Yucca Mountain News Clips - Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Yucca Mountain News Clips
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
December 30, 2003

YUCCA MOUNTAIN: DOE seeks land for rail corridor

Expert doubts project can be achieved without skyrocketing costs, years of delay

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department has asked permission to reserve use of 308,600 acres of public land across rural Nevada to develop a railroad corridor to the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

DOE officials filed an application Dec. 19 with the Bureau of Land Management seeking to withdraw a mile-wide swath of federally managed land along more than 300 miles encompassing parts of Lincoln, Esmeralda and Nye counties.

The Energy Department announced last week that the corridor, originating at a Union Pacific Railroad junction near Caliente, 150 miles northeast of Las Vegas, was its preferred choice for a new rail line to haul spent nuclear fuel to the Yucca site.

DOE officials said they planned to initiate an environmental impact study to determine specific rail alignments within the corridor to the repository site.

Meanwhile Monday, a Nevada-hired transportation expert said he did not think DOE could build a railroad line across challenging terrain without skyrocketing costs and years of delay.

DOE has estimated it could build a 319-mile railroad in 46 months at a cost of $880 million in 2001 dollars.

Robert Halstead, a Wisconsin-based consultant, said Nevada officials have estimated costs at $2.6 billion and a completion timeline of 10 years or longer.

"Caliente is a really tough choice. I've been saying this for years," Halstead said.

A formal notice of DOE's land withdrawal application was published Monday in the Federal Register, initiating a 90-day public comment period. The Bureau of Land Management also plans to hold a public hearing on the matter, but a date has not been set.

Dennis Samuelson, a BLM realty specialist in Reno, said the Interior secretary will decide on DOE's request after environmental studies are completed in about 18 months to two years.

In the meantime, BLM on Monday segregated the land for two years, forbidding new mining claims to be filed on it and preventing the government from disposing of any parcels.

Grazing and recreational use would continue to be allowed, and existing rights of way and leases would be honored during the two-year temporary withdrawal "as long as they do not conflict with the proposed withdrawal," the BLM said.

BLM officials could not say Monday what activities presently take place along the 300-mile stretch of mountain and high desert terrain other than grazing.

If DOE decides to proceed with the rail project after completion of an environmental impact study, its application would likely be narrowed to the actual acreage needed, BLM spokeswoman Jo Simpson said, adding restrictions for other uses would be determined in the final withdrawal order. Pre-existing grazing permits would be honored, she said.

DOE spokesman Allen Benson said Monday the land withdrawal application was routine to allow the department to develop its impact assessments within the corridor.

An environmental impact study issued last year identified issues that DOE will likely confront along the corridor, which runs north toward Panaca and then west. It crosses north of the Nellis Air Force Range and then south, skirting the western edge of the range to Yucca Mountain, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Among other things, the corridor study listed impacts to 740 acres of desert tortoise habitat and detailed the proximity of riparian areas where water quality might be affected. It numbered 97 recorded archaeological sites, including three dozen not fully studied for protections as historical sites.

DOE applied for a 20-year land withdrawal, which Simpson said was customary. She said DOE would need to apply for extensions to continue use of the land beyond that period. The department plans to ship nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain over a period of two dozen years once it opens.

Halstead said the department is underestimating the job ahead.

"They are talking about going through a range of mountain passes that are 4,000 to 6,000 feet," Halstead said. "I'm not sure the route they've laid out would be feasible without switchbacks and tunnels."

Between the mountains, "you do have lots and lots of environmentally sensitive areas and a lot of difficult soils you are working on," Halstead said. "Add in the seismic issues and flooding issues and this is one hell of a good old engineering challenge to build this sucker."

DOE spokesman Joe Davis said he would not respond to the assessment.

"Halstead says a lot of things, most of which I find unnecessary to respond to with a comment," Davis said in an e-mail message. "Today is no different."

Beyond the technical challenges, Halstead said Nevada officials plan to put legal and procedural roadblocks in front of the railroad line.

One of the state's lawsuits against the Yucca project charges DOE illegally "segmented" the repository project, failing to complete transportation studies before recommending the Nevada site for nuclear waste burial.

"Nevada will use every available tactic appropriately open to us," Halstead said, adding Nevada's congressional delegation may pursue legislation to block the plan by designating restrictive wilderness study areas along the corridor.

Halstead also predicted private landowners will be poised to sue DOE for jeopardizing the value of developable property along the corridor.

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Las Vegas SUN
December 29, 2003

DOE seeks to lock up BLM land

Limits proposed along Yucca rail route

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

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department wants more than 300,000 acres of public land to be removed from drilling or mining for 20 years as it prepares to build a rail line to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site.

The request comes just days after the department announced its preference for construction of a rail line that would begin outside Caliente, 150 miles northeast of Las Vegas, to move nuclear waste to the mountain.

The Bureau of Land Management issued a notice in the Federal Register today regarding the Energy Department request to withdraw 308,600 acres of public land from surface entry and mining for the next 20 years so it can study the land for construction, operation and maintenance of a rail line to Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The area in question includes land in Clark, Esmeralda, Lincoln and Nye counties.

"This latest proposal has the potential to limit hiking and other outdoor activities on more than 300,000 acres in Nevada and in theory, could stop any mining on this vast tract of BLM land," Rep. Shelly Berkley, D-Nev., said. "Those are both important issues that must be raised with both federal agencies. Considering DOE is asking that this land be placed off-limits for decades, I certainly hope they also find the time to examine the environmental impacts of the Yucca Mountain rail route that has now been proposed."

The rail line would not take up all that land but would run somewhere through it once DOE decides what would work best, said Dennis Samuelson, realty specialist with BLM in Nevada.

Before the rail line can progress, DOE needs to issue reports about its possible environmental impact, Samuelson said.

The agency intends to prohibit any surface entry or mining on the land DOE wants withdrawn during the next two years until a final decision is made. BLM is taking public comments on the withdrawal through March 29, 2004. A public meeting is planned, but today's notice said specific time and location information would be made available at a later date.

Bob Halstead, the state's transportation consultant, said this is just another part of the "bad process" DOE has shown on the project.

He said asking for the withdrawal helps eliminate someone seeking a mining permit on the land that could disturb DOE's plans. He also said it is not really clear from what the department has said so far if it will actually decide to use rail shipments or the Caliente line. DOE has just said this is is preference, he said.

Rights-of-way, leases, and permits can be issued for the land as long as they do not conflict with the proposed withdrawal, according to the Federal Register.

BLM spokeswoman Jo Simpson said this morning that it was not clear yet if withdrawal or other permit requests already existed on the acres DOE wants set aside.

Samuelson said the amount of acres requested is not uncommon, especially since Nellis Air Force base has 2.9 million acres withdrawn for its training range. But DOE's request is in a long strip as opposed to a rectangle or regular block.

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., is deeply concerned the department is moving forward on this before Nevada's legal cases against the site have even begun, spokesman Adam Mayberry said.

Porter, vice chairman of the House Railroads Subcommittee plans on having oversight hearings on the impacts of the proposed rail line.

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Las Vegas SUN
December 29, 2003

Energy Department trying to lock up land along Yucca rail route

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Energy Department wants to reserve more than 482 square miles of public land to build a rail line stretching to a national nuclear waste dump in the Nevada desert.

The Bureau of Land Management issued a public notice Monday on the Energy Department request to withdraw 308,600 acres of public land from surface entry and mining for the next 20 years. The department would study the land for construction, operation and maintenance of a rail line to Yucca Mountain.

"All we've done is ask the BLM to protect the public land from surface entry and mining for a period of 20 years," Allen Benson, Energy Department and Yucca Mountain spokesman in Las Vegas, said Friday. "It does not stop recreation."

The Federal Register notice comes less than a week after the Energy Department picked a route to haul high-level radioactive waste across Nevada to a planned nuclear waste dump in Nevada.

The plan calls for building a 319-mile rail line along a route the Energy Department designated as the "Caliente Corridor." It would stretch from between Caliente and Pioche, about 150 miles northeast of Las Vegas, around the Nevada Test Site through Warm Springs to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Benson has said it could cost $881 million. The route includes land in Esmeralda, Lincoln and Nye counties.

Rights of way, leases, and permits can be issued for the land as long as they do not conflict with the proposed withdrawal, according to the Federal Register notice.

However, Rep. Shelly Berkley, D-Nev., insisted the withdrawal will limit access to a vast swath of public land.

Nevada officials and activists have called the Caliente Corridor expensive, circuitous and dangerous. They promised a legal challenge if they can find flaws in environmental studies.

The rail line would not take up all that land, but would run somewhere through it once DOE decides a specific route, said Dennis Samuelson, realty specialist with the BLM in Nevada.

Before the rail line can progress, DOE needs to issue reports about possible environmental effects, he said.

The agency intends to prohibit any surface entry or mining on the land DOE wants withdrawn until a final decision is made during the next two years. The BLM is taking public comments on the withdrawal through March 29.

A public meeting is planned, but today's notice said a specific time and location would be decided later.

Robert Halstead, the state's principal Yucca Mountain transportation consultant, called withdrawing the land from public use part of a "bad process" by the Energy Department.

He said it was not clear whether the Energy Department will decide to use rail shipments for the 77,000 tons of nuclear waste it expects to ship to Yucca Mountain. The agency calls the Caliente Corridor its preferred route, but also charted a north-south backup, referred to as the Carlin Corridor.

BLM spokeswoman Jo Simpson in Nevada said Monday it was not clear if there were already permit requests for the land the DOE wants set aside.

The Energy Department request is for a linear strip instead of a rectangle or block.

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., expressed concern that the Energy Department was moving forward on the Caliente Corridor before Nevada's legal cases against the site are heard in federal court in Washington, D.C., next month, spokesman Adam Mayberry said.

Porter, vice chairman of the House Railroads Subcommittee, plans hearings on the impacts of the proposed rail line.

Information from: Las Vegas Sun

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Las Vegas SUN
December 29, 2003

Columnist Dan Geary: Energy bill really does push Yucca

Dan Geary is the Nevada spokesperson for the National Environmental Trust, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization devoted to environmental issues.

•••

In a recent Las Vegas Sun article ("Environmentalists target Ensign" by reporter Launce Rake), Sen. John Ensign's spokesperson, Jack Finn, described the notion that the Senate's energy legislation is a vote in favor of Yucca Mountain as laughable. Really?

The bill contains the first-ever production tax credit in history for nuclear power plants. Finn points out the benefits of a similar tax credit for clean, renewable geothermal energy, yet he can't seem to make the connection that a tax break for nuclear power would have the same effect in that form of power generation. Every nuclear power plant in the United States creates a new constituency, made up of the communities near said nuclear power plant, that would clamor for the radioactive waste to be shipped away to, say, Yucca Mountain in Southern Nevada.

Finn articulated the opposition by Sen. Ensign, R-Nev., to the bill as a whole. But the senator stands with the nuclear industry's backers in the Senate on the question of whether or not to end a filibuster. Sen. Ensign believes that the bill deserves an "up or down vote" in the Senate. We couldn't disagree more.

If you want to serve Nevada in a legislative body where debate is limited and large states have a stronger voice than small states like Nevada -- run for the House of Representatives, not the Senate. The rules of the Senate are designed so that senators from sparsely populated states like Nevada can defend themselves. Those rules have been utilized by Nevada's senators on previous nuke dump battles and the environmental community stood shoulder to shoulder with Sen. Ensign in those fights.

Why, then, does this colossal boost to nuclear power (and waste), combined with pork projects such as backing a Louisiana shopping mall anchored by a Hooter's restaurant, deserve such deference from a Nevada legislator? Yes, production tax credits for geothermal energy are good. But a pork sandwich with whipped cream and a cherry is still a pork sandwich.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., described the bill as the "No Lobbyist Left Behind Act." Enough pork has been dished out in this bill to guarantee a majority (51) of senators will vote for the bill, and the White House is no doubt dishing out more to get to the 60 votes required to stop a filibuster. Nevadans from both parties detest that kind of raw power politics.

I doubt they'd accept a no vote on the bill and a yes vote to guarantee its passage by others. Maybe the energy bill's impact on Yucca Mountain isn't so laughable after all.

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KLAS
December 29, 2003

Preferred Nuclear Waste Route Released

Federal officials have released which the preferred route for transporting nuclear waste into Nevada. Of the two proposed routes, federal officials are pushing for the "Caliente Corridor." It would go from the existing rail line between Caliente and Panaca in Lincoln County, loop around the Nevada Test Site, and go past Goldfield and Beatty.

The plan would require 319 new miles of railroad at a cost of $881 million.

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Tri City Herald
December 29th, 2003

Fluor Federal reports 69% of revenue comes from sources outside Hanford

By John Stang Herald staff writer

Fluor Federal Services, a company created seven years ago in an experiment intended to spur economic diversification, now brings in more than two-thirds of its revenue from sources outside Hanford.

The company continues to be the most successful of Hanford's former "enterprise companies," with 69 percent of its 2003 revenue from outside of Hanford.

Meanwhile, the other three former enterprise companies appear solid, but still rely on Hanford for the majority of their incomes.

The four companies -- Fluor Federal, Cogema Engineering, Duratek Technical Services and Lockheed Martin Information Technology West -- are the results of a Darwinian experiment begun in late 1996, when Fluor Hanford won Hanford's main operations contract.

A big reason Fluor won that contract was that the Department of Energy liked its proposal for creating new jobs to diversify the Tri-City economy. That included creating six so-called "enterprise companies."

Those six were part of a complicated plan that split previous lead contractor Westinghouse Hanford Co. and its two main subcontractors into a 13-company team led by Fluor Hanford.

Fluor and six subcontractors were "inside-the-fence" permanent members of the team. Six enterprise companies were created "outside the fence."

A survival-of-the-fittest evolution followed as the 13-team concept proved to be too unwieldy. Fluor gradually reabsorbed several "inside-the-fence" contractors and two of the enterprise subcontractors.

Fluor Hanford phased back the amount of guaranteed Hanford work to the enterprise companies until ending the guarantees a couple of years ago. Now all four surviving firms compete on a level playing field with other companies bidding for Hanford companies.

Now those four companies exist in a twilight zone in which their employees are not part of Hanford's official work force, although the majority do all their work at Hanford.

Here is how the four enterprise companies have evolved:

-- Fluor Federal Services

This is the second year that Fluor Federal's non-Hanford revenue has made up the majority of its income.

In 2001, the engineering and construction management company's revenue was $123 million, with non-Hanford work accounting for 25 percent. That grew to $195 million in 2002, with non-Hanford work making up 53 percent of that amount.

The company's projected revenue for 2003 is $256 million, with 69 percent -- about $177 million -- coming from non-Hanford work.

"We've had a pretty big growth year," said Fluor Federal President Bob Heck.

Much of the surge can be linked to a multiyear U.S. Army contract to design and supervise construction of a missile test facility and upgrade two communications stations in Alaska.

The company now employs roughly 1,000 people. Of that, 766 work in Richland, compared with 750 in 2002. The rest work at Fernald, Ohio; Greenville, S.C.; Charlotte, N.C., and elsewhere in the United States and overseas, including in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.

-- Lockheed Martin Information Technology West

Early this year, Richland-based Lockheed Martin Services, a computer support services company, became the West Coast branch of Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Information Technology.

Frank Armijo, LMIT's West Coast general manager in Richland, said his office's non-Hanford work increased from 20 percent of its total revenue in 2002 to 25 percent in 2003. He declined to release actual revenue figures, but said they also increased.

The Richland office's work force also grew from about 550 people in 2002 to roughly 600 in 2003.

The office has been receiving portions of federal contracts that LMIT Corp. has obtained -- which include computer support work for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and federal Centers for Disease Control.

LMIT also is acquiring another company -- Affiliated Computer Services of Dallas -- which could send extra work to the Richland office, Armijo said.

Other non-Hanford work at the Richland office includes contracts with the Air Force, Social Security Administration and Veterans Administration.

LMIT's Richland office remains Hanford's prime computer support provider. Armijo said it was given a goal to trim Hanford's computer support costs by $9 million in the past two years, but actually cut $16 million.

-- Duratek Federal Services Western Operations

Duratek's Richland company also has become a regional headquarters -- in this case for Western federal contracts.

Its revenue increased from about $25 million in 2002 to $35 million in 2003. About 70 percent of the 2003 work came from Hanford.

The company employs about 220 people, including 190 in Richland. The Richland office had 170 workers in 2002.

This company always has handled an unusual mix of work, with its primary expertise in packaging and transporting radioactive and hazardous chemical materials. It also manages a huge specialized central Hanford landfill for contaminated debris for Bechtel Hanford. And it has one contract to remove contaminated soil from the K and F Reactor areas.

The company also is in charge of some environmental monitoring at Hanford, and with controlling contaminated animals, insects and plants on the site.

Duratek also has gained some toeholds in projects at DOE sites at Los Alamos, Rocky Flats and Idaho Falls.

In 2004, Duratek's Richland office plans to expand its work at Idaho Falls and Los Alamos, and try to obtain more soil removal work at Hanford, said Bernie Laverentz, manager of the office.

"You don't wean yourself from Hanford. But you don't have all your eggs in the Hanford basket," Laverentz said.

-- Cogema Engineering

Cogema believes it is ready to grow again after shrinking in recent years. It is now competing for contracts at Hanford and other DOE sites.

Its annual revenue has dropped from $20 million in 2001 to $17 million in 2002 to $14 million in 2003. Meanwhile, Cogema's work force has shrunk from 120 in 2001 to 105 in 2002 to 90 in 2003.

Cogema Engineering President Martin Talbot believes the decline has stopped. "Everything has stabilized in the last six months," he said.

The company has just opened a facility in northern Richland to do nondestructive exams of items, which is the firm's main expertise.

About 10 percent of Cogema's work is outside of Hanford, but that percentage is growing.

The company has picked up some engineering and analysis work at DOE's Yucca Mountain site, which Talbot hopes will lead to work at other DOE sites. The company also is eyeing Boeing Corp. as a potential customer.

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Idaho State Journal
December 28, 2003

INEEL waste likely to bypass Nevada towns

IDAHO FALLS - Nuclear waste shipped from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory to a repository at Yucca Mountain will most likely bypass Reno, Nev., and Las Vegas, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.

On Tuesday, the Department of Energy announced plans to construct a 319-mile, east-to-west railroad line north of Las Vegas to accommodate waste shipments.

Bob Loux, executive director for Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, told the Gazette-Journal he suspected nuclear waste from INEEL and Hanford, Wash., could be shipped by rail to Salt Lake City and then south to the new line along the Caliente Corridor.

Some of the waste from Eureka, Calif. and Portland, Ore., however, still might need to be trucked through Reno, Nev. DOE hasn't announced formal routes the nuclear waste will travel from the Pacific Northwest or Northern California yet.

The new rail line could cost $881 million, according to a 2002 DOE study.

Nevada officials are using legal challenges to fend off the possibility that waste will be shipped to Yucca Mountain at all, though several agreements between DOE and Idaho promise nuclear waste stored here must be removed in the next few years or thousands of dollars in fines will be imposed.

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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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