Yucca Mountain News Clips - Thursday, July 1, 2004

Yucca Mountain News Clips
Thursday, July 1, 2004
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Las Vegas SUN
July 01, 2004

DOE turns in its Yucca assignment

Nearly 6 million pages filed to NRC

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

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department sent almost 6 million pages of Yucca Mountain information to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Wednesday, marking an anticipated, though late, first step in the project's license application process.

Nevada attorneys will now carefully search the documents, which are available to the public, to make sure the department sent everything that is required by law to be in the commission's database.

Under federal regulations, the department has to tell the commission everything it knows about the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, six months before submitting the project's license application.

"We've think we've done a very good job here," said David Garman, acting Energy undersecretary. "I have high confidence we've included everything the NRC requires of us."

The department sent all of its information, 1.2 million documents made up of 5.6 million pages, into a computer database known as the License Support Network Wednesday. The department missed its self-imposed deadline of June 23 in order to get the application in by Dec. 23, but certifying all the documents were there Wednesday will allow the application to come by Dec. 30, Garman said.

"We wanted to go for greater precision and accuracy," Garman said. "Part of it was just the sheer number of documents."

Attorney Charles Fitzpatrick of Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsch and Cynkar, the Virginia law firm hired by Nevada to handle Yucca Mountain legal issues, said Nevada staff will go through the database to make sure it is accessible and has the key documents the state believes should be included.

Fitzpatrick said the state has specific things it will look for, but he declined to say what those were.

If state officials have objections, they can file those with a hearing officer, who is expected to be named in the next few weeks.

Nevada has concerns about the quality of the documents since the Energy Department's estimate has gone down by millions of pages in the last few months, but Fitzpatrick said the state's legal counsel did not want to be "premature in what we do."

"We are not going to rush into this in the next two days," he said.

The commission now has 30 days to turn in its own documentation while the state and other parties allowed to participate in the process have 90 days to get their documentation online.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said the amount of information is overwhelming.

"We're talking about 5.6 million pages -- 1,000 miles of paper -- all to be consumed by the general public seeking to obtain answers to their questions about public safety," Gibbons said. "I can't help but wonder what flaws will become apparent deep within the colossal mountain of documents."

Because of the later submission, Garman said he believed the department sent an "extremely honest" batch of documents that will be useful to the public.

The documents could also play out in Nevada's legal challenge. The state, trying to stop the project, has filed a series of lawsuits, which are pending in federal court.

"The reality is, the questions about Yucca will ultimately be answered by the courts in the form of a few pages," said Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev. spokesman Adam Mayberry.

Rod McCullum, senior project manager for waste at the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's lobbying group, said submitting the documents Wednesday keeps the program on track for handing in the license by the end of the year.

"This is a very clear and definitive indicator that the licensing process is on schedule," McCullum said.

McCullum said posting all these documents is meant to save time since lawyers would normally ask for a lot of them during discovery periods of a case. Now, everything is already there.

"These get down to the nitty gritty on how DOE (Energy Department) got to an answer," he said.

NEI will also look through the database to see what the department posted because the group will post its own documents in 90 days.

The plethora of documents includes e-mails, letters, technical documents, scientific reports and various documents from 20 years of research on the mountain.

It includes information on all 293 key technical issues agreements, the areas the department and the commission agreed needed more answers.

So far, 101 have been deemed closed by the commission, meaning it has enough information to review the work, said Michael Voegele, the project's chief scientist. The remaining issues are in various stages of consideration by the commission and all e-mail exchanges between staff members of both agencies and other information on their progress are included in the millions of pages, Voegele said.

Garman said this is the first action in what is expected to be a three to four year process.

"The burden will be ours to prove our case that the repository is worthy of an NRC license," Garman said.

Garman admitted the department included documents that do not support the project, but that they need to be taken into context of the whole project.

"You're going to see both sides," Garman said. "That's the way it ought to be. The caveat is that they need to be considered together."

The department included scientists' complaints on aspects of the project.

"These are old issues, but when you're holding an e-mail in your hand, it tends to give some of these old issues new life," Garman said. "It kind of makes it real and in the minds of some it reinvigorates the story, it breathes new life into the story."

He said part of the peer review process is to pick the project apart, and the department included the critical statement to make sure it evaluated all sides.

Garman said the department will continue to submit documents to the network, and that if will make another certification when its submits the application six months from now. He said the department is still looking at some documents it would include on the network later. The commission can also ask for more data.

"This is not a one-time deal," Garman said. "This is an ongoing aspect."

But Fitzpatrick said the additional information is going to be huge point of contention.

He said the recent change to the regulation stipulate the parties do not have to send duplicate documents and they can only add documents created after the initial certification.

"That's a key difference," Fitzpatrick said.

He said information is bound to pop up later, but everything the department had prior to Wednesday needed to be in the database now.

Once the department submits the application in December, if it meets its goal, the commission will have three months to review it.

The NRC can decide to put it on its docket or send it back to the department with questions. Once on the docket, expected to come around March 2005, the commission has three years to review it, with an optional additional fourth year if Congress allows one.

The department would know by 2008 or 2009 if it receives a license to build the repository, but it also needs a license to accept and store waste inside the mountain. The department plans to open the site in 2010.

The whole process depends on adequate funding from Congress, which faces serious problems so far this year, and a favorable outcome from the six legal challenges brought by the state against various aspect of the project. The outcome of the November presidential election could also change things, because presumptive Democratic candidate John Kerry has come out against the project.

The state will also challenge the application during administrative hearings before the Atomic Safety Licensing Board. The five commissioners would then have the final approval of application.

The Energy Department has released more than 5.6 million pages of documents about Yucca Mountain in preparation to apply for a license to build a nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The documents can be viewed on the Internet at:

--sidebar--

http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov

http://www.lsnnet.gov

There are also public computers available to look at the documents at:

The Las Vegas Yucca Mountain Information Center -- 4101B Meadows Lane, Las Vegas

The Energy Department's public reading room (1E-190), Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, D.C.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
July 01, 2004

YUCCA DOCUMENTS: DOE studies, discussions on Internet

Attorneys for state question whether agency has posted all findings as required by NRC

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON --The Department of Energy certified Wednesday it has made 1.2 million documents available to a special public database, a milestone toward applying for a license to build a nuclear waste repository in Nevada.

Officials said 5.6 million pages detailing science studies and policy discussions will be found on a searchable Internet site for the Yucca Mountain Project. The site address is www.lsnnet.gov

Some of the documents on the licensing support network are background materials for environmental, science and engineering studies that have already been made public in support of the repository. Others might provide fresh insight to the government effort.

David Garman, acting DOE undersecretary, said Wednesday some documents contain dissenting views as to whether Yucca Mountain can safely contain 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.

"There will be documents that question the safety of the repository," he said. "That illustrates in our mind the nature that this was an honest scientific inquiry."

"Here is our information -- the good, the bad and the ugly," Garman said.

Attorneys for the state of Nevada do not believe DOE has been complete in its postings, and may challenge the database, according to Bob Loux, executive director for the state Agency for Nuclear Projects.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to appoint an administrative officer within 15 days to hear disputes involving the network.

Garman said DOE now expects to submit a repository application to the NRC on Dec. 30, a required six months after certifying its initial database contributions. More documents will be added later.

The new target is late by a week beyond DOE's original projection.

Anticipating that Yucca licensing will be a long and contentious process, the NRC required DOE, the state of Nevada and other license participants to post documents to the Internet depository as a substitute for protracted legal discovery.

Attorneys for the state of Nevada will begin scouring the database, Loux said.

"We know there is a whole pile of other documents out there that DOE has and for whatever reason they have decided not to put them on" the licensing support network, Loux said. "The regulations are pretty clear they have to put everything on and we'll challenge them at some point at that."

Loux said public comments by project deputy director John Arthur this spring indicated DOE was expecting to post 3 million to 4 million documents amounting to 20 million pages or more.

Arthur signed formal documents Wednesday certifying DOE complied with database regulations.

Garman said the department posted "everything that we think meets the NRC requirements." He said he did not know the number of documents that were withheld by claims of security or privacy exemptions.

An internal audit in May outlined potential problems that it said could delay DOE certification for a year or more. Garman said all issues raised in the audit were solved.

Now that the Energy Department has certified its postings, the NRC has 30 days to complete posting Yucca Mountain documents generated by its staff. The state of Nevada has 90 days to make available its documentation.

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Reno Gazette-Journal
July 01, 2004

DOE to release Yucca documents

5.6 million pages: Documents will be part of the permit application process.

H. Josef Hebert
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The government is making available to the public 1.2 million documents related to the federal proposal to build a nuclear waste facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

The 5.6 million pages will be part of the Energy Department´s permit application that is expected to be submitted this year to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Most of the papers support documents for previous reports, studies and assessments involving the project. It won final approval from Congress in 2002, pending an NRC license.

The documents cover more than 20 years of scientific study of Yucca Mountain, the department said in a statement Wednesday.

To dramatize the immense volume of papers, the department said the documents, if stacked in one pile, would be as tall as an 18-story building, or three times the height of the Washington Monument, and, if placed end to end, would stretch from Washington, D.C., to Las Vegas.

The repository, proposed for a volcanic rock site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, would become the nation´s central burial place for 77,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste from commercial power plants and defense sites in 39 states.

The department hopes to open it in 2010. The NRC licensing process will take several years.

The papers were being made available through the Energy Department and NRC Web sites, the department said.

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Reno Gazette-Journal
June 30, 2004

Dear President Bush...

TERRI CHOATE
Leader-Courier

Dear President Bush, I really want you to know that I am not upset because I was not—as that lady in the ad from the Media Fund said—“handpicked’ to attend your Reno speech June 18. I am a little miffed that I was passed over after I stood in line in the noon sun for an hour-and-a-half for tickets. However, I realize that the people in front of me in the line had arrived a whole lot earlier, and so maybe they better fit the criterion of being able to stand forever and ever since that´s what they had to do to be there for your speech.

But I watched your speech on TV. Great job!

Well, the Reno Gazette-Journal noticed you didn´t mention the violence in Iraq or Yucca Mountain in the speech. As to the first—say what? Who doesn´t know there is violence in Iraq? Climb out of your hole and read a paper, man! (Or don´t and you´ll never know it was ever a question.)

But because I wasn´t at the Convention Center and because I listened to the pre-speech coverage on the radio, I kept hearing that “third generation Nevadan’ telling me over and over that you lied to Nevadans about Yucca Mountain. Accusations of Presidential lying are flying fast and free this campaign season. I guess because your predecessor got caught in one, some people think every president engages in equal lying opportunism. Some of them seem almost to hope so.

Personally, I think this is a bad idea to put across to Americans, especially kids. This coming weekend we celebrate, as a nation, the Fourth of July, our founding principles and our founders. I remember as a kid revering our first president, George Washington, because, among other things, “he never told a lie.’ I don´t want kids today to question that, to think all Presidents lie, and to conclude that lying is an acceptable form of expression.

So I did some research to answer two questions:

1. Did you lie to Nevadans about Yucca Mountain, Mr. President, when you said you would base your decision on placing the nation´s nuclear waste here on “sound science’?; and

2. Who is The Media Fund?

My research consisted of spending the better part of two days downloading information from the internet and reading it. It´s true that almost all my information on Yucca Mountain came from the official Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management website and links from it; however, there´s no denying the weight of information available. I´m convinced I now know more than the typical Nevadan—third generation or just in town today—about nuclear waste and its storage. Anyone can check this out at www.ymp.gov/.

My research, Mr. President, convinces me that you did not lie, that you did base your decision on sound science. For example, this is what The National Academy of Sciences said in 2000:

“After four decades of study, geological disposal remains the only scientifically and technically credible long-term solution available...It also offers security benefits...’

Charles Shank, director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said in Sept. 2001:

“We believe that the scientific studies conducted to date show that Yucca Mountain is a suitable site for the isolation of radioactive waste, with significant performance contributions expected from multiple redundant barriers in both natural and engineered systems...It is my considered opinion and that of my staff that the Yucca Mountain site is suitable for recommendation as the nation´s first geologic repository.’

Now, I know the State of Nevada, with its elected Republican Governor and Attorney General, opposes the Yucca Mountain Project. I don´t believe state officials are “lying’ in their opposition. The state´s web page declares:

“Many studies by federal government scientists and independent contractors suggest that Yucca Mountain is unsafe for holding nuclear waste and keeping it out of the environment. In fact, State of Nevada scientists believe that the site, under the DOD´s own guidelines, should already have been disqualified.’

The state´s page also cites “politics and economics’ and says “Many feel these influences are too great to allow for an objective evaluation of the site...Dump proponents and the nuclear power industry are eager to get the site approved despite significant environmental and health and safety problems.’ The site goes on to point out that “a dump like this...has never been built anywhere in the world.’

The problem is that the state, at least on its website, offers no details of “many studies’ or “many’ who feel politics and economics played a part. The page sounds like it suffers from a case of NIMBY.

To me, it seems clear that safe, secure storage of nuclear waste is past due. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, current temporary storage sites at reactors in 31 states, are located near population centers and water sources (lakes, rivers, seacoasts). The potential for contamination is unacceptable.

What Yucca Mountain offers is storage “in a desert location, isolated away from population centers, secured 1,000 feet under the surface, in a closed hydrologic basin [meaning it is impossible to infiltrate La Vegas´ water supply], surrounded by military and other federal land [security], protected by natural geologic barriers, protected by robust engineered barriers and a flexible design.

The Department of Energy further maintains that the chance of a volcanic occurrence at Yucca Mountain in the next 10,000 years is 1 in 70 million. Earthquakes are a possibility, and so facilities have been designed to withstand severe earthquakes.

Because waste must be transported to Yucca Mountain, the DOE makes clear that the waste is solid and cannot spill, nor can it explode or burn. The fact is that in the last 30 years there have been 2,700 shipments of waste over 1.6 million miles with no harmful release of radiation. John Eversole, chief of the Chicago Fire Department, has stated:

“The International Association of Fire Chiefs have taken the position that, yes, you can safely move spent nuclear fuel and looking at the protective measures that have been taken, it seems to us that a superior job has been done in preparing to move this product.’

Nevadans could look at Yucca Mountain, especially this weekend, as a patriotic contribution to our country: nuclear power produces 20% of our electricity, contributing to “balanced energy security,’ as well as powering 40% of our naval fleet, contributing to our military security.

In any case, being pro or con Yucca Mountain doesn´t make any of us liars and does not make the President a liar. I´m pro storage at Yucca Mountain even though I know it´s not possible to look infallibly into a 10,000-year future with computer models. State officials are con even though they know Yucca Mountain is not based on wacky or unsound science and that it´s definitely a better choice than what the nation has at present.

And that brings me to who is The Media Fund? Again, go to the web and punch in The Media Fund. You will find that The Media Fund is the media arm of Americans Coming Together (ACT), a group formed to come together to defeat George W. Bush. According to the Center for Public Integrity, which claims “investigative journalism in the public interest,’ $5 million of ACT´s funds have come from George Soros. It´s not clear if this is a part of the $15 million The Washington Post claimed in November of 2003 that Soros had donated to defeat Bush or in addition to it.

The role of The Media Fund is to run ads against Bush in key battleground states.

Funding for The Media Fund and ACT also comes from another group called Victory Campaign 2004. All these are “527’ groups, meaning they can raise “soft money’ from corporations, labor unions and wealthy individuals, contributions well in excess of the $5,000 limit per donor per year that political parties can raise. Some of the money Victory Campaign 2004 has raised has come from labor unions, but most is from large donors such as Stephen Bing, who contributed $6.9 million.

Who are Stephen Bing and George Soros? Bing, according to the Center for Public Integrity, is a film producer. George Soros is the heavily-accented, Budapest-born financier who dabbles in politics around the world and who is committed not to protecting Nevada from any ill affects from a nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, but rather to the defeat of President Bush in November (“The central focus of my life,’ he has said).

The truth here is not what The Media Fund is saying to Nevadans. Their even-toned ad, despite use of the highly-charged word “lied,’ hides its true message and intent behind what could be thought a public service announcement. The truth is that The Media Fund doesn´t give a hoot about Nevada, third generation spokeswoman or not.

There´s a flip side:

We´re told that Senator John Kerry has said he will kill the Yucca Mountain Project if he is elected President. Well, maybe, but I´d suggest Nevadans look at the location of the 131 nuclear facilities that will send waste to Yucca Mountain and look also at Senator Kerry´s region of origin. What I´d see is a flip-flop in the making.

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DOE
July 01, 2004

Yucca Mountain Documents Made Available for Licensing Proceeding

1.2 Million Documents, Some 5.6 Million Pages, Available Via The Internet

WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today certified to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) the public availability through the Internet of approximately 1.2 million documents totaling some 5.6 million pages regarding Yucca Mountain. The documents are available on the Department´s website, and will be included in the NRC's Licensing Support Network (LSN). This certification is in anticipation of DOE's submitting a license application for Yucca Mountain to the NRC by December of this year. Following submittal of the license application, the Commission will conduct a full and public adjudicatory process on the license application, for which Federal law contemplates a three- to four-year time period.

DOE has previously released a substantial number of scientific documents related to Yucca Mountain, including the Yucca Mountain Science and Engineering Report, Site Suitability Evaluation, and Final Environmental Impact Statement. Many of the 1.2 million documents served as background material for those reports. The documents represent the scientific studies, evaluations, and opinions of more than 20 years of scientific study of Yucca Mountain. Each individual document represents only a piece of the information in the development of the license application. All information must be considered in context and as part of the entire set of documents for any user to draw substantive conclusions about the scientific information in the license application. Selective use of individual documents or portions of documents by any user, including DOE, outside the context provided by other relevant documents is likely to result in inappropriate, faulty, or misleading conclusions.

If the 5.6 million pages searchable on the Internet were stacked one on top of the other, the stack would reach a height of approximately 1,800 feet – some 3 times the height of the Washington Monument. Laid end-to-end, these 5.6 million pages would extend approximately 1,000 miles or almost one-half the distance from Washington, D.C. to Las Vegas, NV.

The DOE will be providing additional documents to the LSN as an ongoing activity. Other participants in the licensing proceeding are also required to submit documents to the LSN.

DOE's documents may be accessed today at http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov, and will be available through the NRC's LSN web site at http://www.lsnnet.gov. Persons without access to Internet connections may use the public access computers at the Las Vegas Yucca Mountain Information Center - 4101B Meadows Lane, Las Vegas, NV; at the public reading room (1E-190), U.S. Department of Energy, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C.; or at most libraries worldwide.

Media contact: Allen Benson (702) 794-1322

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U.S. Newswire
June 30, 2004

Yucca Mountain Documents Made Available for Licensing Proceeding; 1.2 Million Documents, 5.6 Million Pages, Available Via the Internet

To: National Desk and Energy Reporter

Contact: Allen Benson of the U.S. Department of Energy, 702-794-1322

WASHINGTON, June 30 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today certified to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) the public availability through the Internet of approximately 1.2 million documents totaling some 5.6 million pages regarding Yucca Mountain. The documents are available on the Department's website, and will be included in the NRC's Licensing Support Network (LSN). This certification is in anticipation of DOE's submitting a license application for Yucca Mountain to the NRC by December of this year. Following submittal of the license application, the Commission will conduct a full and public adjudicatory process on the license application, for which Federal law contemplates a three- to four-year time period.

If the 5.6 million pages searchable on the Internet were stacked one on top of the other, the stack would reach a height of approximately 1,800 feet -- some 3 times the height of the Washington Monument. Laid end-to-end, these 5.6 million pages would extend approximately 1,000 miles or almost one-half the distance from Washington, D.C. to Las Vegas, Nev.

The DOE will be providing additional documents to the LSN as an ongoing activity. Other participants in the licensing proceeding are also required to submit documents to the LSN.

DOE's documents may be accessed today at http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov, and will be available through the NRC's LSN web site at http://www.lsnnet.gov. Persons without access to Internet connections may use the public access computers at the Las Vegas Yucca Mountain Information Center -- 4101B Meadows Lane, Las Vegas, NV; at the public reading room (1E-190), U.S. Department of Energy, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C.; or at most libraries worldwide.

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Pahrump Valley Times
June 30, 2004

County has 90 days to submit Yucca data

Years of Oversight Work Could Translate to Conditions Set on Yucca Mountain License

By Doug Mcmurdo
PVT

The Department of Energy was expected to submit its Yucca Mountain documentation today, which might not happen, but that leaves the Nye County Department of Natural Resources and Federal Facilities 90 days to submit its own documents if the county wants to participate in the licensing process.

Les Bradshaw, director of the county department, in a statement released last week said the documentation must be submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will begin reviewing material in 2005 with licensing hearings scheduled to begin the following year. The commission has the authority to license the repository, which would be used to store the nation's high-level radioactive waste generated by defense programs and civilian nuclear reactors.

According to Bradshaw a license to construct the facility, located north of Amargosa Valley, could be granted in 2008 with initial shipments arriving two years later.

Yucca Mountain has been the focus for a repository since 1987. For the past several years Nye County has received millions of dollars from the Department of Energy in the form of Payments in Lieu of Taxes to compensate for taxes on Yucca Mountain. Congress has appropriated additional millions to the county to pay for local oversight of the Yucca Mountain Project.

The work consists of several elements, the most noteworthy a water flow monitoring system. The Early Warning Drilling Program is the most important project since it traces groundwater flow from Yucca Mountain to Amargosa Valley, located roughly 30 miles west of Pahrump and roughly 20 miles south of Yucca Mountain.

Other work ranges from geotechnical studies regarding earthquake faults and fissures, to the durability of the casks that will be used to haul and store the waste.

The ultimate goal of Nye County, said Bradshaw, is to attach conditions to the license if it is approved. A number of impacts have been defined by Bradshaw's team of scientists and other consultants, including socioeconomic, health, safety, transportation and emergency services issues.

"Nye County has a number of conditions it will ask the NRC to attach to the license," Bradshaw stated. "The county has a deep concern for how the repository is designed, constructed and operated."

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Pahrump Valley Times
June 30, 2004

Licensing process entirely online

When the licensing phase of the proposed Yucca Mountain Project gets underway in December, when the Department of Energy must submit its application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, millions of pages of documentation could seriously impact the process.

With that in mind, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has created a "Licensing Support Network," an Internet-based program operated by the Energy Department.

According to Nye County Department of Natural Resources and Federal Facilities Director Les Bradshaw, the network is the only feasible way for documents to be exchanged that would save each participant the expense of making millions of hard copies and shipping them to the other participants.

Each participant in the licensing process, including Nye County, must have a special web site on which to post documents for other participants. Bradshaw said the county's site would be online by the Sept. 30 deadline.

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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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