Yucca Mountain News Clips - Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Yucca Mountain News Clips
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
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Las Vegas SUN
June 22, 2004

Reid delays meeting after hearing of Yucca plan

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

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., delayed a Senate Appropriations meeting that was supposed to take place today after learning of a plan that could funnel more money to the Yucca Mountain project.

Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., told Reid on Friday that he planned to request an additional $446 million from nuclear ratepayers to put toward the Yucca Mountain project and change budget policy to make it easier to get the project $750 million every year.

The additional money from the industry would bring the budget for Yucca Mountain to $577 million next year, the same amount as this year. That's still $303 million short of the department's $880 million request for fiscal year 2005 but more than the $131 million Congress would have to approve without an overall budget policy change the administration has requested.

Domenici's budget policy change would allow Congress to take $750 million each year from a pool of money funded directly by a surcharge on nuclear power. That is designed to help the project garner more money in the budget process because the money in the pool could not be used for anything other than the Yucca project. A similar proposal is under consideration in the House.

The Energy Department has said a $131 million budget would force layoffs and make the department miss its planned 2010 opening date, but project spokesman Allen Benson would not comment on what would happen if the project is funded for another year of $577 million. He said he did not wish to speculate on what would happen at any other funding level.

After hearing of Domenici's plan, Reid, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriation Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, sent a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, asking for more time on the bill. Reid did not mention the nuclear waste issue specifically but said the Democratic staff had not had enough time to look at the whole bill.

Reid strongly objects to both of Domenici's proposals and is figuring out his strategy to try to defeat them, an aide said.

"If Yucca Mountain funding is truly that important to him (Domenici), then he could have funded it by taking money from his New Mexico weapons labs instead of advancing a proposal already rejected by the Senate Budget Committee earlier this year," Reid said. "(Nevada Republican) Sen. (John) Ensign and I remain opposed to any special budgetary treatment for Yucca Mountain and, given that Sen. Domenici has engaged in writing language that impacts both the Finance and Budget committees, I will be surprised if there is enough support for this ploy to work."

Reid said Domenici was "acting on behalf of a desperate administration and nuclear industry" by "trying to advance Yucca through the backdoor with already rejected legislative proposals and spending gimmicks."

Ensign, who sits on the Senate Budget Committee, stopped the budget policy change from going through earlier this year, making it clear the bill would not get his much-needed vote to pass if it included the change.

Domenici still plans to include the proposal in his version of the Energy and Water Development spending bill that will now be introduced in July, an aide said.

His proposal would create a one-time increase on the fee charged to nuclear ratepayers that would put an additional $446 million into the general treasury, specifically earmarked for Yucca Mountain, an aide said. Nuclear ratepayers would end up putting $1.2 billion into the project, a 60 percent increase from the $750 million it would pay anyway.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
June 22, 2004

Senator proposes financial fix for Yucca project

Domenici wants more funding from utilities

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Senate Energy Committee is proposing to collect $446 million in additional fees from nuclear utilities to help solve a financial crisis for the Yucca Mountain Project.

The plan by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., reflects growing concern among nuclear power supporters that looming budget cuts threaten to kill the Nevada nuclear waste repository.

Domenici, an influential voice on nuclear issues, has formed a bill that contains both short-term and long-term financial fixes for the Yucca project, according to a draft copy obtained Monday.

The Department of Energy says it plans to file a repository license application in December toward a 2010 goal to begin burying spent nuclear fuel.

Critics of the Yucca program said Domenici was relying on questionable accounting to rescue the repository. Nevada leaders fear the changes could shield the Energy Department from scrutiny as it enters crucial licensing and construction phases.

"I will be surprised if there is enough support for this ploy to work," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Domenici would raise $446 million by imposing a one-time 60 percent surcharge on the fees utilities contribute to the Yucca program based on the amounts of electricity they produce from nuclear energy.

Coupled with other spending, the surcharge would enable Congress to keep the program on track by largely matching what it gave the Energy Department to spend last year, about $577 million.

Longer term, the bill would change accounting on about $750 million that utilities pay into a special nuclear waste fund each year.

The reclassification would make it easier for Congress to appropriate money from the fund without running afoul of spending limits, a change that many believe will be necessary to supply about $1.3 billion the government will require annually to build the repository and ship waste there from around the country.

Domenici began circulating his proposal on Friday. Elements were reported Monday in The Wall Street Journal.

The New Mexico senator is trying to rescue the Yucca Mountain Project from massive layoffs and potential shutdown, a spokeswoman said Monday.

Without a budget fix of some kind, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has said 1,700 project employees, about 70 percent of the work force, would be handed layoff notices this summer. Most of the workers are in Nevada.

Domenici believes deep layoffs would effectively kill the repository because it would be difficult to rehire workers with expertise, his aides said.

Reid, a strong opponent of the Yucca repository, forced a Senate energy and water subcommittee to postpone a meeting this week at which Domenici was to advance his bill.

"If Yucca Mountain funding is truly that important to Senator Domenici and President Bush, they should consider shifting funds from New Mexico labs and other projects, rather than trying to grab nearly half a billion dollars more from taxpayers," Reid said in a statement.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
June 22, 2004

House approves bill to pay Western Shoshone for land

Some fear loss of right to pursue legal claims

By Samantha Young
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON --The House voted Monday to unlock more than $145 million in Western Shoshone settlement funds, marking the closest the Indians have come to receiving payment for millions of acres lost to Western settlers.

Legislation that has caused years of deep division among tribal members was passed by voice vote. It was sent to the Senate for what was expected to be quick and final approval.

The uncontested vote came as a surprise to Western Shoshone who oppose the settlement. They expected House Democrats to speak against it.

Democrats dropped their opposition after being lobbied by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who had spearheaded a settlement bill along with Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev.

"It's been 30 years and it's time to pay our people," said Nancy Stewart, co-chair of the Western Shoshone Claims Steering Committee.

"Our people are some of the most poverty stricken people in our great nation," said Stewart, a member of the Fallon Western Shoshone Tribe.

Reid wrote to House lawmakers Friday, urging "swift consideration and passage" of the Western Shoshone bill and promising to work on outstanding land issues related to the settlement.

Western Shoshone groups who have lobbied against compensation contend the settlement payments will extinguish tribal legal claims to their ancestral lands.

"They are going to go ahead and start selling it to the gold mines and start shoveling the water to Las Vegas and shipping nuclear waste through Western Shoshone territory to Yucca Mountain," said Te-Moak tribal chairman Hugh Stevens.

Hours before the House vote, the National Congress of American Indians approved a resolution that Congress not "impose" a claims distribution bill upon any "tribe that has not consented to the settlement of its land claims."

The resolution further stated Congress should direct the Interior Department to negotiate land disputes with the Western Shoshone before any compensation legislation is approved.

"It's a very sad day for Indian rights, particularly for Western Shoshone who are struggling to hold onto their land rights," said Steve Tullberg, director of the Indian Law Resource Center.

Gibbons said the bill would not preclude tribes from making land claims.

Congress in 1979 allocated $26.1 million to the Western Shoshone at the direction of the Indian Claims Commission, which had determined the tribes should be compensated for land and resources lost because of gradual encroachment. The tribes were given an 1872 price for their land and minerals, about 15 cents an acre.

The fund has accumulated more than $145 million, which will be divided equally among eligible Western Shoshone.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs estimates about 6,000 would receive settlement money; however, Stewart said as few as 3,500 Western Shoshone could qualify for the settlement.

Eligible recipients would be those living at the date of the bill's enactment, a U.S. citizen and at least a quarter Western Shoshone.

Another $1.5 million would be set aside in an education trust fund for the tribes.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
June 22, 2004

Cheney touts economic gains

Vice president makes speech in Henderson

By Henry Brean
Review-Journal

Speaking in what he called "one of the most confident, optimistic places in America," Vice President Dick Cheney painted a sunny picture of the nation's economy during a brief campaign visit Monday to Henderson.

"I can't think of a better place to talk about America's vibrant economy than here in the Las Vegas area," Cheney said. "Every month, more than 5,000 people come here to make this part of Nevada their home. Las Vegas is growing so fast you have to print two phone books a year just to keep up. That's not happening in very many other places."

Flanked by his wife, Lynne, Cheney spoke for about 20 minutes before an enthusiastic crowd of about 400 supporters at the Henderson Convention Center.

His speech made no mention of the war in Iraq or the nuclear waste repository the federal government plans to build inside Yucca Mountain, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Instead, Cheney focused exclusively on job growth and other signs of economic recovery, which he credited to Bush administration tax cuts that he called on Congress to make permanent.

"As we learned last Friday, 3,800 Nevada workers found new jobs in May, and more than 94,000 have gone back to work since January of '02. Over that same period, your unemployment rate has dropped from 6.6 percent to 4.1 percent," Cheney said. "America's economy is moving in the right direction, and President Bush's policies are making us stronger every day."

That message was well received by audience members, including Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo, who took the day off to attend the speech with his wife, Linda. "I think he hit the nail on the head," DeMeo said. "The economy is getting better."

Cheney was introduced by Gustavo Gutierrez, owner of Tortillas Inc., a local Mexican food supplier.

Gutierrez said his small, family business has nearly doubled the size of its staff since 2000, and he is gearing up to add as many as 12 more workers.

"I believe President Bush's leadership on the economy has made all of this possible," he said.

Cheney also used Monday's speech to label democratic presidential candidate John Kerry as a political pessimist with no concrete plans other than raising taxes.

That sentiment is being echoed in Bush-Cheney's newest radio advertisement titled "Optimism Nevada," which debuted Monday as part of a new campaign strategy aimed at portraying Bush as an optimist and Kerry as a pessimist.

But Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., responding on behalf of the Kerry campaign, said the vice president is confusing pessimism with criticism.

"Those of us who work with Senator Kerry every day know he's one of the most optimistic people there is," Reid said. "When John Kerry points out a problem in this country he isn't being pessimistic. He's talking about the issues, something the administration doesn't seem interested in doing."

As for the economic gains touted by Cheney on Monday, Reid said, they have been made by borrowing recklessly against the nation's future. In three years as president, George Bush has succeeded in erasing a $7.2 trillion budget surplus over 10 years and replacing it with "a future of red ink as far as the eye can see," Reid said.

There were no protestors at Monday's event, but about 100 pickets gathered along Las Vegas Boulevard near McCarran International Airport to greet the vice president Sunday afternoon.

The 90 minute demonstration, most of it decrying the president's approval of the Yucca Mountain Project, took place in front of the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada" sign.

"We chose to do it the day he arrived," said Jon Summers, communications director for the Nevada State Democratic Party. "One protest is enough. I think we got our point across."

Cheney's visit came just three days after President Bush stumped in Reno, and both campaigns are promising future events in Nevada. Cheney predicted the state would be "critically important" on Election Day.

After his speech, Cheney left the stage quickly and did not take questions from the audience or the media.

He lingered behind closed doors at the convention center for about an hour before his motorcade departed for McCarran International Airport.

Aviation Director Randy Walker said flights were delayed about 20 minutes in response to Cheney's departure Monday, and that delays were minimal Sunday during his arrival at McCarran.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires all airports to close down airspace around the airport whenever the president or vice president arrive or depart, Walker said.

Airports are required to delay all flights for 10 minutes before Air Force One or Air Force Two land or depart, and for an additional five to 10 minutes for the plane to taxi around the airport.

Walker said the delay Sunday during Cheney's arrival lasted about 15 minutes, and that the delay during his departure Monday was probably 20 minutes during peak hours at McCarran.

From Las Vegas, the vice president flew to Springfield, Mo., where he spoke at a campaign rally Monday afternoon.

Review-Journal writer Frank Geary contributed to this report.

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Reno Gazette-Journal
June 22, 2004

Cheney touts Bush economic policies

Tax cuts praised: Vice president calls Nevada an example at campaign stop.

Ken Ritter
Associated Press

HENDERSON — Vice President Dick Cheney called Nevada an example of successful Bush administration economic policies during a brief campaign appearance Monday.

“America is moving in the right direction, and President Bush´s policies are making us stronger every day,’ Cheney told about 450 applauding supporters at a convention center in Nevada´s second-largest and fastest-growing city.

“People in Nevada have more money in their pockets thanks to President Bush´s tax cuts, and you´re putting that money to good use,’ he said before heading to McCarran International Airport in nearby Las Vegas to fly to another campaign rally in Springfield, Mo.

The Republican vice president arrived in Las Vegas on Sunday, two days after President Bush made a campaign stop in Reno.

“Las Vegas is one of the most confident, optimistic places in America,’ Cheney said during his 20-minute speech, with his wife, Lynne Cheney, at his side. He touched on campaign highlights including the war on terrorism, medical malpractice tort reform and a call for Congress to make Bush´s tax cuts permanent.

Cheney took no questions from the audience or the media and did not address Bush´s unpopular support for a planned national nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

No Democratic picketers were in evidence Monday in suburban Henderson, after party officials organized a protest that drew dozens of people Sunday to the Las Vegas Strip.

Cheney declared Bush´s policies responsible for economic growth over the past two years and drew laughter from the partisan crowd when he likened presumed Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry to former President Carter.

“Every day John Kerry does his best to talk down the economy,’ Cheney said. “He even trotted out the old term, the ‘misery index.´ Problem is, by Senator Kerry´s definition, things actually got better in the Carter years and then got worse in the Reagan-Bush years.’

“The results are coming in: Bush tax relief is working,’ Cheney declared.

Kerry campaign spokeswoman Laura Capps defended Kerry´s criticism of Bush´s economic policies.

“The core economic debate in this election is how to make life better for everyday families and create opportunities,’ Capps said. “George Bush and Dick Cheney might be satisfied with the economy, but John Kerry believes we can do better than 43 million Americans losing their health care, $2 per gallon gas prices and record high deficits.’

Jon Summers, spokesman for the state Democratic party, said despite recent economic improvements, millions of people lost jobs since Bush took office.

Spokeswoman Ali Harden said the Bush-Cheney campaign planned to unveil a new Nevada advertisement Monday critical of Kerry´s “pessimistic rhetoric’ and taking credit for economic growth and job creation during the past nine months.

It was the vice president´s third trip to Southern Nevada in the past year, after fund-raisers in January for U.S. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Henderson, and in July 2003 for the Bush-Cheney campaign.

Nevada voter registration is almost evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, and Bush won the state´s four electoral votes by just 4 percentage points in 2000. Nevada has five electoral votes this year.

Both parties have targeted Nevada as a battleground state this campaign, and one Bush-Cheney supporter said he´s noticed.

“They´re pretty aggressive in the way they advertise, with TV commercials and the news they create,’ said George Jaw, 48, a convention service businessman and member of the Taiwanese Association of Las Vegas. “Usually, Nevada hasn´t gotten this much attention this early on.’

Jaw said he was convinced recent economic gains stemmed from Bush tax cuts, which he said put money in people´s pockets and boosted consumer psychology.

The state has posted strong economic figures in recent months, including a 4.1 percent unemployment rate in May — the lowest in nearly four years and lower than the seasonally adjusted national jobless rate of 5.6 percent.

Jobs have grown in the leisure and hospitality industry, professional and business services, and construction while the population around Las Vegas has more than tripled since 1986, to about 1.6 million today.

Henderson has swelled from fewer than 39,000 residents in 1986 to 217,000 in 2003, according to state figures.

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Hartford Courant
June 22, 2004

Projects To Begin At Millstone Used-Fuel Facility, Security Equipment To Be Installed

By Stacy Wong
Courant Staff Writer

Construction is expected to begin this week on projects designed to store spent radioactive fuel at the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant in Waterford and to strengthen plant security against terrorist attacks.

The plant, owned by Virginia-based Dominion Energy, will start work on the spent fuel storage facility first, spokesman Karl Neddenien said.

When complete, the new storage facility will feature a concrete foundation with 49 prefabricated concrete modules housing steel canisters sealing the plant's spent fuel inside. The Connecticut Siting Council last month approved the facility, which is meant to hold the fuel until a permanent storage site is ready at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Neddenien said the storage project should be ready by the spring of 2005, when Millstone is scheduled to refuel. The plant is undertaking the construction at its own expense, and will not divulge the cost, he said.

Waterford First Selectman Paul Eccard said the town is satisfied that the plant will not be taking spent fuel from other plants.

"What's needed to support [power] generation is what that site is permitted for," he said. The town had initially approved 19 storage modules out of 234 that Dominion requested.

Dominion later modified its request to 135 modules. The Siting Council took into account Dominion's request for relicensing and extending the life of the plant in granting permission for the 49 modules, Eccard said. The relicensing request is still pending before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Neddenien said construction on the security projects will begin next week and the first week in July, and are a result of the federal government's efforts to strengthen nuclear plant security in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. An on-site firing practice range, new security observatories and new observation cameras will be installed as part of the work, he said.

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Las Vegas SUN
June 21, 2004

Nuke power users asked to pay more to fund Yucca

By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Nuclear power users may be asked to pay even more money to fund the Yucca Mountain dumpsite to help fill a gap created by budget policy.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., will ask for a one-year, 60-percent increase on fees paid by nuclear ratepayers to fund the nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

This is the latest proposal to help make sure the department can keep the project on track to open in 2010 by getting the money it needs.

The Energy Department faces a budget crunch this year since its $880 million request for the project may only be filled if Congress approves a policy change. The House has acted on the change, but Yucca Mountain critics and supporters have said the additional money is unlikely to move in the Senate based on the objections of Nevada senators.

Domenici heads the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Committee, on which Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is the top Democrat. Reid works to cut the project's budget every year and strongly opposes any policy change that would allow the department to get money for the project without congressional oversight.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., kept a proposal out of the Senate budget resolution that would have allowed the department to tap into more money without having the Yucca project compete with other federal programs.

The Nuclear Energy Institute is still trying to get details on Domenici's proposal but spokesman Mitch Singer said today that the group, which represents the nuclear power industry, does not feel ratepayers should have to pay more money on top of the $15 billion sitting in the account earmarked to fund the project.

Brian O'Connell, nuclear waste program office director for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, which supports the Yucca project, said he had "more questions than answers" on Domenici's proposal. He said a 60 percent increase would be an additional $1.2 billion on top of the $750 million ratepayers will put toward the project this year.

It was unclear it how Domenici's proposal would go around budget rules and allow the money from the increase to go directly to the project. Calls to Domenici's office were not returned.

"This proposed increase is just the latest in a series of budget gimmicks designed to pour more money into the fiscal black hole that is Yucca Mountain," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., in a statement. "The nuclear industry could care less how much the Domenici proposal would cost the average ratepayer, as long as it means they can continue to generate nuclear waste and rake in the profits. "The Bush Administration and Republicans leaders in both the Senate and the House have made it clear the will go to any lengths to see that Yucca Mountain is built, regardless of the health impacts it would have on families in Nevada or the terrorist threat that nuclear waste shipments would unleash."

Some House Democrats that support the Yucca project including Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., want the department to be able to tap into all $15 billion in waste funds, not just the $750 million put in every year.

"It is a mistake to rob nuclear power customers so they can pay for the problems of nuclear power companies," Rep. Jon Porter, R- Nev., said. "We must not spend anymore money on Yucca until all the safety concerns are addressed, including concerns of transporting 77,000 tons of nuclear waste across the nation."

Meanwhile, the House Energy and Commerce Committee plans on Thursday to take up a bill offered by Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, that would provide the Yucca Mountain project with $750 million a year in each of the next five years.

The committee will meet just a day before the House votes on the Energy and Water Development spending bill, which contains the $131 million Yucca budget Barton's bill would try to increase. The spending bill is scheduled for Friday, according to House Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Hobson's, R-Ohio office.

If the Barton bill gets approved Thursday, it could be brought up as an amendment to the spending bill on Friday. Barton's aides said this morning that the chairman is still weighing his options.

Barton's bill would change budget policy so Congress could get the $750 million each year from a pool of money funded directly by a surcharge on nuclear power, so the project would not have to compete with other programs for federal money and the money in the pool could not be used for anything other than the Yucca project.

The department requested $880 million for the project this year, but so far the House has only be able to allocate $131 million since the policy change has not gone through. The project must compete with other federal spending items in the bill, meaning other programs would have to be cut to make up the $749 million shortfall.

Barton's bill would make up the difference and allow only funds above the $750 million guarantee to have to compete with other programs.

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Reuters
June 21, 2004

Yucca Nuclear Dump Funding Plan Draws Industry Ire

By Chris Baltimore

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A plan by Republican Sen. Pete Domenici to tack a $446 million surcharge on utility customers to pay for a Nevada nuclear waste site drew the ire of nuclear power plant owners on Monday.

New Mexico Republican Domenici, a long-time nuclear industry ally, has drawn rare industry criticism for his plan to raise fees paid by utility customers by 60 percent in fiscal 2005, which starts Oct. 1.

Domenici aides say the move is needed to deflect an attempt by Democrat Henry Reid of Nevada and others to choke off funding for the massive Yucca Mountain storage facility planned in the desert about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Slated to open in 2010, the underground facility would hold 77,000 tons (70,000 metric tons) of waste from the nation's 103 nuclear power plants for 10,000 years.

The Bush administration says it will take $880 million in 2005 to proceed with a plan to obtain a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to construct the repository.

But a House Appropriations Committee panel that oversees Yucca Mountain funding has proposed $131 million in funding for the 2005 fiscal year, far short of the administration request.

Industry officials called the proposed fees excessive on top of the $22 billion utility customers have already paid into a construction fund. Domenici's staff was to brief the utility industry on the proposal later on Monday.

"We definitely don't believe that imposing additional fees at this time ... can be justified," said a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's lobbying arm.

But deferring action could stop the project in its tracks, because funding at the lower level will require the government to lay off about 70 percent of 2,400 site contractors, a Domenici aide said.

"The alternative is that we in effect declare we will not proceed with Yucca Mountain," the aide said. "I think industry would be more concerned about that alternative."

The industry says it has already borne its share of costs.

Since 1983, utility customers have paid a fee of 1/10 of a cent per kilowatt-hour to a fund that holds about $15 billion earmarked to develop and build the Yucca facility, which would be the first permanent U.S. nuclear waste repository.

Domenici, chairman of a Senate Appropriations Committee panel that oversees Yucca Mountain funding, is expected to propose his plan as part of a $28 billion 2005 energy and water appropriations bill set for panel consideration in early July.

Spent fuel from the nation's nuclear plants has been piling up for years. An estimated 50,000 tons (45,500 metric tons) of it is stored at 72 sites in 33 states, mostly near urban areas in the East and Midwest.

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Philadelphia Inquirer
June 21, 2004

Tapped to build prototype holder for nuclear waste

The Camden firm is one of only three certified to perform this type of work.

By Henry J. Holcomb
Inquirer Staff Writer

Joseph Oat Corp., a 216-year-old Camden company that once competed against Paul Revere making copper kettles and utensils, will soon begin building a prototype canister to store radioactive waste inside Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Oat expects that the $750,000 project, which was recently awarded, will lead to far larger contracts for building a major share of the more than 20,000 canisters that are expected to be needed during the next four decades.

Oat is one of about a half-dozen firms worldwide that fabricate products from titanium and zirconium, exotic alloys that stand up far better than stainless steel under extreme heat and acids. It is one of only three firms certified to perform this type of work in the nuclear industry, said Ron Kaplan, Oat's president for operations.

The canister project is part of a long-developing and controversial effort to store nuclear waste, which stays radioactive for tens of thousands of years. Spent fuel rods and other waste are piling up in temporary storage at nuclear plants and defense sites across the nation.

No radioactive waste will be brought to the Oats plant - the canisters will leave Camden empty, said Michael J. Holtz, president of engineering for the family-owned company.

The long-term canister work could enlarge Oat's payroll from 100 to more than 200 within five years and provide a major boost in its sales, now $50 million annually, said Edward S. Marinock, the firm's vice president of sales.

The potential contract would be by far the largest in the company's history, and would provide a much-needed lift after years of decline in the two industries that provide most of its business: nuclear-power generation and petrochemical manufacturing.

The nuclear business has been in a deep slump since the Three Mile Island meltdown in 1979, and the petrochemical industry has been moving overseas. "There have been lean years," Marinock said, "but there's never been a time when the company didn't have work in the shop."

The company, named after the founder's son, initially made and sold copper kettles and utensils in competition with Revere, whose midnight ride became a part of Revolutionary War lore. The Oats sold it to their accountant, Walter Shoney, in the late 1800s, and his family sold it to Martin Kaplan and Maurice Holtz in 1966. Their families still own and run it.

During the last three decades, Oat has emerged from a pack of 300 fabrication companies as leader in developing complex petrochemical-processing units, heat exchangers, and containers from titanium and zirconium.

In the Oat shops today are units ranging from a multi-story, $1.5 million heat exchanger for a nickel mine in New Caledonia, Australia, to small canisters for storing plutonium waste.

The canisters for Yucca Mountain would each require about 1,000 person-hours to build, Marinock estimates. They will be 16.6 feet long, 5.6 feet in diameter and weigh 56,360 pounds.

There are 21 separate boxes in each canister. "It is a shell within a shell, both made of exotic materials," Marinock said.

The current plan is to store these canisters deep inside Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. This concept came together after many others - such as shooting waste into deep space or sinking it in ocean waters - were rejected as too risky.

The federally owned Yucca Mountain was selected, according to U.S. Department of Energy documents, because it is remote and very dry. The proposed storage area is 1,000 feet below the surface and 1,000 feet above the water table.

Dryness is important. Contact with water is the primary way that radiation can escape into the environment, the federal document states.

The Oat company, a key player in this futuristic world, has its offices in an old brick building inside the Broadway Terminal of the South Jersey Port Corp., a state maritime agency.

The building once belonged to the New York Shipbuilding Corp., which was founded in 1899 and closed in 1967, after completing the last of its ships, the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk.

Oat's manufacturing is done nearby, in the yard's cavernous 19th-century machine shop. At one end is what Oat executives describe as the world's largest clean room, a gymnasium-size area where contaminants are filtered out to keep alloys such as titanium and zirconium pure.

In this environment, Oat has maintained quality standards high enough to hold nuclear certification for three decades. This is longer, it says, than any other company.

"They go over us with a fine cootie comb," Marinock said. "I don't think many could stand up to that scrutiny."

Contact staff writer Henry J. Holcomb at 215-854-2614 or hholcomb@phillynews.com.

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Sarasota Herald-Tribune
June 21, 2004

Energy Alternatives

Going nuclear has costly risks

Albany, Ny.

Oil prices fluctuated a little earlier this month, but remained high. No help was on the way, as OPEC committed to an increase in production that it already had been putting onto the world market.

At times like these when costs of powering national and world economies are rising steadily, many alternative energy sources become more attractive despite their still higher price than oil at around $40 a barrel.

One of the alternatives is nuclear energy. However, it has major downsides because it creates radioactive waste that is highly toxic, now standing at approximately 50,000 tons and getting larger by 2,000 tons each year. This is true both for the nuclear energy providing electricity for the domestic market and for the nuclear arms industry.

A dispute in the U.S. Senate over disposal of toxic waste created by the production of nuclear weapons illustrates the problem that has existed since the dawning of the nuclear age. It is an argument about safety, because the waste can remain toxic for something like 10,000 years or longer. It also is an argument about public money, because it costs billions of dollars to store it safely. Just how safely remains debatable.

More than 20 years ago, Congress passed a law that said that liquid nuclear waste, stored in steel tanks, had to be deeply buried.

To that end, the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada has been preparing for years to store deep underground the most radioactive waste. As a practical matter, Yucca Mountain is, at best, six years away from being able to fulfill that function. At worst, many continuing disputes surrounding its location and development could delay it much longer.

In the meantime, waste measured in the millions of gallons is stored in tanks that are underground, but not deeply buried. Some are leaking.

Nearly a year ago, a federal court ruled that the 1982 law required deep burial. The Energy Department, looking to save huge sums, wanted flexibility from Congress to permit large amounts of the waste to continue to be stored in the tanks that would be encased in grout. The government hopes to save huge sums and expedite the cleanup.

This month, the Senate gave the Energy Department that authority.

On top of the safe disposal of the waste, the vulnerability of nuclear plants to terrorist attack has come to the fore since the 9/11 attacks for the more than 100 reactors in the country. The industry is fighting the extent of government security requirements and their high costs, pitting the bottom line against public safety even as some nuclear entrepreneurs are planning new facilities.

The Bush administration supports the building of state-of- the-art reactors as the country looks to alternative supplies of energy. This would entail the government picking up about half the multibillion-dollar cost of ventures described as risky and still entailing a variety of health hazards.

Nothing comparable is being proposed by the federal government to speed the creation of renewable and nontoxic sources of energy -- such as solar, wind, hydropower, whose undesirable byproducts don't come close to the dangers inherent in nuclear power.

In the long run, this dichotomy promises to make matters worse while appearing to make things better in the short term. The nation is being led to foot the bill for compounding its energy problems.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
June 21, 2004

Letter: Nuke power

To the editor:

The 10 June commentary, "After the oil runs out," reminded me that we already have renewable energy, but ignorance and environmental extremists continue to deny us cheap and limitless electrical power.

But since we don't like nuclear reactors and their fuel rods, we should also shut down our nuclear Navy to be consistent rather than risk the lives of our sons and daughters. Do we still have coal to fuel the ships?

In a "spent" uranium fuel rod, less than 1 percent of the energy has been expended. Fission products absorb too many neutrons in a spent rod. In France, which gets more than 50 percent of its energy from nuclear sources, they clean the rods of neutron absorbers and the rod becomes as good as new. The French also clean rods for the Japanese.

If rod recycling were to be done in the United States, we would also have little need for a large storage site: Reusing rods would mean not as many rods are needed in the first place. Unfortunately, recycling of fuel rods will not occur until this nation is on its knees looking for energy sources. By then it may be too late.

Perhaps the French have something to teach us about not surrendering to fear and ignorance.

Lee R. Bishop
Las Vegas

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GovExec
June 21, 2004

Senate likely to tackle Defense appropriations bill before recess

By Amy Klamper, CongressDailyAM

Both chambers are likely to be dominated by appropriations work this week, although the Senate could detour into class action legislation and the House will deal with intelligence authorization and budget enforcement measures.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., had planned to move to the class action bill after the Senate finished the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill, and he told the National Federation of Independent Business Friday that that remains the schedule.

But he acknowledged he could move to either the fiscal 2005 Defense or Homeland Security appropriations bills, and leadership aides said Friday it appears more likely he will go to the Defense appropriations bill instead.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has scheduled a Defense Appropriations Subcommittee markup Tuesday morning and an Appropriations Committee markup that afternoon, making the bill eligible for action later in the week.

Neither Frist nor Stevens want to leave the Defense spending measure unfinished before adjourning for the July Fourth recess at the end of the week.

Senate leaders are banking that the political importance of funding the Pentagon when U.S. military forces are in harm's way overseas will ease its way through the chamber before the recess.

The Senate bill is expected to be close to the House version's $418 billion, including $25 billion in funds for Iraq and Afghanistan that could be made available upon enactment. The House is scheduled to debate its Defense spending measure Tuesday.

Defense funds above the Senate's unofficial allocation of $384 billion would be classified as emergency spending, which would allow the $814 billion fiscal 2005 discretionary spending cap to be breached without triggering points of order.

While no budget points of order can be raised on the Senate floor on individual spending bills without an fiscal 2005 budget resolution in place, last year's budget resolution set an overall spending ceiling of $814 billion, with the exception of emergency defense funds.

In addition to the Defense appropriations bill, the House also plans to consider a $28 billion fiscal 2005 Energy and Water spending bill Friday. But appropriators face procedural difficulties on that measure related to funding for the proposed nuclear waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain that threaten to provoke a jurisdictional battle on the floor.

House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Hobson, R-Ohio, included $131 million for the Yucca Mountain project -- $749 million less than the Bush administration requested.

The additional funds were to come from user fees collected from consumers using electricity derived from nuclear power, but the Appropriations Committee could not authorize the plan.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee acted last week to authorize the fees, which Hobson would like to include in the spending bill.

But to do that, lawmakers must waive budget points of order, as well as points of order against authorizing on an appropriations bill. They also must use "directed scoring" to ensure the additional $749 million counts against the Energy and Commerce Committee's allocation and not the Appropriations panel's discretionary cap.

"I don't know if it's going to happen," Hobson said. "But I'd like to go to conference with that extra $749 million."

Regarding the budget enforcement bill, no deal was reached last week between Appropriations Chairman Bill Young. R-Fla., and Budget Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, about the scope of the bill, leading to a potential intra-party fight on the floor this week. With Democrats waiting in the wings to oppose the bill, the GOP divide could doom the measure.

Nussle's bill would impose discretionary spending caps for five years and pay/go rules for entitlement spending but not for tax cuts.

The measure faces amendments by conservatives to add tougher spending restraints; from Democrats seeking to extend pay/go to tax cuts as well as entitlements; and by appropriators, who will argue multiyear spending caps would make it difficult to run the government.

When asked if he would have the votes, Nussle laughed and replied, "We'll see."

Meanwhile, the House Appropriations Committee will consider Wednesday the fiscal 2005 Commerce-Justice-State, Agriculture and Legislative Branch spending bills. The Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee is scheduled Thursday to mark up its fiscal 2005 spending bill.

If the Senate sticks to its original plan, then the long-awaited floor consideration of a bipartisan bill overhauling the rules for class action lawsuits may begin this week when the defense authorization bill is finished, according to a spokeswoman for Frist.

But although Senate aides said bill sponsors are hoping it will reach the floor before the July Fourth recess, Republican and Democratic leaders had not come to an agreement as of Friday on the number of amendments that could be offered.

Frist accused Senate Democrats Friday of attempting to scuttle the class action package by demanding that unrelated amendments be allowed.

Democratic co-sponsors of the class action bill hope the Senate will move to that bill as planned under a unanimous consent agreement reached earlier this month, according to an aide to Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del.

Carper and other Democratic co-sponsors have urged Frist to ensure a "fair and reasonable debate" on potential germane and non-germane amendments.

If the Senate does not have enough time to fully consider the legislation and all potential amendments before the July Fourth recess, Carper's aide said Democratic co-sponsors would have "no problem" resuming debate after the recess.

The class action bill would move many class action lawsuits from state court to federal court, where more stringent rules would govern the cases. The House passed its version of the class action legislation last year.

Business groups and Republican sponsors are pushing for the Senate to adopt the bill without amendments. "Since it's a carefully crafted compromise, he'd just like it to go through," said a spokeswoman for Finance Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the bill's chief sponsor.

Possible Democratic amendments include a carve-out for wage-and-hour cases and language by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., giving judges guidance for handling multistate class action cases filed in federal court. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions ranking member Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. also plans to offer a non-germane amendment to raise the minimum wage.

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Guardian
June 21, 2004

Interest Groups Take Targeted Ad Approach

By LIZ SIDOTI

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Interest groups are taking a more targeted approach to political advertising than in the past, as they count on local media outlets to help spread their message to voters already inundated by campaign commercials.

``The closer you bring a message to individual voters, the more likely they'll be to pay attention to it,'' said Costas Panagopoulos, a New York University politics professor who said tailored media strategies are smart in a year of unprecedented political advertising.

When President Bush visits Cincinnati on Monday, a liberal interest group will air a radio commercial that says ``Ohio's economy was humming along'' before Bush took office.''

During former President Clinton's appearance Sunday on ``60 Minutes,'' a conservative outfit scheduled a TV ad that implies support of Bush and says ``winning the war on terror demands a president who is willing to fight it.''

Liberal interest groups have spent more than $40 million since March on political ads benefiting Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry. Conservative groups supportive of Bush have spent a fraction of that amount.

The Media Fund, a Democratic-leaning group that has spent $25 million recently switched tactics from saturating the TV airwaves in 17 battleground states to birddogging Bush with newspaper and radio ads on his trips outside Washington.

When the president visited Nevada on Friday, a Media Fund radio ad criticized him for supporting the creation of a high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. When he visits Ohio on Monday, newspaper and radio ads will challenge him on the economy in a state that has lost more than 190,000 manufacturing jobs since he took office in January 2001.

``With a relatively modest investment, you get a big bang for your buck by piggybacking on a presidential visit,'' said Erik Smith, the Media Fund's executive director.

The goal is to offset the flood of positive local news coverage of a presidential candidate's visit and to spread the opposing point of view. But there can be drawbacks.

The coverage of a candidate can be so dense that other messages have difficulty breaking through and ads sometimes have to be put together quickly because some candidate trips are planned only a few days in advance.

Citizens United - a conservative interest group headed by one of Clinton's harshest critics, former Republican congressional aide David Bossie - scheduled a TV ad to run in Washington, New York and other media markets as the former president discusses his memoirs Sunday night on CBS' ``60 Minutes.''

``Here's what you might miss in Bill Clinton's new book,'' the ad says, before listing various terrorist attacks executed under his tenure. ``So who is responsible for leaving us vulnerable to terrorists? You don't need Clinton's book to know winning the war on terror demands a president who is willing to fight it.''

An affiliate of MoveOn.org, a liberal interest group, used the same approach in January when it aired a commercial assailing Bush on the deficit in the days surrounding his State of the Union address.

Other interest groups have moved to targeted advertising as well, although to a lesser degree.

The Sierra Club ran newspaper ads criticizing Bush's environmental record when he visited Maine on Earth Day in April and Louisiana in May. Also in May, NARAL Pro-Choice America targeted the president's visit to Wisconsin with a commercial criticizing one of his adviser's comments about abortion.

Bush's re-election campaign also has used the technique against Kerry. In March, when the Democrat visited veteran-rich West Virginia, the GOP campaign rolled out a television commercial labeling Kerry as ``wrong on defense.''

Some groups, like Citizens United, are running TV ads to coincide with specific televised events, such as Clinton's interview, or are tailoring commercials to piggyback on issues covered by the local media.

Meanwhile, the League of Conservation Voters says it will continue to criticize Bush's positions on local issues by advertising in select media markets, even when he's not there, in hopes of influencing the coverage.

The group tested its approch with ads in Tampa and Orlando assailing Bush for his position on oil drilling off Florida's coast. ``The point was to drive media coverage - and it worked,'' said Mark Longabaugh, the group's political director.

On the Net:

To view The Media Fund's ads: http://www.makeamericaworkforus.com

MoveOn: http://www.moveon.org

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KVBC
June 21, 2004

Vice President Cheney Makes Campaign Appearance In Henderson

Protesters say President Bush is too scared to face the voters of southern Nevada, and that's why he's sending his vice president. Dick Cheney will talk about the economy this morning in a speech at the Henderson Convention Center.

Dozens of demonstrators were on Las Vegas Boulevard near Russell yesterday. They say President Bush lied about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. In 2000, Bush said he would study the science of the project before deciding to store the nation's nuclear waste in Yucca. Two years ago, the President gave the go ahead for Yucca.

Vice President Cheney's last visit to the valley was in January for a fundraiser at the Bellagio. Campaign leaders say President Bush will visit the Las Vegas area some time before the November elections.

First Lady Laura Bush and political adviser Karl Rove have also visited Nevada recently. Nevada is expected to play an important role this election year.

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Las Vegas SUN
June 21, 2004

Cheney uses Nevada campaign stop to tout Bush record on economy

By Ken Ritter
Associated Press

HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney called Nevada an example of successful Bush administration economic policies during a brief campaign appearance Monday.

"America is moving in the right direction, and President Bush's policies are making us stronger every day," Cheney told about 450 applauding supporters at a convention center in Nevada's second-largest and fastest-growing city.

"People in Nevada have more money in their pockets thanks to President Bush's tax cuts, and you're putting that money to good use," he said before heading to McCarran International Airport in nearby Las Vegas to fly to another campaign rally in Springfield, Mo.

The Republican vice president arrived in Las Vegas on Sunday, two days after President Bush made a campaign stop in Reno.

"Las Vegas is one of the most confident, optimistic places in America," Cheney said during his 20-minute speech, with his wife, Lynne Cheney, at his side. He touched on campaign highlights including the war on terrorism, medical malpractice tort reform and a call for Congress to make Bush's tax cuts permanent.

Cheney took no questions from the audience or the media, and did not address Bush's unpopular support for a planned national nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

No Democratic picketers were in evidence Monday in suburban Henderson, after party officials organized a protest that drew dozens of people Sunday to the Las Vegas Strip.

Cheney declared Bush's policies responsible for economic growth over the past two years and drew laughter from the partisan crowd when he likened presumed Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry to former President Jimmy Carter.

"Every day John Kerry does his best to talk down the economy," Cheney said. "He even trotted out the old term, the 'misery index.' Problem is, by Sen. Kerry's definition, things actually got better in the Carter years and then got worse in the Reagan-Bush years."

"The results are coming in, Bush tax relief is working," Cheney declared.

Kerry campaign spokeswoman Laura Capps defended Kerry's criticism of Bush's economic policies.

"The core economic debate in this election is how to make life better for everyday families and create opportunities," Capps said. "George Bush and Dick Cheney might be satisfied with the economy, but John Kerry believes we can do better than 43 million Americans losing their health care, $2 per gallon gas prices and record high deficits."

Jon Summers, spokesman for the state Democratic party, said despite recent economic improvements, millions of people lost jobs since Bush took office.

Spokeswoman Ali Harden said the Bush-Cheney campaign planned to unveil a new Nevada advertisement Monday critical of Kerry's "pessimistic rhetoric" and taking credit for economic growth and job creation during the past nine months.

It was the vice president's third trip to southern Nevada in the past year, after fund-raisers in January for Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., and in July 2003 for the Bush-Cheney campaign.

Nevada voter registration is almost evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, and Bush won the state's four electoral votes by just 4 percentage points in 2000. Nevada has five electoral votes this year.

Both parties have targeted Nevada as a battleground state this campaign, and one Bush-Cheney supporter said he's noticed.

"They're pretty aggressive in the way they advertise, with TV commercials and the news they create," said George Jaw, 48, a convention service businessman and member of the Taiwanese Association of Las Vegas. "Usually, Nevada hasn't gotten this much attention this early on."

Jaw said he was convinced recent economic gains stemmed from Bush tax cuts, which he said put money in people's pockets and boosted consumer psychology.

The state has posted strong economic figures in recent months, including a 4.1 percent unemployment rate in May - the lowest in nearly four years and lower than the seasonally adjusted national jobless rate of 5.6 percent.

Henderson has swelled from fewer than 39,000 residents in 1986 to 217,000 in 2003, according to state figures.

On the Net:

Bush-Cheney campaign: http://www.georgewbush.com

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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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