Yucca Mountain News Clips
Thursday, November 13, 2003
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Las Vegas SUN
November 13, 2003
DOE scientists still reviewing data on Yucca Mountain
By Mary Manning
<manning@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN
Despite Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's confidence that the Energy Department, by December 2004, will submit a license application for building a Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, scientists still hunting for information to prove the site is safe are not as certain they'll meet the deadline.
The Energy Department's top contractor, Bechtel SAIC, is reviewing scientific records before the DOE submits a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, expected in December 2004.
In a meeting between Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff and DOE scientists on Wednesday, department scientists said they are combing through 1,352 sets of data to find links between information in computer models and the original scientific studies.
They are trying to show a nuclear repository at the mountain 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas will keep radiation away from people and the environment for at least 10,000 years.
Nuclear waste could begin arriving at Yucca as soon as 2010.
Abraham said on Monday that he was confident the Energy Department could meet its December 2004 deadline.
Michael Yaeger of Bechtel SAIC, part of the management team, said the DOE is in the process of confirming the relevant data.
"We will not submit a license application until we confirm the data and the codes," Yaeger said during a teleconference between Las Vegas, San Antonio, Texas, and NRC headquarters in Maryland.
About 13 percent of the Yucca project's records have been reviewed by the DOE to date.
Susan Lynch, in charge of scientific review for Nevada, which is opposing the repository, said Wednesday's report is "just an indication of ongoing problems."
The DOE is trying to fit its scientific data to meet the NRC's license application demands, Lynch said.
"It's hard to see how we can have a warm, fuzzy feeling about the procedure," Lynch said.
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Las Vegas SUN
November 13, 2003
State again denies DOE use of water for Yucca
By Cy Ryan
<cy@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Capital Bureau
CARSON CITY -- For a second time, state Engineer Hugh Ricci has denied the application to use water to build and operate Yucca Mountain, saying it would be "detrimental to the public interest."
Ricci's 15-page decision, signed Nov. 7, said the water for the project "would not be considered a beneficial use of the water that belongs to the public."
Ricci said Wednesday he expected the Energy Department to again challenge his ruling in the courts. So did Bob Loux, head of the state Office of Nuclear Projects, who said the Ricci ruling "confirms our position this water isn't in the public interest."
DOE spokesman Gayle Fisher confirmed that this morning, saying the Ricci decision will be appealed. But she said there is sufficient water available now to continue operations at the site.
The state engineer's decision, Loux said, preserves the status quo in the state's fight to stop the high-level nuclear dump from being built. The state has five suits in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., and hearings are scheduled for Jan. 14.
Fisher said the department will wait for a decision on those cases before filing the appeal over water rights.
Gov. Kenny Guinn declined to comment.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams, who has been handling the legal fight against Yucca, said she was happy with the ruling and expected an appeal.
She said there may be an agreement to stay the decision until the Appeals Court rules in Washington, but Loux said any ruling from the appeals court would probably go to the U.S. Supreme Court, no matter which side wins.
The Energy Department applied for use of 430 acre-feet of water. An acre-foot is enough to supply a family of four for a year.
The state engineer in February 2000 ruled against the applications, saying they were not in the public interest because of a law enacted by the Legislature that prohibits the storage of high-level nuclear waste in the state.
But that ruling was overturned by the courts, saying that was not a correct reason for denying the permit.
In his new ruling, Ricci cites Guinn's opposition to the location of the dump. He said there is a lack of science to support the suitability of the site.
Ricci said the governor's disapproval and the Legislature's resolution opposing Yucca Mountain "are a direct expression that it (Yucca) would threaten to prove detrimental to the public interest to grant use of the public's water ..." for the repository.
The Energy Department, in its application, suggested this was like any other industrial project that applied for water. But Ricci said a "nuclear waste repository does not fit into this definition of industry. The nuclear waste repository is in a class of its own."
Yucca Mountain is "unprecedented and unique," Ricci said.
In citing his reasons for denial, Ricci referred to the findings of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, which found that "there was little doubt that science could not presently support the suitability of the Yucca Mountain site."
Ricci also cited the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which identified 293 unresolved technical issues at Yucca Mountain. This included volcanic activity, seismic problems and the rapid groundwater flow through the area.
The state engineer said two of the criteria for defining the "public interest" in deciding on water applications are that all underground water belongs to the public and that this water must be appropriated for beneficial use.
There is "overwhelming opposition to the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository," as demonstrated by Guinn's disapproval and the resolutions of the Legislature opposing the dump, Ricci said. This is a "clear indication that the water for the project "would not be considered a beneficial use of the water that belongs to the public of Nevada."
The state and the Energy Department have reached agreement for the use of water for sanitary and culinary -- but not construction -- purposes at the site.
The government had water in reserve to allow it to go forward with its continued investigation and preliminary work. It still must get a permit from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The courts so far have not ruled that the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act pre-empts state water law, Ricci noted.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
November 13, 2003
Yucca water rights denied
DOE expected to challenge engineer
By Keith Rogers
Review-Journal
State Engineer Hugh Ricci has denied the Energy Department permanent rights to 140 million gallons per year of groundwater that the agency sought to build and operate the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
The denial is expected to be challenged by DOE attorneys because the water is vital to proceeding with the project. That challenge, however, won't come until other Yucca Mountain issues raised by Nevada are decided by a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.
Nevada attorneys agreed in December to allow temporary use of water at the Yucca Mountain site to refill four, potable water storage tanks for restroom facilities and emergencies but not for constructing a repository.
Nevada Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams said Wednesday that Gov. Kenny Guinn's formal disapproval of the Yucca Mountain Project last year and his resolve to carry out his duty to protect Nevadans weighed heavily in Ricci's decision.
"I'm pleased that the engineer denied the application and feel that he did essentially what he was required to do by the court, which was to determine the public interest in the state of Nevada," Adams said.
Guinn's veto of the project was overridden by Congress on July 9, 2002. In the aftermath, U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt directed Ricci to determine whether permanent use of the water for a repository to entomb the nation's spent nuclear fuel and highly radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, was a beneficial use in the public interest of Nevadans.
In his ruling Friday, Ricci said granting rights to water from five wells in Nye County that DOE had used to study the site "would threaten to prove detrimental to the public interest."
"The use of water as proposed ... is not a beneficial use of the public's water," Ricci's ruling states, citing Guinn's rejection of the project.
His decision is the outcome of a hearing he held in August on the issue.
Ricci's predecessor, Michael Turnipseed, had denied the DOE's applications for water rights in 2000 on the same grounds. Justice Department attorneys appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which in turn sent the case back to U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.
Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency chief Bob Loux said Monday that Ricci's decision was a victory for the state that can't be challenged in federal court until the state's Yucca Mountain cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit are resolved.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
November 13, 2003
Nevada highway money on the road to approval
State expected to get 'substantial' amount of federal funds to build, repair roadways
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Major legislation that promises Nevada millions of dollars more each year for road-building and repairs began to move in Congress on Wednesday.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved a bill that allocates $255 billion among the states.
Although some details were made public, committee leaders kept under wraps the key formulas that specify how much each state will get. That information will be made public in January, according to Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., the committee chairman.
But one of the bill's authors was Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., prompting Nevada officials to expect healthy increases for the state.
Nevada expects to gain enough new federal funding to guarantee there will be money available to complete major projects now on the drawing board, including Las Vegas Beltway interchanges at Summerlin Parkway, U.S. Highway 95, and Interstate 15, said Mike Pieper, a Washington representative for Gov. Kenny Guinn.
Nevada lobbyists follow the highway bill with great interest when it comes up for renewal every five or six years. The state depends on federal aid to supply roughly 30 percent of its road building and repair budget each year, Pieper said.
"With the rate of growth in the state and the demands on our transportation system increasing dramatically, without this money our program would grind to a halt," he said.
The bill renews the government's major highway assistance programs for six years, drawing money from the Highway Trust Fund that is fed by gasoline taxes and fees on tires and truck sales.
Besides new levels of state funding, the bill reopens the prospect for getting the government's backing for a high speed magnetic levitation train route between Las Vegas and Southern California. It sets aside $90 million in potential spending on the maglev project, according to lobbyists and congressional officials.
It also earmarks $50 million to continue construction of the Colorado River bridge allowing traffic to bypass Hoover Dam, they said.
Reid declined to disclose Nevada's apportionment.
"Nevada will do fine," Reid said. "We're not divulging numbers but rest assured I'll get the money. We have a number of issues that are important in the state, and of course, there's the total dollars."
A committee staff member described Nevada's increase as "substantial," but would not release the figure under orders from leadership. "The state's highway folks will be very happy," the staffer said.
The last highway bill Congress passed in 1998 granted Nevada $1.2 billion over six years, with the latest installment at about $200 million this year.
Pieper said Nevada officials are hoping to reap at least $240 million to $250 million annually in federal funding from the new legislation. That amount was declared "in the ballpark" by an official familiar with the numbers.
Reid said the new bill is silent on nuclear waste transportation, but he may consider possible amendments as it progresses. The issue is expected to become more visible in the next six years as the Energy Department develops strategy to ship highly radioactive spent fuel to Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
With committee approval in hand, Inhofe said he planned to set the transportation bill aside until late January or early February, and he hoped to get it completed by the end of February.
The House has not started its public work on the bill. Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Jon Porter, R-Nev., sit on the committee that is forming the House plan.
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Indiana Digital Student
November 13, 2003
IU Professor's findings to be used in proposal to Congress
By Daniel Castro
A report co-authored by IU mineralogy professor David Bish and Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists recently made a case for Yucca Mountain, Nev., as the site for a new federal repository. The repository would serve as a permanent storage location for 70,000 metric tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste.
Published in American Mineralogist, the report will serve as the centerpiece for the U.S Department of Energy's proposal to Congress for a license to build the repository. The research itself was funded by the department, more directly by the tax on nuclear power users.
"The paper was a summary of about 20 years of research by my co-authors and I," Bish said. "It presents the most complete picture yet of the mineralogy of Yucca Mountain in a way that the public can get at it and form their own opinion."
Abhijit Basu, chair of the IU Department of Geological Sciences, commented on the significance of the research.
"We cannot just put our nuclear waste anywhere," Basu said. "We will have big problems if we cannot find a way to store it. Yucca Mountain figures to be one of the least unsafe places to contain the waste."
The report found that Yucca Mountain is rich in minerals that would assist in containing the waste. Yucca Mountain rocks are rife with zeolites -- soft minerals that easily absorb great amounts water. This water would then absorb the heat generated by the radioactive materials, providing an outlet for that energy.
"We need to continue to emphasize the natural barriers for the radioactive material, such as the zeolites, as well as the man-made barriers," Bish said.
The opportunity to conduct extensive research like Bish's is not what all professors consider the greatest benefit of their profession. However, in most science departments, research is often the best way to apply education. Petrology professor Robert Wintsch stressed the positive impact research has on students.
"Research in our field allows students to know what significant geological issues are, as well as understanding that environmental issues can be addressed by looking at rocks," Wintsch said.
Bish said his greatest satisfaction comes from the classroom.
"I enjoy the classroom more than anything, but in research you're able to appreciate why you know certain things. You apply your knowledge, and that's why it's so beneficial to students," Bish said. "If all you did was take classes all your life, it would be pretty dry -- especially in science."
Some students in the geological sciences department, like graduate student Kat Nell, argue their professors don't get the recognition they deserve.
"There are a lot of professors working on stuff at the international level," Nell said.
Nell said a group of their seismologists are going to Venezuela to install an array of seismographs. She also said Basu collaborates research with NASA, among others.
"The main problem is that we're just not very visible to people on campus," she said, "though we're trying to change that."
The department chair, however, isn't troubled by the lack of exposure.
"It's true that our researchers may not garner much publicity, but that's not necessarily a bad thing," Basu said. "University professors do not advertise themselves. They do not want to be misrepresented -- especially to their peers."
In the meantime, Basu is pleased with the success of the department's newcomer. Bish has been with IU since August.
"As a chair, I have very high hopes for professor Bish," Basu said. "He has the potential to receive a great amount of national and international recognition."
-- Contact staff writer Daniel Castro at dacastro@indiana.edu.
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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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