, congressional officials said.

In return, Reid, D-Nev., is positioned to place an aide, Gregory Jaczko, on the NRC for a five-year term that could carry through the nuclear agency´s deliberations over a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Moun Column Wraptain.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., working through his top aides, vouched for Jaczko and recommended the White House make a deal with Reid, Ensign spokesman Jack Finn said. Ensign was in meetings in Las Vegas on Friday and unavailable to comment, Finn said.

In a statement, Reid said, “I appreciate the efforts of Column Wrapthe White House on agreeing to move forward with (Jaczko). The NRC is charged with protecting the Column Wrappublic health and safety, and I am confident Greg will make that his top priority.’

Reid declined to be interviewed or to make Jaczko available for comment.

The White House declined comment.

Reid announced last month that he would hold up Bush executive branch nominees until Bush picked Jaczko, 32, for an NRC vacancy. The aide, a physicist, Column Wraphad been recommended by Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., but was rejected by the White House earlier this year.

After a deal was completed Friday, Reid removed holds on more than three dozen nominees. Several hours later, 19 were confirmed in the Senate, including a U.S. attorney for Oregon, two officials to the Text Overflow 74 Lines Overset 62 LinesDepartment of Homeland Security, and ambassadors to Ireland, El Salvador and the Czech Republic.

Reid also has agreed not to block Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, who Bush wants to head the Environmental Protection Agency, aides said. Leavitt´s nomination is stalled in the Environment and Public Works Committee.

At least four other Democratic senators, including Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and presidential candidates John Edwards of North Carolina, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and John Kerry of Massachusetts, have announced they intend to place holds on Leavitt´s confirmation.

The deal apparently does not affect efforts by Reid and other Democrats to block several high-profile judicial nominees they oppose, including Priscilla Owen for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and William Pryor to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Jaczko, a native of Albany, N.Y., has been Reid´s chief science aide since 2001.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is the government´s chief nuclear energy watchdog, regulating nuclear plant operations and radioactive waste disposal. It is headed by a five-member panel of policy-making scientists. It is preparing to weigh an application from the Energy Department to build and operate a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

Reid and the rest of Nevada´s congressional delegation oppose the planned repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Nevada lawsuits challenging the federal government´s decision last year to build the repository.

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Las Vegas SUN
October 04, 2003

Deal opens door for Reid aide to get NRC nomination

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Sen. Harry Reid and the Bush administration have made a deal clearing the way for dozens of Bush nominees to take office in exchange for a Reid aide being nominated to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, members of Reid's congressional staff said.

The agreement breaks a monthlong impasse that stalled executive branch nominations for confirmation to posts within the homeland security and justice departments and overseas posts, congressional officials said.

In return, Reid, D-Nev., is positioned to place an aide, Gregory Jaczko, on the NRC for a five-year term that could carry through the nuclear agency's deliberations over a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

In a statement, Reid said, "I appreciate the efforts of the White House on agreeing to move forward with (Jaczko). The NRC is charged with protecting the public health and safety, and I am confident Greg will make that his top priority."

Reid declined to be interviewed or to make Jaczko available for comment.

The White House declined comment.

Reid announced last month that he would hold up Bush executive branch nominees until Bush picked Jaczko, 32, for an NRC vacancy. The aide, a physicist, had been recommended by Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., but was rejected by the White House earlier this year.

After a deal was completed Friday, Reid removed holds on more than three dozen nominees. Several hours later, 19 were confirmed in the Senate, including a U.S. attorney for Oregon, two officials to the Department of Homeland Security, and ambassadors to Ireland, El Salvador and the Czech Republic.

Reid also has agreed not to block Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, who Bush wants to head the Environmental Protection Agency, aides said. Leavitt's nomination is stalled in the Environment and Public Works Committee.

Jaczko, a native of Albany, N.Y., has been Reid's chief science aide since 2001.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is the government's chief nuclear energy watchdog, regulating nuclear plant operations and radioactive waste disposal. It is headed by a five-member panel of policy-making scientists. It is preparing to weigh an application from the Energy Department to build and operate a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

Reid and the rest of Nevada's congressional delegation oppose the planned repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Nevada lawsuits challenging the federal government's decision last year to build the repository.

Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal

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Elko Daily Free Press
October 04, 2003

List: State should negotiate on Yucca

By Adella Harding
Staff Writer

ELKO - Former Nevada Gov. Robert List said Wednesday "it is time for Nevada to step forward," and begin negotiating for Yucca Mountain benefits, and he cited new survey figures to bolster his stance.

"We still have leverage. This is a very good time to negotiate. President Bush will want to carry Nevada again," List told the Rotary luncheon audience.

List also said that despite the efforts of Nevada's congressional delegation and Gov. Kenny Guinn, Nevada is in all likelihood going to be storing low-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, which is about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

List's Las Vegas-based consulting firm works for the Nuclear Energy Institute that will be paying for the $60 billion project, and he said has been trying for the last couple of years to "build bridges" to gain support for the project.

"This is the biggest project in the history of the planet," he said.

List said many Nevadans have misconceptions about the project, and the safety of transporting and storing the waste "because it has become a third rail in Nevada politics. No Nevada politician has dared step forward to say look at both sides."

List, who was governor from 1978 to 1982, said he hasn't been able to persuade Nevada's leaders to open negotiations over Yucca so far, but he said new survey figures show the political climate is beginning to change.

The survey found that while more than 50 percent of respondents still don't want the nuclear waste stored in Nevada, 88 percent believe it is inevitable, List said.

And 76 percent said they believe the state should begin negotiating for benefits, he said.

Also, the survey found that only 15 percent thought Yucca Mountain was one of the top two concerns for the state.

"Today, education and taxes are probably the top two," List said.

In addition, the survey found that 61 percent of the respondents thought the state has spent too much money on lawyers to fight Yucca Mountain, and 52 percent felt rail transportation was acceptable, if away from urban areas.

List also said three Nevada counties - Nye, Lincoln and Esmeralda - are lobbying in favor of a proposed House bill that would direct DOE to use train transportation for the nuclear waste.

The trains would go through at least two of the counties, depending upon the route, and one of those proposed routes is through Beowawe.

"The bill directs the Secretary of Energy to proceed with the rail route solution," List said. The bill also states, however, that the trains won't go through Las Vegas.

Transportation of the spent fuel would take roughly 20 years by rail, with the storage casks traveling in special cars, according to List. The trains would travel through Nevada about once a week during those 20 years.

As for the economic benefits of the Yucca Mountain Project, List said that the U.S. Department of Energy has spent $8 billion so far on Yucca Mountain in Nevada, providing a payroll of more than $100 million, and he expects there to be many more jobs once the project wins final approval.

"Nothing like this has ever been done before in Nevada," he said.

There would be a peak workforce of "several thousand," before the project becomes dormant and simply monitored, List said.

In exchange for having the nuclear waste in Nevada, List said Nevada can ask for such benefits such as making obtaining certain public lands, or ask that a pilot magnetic train project include a route from Las Vegas to Southern California.

Nevada also could look for payments in lieu of taxes, he said.

Also, List said the state's universities and Desert Research Center have received $75 million in grants for research for the Yucca Mountain Project, even though the universities "don't talk much about it."

All that is left to do before the project begins is licensing, List said, not counting the consolidated Nevada lawsuit against the project.

The Associated Press reported in August that a federal court has postponed the start of Nevada's case against the nuclear waste repository that was slated to begin this week.

No new hearing date has been set, but the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has reclassified the case as "complex," which means judges will be allowed to hear longer arguments than the usual 10-15 minutes.

List said he didn't know how much the state has spent fighting Yucca Mountain, but recently lawyer costs have been $5 million to $6 million.

He also said that $100 million to $150 million of the $8 billion spent in the state so far went for the Nevada Nuclear Waste Project Office, which has opposed the Yucca Mountain Project.

Congress approved the project despite Guinn's veto, after President Bush decided to go forward with Yucca Mountain. Bush signed the Yucca bill in July 2002.

List said the Nuclear Energy Institute that represents all the nuclear-power utilities in the county, which provide 20 percent of the electricity, will be footing the bill for Yucca Mountain.

They have been charging a fee to customers for a number of years toward a storage project, and the fund is at $20 billion and growing, he said. "Consumer money will build Yucca Mountain."

List said Nevada has a "relatively narrow economy," with gaming, tourism, mining, agriculture and nuclear power the centers of that economy, and nuclear power "has been a very important part of Nevada for many years."

The state was the site of above-ground and underground atomic bomb testing at the Nevada Test Site, and there was storage of low-level waste near Beatty, as well, List said.

He said nuclear power is clean and safe in this country, and happenings in the Middle East and efforts by environmentalists to block oil and gas projects in this country point to a need for more nuclear power plants.

List also said that contrary to what many people visualize, the nuclear waste wouldn't be in a liquid form that could leak out of the casks.

"It's in little ceramic pellets," he said.

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KLAS
October 04, 2003

Former Governor Says Yucca Mountain Project Inevitable

Brian Allen, Reporter

(Oct. 3) -- Former Nevada Governor Bob List says it's time to throw in the towel and embrace the economic benefits the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project could bring.

List hosted an invitation only luncheon on Friday for area lawmakers and business leaders. At the event, List tried to muster up support to convince them he's right. He hopes they'll convince others of Yucca Mountain's potential. Those in support say research shows if the facility opens, it could infuse the Valley's economy with an estimated $200 million a year.

Las Vegas resident, Moe Bell is not happy about the idea of a nuclear waste dump close to home. "For everyone who says that if it leaked it wouldn't affect anything lets put it in their backyard and see if they'll change their mind about it," he commented. "I've always questioned why it had to come to Nevada anyway."

That is the big question. Why does nuclear waste have to be buried 100 miles to the northwest of one of America's fastest growing metropolitan areas?

The former Governor states, "It's a $60 billion project. Frankly it's almost inevitable that this project is going to happen". He contends it would bring new jobs and more money to the valley.

Bob Loux with the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects counterpoints, "Don't buy this argument that the dump is inevitable, that there's nothing Nevada can do about it.

Loux is challenging the Yucca Mountain decision in federal court. In January, he'll argue the mountain doesn't meet Department of Energy requirements. "If they have to rely on the mountain as the law says; they would have to disqualify the site immediately."

List argues the risk of any radiation leak from Yucca Mountain would be minimal, and if the facility went to another state, they wouldn't operate it as efficiently. "The State of Nevada needs to step up and participate and be part of the oversight to make sure its done right," he stated.

State leaders say the facility will never open and they're taking the fight to Washington.

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Las Vegas SUN
October 03, 2003

Art designs for Yucca Mountain warnings to be displayed at UCLA

By Ken Ritter
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Fanning through poster-sized art works, Joshua Abbey pulled out a black-and-white image of a human skull with a radiation warning symbol carved through the hollow cranium.

Next, a pictograph depicting a human contaminated by radiation as a drill digs up a buried image of the same universal symbol.

"If you drill, you die," Abbey, the director of the nonprofit Desert Space Foundation, said of the second work, by art student Maho Kishi. "That's the legacy we're leaving for future generations to contend with."

Abbey is the curator of "Universal Warning Sign: Yucca Mountain," a design exhibition he will take outside of Nevada for the first time next week. It opens Tuesday at the University of California, Los Angeles, for a free monthlong show.

Setting aside his own anti-nuclear opinions, Abbey decided to host a competition, soliciting designs for would-be warning signs and markers surrounding the Nevada site selected to be the nation's nuclear waste dump. He got 300 responses, and a jury selected 50 finalists. The exhibition was first shown at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in 2002. It has since been displayed in Fallon and Eureka.

The competition was inspired by federal plans to entomb the nation's most deadly radioactive waste in tunnels 1,000 feet beneath Yucca Mountain, an arid volcanic ridge 90 miles northwest of Abbey's hometown, Las Vegas.

While politicians debated science and safety, Abbey began thinking about communicating with someone 10,000 years into the future.

"How can we project our consciousness for twice the length of recorded history?" he asked, pulling out another of the images stored at a Las Vegas art gallery.

Abbey noted the Yucca Mountain message will have to endure as long as radioactivity - and perhaps twice as long as the oldest Egyptian pyramid or the oldest known Sanskrit writings.

He pointed to a four-panel art work designed for the midlevel nuclear Waste Isolation Pilot Plant outside Carlsbad, N.M. It has a stick figure depicting Edvard Munch's "Scream" keeling over as radiation symbols flutter away from an excavated pit.

"It's using simple imagery that doesn't rely on language," Abbey said, adding that he hoped project officials would consider some of the designs from his exhibit.

"In layman's terms, for future generations we have to explain what is buried at the site, why it's buried at the site and why they need to be aware of it if there's an ice age or if they decide to drill for water there," Davis said.

No design has been selected, although the DOE spokesman said one similar to the markers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico was being considered.

Abbey said the image the government picks should be simple and powerful.

"People should be inspired to question the consequences of this action and analyze their role," he said, pulling out the work chosen best-of-show, "Blue Yucca Ridge," by Ashok Sukumaran.

It shows the mountain ridge cast in a cobalt blue hue.

"The goal is to educate people about the long-term ramifications of storing waste at Yucca Mountain," Abbey said.

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On the Net:

Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov/

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov/

Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste

Desert Space Foundation: http://www.desertspace.org

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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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