Yucca Mountain News Clips - Monday, October 13, 2003

Yucca Mountain News Clips
Monday, October 13, 2003
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Las Vegas SUN
October 13, 2003

Goodman calls for Yucca cuts

LV, Salt Lake mayors send letter to congressional delegations

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

WASHINGTON -- Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman wants to make sure Congress does not fully fund the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site and other nuclear projects in the pending energy spending bill.

Goodman and Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson sent a letter to Nevada and Utah congressional delegations late last month asking them to "do whatever you can to resist provisions that would speed up development of the Yucca Mountain Project and initiatives that could lead to the resumption of nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site."

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 earlier this summer, but the Senate approved only $425 million for the project. The department had requested $591 million.

Hobson said fully funding the project was his top priority while Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., uses his position on the Senate Appropriation Committee to continually cut the program.

Select members of the House and Senate will meet to iron out differences between the bills, including the Yucca funding discrepancy, before sending it to the president.

"Rewarding the DOE with unbudgeted funds despite its atrocious track record in this project and at virtually all of its facilities is tantamount to an abrogation of congressional oversight and budget obligations," Goodman and Anderson's letter said.

The mayors also objected to $15 million earmarked for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, nickname the "bunker buster" and other nuclear weapons funds.

"It is clear to us, as it should be to all careful observers, that this administration is set upon a course that will inexorably lead to a new round of what term residents here remember as 'the bombing.'

Meanwhile, Yucca supporters in the House are trying to drum up support for the $765 million allocation.

Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., and Fred Upton R-Mich., circulated a letter Friday asking members to support the higher budget figure for the project by signing a letter to Hobson and the leading Democrat on the House subcommittee, Peter Visclosky of Indiana.

"Three-hundred and six House members voted last year to support the site suitability resolution for Yucca Mountain, and in light of this overwhelming approval, we believe that the time has come to move forward on this program," Spratt and Upton wrote.

Upton's district has two nuclear power plants whose waste would be shipped to the mountain, an aide said. South Carolina has nuclear power plants as well as waste as the Savannah River Site that would end up at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The letter to Hobson and Visclosky emphasizes that the department estimates each year of delay on the Yucca project will result in direct federal costs of $500 million and maybe more since it would continue to violate commitments to nuclear utilities.

"The added investment included in the House bill will significantly reduce ultimate program costs and federal liabilities," the letter said.

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Las Vegas SUN
October 12, 2003

Editorial: A reminder of dangers

Las Vegas SUN

Last week in Michigan an axle broke on a truck carrying a nuclear reactor vessel destined for a dump in South Carolina. Low-level nuclear waste was aboard the truck, not the high-level kind the Energy Department wants to bury in Nevada's Yucca Mountain, but it still reveals the dangers involved in shipping nuclear waste.

The broken axle was fixed, but the company moving the waste parked the truck Tuesday night near a gas station. Not only was the radioactive shipment left near flammable liquids, but the gas station also serves as a school bus stop -- and school officials weren't notified that the truck was there. Communication screw-ups and traffic accidents will undoubtedly occur if Yucca Mountain is licensed, which is plenty reason enough why a nuclear waste dump should never open in Nevada.

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CEP
October 10, 2003

Mayors Say No Nukes Down Road or Upwind

The mayors of the two largest cities in the interior West fired off letters to their Utah and Nevada congressional delegations denouncing moves to ship nuclear waste through their neighborhoods and explode fallout-producing nuclear bunker-busting bombs up-wind of their constituents.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson jointly urged the Congress to block additional funding that would "speed up development of the Yucca Mountain Project and initiatives that could lead to a resumption of nuclear testing".

The mayors wrote that it is clear that the Bush Administration is "set upon a course that will inexorably lead to a new round of what long term residents here remember as 'the bombing'. We can think of no greater threat to the health and welfare of our citizens and communities than being downwind yet again."

They characterized the prospect of renewed nuclear testing as a "moral choice that must be judged in light of a legacy of death and deceit".

Congressional budget negotiators are finalizing appropriations that include up to $15 million for development of the bunker busting Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, $5 million for research on "mini-nukes", and $25 million fro test site readiness to resume nuclear weapons testing within 18 months.

The House proposes spending $765 million for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, a 67% increase over current funding, and expediting planning for early acceptance of waste at an above ground interim storage facility in Nevada in 2007. Nevadans and their elected leaders overwhelmingly oppose the nuclear waste project, and Nevada's senior Senator Harry Reid has led efforts to cut funding for Yucca Mountain.

Goodman and Anderson argue that the Yucca Mountain Project will have "a devastating effect upon tourism" and depress property values in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. They charged that the Congress and the Department of Energy have failed to address the " staggering" costs to the cities for emergency preparedness and downplayed the "nearly incalculable" impacts on their cities in the event of an accident.

Steve Erickson, director of the Salt Lake-based Citizens Education Project which worked with the mayors on the letter, conceded that it may be too little too late to block the nuclear waste and weapons funding in this Congress, but praised the mayors for their forthright position and leadership.

"If these programs go forward, they will require additional appropriations for years to come," Erickson said. "It's past time that all our political leaders find some backbone on behalf of their constituents who adamantly oppose nuclear weapons testing and waste dumping. Those who can't or won't have some serious explaining to do," he said.

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Nevada Appeal
October 12, 2003

Chairman backs Yucca project

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS -- The chairman of an independent advisory board on nuclear waste issues is facing criticism this week after co-authoring a newspaper opinion piece declaring radioactive waste can be "stored safely at Yucca Mountain."

It was not the first time Michael Corradini had expressed a public opinion on the Yucca Mountain Project. The latest comments disturbed other members of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, who earlier this year asked Corradini to resign over earlier remarks about the project, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Saturday.

The opinion piece also reignited complaints from Nevada officials about Corradini. In February, the state's federal lawmakers called on President Bush to remove him from the influential advisory panel.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Friday he is considering legislation to terminate the $3.2 million science board. He said its credibility and impartiality are being compromised by Corradini.

"This guy is out of control," Reid said. "Anyone with a sense of fairness would tell the guy to leave."

Corradini, chairman of the physics engineering department at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, was appointed by Bush in June 2002 to head the board whose members are academic experts in engineering, geology, materials science and ecology.

The board monitors how the Energy Department is performing on technical aspects of the Yucca Mountain Project and reports its findings to Congress.

Though they may have personal opinions about Yucca Mountain, advisory board members caution each other to refrain from expressing any views that might create appearances of conflict or bias, board member Norman Christensen said.

"I think the members of the board are very troubled" by the article, said Christensen, an ecology professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University. The opinion piece was published Wednesday in the Capital Times, a Wisconsin newspaper. It was co-authored by Corradini, Max Carbon, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, researcher John Murphy and professor Paul Wilson.

In arguing Wisconsin should end its moratorium on new nuclear plants, the authors write nuclear power is safe and economical.

They state that "nuclear waste can be stored safely at Yucca Mountain," and "the transportation of spent nuclear fuel is safe" because shipping containers that will carry waste to Nevada "are nearly indestructible."

Corradini could not be reached for comment Friday.

In the past, Corradini has defended his views, saying he has conducted his advisory board work with objectivity.

Corradini expressed similar views about Yucca Mountain in congressional testimony in 2001. That, plus Corradini's continued membership on an Energy Department nuclear advisory board, prompted months of discussion among board members about conflicts and appearances.

In April, the nine other members of the technical review board signed a letter declaring the board's credibility and effectiveness were "in serious jeopardy," and asked Corradini to resign, board members and staff said Friday.

Corradini declined, according to Christensen and others.

"It was our feeling the issue had gone far enough, partly because of the internal concerns of the board about conflicts in general, " Christensen said. "This issue had risen to a point it was affecting the effectiveness of the board."

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Salt Lake Tribune
October 12, 2003

Mayors unite against nuclear testing, waste

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, joined by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, hopes to persuade Congress not to plow money into speeding the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste disposal site or into testing of new-generation nuclear weapons.

"We can think of no greater threat to the health and welfare of our citizens and communities than being downwind yet again," the mayors said in a joint letter, which was sent to members of Congress in their respective states.

They called the possibility of new nuclear testing a "moral choice that must be judged in light of a legacy of death and deceit."

Congress is polishing spending bills that would designate $40 million to the development of new nuclear weapons.

The House of Representatives has proposed boosting spending on Yucca Mountain to $765 million and establishing an above-ground storage facility at the site.

Meanwhile, policy-makers in the states most affected by the proposals have fought them as a drain on tourism and property values.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
October 11, 2003

Yucca comments trouble waste panel

Board chief angers Nevada lawmakers by saying spent fuel can be stored safely

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of a science board that is supposed to give the government independent advice on nuclear waste has come under new fire after he co-authored a newspaper opinion piece this week declaring that radioactive spent fuel "can be stored safely at Yucca Mountain."

It was not the first time that Michael Corradini had expressed a public view on the Yucca Mountain Project. The latest comments roiled other members of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, who earlier this year asked him to resign over earlier remarks about the project.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Friday he is considering legislation to terminate the $3.2 million science board. He charged its credibility and impartiality are being compromised by its leader.

"This guy is out of control," Reid said of Corradini. "Anyone with a sense of fairness would tell the guy to leave."

"The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board is supposed to be an independent group that has no prejudice or preconceived notion about Yucca Mountain and the storage of nuclear waste," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.

The board monitors how the Energy Department is performing on technical aspects of the Yucca Mountain Project, and reports its findings to Congress.

Though they might have personal opinions about Yucca Mountain, advisory board members continually caution each other to refrain from expressing any views that might create appearances of conflict or bias, according to board member Norman Christensen.

"I think the members of the board are very troubled" by the article, said Christensen, an ecology professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University.

"We have our own opinions and are free to express them as we want to. I personally would not have expressed a personal opinion about Yucca Mountain or about transportation," said board member David Duquette, department head and a professor of materials science and engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The opinion piece was published Wednesday in the Capital Times, a newspaper in Madison. It was co-authored by Corradini, Max Carbon, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, researcher John Murphy and professor Paul Wilson.

Making a point that Wisconsin should end its moratorium on new nuclear plants, the authors write that nuclear power is safe and economical.

They state that "nuclear waste can be stored safely at Yucca Mountain," and that "the transportation of spent nuclear fuel is safe" because shipping casks that will carry waste to Nevada "are nearly indestructible."

Two messages left at his office did not reach Corradini on Friday before he boarded a plane for Washington, an aide said. He could not be reached by cell phone and a message left at his hotel was not answered.

In the past Corradini has defended his views, saying he has conducted his advisory board work with objectivity and scientific rigor.

Corradini expressed similar views about Yucca Mountain in congressional testimony in 2001. That, plus Corradini's continued membership on an Energy Department nuclear advisory board, prompting months of discussion among board members about conflicts and appearances.

In April, all nine others on the technical review board signed a letter declaring the board's credibilty and effectiveness were "in serious jeopardy," and asked Corradini to resign, board members and staff confirmed Friday.

Corradini declined, according to Christensen and others.

"It was our feeling the issue had gone far enough, partly because of the internal concerns of the board about conflicts in general, "Christensen said.

"This issue had risen to a point it was affecting the effectiveness of the board."

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Casper Star-Tribune
October 11, 2003

PFS licensing process for Goshute nuclear storage halted temporarily

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has put on hold for at least a month licensing proceedings for plans to store used nuclear-plant fuel on the Skull Valley Goshute reservation in Tooele County.

The Friday decision to stall the licensing process was due to a request by the utility consortium behind the project, Private Fuel Storage. The company says it needs more time to answer new questions raised by staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has final say on the license.

After the licensing board ruled last March that the risk is too great that a Hill Air Force Base fighter jet might crash into the nuclear storage site, Private Fuel Storage decided to prove the consequences would not be severe if such a crash did happen.

The company wants to store up to 44,000 tons of high-level waste for up to 40 years on the impoverished Skull Valley reservation 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, until a permanent storage facility could be built at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

The casks, made by New Jersey-based Holtec International, would be used to store the lethally radioactive waste. The 20-foot tall, 11-feet wide casks would be stacked in rows on what is essentially a concrete parking lot on the reservation.

The casks' design already has the NRC's approval. Their structural integrity was key to the licensing board's decision that the facility probably could withstand a big earthquake without releasing radiation.

The licensing board's inquiry will focus on what would happen if a fighter jet on a training mission crashed into the slab where the casks would be stored above ground, untethered and in the open air.

The company is out to show the casks could withstand the impact of a crashing F-16 traveling over Skull Valley along the flight path between Hill Air Force Base and the Utah Test and Training Range.

The casks already are being used to store nuclear waste outside several reactors.

This spring, the NRC, the licensing board's parent agency, prodded regulators to wrap up the case by the end of this year. But with this and another recent scheduling delay, it seems unlikely the licensing board will be able to render a decision until at least next June.

''This is all just part of the process,'' said PFS spokeswoman Sue Martin. ''This, again, just illustrates how detailed the process is, how rigorous the analysis has to be to satisfy the concerns of the NRC.''

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Salt Lake Tribune
October 11, 2003

Design concerns delay plans for nuclear storage site

By Judy Fahys

License proceedings are on hold for at least a month for plans to store used nuclear-plant fuel on the Skull Valley Goshute reservation in Tooele County.

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board temporarily put the license review on hold Friday, following a request by the utility consortium behind the project, Private Fuel Storage (PFS). In discussions Tuesday, the company said it needed more time to answer new questions raised by staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has final say on the license.

After the licensing board ruled last March that the risk is too great that a Hill Air Force Base fighter jet might crash into the nuclear storage site, PFS opted to make the case that the consequences would not be severe if such a crash did happen.

This spring, the NRC, the licensing board's parent agency, prodded regulators to wrap up the case by the end of this year. But, with this and another recent scheduling delay, it seems unlikely the licensing board will be able to render a decision until at least mid-June and maybe later

"This is all just part of the process," said PFS spokeswoman Sue Martin. "This, again, just illustrates how detailed the process is, how rigorous the analysis has to be to satisfy the concerns of the NRC."

Martin said that much of the holdup has to do with a question NRC staff asked about the design of the steel-and-concrete casks that would be used to hold the waste at the Skull Valley facility. Finding an answer requires updating the models used to show the containers' durability.

The company wants to store up to 44,000 tons of high-level waste in an above-ground "parking lot" for up to 40 years, until permanent, underground disposal becomes available -- presumably at the federal government's proposed Yucca Mountain, Nev., facility.

fahys@sltrib.com

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Carlsbad Current Argus
October 10, 2003

Madrid objects to DOE proposal on nuclear sludge

By Walter Rubel/Current-Argus Santa Fe Bureau

SANTA FE — New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid has sent a letter to leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate objecting to a proposal to reclassify sludge currently considered high-level waste so that it could be stored at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

In her letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Madrid states that the Department of Energy was attempting to renege on promises made to New Mexico about what could be stored at the WIPP site.

“The Department of Energy is attempting to have Congress provide it with the discretion to place high-level nuclear waste wherever DOE chooses. That is simply unacceptable,’ Madrid states in her letter. “The Waste Isolation Pilot Program Plant was never intended to house high-level waste. Congress made a promise to New Mexicans that high-level waste would not come to WIPP. Congress must live up to that promise and not grant DOE the sole discretion to reclassify high-level nuclear waste.’

The House has already passed a nonbinding measure opposing the DOE plan.

The proposal deals with sludge generated in the reprocessing of nuclear fuel at the Hanford site in Washington state.

The Energy Department has argued that it should be able to classify material based on the amount of radiation it contains and the best way to safely dispose of it. Under its proposal, some of the waste would be treated as low-level and left at Hanford, and other portions as transuranic (greater than uranium) and shipped to WIPP.

Carlsbad Mayor Bob Forrest said it is important that any waste sent to WIPP meet the guidelines laid out when the site was originally proposed.

“We don´t want to lose the trust of the people of New Mexico. That´s why we have been so successful at WIPP,’ Forrest said. “It´s my understanding that the waste meets all the criteria, and if that´s the case, then it ought to be able to come to WIPP.’

But Madrid said the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 requires high-level waste be stored deep underground in a facility such as Yucca Mountain in Nevada, which is years from opening. The Carlsbad WIPP site is intended for transuranic radioactive material, she said.

“High-level waste is to be isolated in a deep geologic facility like Yucca Mountain,’ Madrid states in her letter. “I urge Congress to keep its promises to New Mexico and not allow high-level nuclear material to come to WIPP.’

The 1982 law classifies all waste left over from the chemical processing of nuclear fuel as high level. 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.’

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Pahrump Valley Times
October 10, 2003

County Budget Suddenly Short $1.1 Million

Error points to bigger problem

By Mark Waite
PVT

TONOPAH - Nye County is facing a $1.1 million deficit this year, after a $12 increase in the landfill parcel fee was mistakenly penciled into the general fund, Budget Director Charlie Rodewald told county commissioners Tuesday.

Rodewald, who took over as budget director Feb. 24, said he was preparing to present a revised budget to county commissioners Sept. 16 when he discovered the funds were supposed to be earmarked for a future landfill. The fee charged each parcel for operation of the landfill was increased from $18 to $30 in May 2002.

Rodewald's original budget estimated Nye County would collect $1.4 million in solid waste fees this year and spend $768,289. But if the $12 fee is taken out, the county will spend $800,000 more on solid waste collection than it receives, he said.

"Last year when I was looking at the budget, I noticed we had a nice little windfall, I thought, as far as the landfill fees went," Rodewald said. "I built the current year budget on the same premise, that all the landfill fees, the extra landfill fees, could support the general fund activities. Clearly that was not the intent."

The unreserved general fund balance when the fiscal years on June 30, 2004 would drop from $514,000 to only $32,000 as a result of having to set aside $616,000 from last year and $800,000 this year from the $12 landfill parcel fee increase, Rodewald explained.

To make up for the oversight, Rodewald said commissioners could implement a hiring freeze, a spending freeze and other cost-cutting measures. The county could phase in the $600,000 payments due to the fund from last year, although Commissioner Joni Eastley said they would have to hope the county doesn't have any unforeseen costs from any corrective actions in the coming year.

"We've been able to pull rabbits out of hats for a long time," Rodewald said. "Everybody that's affected by our budget has to realize we have to do things differently. We cannot increase, increase, increase in the cost of doing business."

Commissioners cited the budget dilemma and a study currently underway on personnel as reasons to turn down requests for a legal secretary in district court, another deputy treasurer in Tonopah, an extra deputy recorder/auditor and a planner.

County department heads had been told to hold off on personnel requests until October, after a computer problem with the new HTE system was corrected.

The county should look at eliminating the duplication of services in both Pahrump and Tonopah, Rodewald said.

"Yes we know that we have a major constituency in Pahrump. We have been trying to improve the service to those people. (But) we (also) have the requirements to provide certain services in Tonopah as the county seat," he said. "It would seem to me at a certain point we would have to look at those requirements. How can we accommodate them both?"

Rodewald pointed out some other commission actions he was unaware of, such as $1.5 million supposedly set aside for a state college in Pahrump back in January 2000 out of the possessory use tax, a commitment brought up by Commissioner Patricia Cox. Then there was $300,000 committed in Payments Equal to Taxes for the fairgrounds project, he said.

In March, Rodewald said he got another surprise in the form of a phone call from the Town of Pahrump asking for money the county allocated for the skate park.

Rodewald added that he's wondering how to fund the additional 10 sheriff's deputies when the COPS FAST grant runs out in three years.

Then there are overtime costs. Last year the county set aside only $33,000 but spent $624,000 on overtime, with three-quarters of that for employees under the supervision of elected officials, he said.

During his previous stint working for the county in 1995-96, Rodewald recalled how the county solved a $500,000 deficit in 30 seconds by electing to use Payment Equal to Taxes from the U.S. Department of Energy for the land value of Yucca Mountain. He admitted the county may have to use PETT money to make up some of the current budget shortfall.

"We are not living within our means. We cannot always solve our problems by dumping PETT money into them," Rodewald said.

The county receives roughly $10 million per year in PETT funds.

"I don't know how many other things are sitting out there we committed money for, but the project hasn't started up," Rodewald said. "It's running up a really big red flag; we have a problem folks."

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Pahrump Valley Times
October 10, 2003

Declaration will free up funds for flood damage

PVT

TONOPAH - Nye County Commissioners voted Tuesday to declare the monsoon flooding on July 19 and Sept. 2 as emergencies from natural disasters, allowing the use of Payment Equal to Taxes for repairs.

PETT money is paid to Nye County by the U.S. Department of Energy for the land value of Yucca Mountain. The payments average about $10 million per year and are generally not used for ordinary maintenance costs. Nye County Code permits using money in the PETT emergency fund to pay expenses incurred to mitigate the effects of a natural disaster.

Public Works Director Samson Yao estimated the damage to roads at $101,400, of which $80,201 was manpower costs for the county road crews who worked long hours to clean up the mess.

The National Weather Service officially recorded .47 inch of rain in Pahrump on July 19 and only .19 inch on Sept. 2. However both storms dumped much larger amounts of rain in mountains east of town, resulting in flash flooding that left heavy road damage to parts of valley, including the Vineyards subdivision east of Highway 160.

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Pahrump Valley Times
October 10, 2003

Lawmakers get interim posts

PVT

State Senator Mike McGinness, R-Fallon, and District 36 Assemblyman Rod Sherer, R-Pahrump, were both named to the Committee on High-level Radioactive Waste for the interim session by the leadership of the Nevada Legislature.

Both legislators represent Nye County, where all nuclear waste transportation will lead once the Yucca Mountain repository is built. These appointments will apply only during the interim session. The next regular session of the state legislature convenes in February 2005.

McGinness, who is in his eighth term in the state legislature, was also named to the Legislative Committee for Local Government Taxes and Finance and to a Legislative Committee on Taxation, Public Revenue and Tax Policy, set up under Senate Bill No. 7. He was named as an alternate on the Legislative Committee on Public Lands.

He was also appointed to a study of wilderness areas commissioned by Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 7 and to a non-legislative, advisory committee studying a veterans' cemetery in Northern Nevada.

Sherer, a freshman assemblyman, picked up a seat on the Legislative Committee on Children, Youth and Families. He will also serve on a committee working on an interim study of long-range mass transit in Nevada and to urban areas of neighboring states, a project outlined by Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 31.

Sherer's only other assignment was to a committee that will study the criminal justice system in rural Nevada and transitional housing for released offenders, a task outlined by Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 32. Fifth District Judge John Davis will also serve on that committee.

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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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