Yucca Mountain News Clips
Monday, October 27, 2003
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Las Vegas SUN
October 26, 2003
Editorial: Fatal flaws not halting Yucca push
Las Vegas Sun
Weekend Edition Oct. 24 - 25, 2003
The on-site areas that the nation's nuclear power plants use for storing their radioactive waste should be looking pretty good right now, even to people who have aggressively supported Yucca Mountain.
Adding to the already voluminous evidence that Yucca Mountain is unsuitable as a burial site was a letter circulated in Washington, D.C., last week by nuclear-waste specialists. In it, the specialists, who are members of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, cited research showing that current burial plans will pose severe safety risks. This is because the casks in which the waste is to be sealed would inevitably corrode, according to laboratory experiments that replicated conditions inside the mountain. Corrosion could lead to contamination of the aquifer 1,000 feet underneath Yucca Mountain that sustains the Amargosa Valley, an agricultural region. It also could lead to the contamination of the air around Yucca Mountain, as no study has yet shown that the mountain alone could protect the outside environment from the waste's radiation.
In contrast, the on-site nuclear waste storage areas have been safe for decades and could remain safe for decades longer until such time as a safer alternative is found. But the Energy Department refuses to acknowledge that Yucca Mountain poses a problem for Nevada, the West and the whole country. It remains hell-bent on opening Yucca Mountain somewhere between 2010 and 2015. The CBS show "60 Minutes" will do a segment on this issue tonight at 7.
Nevada, of course, is fighting the opening with full support from most Las Vegas Valley residents. Our valley's 1.5 million residents live a scant 90 miles southwest of the mountain that sits on the western edge of the Energy Department's Nevada Test Site. Our proximity makes us acutely aware of Yucca Mountain's dangers. We hope as the state's fight progresses against this future threat to human safety that the rest of the country learns what we have learned and joins in the fight.
Here are just a few facts to consider:
The record shows that Yucca Mountain was selected for political reasons, not scientific reasons. Nevada's four electoral votes (now five) were considered expendable.
The location is all wrong. The area of Yucca Mountain is susceptible to earthquakes -- it's the third-most seismically active area in the country.
There are seven now-dormant volcanoes within 27 miles. What will happen if one of the volcanoes becomes active after tens of thousands of tons of nuclear waste are buried there?
The skies over Yucca Mountain are used by pilots out of Nellis Air Force Base for training -- more than 20,000 missions using live ordnance are flown a year. God forbid, but a plane could crash into the tons of waste that will necessarily and forever be piled up outside the mountain, awaiting entombment.
And why build such a site so close to Las Vegas, the fastest-growing city in the country?
- During a U.S. Senate hearing in Las Vegas this summer, a General Accounting Office representative testified that the Energy Department has been unsuccessful in addressing "recurring quality assurance problems" at Yucca Mountain.
- Researchers with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission report that tunnels where the waste is to be buried are expected to degrade over time. No one has yet been able to answer what the effects of rock falls and dust will be on the casks or the waste inside.
- Dozens of questions surround the safety of transporting the waste cross-country to Yucca Mountain. No matter what plan is proposed, there can never be a guarantee against accidents as the waste is moved through hundreds of cities and towns, through tunnels, and over highways, railroads and bridges. There can never be a guarantee against domestic or foreign terrorist attacks.
We cannot understand how the government, knowing these risks, can continue its steadfast push to open Yucca Mountain. The government should admit that burying nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain would be a disaster and bring the project to an immediate halt.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
October 26, 2003
Editorial: Jimmy crack corn
They don't know, care whether casks will fail
In TV cartoons, the kind of folks placed in charge of inspecting our commercial nuclear reactors are represented by the dullard Homer Simpson, blithely causing a nuclear accident by ramming his electric cart into vital safety equipment while eating a jelly donut.
Real life is different, of course. Scientific diligence and wisdom prevail.
Take the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station near Toledo.
Boric acid is used in the reactor cooling water at the Davis-Besse station, to help diffuse reactor heat. Boric acid is a relatively benign substance; no one would ever have expected it could, you know ... melt steel.
Yes, as early as 1996, operators at the plant knew there were boric acid deposits caking the reactor head. But acid crystals were not removed from the very top of the head in a 1996 inspection "because of the closeness of the insulation and service structure."
By 1998, boric acid crystals covered the head and had turned from white to brown, indicating rust. Boric acid crystals and ferrous oxide (rust) dust were so thick in the reactor's containment building by May of 1999 that the company installed filters on its radioactive monitoring equipment. By November 1999, workers had gone from changing the filters monthly to every other day.
By 2000, workers had to use crowbars and hot water to clean the hardened "lava-like," rusty boric acid from the reactor top. But because of the closeness of the insulation and service structure, they still did not clean the center of the head.
"Davis-Besse staff assumed the extra boric acid was due to flange leakage" (a harmless leak high above the reactor head) "and the color due to the age of the deposits on the air coolers," concluded Jack Grobe, director of reactor safety in the NRC's Midwest region.
But in fact, in the spring of 2002, workers at Davis-Besse discovered the boric acid had eaten away nearly 35 pounds of the 17-foot, six-and-a-half-inch thick, 150-ton carbon steel reactor cap. Only a 3/8-inch thick stainless steel layer impervious to boric acid had stopped the corrosion from eating all the way through. In a mere six years.
Now, the Department of Energy says Nevadans don't have to worry about any leakage of radioactive material from the planned nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, because Alloy 22 canisters will resists corrosion and keep radiation from escaping into the environment, not for six years, but for ... tens of thousands of years!
But guess what? The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, a respected monitoring group, now reports the government's repository design will cause the metal containers to corrode and leak in less than a thousand years -- a brief fraction of the dump's expected lifetime.
A letter signed by 10 scientists on the board says the Energy Department's design "will result in perforation of the waste packages, with possible release of radionuclides. ... We strongly urge you to re-examine the current repository design and operation."
The DOE's current "hot" depository design calls for placing the cannisters close enough together that the temperature inside the mountain will reach 300 degrees, supposedly boiling off water in the surrounding rock and thus preventing rust.
But the science panel responds that moist air in the tunnels are likely to interact with dust and salts to form a corrosive brine that could eat through the canisters.
The DOE isn't worried, pointing out the casks are only one "line of defense." The agency thus says it will not alter its plan to submit a Yucca Mountain construction license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by December 2004.
The "multiple line of defense" argument is interesting. If the mountain itself is adequate protection, why place the waste in casks, at all? And if the casks are adequate and the mountain unnecessary (in fact, the DOE says it will depend on the mountain's geology for less than 1 percent of the waste's safety), why not store the casks on the mall in Washington, or in downtown Dayton, Ohio?
But finally, if neither is adequate, why should we assume that both, together, will prove adequate?
What we see in the DOE's cheerful shrugging off of this panel's warnings is one more indication that "science" has little to do with the political decision to shove this dump down Nevadans' throats, solving a financial and liability dilemma against which the nuclear operators should and would have indemnified themselves before they ever built their reactors, had the federal government merely refrained from intervening in the first place.
Can the dump be stopped? If not, Nevadans should insist on one thing: Don't ever seal it up. Because these guys don't have a clue what's going to happen in there.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
October 23, 2003
Editorial: Group has right to participate in Yucca transportation talks
Unwilling to place themselves completely at the mercy of federal policy-makers and others who seem resigned to a nuclear waste depository at Yucca Mountain, four southern Nevada municipalities made it clear they want to participate in working out transportation guidelines.
The city of Caliente, along with Nye, Lincoln, and Esmeralda counties broke ranks from the state with their plan for a cooperative that would gather data, recommend plans and adopt policy for nuclear transportation corridors. It´s hard to fault them for thinking: If we don´t take care of us, who will?
These rural areas are in the facility´s back yard and thousands of tons of radioactive waste are slated to move through their jurisdictions. It makes sense they´d want to have a say in a project that would so intimately affect their quality of life.
Scientists interested in licensing requirements, still insist the project is safe, but an advisory panel met this week to discuss when Yucca´s tunnel walls will crumble and collapse, how that would affect storage and whether radioactivity will be released.
Studies show the facility won´t start to deteriorate for a couple hundred years, but that won´t quiet the fears of people who live along transportation routes. They´re worried about radioactivity — it´ll last for about 10,000 years — and what could happen in an accident.
The group hasn´t reached final agreement on its organizational plan, but the grant money available if they deal directly with DOE, instead of waiting for the state to negotiate, could move it along.
That´s what some state officials are afraid of. They´d prefer to negotiate with the administration as a unit, and they blame Energy officials for breaking up their solid front. Already they´ve made a deal to place an aide of Sen. Harry S. Reid on the NRC panel moving the project forward.
Though it in no way indicates acceptance of the program, the group has a stake in policy-making and a right to participate. That´s as important as winning a space at the NRC´s table.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
October 25, 2003
Latest news in brief from northern Nevada
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., will appear in a nationally televised report on the federal government's planned nuclear waste dump in the Nevada desert.
Reid was interviewed for Sunday night's segment for the CBS news magazine"60 Minutes."
Reid and other top Nevada elected officials oppose the government's plans to store 77,000 tons of radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, 110 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Reid said it angers him that the government hasn't disclosed how it plans to safely transport the deadly material across the country.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
October 26, 2003
The Business of Defense: All new site lines
By Chris Jones
Gaming Wire
It's been more than 11 years since the last nuclear device was detonated at the Nevada Test Site, but business is once again booming at the vast desert testing ground.
During its Cold War-era heyday, the test site's various contractors often generated nearly $1 billion in combined annual revenue. Approximately 12,000 locals were part of a daily bus caravan along the old Tonopah Highway, traveling between the Las Vegas Valley and jobs with test site contractors such as Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Co.; Raytheon Co.; and Edgerton, Germeshausen and Grier.
After the federal government stopped nuclear testing in October 1992, those numbers dipped as low as 1,800 on-site workers producing annual revenue of about $200 million.
But recent events -- most notably the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- have put the test site back on track to approach its previous revenue levels, possibly within a decade, said Fred Tarantino, president and general manager of Bechtel Nevada.
"During the Cold War, the test site was a stalwart of national defense," said Tarantino. "We're in the process of transforming the site from its Cold War defense mission to its defense mission for the (21st) century and a new range of defense needs."
Bechtel Nevada manages operations at the test site and its related facilities and laboratories on behalf of the National Nuclear Security Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy.
The federal government has no plans to reinstate nuclear testing. But with its remote, secure areas spanning 1,375 square miles of unpopulated mountainous desert beginning 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the test site is an ideal place for first response crews to be trained on handling chemical, biological and radiological incidents, Tarantino said.
In addition, American military personnel often use the site to train in isolation, while nearby scientists and engineers monitor the environment and evaluate the readiness of the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal.
"We focused our growth efforts on those parts of the market, this high-end testing, training and evaluation market, which we think is a $20 billion market (per year)," Tarantino said. "With the terrorist threat, you need a highly secure facility. And in addition, (the test site) really has a highly skilled work force that includes construction workers, miners, scientists, engineers and technicians.
"It's a unique integration of a lot of diverse skills. There's nothing else like it in the United States."
When Tarantino took control of Bechtel Nevada in August 2001, the company was a about month away from ending a fiscal year that produced annual revenue of about $318 million.
Thanks to its renewed focus, Bechtel Nevada earned $460 million in fiscal 2003 and is expected to produce revenue of more than $500 million this fiscal year, with business continually to improve as existing programs expand and new ones are added.
"We're going to be back to a $1 billion a year operation within the next 10 years," Tarantino projected.
Bechtel Nevada has about 3,000 employees, up from around 2,000 two years ago. About 1,200 of those workers are typically based at the test site, up from approximately 800 two years ago.
Though it's unlikely the test site will ever resume its past role as one of Southern Nevada's largest employers, Tarantino said it remains a viable economic player.
"What we're going to be able to do is provide a substantial means for diversification of the local area because we are hiring scientists, engineers," said Tarantino. "We're giving local kids with an interest in science the chance to find jobs in their fields without leaving Southern Nevada."
Tarantino said Bechtel Nevada has hired more than 20 graduates of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' engineering program in recent years. The company has also joined with UNLV to develop a cooperative program for weapons of mass destruction first-response training and is working to form an academic department covering radiation detection and measurement. Such partnerships could lead to new business opportunities, Tarantino said.
"For example, radiation emission detection technologies have been pioneered at the test site," he said. "The market for smaller sized detection devices that could fit on a policeman's belt or inside shipping containers offers huge potential.
"Our research, we hope, will someday lead private industries to be able to manufacture devices that can serve markets throughout the country."
In addition, Tarantino said Bechtel Nevada awarded more than $40 million in subcontracts to local businesses in fiscal 2003, a trend he also expects will grow as business picks up.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., described the test site as a vital resource for national security and said he's worked hard to expand its current programs.
"It's a good facility. We should use it more," said Reid, who criticized the Energy Department for overcharging private companies that wish to use the test site more extensively. "Where else can you test what happens when certain chemicals hit the ground? Where else can we find caves and bunkers like those others are trying to fortify and see what we can do against those defenses?"
Although business at the test site has recently increased in several sectors, perhaps no area illustrates that trend better than counter-terrorism and disaster response training.
In fiscal 2003, which concluded Sept. 30, Bechtel Nevada's Counter Terrorism Operations Support Project welcomed more than 5,000 firefighters, police officers, National Guard members and other likely first responders who received graduate-level instruction on handling the so-called "three Gs": gas, gamma and guns.
From 1998 through 2001, only 1,203 people took part in such courses.
"This is the only place in the country that combines all three courses," said Graham Giles, deputy project manager for Bechtel Nevada's counter terrorism program. "(Trainees) can exercise the same techniques and tactics they'd use in the real world" including a mock emergency operations center, disaster response planning and "train the trainer" courses that extend lessons learned at the test site to other communities throughout the United States.
The test site's rugged hills and mountains also make an ideal training ground for covert military units employed in the nation's anti-terror military campaigns, Tarantino said.
"It's a very realistic training environment; it looks like Afghanistan and Southwest Asia," said Tarantino, who declined to offer specifics on what types of military units have trained at the test site.
Despite a moratorium on full-scale nuclear testing, the federal government still requires the test site be maintained should tests again become necessary. Unable to conduct live tests, Bechtel Nevada workers now employ scientific tests that duplicate the effects of a live blast using subcritical explosions. Tarantino cited the Jasper gas gun and Atlas pulse power machines as two key elements in the test site's latest testing initiatives.
The test site is also one of five locations being considered for the proposed Modern Pit Facility, where new plutonium "pits" would be manufactured to help maintain the nation's existing nuclear weapons stockpile. The United States has been unable to produce such pits, which are used to trigger nuclear devices, since an older plant in Rocky Flats, Colo., was ruled unsafe and shut down in 1989.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham will likely decide on the project's viability sometime before next April. If he elects to proceed, a site designation is also expected at the time of Abraham's announcement.
Tarantino believes the test site would make an ideal location for the proposed $2 billion to $4 billion project, which is expected to employ more than 1,000 people and generate operating costs of $200 million to $300 million a year.
However, the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects has opposed placing such a facility in the state, citing factors that include the proposed Yucca Mountain repository, health and environmental threats, and the likelihood that a Modern Pit Facility would require additional radioactive material to be trucked through the Las Vegas Valley.
Antinuclear activists have also derided the modern pit project, saying it is unnecessary and could help reignite a global nuclear arms buildup.
Despite such opposition, Tarantino remains bullish on the Nevada Test Site's potential.
"If we don't get it, that's OK," Tarantino. "We'll go after something just as a large."
Bechtel Nevada is not directly involved with the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, though that project is handled by Bechtel Science Applications International Corp., an affiliate.
more - http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2003/Oct-26-Sun-2003/business/22394543.html
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Deseret News
October 26, 2003
Nevadan to attack Yucca N-waste plan
The fuel rods would probably go through Utah
By Donna Kemp Spangler
Deseret Morning News
Sen. Harry Reid will speak out tonight against the federal government's plan to develop a permanent nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada — a fight to which many Utahns may relate.
Reid, D-Nev., plans to discuss the Yucca Mountain site, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, on "60 Minutes," which airs at 6 tonight on CBS, Channel 2.
"How are you going to haul the most poisonous substance known to man through cities, towns, past farms, businesses, churches, schools and residences?" asks Reid. "This is the big secret the (Department of Energy) has. 'We'll give you that later, in the meantime, we'll just say we have a repository in Nevada,' " he tells CBS reporter Steve Kroft.
Anti-nuclear waste activists have tried to persuade Gov. Mike Leavitt and Utah's congressional delegation to join Nevada in its opposition to the government's plan to ship nuclear waste to Nevada.
The Energy Department has set 2010 as a target date for the facility's opening, but it most likely will be pushed back by five years because of federal regulations, according to Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Edward McGaffigan (see related story).
In the interim, nuclear waste facilities are looking to temporarily store the nuclear fuel rods on the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah's west desert.
Leavitt has said his focus has been to keep the nuclear waste out of Utah.
But when the government begins to ship the nuclear fuel, by rail and truck, it will likely travel through Utah to get to Nevada, critics contend.
The fact that the federal government hasn't outlined its plans to safely transport the deadly material across the country is what has Reid concerned. What's more, he said, terrorists could target it.
"Every one of these trucks, every one of these trains, is a target of opportunity for a terrorist. You talk about dirty bomb, this is really a filthy bomb," Reid says.
But Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham contends the government knows how to do it safely.
Reid and others aren't buying that.
"As long as I'm the mayor, it ain't coming through," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman says. "If I have to put barriers up and arrest whoever is trying to transport it, I promise you that's going to be done," he tells Kroft.
Las Vegas recently passed a law prohibiting nuclear waste from moving through its precincts. The state of Utah tried that but a federal judge struck down the laws as unconstitutional.
Many people in the West believe they are forced to accept the waste because they lack political clout, explains Las Vegas Sun Editor Brian Greenspun.
Las Vegas, population 1.6 million and climbing fast, is not a desert, says Greenspun, and it is no place for nuclear waste to pass through.
"Who wants to be outside a hotel on a Las Vegas strip when one of those trucks turns over? Accidents happen," Greenspun tells Kroft.
E-mail: donna@desnews.com
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Salt Lake Tribune
October 26, 2003
Point/Counterpoint: 'Facts' about Ohio's hot waste don't ease concerns or confusion
Laurie Wilson and Tom Barberi Wilson:
Tom, like the stuff it stores in the west desert, the Envirocare debate is hot again. And most of us are just as confused about the issues now as we were before.
The controversy involves the cleanup of a site in Ohio that contains radioactive uranium ore tailings. The stuff is old enough that it precedes the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's authority to regulate it. But it has to be reclassified in order to be stored somewhere other than the Department of Energy site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. So the issue of classification goes to Congress. After it is reclassified, companies like Envirocare can bid to store it. I guess nobody in Ohio wants to store it. Maybe that should be a clue.
But I'm not quite sure why nobody seems to want it stored in Nevada. I thought that is what the DOE storage facility under construction at Yucca Mountain will be for. You know, the one Utahns fought to create there, rather than in our state. But I guess if it gets stored there, we can't make any money from it.
To exacerbate the confusion, we have the Utah congressional delegation split down party lines on the issue. The Republican side of our delegation (led by newly elected Rep. Rob Bishop, a former lobbyist for Envirocare) supports the DOE request that Congress reclassify the Ohio waste so that it can be stored in Utah. But Rep. Jim Matheson, practically the only Democrat left in Utah, wants the issue to have more floor debate.
I now officially have a headache. To make it worse, Envirocare took out a full-page ad this past week in the Salt Lake City newspapers to give us the "facts." I was not necessarily encouraged by all it said. Envirocare leads its "fact" list with their location is a full 35 miles from the nearest population center. That's comforting. I have a friend who developed cancer because she was in Spain when Chernobyl blew up. Spain's a lot farther than 35 miles from Chernobyl. Then Enivrocare tells me they "meet the same environmental standards" if they were located "across the fence from a residential subdivision." Oops. Maybe our standards should be higher.
Next I discover that this stuff (which weighs in on the radioactive scale at 100,000 picocuries per gram compared with their currently allowed 4,000 picocuries per gram) isn't any hotter than stuff stored down in southern Utah. Aaagh! Who's been minding the store? How did that happen? Then we have the environmental opposition telling us that storing this waste is just like storing plutonium. They believe that if we store this stuff, all of Utah will glow when we turn out the lights.
Tom, after all my investigation I certainly know more about the issue, but I am no less confused. I guess I'll just sit back and wait for all the e-mail propaganda I'll receive this week from Envirocare and the environmental opposition. It's a sure bet I'll hear from both sides now.
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Laurie J. Wilson is a professor of communications at Brigham Young University.
Barberi:
Laurie, when Brigham Young said that the desert would bloom like a rose, I don't think he had in mind a rose with one eye in the middle of its forehead, three arms and a foot growing out of its navel.
Having piqued my interest in a subject that I know nothing about and even less after a little research, I have learned one thing: It seems Laurie that you and I, and possibly one other person, are the only Utahns not on Envirocare's payroll. And money is what this is all about, boatloads of it. Why do you think that Envirocare spent more than a million bucks in the 2002 election to defeat Initiative 1? They also have contributed $90,000 to the campaigns of many legislators along with Gov. Mike Leavitt.
Rep. Rob Bishop (R for radioactive), as you mentioned, a former lobbyist for Envirocare, not only supports the reclassification of this glowing goo, he is the one who is driving the effort. It seems that "Radioactive Rob" is employing the same tactics that we see every year in the Utah Legislature to get things passed before anybody has a chance to really look at it. The reclassifying of this stuff to make it Utah-worthy was a last-minute legislative addition by Bishop.
This whole radioactive reclassification shuffle is amusing. I don't know anything about picocuries or glow-in-the-darkocuries, but what I do know is that this Ohio garbage is what it is, and using a little whiteout to change its name on some documents doesn't make it any different. What is really amusing is all this half-life, shelf-life, afterlife nonsense. What difference does it make if it is a million or a billion years? And why should we care in the first place, considering we have enough nerve gas stored in the west desert to cause President Bush to want to invade Utah because of our WMDs.
What this reclassification stuff reminds me of is that school district where the failure rate was unacceptable. So what did they do, they lowered the standards and -- SHAZAM! -- the kids were instantly smart enough to pass. This is how we should deal with anything that does not meet our expectations. Just yesterday I recalibrated my bathroom scale and I am instantly back to my college wrestling weight.
Laurie, let's not lose sight of the ball -- money. Envirocare pays Tooele County something called mitigation fees to help offset the negative impact of storing this potentially dangerous gook in the county. Last year Tooele County got a check for more than 5 million "buckocuries," which is a quarter of their total annual budget. Now just think for a second about what a mitigation fee is. Does this mean that when the children of residents of Tooele start to grow extra limbs or their pets all go bald they will get a check from this "mitigation" stash? By the way, what is the going rate for a five-legged cow these days? Ciao!
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Tom Barberi is a talk-show host on KALL700 6 to 9 a.m. weekdays.
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Senator Harry Reid (D-NV)
October 22, 2003
Ensign, Reid Say Panel's Study Confirms Scientific Flaws at Yucca
Washington, D.C. – Senators John Ensign and Harry Reid are citing a Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board study as further evidence of their assertions that Yucca Mountain is scientifically unfit to store high-level nuclear waste. The review board, an independent government panel, is preparing a letter to the Department of Energy saying waste containers planned to store the waste could leak sooner than originally thought. Members of Senator Ensign´s and Senator Reid´s staffs were briefed on the report this morning by a review board staff member.
“The storage of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain is, quite simply, scientifically unsound, as we in Nevada have been saying for years,’ Ensign said. “This study is just the latest in a long list of scientific reasons for the abandonment of the Yucca Mountain project. The problem is that the Department of Energy has chosen to ignore compelling scientific data in the past.’
“While I am anxious to see the full report, it appears to confirm that the project puts Nevadans at extreme risk, which is the very reason we´ve been fighting Yucca Mountain,’ Senator Reid said. “The only thing that would keep nuclear waste from threatening Nevadans are these waste canisters. And now we find out that scientists can´t even guarantee these canisters won´t leak. These results are a prime example of just how unsafe Yucca Mountain is.’ During the briefing this afternoon, it was revealed that during the first 1,000 years of storage the heat generated by the waste will cause evaporation of the water surrounding the storage casks. The salt brine left behind will corrode the casks to the point of failure and could cause the release of a massive amount of waste.
Ensign and Reid said they and their staffs are in the process of thoroughly reviewing the report before charting a possible course of action. ###
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Las Vegas SUN
October 24, 2003
DOE insists 2010 deadline will be met for Yucca waste
By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN
WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department maintains it will meet its 2010 deadline for accepting nuclear waste at the proposed Yucca Mountain repository, despite contrary claims by a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Thursday.
"We are not going to submit a license application with a design plan that contains any uncertainties," Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said. "It will be a design plan that meets regulatory and environmental requirements"
The department anticipates submitting the application for the nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain in December 2004. The commission has three, and possibly four years with congressional approval, to review the application before it would authorize the department to build the facility.
On Thursday, NRC Commissioner Edward McGaffigan read from commission regulations that outline the licensing procedures for the site at a meeting with the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste, saying it is "almost a fact" the 2010 deadline would not be met if DOE needed to change anything after submitting the application.
He noted that the department could not move the waste to the site, if approved, until it receives a second approval from the commission, which could take years.
Bob Loux, director of the state Nuclear Projects office, said it was fairly clear from the work schedule "they're not even close" to getting things done on time, especially since certain documents need to be loaded into a licensing computer network by next June, or six months prior to its submittal.
McGaffigan said this is nothing Nevada's "dream team" of lawyers from Washington-law firm Egan, Fitzpatrick and Malsch does not already know.
Lawyer Martin Malsch used to be the NRC's staff attorney for almost 20 years and was its first inspector general.
McGaffigan also said the problems could be associated with the absence of legal counsel for the Energy Department on the project. Former legal counsel law firm Winston & Strawn withdrew from its contract with the department in November 2001. The project has been without a lawyer since. The Energy Department still has not selected a new firm.
But Davis said the department "believes the process is going to move along fine."
However, it will not continue to do so without money.
Congress still needs to find a middle ground between the $765 million approved by the House and $425 million approved by the Senate to fund the project. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., sits on the conference committee working on the final budget figures for the bill.
Davis said the project has been underfunded by millions of dollars over the years, despite the fact other members of Congress support the program.
"Sen. Reid has been very effective in cutting the (Yucca) budget for a long time," Davis said. "If we don't get funded we won't do anything."
Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said Reid is continuing to work to lower the House's "record-high spending levels" for the project. Formal conference negotiations have started but it is unclear when a final figure will be reached.
The Nuclear Energy Institute and other groups that support the site have lobbied hard to get full funding for the site, emphasizing that $14 billion is sitting in a fund created solely to support the site but not being used.
Also on Thursday, ACNW Chairman B. John Garrick told the commissioners that resolving the remaining key technical issues, examining the movement of the high-level nuclear waste and reviewing the licensing process and the performance confirmation plans are the committee's "first tier" priorities.
Garrick told the commissioners the department had completed 78 of the remaining scientific questions, also known as key technical issues with an additional 45 coming in this month. The Energy Department still has 170 questions to answer.
McGaffigan said resolution of all the key technical issues was never expected prior to the license application date and that some could be addressed at another licensing stage.
Loux said he does not see how the department will address major issues like corrosion, volcanism, waste package and repository design and others in the next year.
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Las Vegas SUN
October 24, 2003
Nuclear regulator says Nevada nuke dump may not open before 2015
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Energy Department intends to meet its 2010 deadline for opening a nuclear waste dump in the Nevada desert, although a Nuclear Regulatory Commission member called that deadline unrealistic.
"We believe we can get a license to the NRC and ... get waste emplaced in 2010," Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said.
NRC Commissioner Edward McGaffigan said any changes after the DOE submits its application next year for the Yucca Mountain repository could push the licensing process back to square one.
McGaffigan is one of five commission members who will decide whether and when the national nuclear waste repository opens. He said 2015 was a more realistic target.
"It's almost a fact," he told a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste in Rockville, Md. "2010 is just about impossible."
McGaffigan noted that the Energy Department has indicated it might add items to its license application after it is submitted to the NRC.
Reading from NRC regulations, he said the rules are not flexible.
"This is a naive notion of the DOE officials," McGaffigan told the committee Thursday. "Our process does not allow for an, 'Oops we changed our minds.'"
Davis insisted the Energy Department would not submit a license application containing uncertainties.
"It will be a design plan that meets regulatory and environmental requirements," the Energy Department spokesman said.
The Yucca Mountain site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, was approved last year by Congress and President Bush. Energy Department plans call for entombing 77,000 tons of the nation's most radioactive commercial, industrial and commercial waste.
Once the Energy Department submits its application, the NRC has three years to review it.
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Pahrump Valley Times
October 24, 2003
Watch for Falling Rocks
Scientists disagree on YMP tunnel failures
By Steve Tetreault
PVT Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Scientists are struggling to project how a Yucca Mountain repository might contain stored nuclear materials when portions of its underground tunnel network begin to collapse hundreds or thousands of years in the future.
The matter is one of 215 questions remaining to be answered a year before the Department of Energy plans to file a license application to build nuclear waste storage into Yucca Mountain, 20 miles east of Beatty and north of Amargosa Valley and 50 miles from Pahrump.
Researchers aired their views Wednesday in Rockville, Md., before an advisory board of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will evaluate the license application. Members of the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste expect to explore the issue further during a visit to Yucca Mountain next month.
NRC scientists said they continue to work on 23 outstanding issues related to when rock walls and ceilings might fall into the repository, and how that would affect the nuclear waste containers in tunnels that could be filled with tons of rubble.
Evaluators consider those to be key matters that could determine the repository's ability to prevent radioactive materials from escaping the mountain, said Raj Nataraja, an NRC program manager.
Nataraja said the NRC is "forcing this issue" with the Energy Department, and the agencies have different views.
"We don't have a simple technique we use to come up with predictions," Nataraja said.
Based on studies of abandoned mines and other research, NRC scientist Goodluck Ofoegbu said Yucca Mountain emplacement drifts are expected to degrade and fill with rubble within a few hundred years after the repository is sealed. He said it is not known how that might affect the repository's performance.
Ofoegbu said DOE plans to calculate the speed of collapse by employing static fatigue tests that subjects rocks to intense pressure, crumbling them within seconds.
The NRC questions that approach. "Using static fatigue testing to estimate long term behavior (hundreds to thousands of years) of underground openings is unprecedented," Ofoegbu said in a written presentation.
But Mark Broad, a subsurface geologist with Bechtel SAIC, the Yucca project's operating contractor, cautioned against using mining studies to draw conclusions about the tunnels at Yucca Mountain.
"We do see things a little bit differently," he said.
Broad said waste emplacement tunnels at the repository site are larger and more widely spaced than those found in coalmines and other underground sites dug for commercial purposes.
"We feel you can't simply take mining studies and extrapolate those things," Broad said. "It doesn't necessarily apply."
Broad said project managers are examining tunnel degradation, but are using different approaches.
"We differ with (NRC) on the depth at which the rock fails and the load that's applied and the timing at which that happens," Broad said. "We think it happens over a longer period of time."
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Pahrump Valley Times
October 24, 2003
Out of the loop
Let me see, Clark County is upset about being left out of discussions concerning the transportation of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain? After lobbying strongly to prevent nuclear waste from being transported through Clark County, they feel hurt because they aren't included in the regulation of transport within Esmeralda, Lincoln, and Nye counties?
As I understand it, routes were carefully planned to insure no nuclear waste will be transported through Clark County. Since the waste is being transported to, and stored in Amargosa Valley, who gives a #%$&!# about what Clark County thinks, unless it is the politicians who seek free publicity before the next election, or see a possible monetary gain from the storage of nuclear waste?
William E. Lopez
Crystal
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Pahrump Valley Times
October 24, 2003
DeMeo seeks new jail for Pahrump
By Mark Waite
PVT
A second attempt will be made to solicit qualifications from companies interested in designing and building a new detention center, then leasing it back to Nye County.
County commissioners on Tuesday decided to send out a request for qualifications, or RFQ, for a 150- to 250-bed adult jail and a 50-bed juvenile detention facility.
Companies interested in the project will be asked to provide the architectural drawings, engineering, utilities, construction, total financing and other services needed for a turn-key facility designed to provide for the next 30 years of growth.
The estimated cost is in the range of $8 million to $15 million. The outline for the request asks for completion within one to two years of the contract.
A committee of five would select a maximum of three design-build companies under the plan. County Manager Mike Maher said a $5,000 stipend would be paid to the companies who aren't selected in the final round.
Maher, however, mentioned one sticking point: "We're going to have to give them title to our property until we buy back that building."
It may take Nye County 20 to 25 years to pay off the lease-purchase, Maher said. The manager added that the county could save money, particularly on the transport of juveniles all the way to Hawthorne, 265 miles north in Mineral County.
County Commissioner Patricia Cox said under the current budget constraints and with no guarantee of Payment Equal to Taxes in the long term, the county would be better to put a detention facility on existing county land on East Basin Road. Maher said there's 22 acres at the current site.
Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo said he couldn't guarantee how many prisoners would be housed in a detention facility. But DeMeo noted the current jail was built in 1988 for only four years, since then the population of Pahrump Valley has increased 13 percent. The current jail has 35 beds, with many inmates being transported to Tonopah to free up space in Pahrump, he said.
"What I've done since I've taken office is lower the numbers of people put into detention because of the liability of the facility," DeMeo said. One inmate recently passed out in jail due to the lack of air circulation, he said.
County Commission Chairman Henry Neth suggested voters be asked to decide whether to build a new jail in a ballot question.
"One of the things we've been afraid to do on this board is get those questions out there where they need to be answered the most, that is on the ballot," Neth said.
"We possibly have the wherewithal to do this on a tax-free bond that the county guarantees with its own funds. The biggest thing is to figure the revenue flow," added Neth.
Clark County built a brand new facility, but DeMeo said that's only for Clark inmates. The FBI might lease space, particularly with the county's high potential for terrorist activity with the upcoming Yucca Mountain project, he said.
"There is a way for us to at least bring some monies back into the county," DeMeo said.
The site selection wouldn't be necessary until a pre-bid conference, Maher said.
Neth said it's possible firms submitting qualifications could help the county identify funding mechanisms, a request that could be included in the RFQ. Maher said an architectural firm, Leo Daly Architects, which worked on the Pahrump Community Library project, helped with the bond proposal.
Neth concluded: "It's a sad day in Pahrump when we can issue an RFQ for a jail and our hands are tied on a stinking hospital."
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Pahrump Valley Times
October 24, 2003
Hard-fought decision
Bradshaw Takes Beating, But Commission Approves Two New Oversight Initiatives
By Mark Waite
PVT
Les Bradshaw, director of the Nye County Department of Natural Resources and Federal Facilities, on Tuesday sold Nye County Commissioners on plans for a more informal working group to study Yucca Mountain transportation routes with Lincoln and Esmeralda Counties.
In the process, the longtime county employee was subjected to harsh allegations lodged by County Commissioner Candice Trummell and persistent Yucca Mountain critic Sally Devlin of Pahrump.
Bradshaw also won approval on a $100,000 contract with Longenecker and Associates to study transportation infrastructure along routes for shipping nuclear waste.
Margaret Chu, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, had suggested the counties get together and prepare a strategy for the nuclear waste shipments.
Bradshaw's proposal would appoint the county's liaisons on nuclear waste, commissioners Henry Neth and Joni Eastley, to represent Nye in a working group patterned after a Tri-County Cooperative Agreement, which works on public lands issues. Bradshaw said the tri-county group rotated meetings between the various county seats and came up with a weed control project and a strategy on the Columbia spotted frog. The group pooled resources to hire a contractor.
As for the $100,000 study of infrastructure along possible nuclear waste routes, Bradshaw said it could examine impacts of rail lines on the cattle business; quantify tax revenue from the Department of Energy shipments; research cultural and natural resource issues along the corridors; plan emergency response; propose communication upgrades; identify sources of construction material; formulate highway upgrades; and identify other potential rail customers and bulk material handling facilities.
But Trummell, irate at the pressure from Bradshaw to approve the transportation study, told him, "I can't even trust the information coming from our own (county) because we're frequently provided incorrect information unless we catch you."
While Bradshaw told commissioners they had to hire Longenecker and Associates quickly to complete the transportation assessment by Dec. 31, Trummell said she talked with DOE officials who agreed to give Nye County as much time as necessary to seek proposals from other firms.
"We're forced into a decision you make," Trummell said. "Why anybody from another county would want to respect and trust Nye County when we behave in this manner is unknown."
Commissioner Neth distanced himself from Trummell's remarks, instructing County Clerk Sam Merlino to "make sure it's understood this is one commissioner's opinion of Mr. Bradshaw."
Trummell said consultants working for Bradshaw don't even favor the Caliente route.
"Unless this commission decides not to let an independent kingdom maker run this program, this county may be doomed to accept whatever DOE gives us and we may not realize our potential," Trummell said.
After the outburst, Commissioner Eastley made the motion to contact Lincoln and Esmeralda County representatives and set a date for a first meeting. The City of Caliente will also be included.
"Are we going to be looking at the pros and cons of all the transportation routes or are we just going to be looking at what affects those counties in this working group?" Commissioner Patricia Cox asked.
"The first meeting could set the tone for what that particular group wants to look at," Bradshaw replied.
While a pair of proposed routes to Yucca Mountain would travel through Caliente from the east, one proposed rail route would come down from the north, from Carlin on Interstate 80, while two more rail routes are proposed from the Interstate 15 corridor.
Cox had concerns the working group would give the impression it was promoting the Caliente route. Clark County officials protested loudly that under the original Regional Transportation Cooperative Authority they would be excluded from transportation planning.
Earlier in the day, Bradshaw took some shots from Devlin. She derided the secret meeting with Chu and told commissioners she gave officials at the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board copies of "the fraud that has been committed upon the public."
"What I am here for is not only the misappropriation of money but you have fired people for far less than what Les Bradshaw did," Devlin said, referring to a federal audit that called into question roughly $1.8 million spent by Nye County. "We're not talking small numbers, we're talking millions of dollars."
Commissioner Neth cautioned Devlin against making slanderous statements. When it came to Bradshaw's oversight of the federal facilities office, Neth said, "The man has done a fantastic job.
After the meeting, Bradshaw said he would be willing to seek competitive proposals in the future if the county commission desires. "Right now it's not board policy to do things anything different," he said.
Concerning Commissioner Trummell's comments, Bradshaw said, "We should be working together, staff and commissioners, to further Nye County's interests vis-à-vis DOE and not give DOE the impression Nye County is in disarray."
Cox denied charges there was a secret meeting with Chu while delegates were across the street attending a Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board meeting at the Longstreet Inn and Casino Sept. 16-17. Cox said one commissioner from each of the three counties was invited to meet Chu and get acquainted.
Bradshaw has directed the county's Yucca Mountain oversight program since 1993, except for a two-year stint as acting county manager from 1996-98.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
October 24, 2003
Official doubts 2010 opening for nuclear waste dump
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- A nuclear regulator said Thursday the opening of a Nevada nuclear waste repository is likely to be delayed by five years or more by lengthy government reviews and potential uncertainties about the project's design.
"It's almost a fact" that the Energy Department will not be burying nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain by 2010 as planned, said Edward McGaffigan, a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
He said 2015 is a more realistic target given complex and lengthy procedures at the NRC, which must evaluate DOE's repository proposal in two separate licensing proceedings before spent fuel can be accepted at the site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
McGaffigan said licensing could be delayed more if Energy Department officials try to adjust the repository proposal during the licensing process, as he said they have signaled they might do.
"DOE has to have its act together the day it applies," McGaffigan said. "At the most senior levels of DOE, I'm not sure they understand this."
Despite the regulator's assessment, DOE continues to think it can meet a 2010 timeline to open a Yucca repository, department spokesman Joe Davis said.
Davis said DOE plans to file a license application "that will meet all environmental and regulatory requirements" and will not need to be changed after it is submitted. The department continues to eye a December 2004 application filing.
"We believe we can get a license to the NRC and with their review periods and requirements get waste emplaced in 2010," Davis said.
Bob Loux, chief of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said McGaffigan's assessment is consistent with that of state officials who are leading opposition to the repository.
"It might even be worse that if you take a look at what has yet to be resolved," Loux said.
He cited studies on waste package corrosion, volcanic activity at Yucca Mountain and the effect of military flights near the sites.
"I can see if DOE were to do this right, they would be out there until 2006, 2007, 2008 before they even file an application," Loux said.
McGaffigan's comments were prompted by a report this week from the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, an advisory panel that challenged the Energy Department's preferred repository design.
Review board members told the Energy Department its plans for spacing waste containers within the repository would cause localized corrosion in the canisters and possible leakage of radioactive materials.
In comments during and after a meeting Thursday between NRC commissioners and their nuclear waste advisers, McGaffigan said he has noticed DOE officials saying they plan to maintain flexibility in their planning.
He said little flexibility exists when it comes to NRC licensing.
Evaluators are expected to take three to four years to review DOE's initial construction license, plus more years for a required second license to receive and place waste into the repository.
"We don't get hearings over quickly around here," he said. "Getting the commission to complete its work in three or four years, we need a high quality and stable DOE application."
Proposed DOE changes deemed to be substantive could trigger fresh rounds of hearings that would add years to the license process, he said.
Also, McGaffigan said he expects experienced litigators hired by Nevada to challenge the license all along the way in hearings that will resemble a court trial.
He said the Energy Department is being hampered because its lawyers have little experience in nuclear licensing. The project's legal contractor, Winston & Strawn LLP, left in October 2001, and the department has not hired a replacement firm.
"Somebody needs to lay this out," McGaffigan said. "DOE is sitting there without counsel, and there are some very naive notions coming out of DOE officials' mouths about 'flexibility.' "
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
October 24, 2003
GOODMAN'S GAME: Mayor Oscar Goodman says he wants the Florida Marlins to beat the New York Yankees in six games in the World Series, but not because he has a bundle riding on it.
The mayor's concern stems from his upcoming appearance Sunday on "60 Minutes" as part of the TV news magazine's Yucca Mountain segment.
Turns out the Series was being played last time he was on "60 Minutes," and Goodman fell victim to something that no doubt haunts his dreams to this day.
Inferior ratings.
"I just hope somebody wins in six, or no one will be watching me," cracks the man who knows no understatement.
Is it true the mayor gets the last word on the subject of nuclear waste with interviewer Steve Kroft?
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Reno Gazette-Journal
October 23, 2003
Studies projecting rate of tunnel decay at Nevada nuclear dump
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Scientists are trying to project when tunnels at a planned federal nuclear waste dump in the Nevada desert will begin crumbling, and whether radioactivity will be released.
The matter is one of 215 questions remaining to be answered a year before the federal Energy Department applies for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to build and open the Yucca Mountain repository in 2010.
Researchers aired their views Wednesday before an NRC advisory board in Rockville, Md.
Members of the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste also expect to explore the issue during a visit to Yucca Mountain next month.
NRC scientists said they continue to work on 23 issues related to when rock walls and ceilings will collapse and how that will affect nuclear waste casks in the repository — 1,000 feet beneath the volcanic ridge, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Raj Nataraja, an NRC program manager, said the NRC is “forcing this issue’ with the Energy Department, and the agencies have different views.
Based on studies of abandoned mines and other research, NRC scientist Goodluck Ofoegbu said tunnels at Yucca Mountain are expected to degrade and fill with rubble a few hundred years after the repository is sealed.
Project managers plan to entomb 77,000 tons of commercial, industrial and military nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, and say it will remain radioactive for 10,000 years or more.
Ofoegbu said the Energy Department plans to calculate the speed of collapse by employing static fatigue tests that subject rocks to intense pressure, crumbling them within seconds.
He acknowledged in a written presentation that using these tests to estimate long-term behavior of underground openings is unprecedented.
Mark Board, a subsurface geologist with Yucca project contractor Bechtel SAIC, said mining studies should not be used to draw conclusions about Yucca Mountain.
Board said tunnels at the repository will be larger and more widely spaced than those in coal mines and other underground commercial sites.
“We feel you can´t simply take mining studies and extrapolate those things,’ he said. “It doesn´t necessarily apply.’
Board said project managers are examining tunnel degradation, but differ with NRC researchers on the depth and rate at which rock fails.
“We think it happens over a longer period of time,’ he said.
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Idaho State Journal
October 24, 2003
Bechtel meets fuel rod cleanup deadline
By Journal staff and wire reports
IDAHO FALLS - The last nuclear reactor fuel rods have been moved out of five underwater basins at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and moved to more earthquake-safe containers.
The accomplishment - a milestone in efforts to clean up the site - came three months before a deadline the Department of Energy reached with the State of Idaho. State and federal officials were worried the nuclear fuel could leak and contaminate the Snake River aquifer, said INEEL spokesman Rick Dale.
"This is one more step closer in ensuring the safety of that aquifer," Dale said.
Emptying the pools was a high priority for state and federal officials because it reduces the risk of a radioactive leak and contamination.
The single-wall storage pools are more prone to damage from earthquakes or other accidents than modern, double-wall underwater storage areas. Pools have been the preferred storage method for spent reactor rods because water blocks radiation and dissipates heat generated by decaying radioactive materials.
"The biggest challenge was consistency - moving 2,425 fuel rods without ever dropping one," said transfer director Art Clark.
The rods had to be removed by the end of this year to keep INEEL on schedule with the cleanup plan agreed upon by the Department of Energy and the state of Idaho. That plan requires that all the underwater storage basins be emptied by 2023, although DOE is trying to have it done by 2012, Clark said.
About 92 percent of the used fuel at the site is now in dry storage. One of the old pools still contains irradiated metal.
Snake River Alliance Regional Director Beatrice Brailsford said it is important DOE doesn't forget about the irradiated pool.
She added INEEL should be commended for cleaning up the waste ahead of schedule.
"Doing cleanup faster is a good thing as long as faster does not mean critical steps were overlooked," Brailsford said. "What INEEL should be focusing on is risks to the Snake River aquifer. Drycast storage is safer than storing radioactive waste in old pools."
She added the Department of Energy and INEEL should now focus on cleaning up the residual high-level waste, which could still pose a problem to the region's aquifer.
Bechtel BWXT qualified for a bonus payment for completing this stage of the work early. Bechtel and department officials refused to disclose the bonus amount, citing privacy provisions in Bechtel's contract.
Next, workers will prepare the rods for shipment to a geological repository, most likely one to be opened at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
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60 Minutes
October 23, 2003
Yucca Mountain
(CBS) For nearly 50 years, the U.S. government and the nuclear industry have been trying to figure out what to do with massive quantities of deadly radioactive waste that has been piling up at nuclear power plants and munitions factories since the dawn of the atomic age.
Right now, it's sitting in temporary storage facilities, many of them near major metropolitan areas, vulnerable to accidents, environmental disasters and terrorism.
Every possible solution has been explored, from dumping it in the ocean to launching it towards the sun. Finally, President Bush, the Department of Energy, and the U.S. Congress decided that all of that nuclear waste should be moved to Nevada and buried under a mountain in the middle of the desert.
Needless to say, people in Nevada aren't crazy about this idea, and they believe most Americans will agree when they find out how the plan might affect them. Correspondent Steve Kroft reports.
Yucca Mountain sits on federal land in Nevada, not far from Death Valley, in a remote stretch of desert, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The nearest commercial establishment is a brothel 15 miles away.
If the U.S. government has its way, this will be the final resting place for 70,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste. Beginning in the year 2010, it will be shipped here from all over the country by truck or by rail, and stored under the mountain in tunnels for the next 10,000 years -- which is how long the waste will remain deadly.
Mike Voegele, the chief scientist at Yucca Mountain, gave 60 Minutes a tour.
Even in stainless steel casks lined with lead or depleted uranium to absorb the radiation, the nuclear waste will still be so hot and so dangerous it will have to be moved with remote-controlled machinery.
The nuclear waste is currently being kept in temporary facilities scattered across 39 states, in cooling ponds and in storage buildings outside nuclear reactors. Some of it sits adjacent to rivers or on top of water tables. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham says 161 million Americans live within 75 miles of one of these sites.
“We think that it just stands to reason that consolidating the waste in one facility in a very remote part of America will make it much easier to protect on a long term basis,’ says Abraham.
How important is the Yucca Mountain Project to the United States? Abraham says it's critical: “We need to find a permanent storage facility so that communities that have the waste building up can get rid of it. And without doing that, we'll have not only environmental challenges, but we, I think it will undermine our energy security and our national security.’
With the president and Congress on board, billions of dollars already in the ground and only one more regulatory hurdle to clear, using Yucca Mountain to store nuclear waste might seem like a foregone conclusion. But the battle is far from over and the state of Nevada is in full-scale revolt.
A coalition of elected officials, environmentalists and businessmen is waging a guerrilla war to kill a project they believe has been shoved down their throats.
One of them is Brian Greenspun, the president and editor of The Las Vegas Sun: “Congress started looking around and said, ‘OK, let's bury it someplace.´ ‘OK, who has only two senators and only one representative, no political clout whatsoever? And who lives in a place that is perceived, at least, to be nothing but desert and wasteland?´ And they said, ‘Ah-ha! Nevada.´"
The federal government still owns 87 percent of the land in Nevada. But people here say all roads - not to mention rail lines - lead to Las Vegas. When the Yucca Mountain project was first proposed 20 years ago, Las Vegas was still a fairly small city.
Today, with a population of 1.6 million, it's the fastest growing metropolis in the country. Approximately 5,000 people move here every month, and there are 35 million tourists who come here every year.
City fathers say if you look at the existing transportation routes, as much as 85 percent of the nuclear waste could have to come right through the metropolitan area on its way to Yucca Mountain.
“Makes no sense to me. Who wants to be the unlucky person who's here outside a hotel on the Las Vegas Strip when one of those trucks turns over and the nuclear waste spills?’ says Greenspun. “And you know it's going to happen. Accidents happen.’
The mood in Nevada is one of outright defiance. The state is trying to kill the project by denying water to Yucca Mountain, on the grounds that it is not in the public interest. And Las Vegas has passed a law making it illegal to haul nuclear waste through the city.
Mayor Oscar Goodman says he plans to enforce it: “If it comes by rail, the only rail goes right through the heart of my city. And I guarantee you one thing: as long as I'm the mayor, it ain't comin' through.’
How does he plan to stop it?
“If I have to put up barriers up and arrest whoever is trying to transport it, I promise you that's gonna be done,’ says Goodman. “I´m dead serious.’
Mayor Goodman says this isn't just a case of Las Vegas or Nevada screaming "not in our backyard." The nuclear waste will have to travel through a lot of backyards before it gets to Nevada.
The Department of Energy (DOE) hasn't disclosed exactly how it plans to get all that nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, except to say that it will be transported by rail and heavily guarded truck convoys over the interstate highway system, and require between one and six shipments every day for 24 years.
But Dr. Robert Halstead, who's been a transportation adviser to the state of Nevada since 1988, says if you take a map of the U.S. transportation system and mark the locations of nuclear facilities, you get a pretty good idea of potential shipping routes.
“They would heavily affect cities like Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, in the Chicago metropolitan area, in Omaha,’ says Halstead. “Coming out of the south, the heaviest impacts would be in Atlanta, in Nashville, St. Louis, Kansas City, moving across through Salt Lake City, through downtown Las Vegas, up to Yucca Mountain. And the same cities would be affected by rail shipments as well.’
Halstead said when Congress voted last year to go forward with the Yucca Mountain project, it did so based on poor or non-existent information about how the plans would affect their states or congressional districts.
Does Halstead think the DOE is intentionally holding back that information?
“Sure. I think it's part of DOE's political strategy to withhold information about the transportation impacts from the Congress. Period,’ says Halstead.
Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the second highest-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate, agrees: “Stuff isn't gonna suddenly appear out of the sky and be in Yucca Mountain. You have to get it there some way. And that's the problem.’
Reid says the devil in the Yucca Mountain project is in the details.
“How are you going to haul the most poisonous substance known to man across the highways and railways of this country? Thousands of miles through cities, towns, past farms, past businesses, churches, schools, residences,’ says Reid.
“This is the big secret that the DOE has. We'll give you that later, folks in America. In the meantime, we'll just say we have a repository in Nevada."
If most of the nuclear waste moves by rail (a plan now favored by the Department of Energy), the city most affected would be Chicago, where shipments from the East Coast would have to be consolidated, then re-routed to Yucca Mountain.
“One out of every three rail shipments would go through the metropolitan Chicago area,’ says Halstead. “One out of every six rail shipments would actually go through downtown Chicago within a mile or so of Lake Michigan and the Art Institute.’
Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham didn't deny it.
“I think there's a general understanding that we move hazardous material in this country. I think there's an understanding that the federal government knows how to do it safely,’ says Abraham.
“No routes have been finalized. We haven't made decisions yet. We are gonna do it safely. We're gonna do it in concert with local communities and state governments.’
And Abraham says the government has been transporting nuclear waste for the past 30 years, but most of the shipments have been relatively small and not clear across the country. While there have been a few minor accidents, none of them have resulted in significant releases of nuclear materials.
“I would stress that, that we move much hazardous material via rail and via truck in this country today. And we know how to do it in a fashion that is safe for the public,’ says Abraham. “We are, we are not going to endanger the public.’
The casks used to transport nuclear waste have been smashed into concrete barriers, broadsided by roaring trains, dropped from high altitudes and burned in jet fuel for 90 minutes. They've stayed intact, but how secure are these casks? How durable are they?
“They're among the best containers that humans know how to make to contain hazardous materials,’ says Halstead. “On the other hand, the payload is so hazardous that only a tiny fraction has to escape in an accident or in a terrorist incident in order to have a disastrous or even a catastrophic clean up cost.’
Halstead says the casks are not designed to withstand all disasters, like the Baltimore Tunnel fire in July of 2001, when a freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed and burned for four days with temperatures inside the tunnel reaching 1,000 degrees.
But it's not just accidents Sen. Reid fears. He worries about terrorism.
“Every one of these trucks, every one of these trains, is a target of opportunity for a terrorist to do bad things,’ says Reid. “I mean, you talk about a dirty bomb. I mean this is, this is really a filthy bomb.’
Twenty years of tests and studies have demonstrated the vulnerability of the shipping casks to a variety of possible terrorist weapons, concluding they can be breached by explosive charges or anti-tank weapons.
“These caravans so far are going to be 300 feet long -- a football field long,’ says Greenspun. “Going 35, 40 miles an hour across the federal highways. Do you think it's going to be hard to hit that with anything? Even I could hit it.’
Could they be blown open by a demolition charge? Could they be blown open by a shoulder-fired rocket?
“Well, the question I think you should be asking is not whether those casks can be attacked only, but whether or not the current location of the nuclear waste is a more vulnerable target,’ says Abraham. “We have invested $4 billion in the science and the safety. And based on that investment, I am confident that we know how to do this in a way that's safe. Yes, it can be trusted.’
But trust is a rare commodity in Nevada when it comes to the federal government. Many people, like Greenspun, still think of themselves as nuclear guinea pigs. He remembers watching atomic bomb tests with his father back in the 1950s.
“He would take us up to the top of Mount Charleston when we were little kids, so that we could watch the blasts. You could see the mushroom cloud go off. And we thought that was the neatest thing in the whole world,’ recalls Greenspun.
“And then, minutes later, this pink cloud would come over and we would get sprinkled with dust. No one ever thought anything of it. Thirty-forty years later, we are the thyroid cancer capital of the world.’
This is a fact that has not escaped the notice of Mayor Goodman, who keeps a copy of a 1957 handbook on those nuclear tests put out by the Atomic Energy Commission.
“They say that fallout of this contaminant, this radiation, this deadly material, can be inconvenient. That's the way they expressed it,’ says Goodman. “So I'm not going to help the federal government lie to us again. Nope, not, not during my administration.’
The state of Nevada is currently engaged in five lawsuits with the federal government, all intended to stop the Yucca Mountain project through the federal court system. The facility must still obtain an operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a process that is expected to take three years. In the meantime, nuclear waste continues to pile up at the nation's nuclear power plants.
-- © MMIII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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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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