Yucca Mountain News Clips
Thursday, July 29, 2004
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
July 29, 2004
Firm may get $11 million for Yucca Mountain work
Bechtel-SAIC qualifies for incentive with draft license application
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The management contractor for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository qualified for an $11 million incentive fee after handing over a draft license application on Monday, an Energy Department spokesman said.
Examiners must verify 5,000 pages of material submitted by Bechtel- SAIC before the payment can be certified, said Allen Benson, spokesman for the Office of Repository Development.
The company qualified for an $11,043,476 fee by meeting a July 26 target, Benson said.
Incentives were negotiated within the firm's $1.88 billion contract to manage the department's repository program.
In preparing its licensing draft, Bechtel-SAIC assumed a 10,000-year radiation health protections for the repository, even though that standard was thrown out by a federal court on July 9.
Benson said the Energy Department considers the standard still applicable until the court's mandate is finalized following an appeal period.
DOE officials say they want to file an application at the end of the year and retain the 10,000-year standard at least during initial license reviews by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, although the NRC has not decided whether that will be allowed.
Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, criticized the Energy Department for authorizing a big contractor payout when the Yucca Mountain Project faces such uncertainties.
Loux, who coordinates the state's opposition to the repository, said the Yucca program is being driven by the promise of financial bonuses rather than by science.
"They shouldn't have gotten the money," Loux said of Bechtel-SAIC.
"It's clear these folks will do anything for money. The idea they would hand in a draft with a standard they know will not stand just says it all."
A number of incentives were written into the Bechtel-SAIC contract, including a $15.3 million fee for finalizing a repository application by Nov. 30.
Bechtel-SAIC would get a $22 million payment if the NRC accepts the licensing package for formal review within 91 days after submittal.
Loux asked the Energy Department inspector general in May to examine the Yucca management contract for possible legal or ethical violations.
A spokeswoman for inspector general Gregory Friedman, contacted late Wednesday, said she could not immediately get information about the status of the request.
The draft licensing package contains the results of studies and technical analyses to detail the Energy Department's claim that 77,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste can be secured within the mountain 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Benson said the package will be reviewed to ensure it conforms to licensing guidelines set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before the payment is authorized.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
July 29, 2004
CORRECTION
A graphic accompanying a poll story on water and growth in Wednesday's editions listed an incorrect margin of error. The margin was 5 percent. A graphic accompanying a poll story on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository also listed an inaccurate margin of error. The margin was 4 percent.
The Review-Journal corrects mistakes. Errors should be brought to the newspaper's attention by calling 383-0264.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
July 29, 2004
Letter: Nuke dump
To the editor:
Your columnists are over the top on the Yucca Mountain story. I admit that I, too, am a "nimby" about nuclear storage. John L. Smith is correct about the industry making billions while not caring about nuclear waste. I see not a word being written, however, about the real problem: What to do with the tons and tons of nuclear waste that is scattered about the nation in what are essentially unsafe conditions?
I have no answer to the problem, but I would love to see some prospective alternative options to Yucca. How about a 50-year deal to store the waste temporarily at Yucca while alternatives are studied, and a new site or improved storage methods are implemented? Why not recycle, following the example of France? But if there are no reasonable alternatives, and we already have billions of dollars poured into the hole in the ground, perhaps it is not in the best interest of either Nevada or the nation to overly delay the Yucca project.
As a parting aside, Congress should be looking at the government guarantees to the nuclear industry that permit the utilities to be paid while we are still trying to find a storage solution. This is becoming a sweetheart deal costing the taxpayers and is at least partially driving the administration to go forward with Yucca Mountain.
Morton Friedlander
Las Vegas
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Las Vegas SUN
July 29, 2004
Letter: On-site storage of nuclear waste not a sound solution
Your July 20 editorial "Double-talk on Yucca," asks, in view of the proposal to expand on-site storage at the Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York, "Why is Yucca Mountain such an urgent national priority?'
Disposal of high-level radioactive waste, including spent nuclear fuel from commercial power plants, in a suitable underground repository has been national policy since 1983. What makes it urgent is that the same law also said disposal was to begin in 1998. The Energy Department, which manages the disposal program, entered into contracts with nuclear utilities obligating the government to accept the waste in accordance with that schedule. In return, the utilities (and their ratepayers) began fee payments for the disposal, which they continue to pay to this day. The federal courts have found the government to be in partial breach of its contracts to accept the waste and therefore the government is liable for the costs of delay.
I don't believe you will find anyone at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or with a nuclear utility who will say that temporary storage of spent fuel at reactor sites is unsafe. There are strictly enforced NRC regulations to assure that any such storage is safe for the period of the license issued before it is built. The license is for 20 years. Construction and operation of these storage facilities only became necessary when it became apparent that the Energy Department was not going to be able to meet the 1998 waste acceptance schedule.
If you go back to the Yucca Mountain environmental impact statement you will see that building and maintaining the repository at Yucca Mountain will cost about $57 billion for a 10,000-year period. To meet the current regulatory requirements for the same period of time, while storing the waste at 77 government and commercial sites, would cost on the order of $5 trillion. Many opponents of the repository don't want to acknowledge that on-site storage at present sites is not a wise economic or environmental solution to the problem, which may be what Congress thought it was settling when it passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982.
Brian O'Connell
Editor's note: Based in Washington, D.C., Brian O'Connell directs the Nuclear Waste Program Office of the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners.
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Las Vegas SUN
July 29, 2004
Berkley casts vote for JFK
By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau
BOSTON -- Nevada Rep. Shelley Berkley Wednesday night enthusiastically cast the state's votes at the Democratic National Convention for Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.
"Since what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, we're here to cast Nevada's 32 votes for the next president of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kerry," Berkley said.
She meant John Forbes Kerry, who shares initials with another former Bay State senator and the most recent Massachusetts president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
WILL HE SAY IT?: Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., mentioned Yucca Mountain in his prime-time speech to the convention and Berkley had one applause break when she said the state was standing united against the nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.
Kerry has pledged to stop Yucca Mountain if he's elected and the party's platform says it will protect Nevada against nuclear waste. So will Kerry mention Yucca Mountain in his speech?
Berkley doubts it.
"I suspect his speech is set and ready to go," Berkley said on the convention floor Wednesday night. "I can't imagine it, it shouldn't be state specific. It should be a combination of his past, what he's done and what he'll do. That's the type of speech I want to hear. The American people are waiting to hear this speech."
NO SIGN: Other delegations had campaign signs touting their favorite sons and daughters when they addressed the convention, but where were the Nevadans' signs for Reid?
No one in the state's delegation had campaign signs, emblazoned with his slogan, Independent Like Nevada, for his speech Wednesday night.
Delegates were not allowed to bring their own signs into the convention. Signs had to be screened by security well in advance of the convention.
PARTY WHIP: Reid, the Senate assistant minority leader, also known as the whip, and his House counterpart Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., held a "Whip Party" Wednesday at Boston's Museum of Fine Art. The lawmakers gave guests woven leather lanyards resembling, well, whips as party favors with a tag in writing styled after the "Indiana Jones" movie logos.
Hoyer passed by Nevada's section moments before the state cast its vote during the roll call and said "This is no gamble. This is Nevada."
FAMILY AFFAIR: North Las Vegas delegate Naomi Goynes brought her husband, Theron, and 10other members of her family to Boston, including four grandchildren between 14 months and 12 years of age.
"This is an educational opportunity," Goynes said. "You have to lead by example."
CHARGE IT! If a Democrat needs an excuse to justify a purchase, he or she can just say the spending was a way to help the party. Visa was giving out free convention T-Shirts if attendees signed up for a credit card. Once approved, a cardholder could donate one percent of their purchases to the party.
GOOD CLEAN FUN: After John Kerry accepts the Democratic nomination tonight, 100,000 balloons will fall onto the crowd. They are biodegradable. The 1,000 pounds of red, white and blue confetti that will fall with the balloons is made from recycled papers.
BUTTON OF THE DAY: Elvis Impersonators for Kerry. Sellers say they're having trouble keeping the buttons in stock.
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Las Vegas SUN
July 29, 2004
Reid delivers his anti-Yucca pitch
By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau
BOSTON -- In a seven-minute speech to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., gave the nation a prime-time pitch against Yucca Mountain.
"We know that Nevadans will never again stand for being exposed to dangerous nuclear tests or nuclear waste" Reid said, drawing cheers from the Nevada delegates watching on the Fleet Center floor.
"We agree that Nevada should be a proving ground for renewable energy not a dumping ground for nuclear waste," Reid said. "That's why, when John Kerry is elected President, he will stop wasting billions of dollars trying to dump nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain and he'll lead us to energy independence."
Reid, speaking live during the East Coast's prime time, also spoke about Nellis Air Force base, Nevada's history of nuclear testing and his hometown of Searchlight as he made his pitch for Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.
Kerry has pledged to Nevada that the Yucca Mountain project will end if he is elected president and Nevada's Democrats believe he will keep that promise.
Kerry voted against the final decision to send high-level nuclear waste to Nevada, but State Republicans noted Tuesday that Kerry had previously voted against Nevada on several measures between 1987 and 1997.
During the last presidential campaign, Bush promised he would make the decision to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, on "sound science" but moved the project forward despite Nevada"s objections that sound science on the project does not exist.
After Reid finished his speech Wednesday, the Nevada delegates start chanting "no nuke waste, no nuke waste," and "Har-ry! Har-ry!"
Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates said Reid's speech was great.
"He got in Yucca Mountain," Gates said. "He talked about what John Kerry would do and what George Bush has not done. Harry Reid did what he always does, he delivered for Nevada."
Nevada State Party Chair Adriana Martinez said the speech was "powerful."
"We are getting great exposure on the issue of Yucca Mountain," she said on the convention floor. "For it to be on national television it can raise the red flag for the entire nation."
Beyond the Yucca issue, Reid emphasized the Kerry will create millions of jobs, makes schools better and fix the health care system. He said Bush's promises on education policy, prescription drugs and promises to unite the country "turned out to be fool's gold."
Noting that he came from a mining town, Reid said he learned when young that "real gold is precious. But even though fool's gold glitters to look like gold, it is worthless."
Las Vegas delegate Steven Horsford said the speech was "right on point" because it not only mention Yucca, which is a "top issue" but got in the others as well.
"Jobs, the economy, education, these are all important issues but we could lose that with the dangerous transportation of nuclear waste through our communities," he said.
Reid's campaign sent out a press release earlier Wednesday saying his prime-time slot "shows the importance of Nevada as a battleground state in this year's election." The campaign held a party at in Las Vegas to watch the speech.
Nevada's senior senator addressed the convention a couple of hours before vice presidential nominee Sen. John Edwards made his acceptance speech.
Edwards voted against Reid in a key 2002 Senate vote that allowed the Energy Department's nuclear waste storage plan to move forward in Nevada, but assured Reid immediately after Kerry selected Edwards as his running mate that he would support Kerry's opposition to the site.
Reid admitted after the speech that he was glad it was over because he was a little nervous.
He said he got his message across but that is was not just an anti-Yucca speech.
"I think the real issue of nuclear waste deals with character," Reid said. He said he believes Bush lied or broke promises on the Medicare, the No Child Left Behind education policy and the war in Iraq.
"He said, 'mission accomplished' and some 800 soldiers have been killed since then," Reid said. "He (Bush) doesn't tell the truth."
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
July 29, 2004
Steve Sebelius: Kerry & Yucca Mountain
"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in they brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast the beam of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." -- Gospel according to St. Matthew, 7:3-5
The political debate over Yucca Mountain has always been about equivalency.
Republicans, tarred with the accusation they are the party of Yucca Mountain, never hesitate to point out that the author of the 1987 bill which narrowed the search for a nuclear waste dump to Nevada was J. Bennett Johnston, a Democratic senator from Louisiana. And a Democrat-controlled Congress passed the measure.
Then again, a Republican president -- Ronald Reagan -- signed it into law. And Reagan's would-be intellectual heir, George W. Bush, officially made Yucca the Home of the Spent Fuel Rod, after promising to wait until "sound science" was finished studying the site.
So imagine the great joy this week as Republicans released opposition research showing Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Sen. John Kerry had cast several seemingly pro-Yucca Mountain votes during his Senate career. That put Kerry's attacks on Bush's Yucca action, as well as Kerry's promise to kill the Yucca dump once and for all, into a hypocritical new light.
"I think this is typical of what John Kerry is," crowed U.S. Sen. John Ensign. "He wants to have it all ways. His voting record doesn't stand up."
Kerry, Ensign said, not only voted for the 1987 bill, he also voted in 1988, 1995, 1996 and 1997 on amendments or procedural votes that helped Yucca Mountain.
But Democrats are giving the GOP no quarter. After all, this is the perfect year for the perfect issue. Nevada is a battleground state, even with a relatively few five electoral votes. Polls show Democratic traction on the Yucca issue, especially after state Republicans were kind enough to insert a pro-Yucca plank in their state-party platform. Bush's 2000 broken promise hangs in the air, and contrasts nicely with Kerry's promise to end Yucca Mountain as we know it. So Democrats are sticking with their man.
"They're (GOP) trying to muddy it up because they know this is the winning issue in the state of Nevada," says U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley. "This is a seminal issue for him (Kerry). That's good enough for me."
Adds U.S. Sen. Harry Reid: "John Kerry is our man. If he's president, there will be no Yucca Mountain. ... No one has been better for us on Yucca than John Kerry. He voted with us every time it mattered."
Reid frankly acknowledges there were times it didn't matter, in the late 1980s when he and fellow U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan were throwing up Hail Mary anti-Yucca bills that had no chance of passing but were designed to draw public attention to the problem of nuclear waste. That explains some of Kerry's votes.
Reid aide Greg Jaczko notes that Kerry voted -- four times, in fact -- during the debate of the 1987 Screw Nevada bill to eliminate language that targeted the Silver State for study for the dump. Four times, those efforts failed. Kerry voted for the final bill, as did 85 of his fellow senators.
And while Republicans argue -- and not without merit -- that if Kerry really cared about Yucca, he'd have voted with the state every time -- Democrats can still point to votes in which Kerry said "nay" to Nevada as a final storage site, sustaining President Clinton's 2000 veto of an interim storage bill and against the final designation of the site by Bush.
Richard Urey, chief of staff to Berkley, notes that the 1987 bill was to study Yucca, and that when the study was complete, Kerry concluded that Yucca was unsuitable to store waste. "What could be more consistent than that?" he asks.
Meanwhile, Berkley says the Republicans should stop scrutinizing Kerry's voting record and start looking at Bush's. Since the president might need Nevada to win re-election, she wonders why Gov. Kenny Guinn, Attorney General Brian Sandoval, Ensign, and U.S. Reps. Jon Porter and Jim Gibbons aren't putting Nevada above party loyalty and demanding Bush put an end to Yucca in exchange for their support? (State Republicans have simply said they "agree to disagree" with the president on Yucca even as they campaign for his re-election.) "They don't know their power," Berkley says.
In any event, what's happened in the past may be less important that what might happen in the future: Bush is already pushing ahead with Yucca Mountain, despite a recent court ruling that says a 10,000-year radiation standard is far too short. Kerry has pledged to stop the dump entirely. "We should look to the future," Reid says.
Only in the future Reid has in mind, Bush lives in Crawford, Kerry lives on Pennsylvania Avenue and Yucca Mountain is a quiet, windswept hill in the middle of nowhere.
Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist. His column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at 383-0283 or by e-mail at ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
July 29, 2004
Jane Ann Morrison: Kerry's mixed record on Yucca Mountain could haunt Democrats
In a political blunder that should have been foreseen, Nevada Democrats allowed Republicans to muddy their presidential candidate John Kerry on the Yucca Mountain issue at a bad time: during the Democratic National Convention.
Nevada Democrats had embraced the Massachusetts senator wholeheartedly for opposing the Yucca Mountain Project. U.S. Sen. Harry Reid said unequivocally in a May 12 Review-Journal article: "He's somebody that's been with us all the way on nuclear waste, every step of the way."
Well, that's not quite true.
The GOP, selecting just the right time, unearthed six instances between 1987 through 1997 in which Kerry didn't vote with Reid on Yucca Mountain issues.
Now, Reid is saying those votes are irrelevant, even though one was the so-called "Screw Nevada" bill in which Nevada was chosen as the only place to be studied for a nuclear dump. Another vote would have given Nevada's governor veto rights.
So did Nevada Democrats not know about these votes?
Reid says he knew, but "I honestly feel those votes were meaningless."
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she didn't know about the votes, "but at this moment in history, they are not important, they are not reflective of the man's position."
A fumble-free political strategy by Democrats would have been to pre-empt the GOP attack by revealing Kerry's mixed voting record early and stressing that when it was genuinely important, Kerry voted with Nevada.
Reid was serving in the Senate in 1987 when the "Screw Nevada" bill passed and only five Democrats voted against it. He knew Kerry wasn't one of the five.
It's tough to describe that bill as irrelevant after Reid once called it "an act of naked and unprovoked aggression" by larger states against Nevada.
But on Wednesday, the senator said the "Screw Nevada" bill was "just a study."
The effort to give Nevada's governor a veto was hard fought in 1997 when Reid and Bryan proposed it and Kerry voted against it.
In retrospect, Reid now says, "Anyone with half a brain knew that was unconstitutional."
These days, Reid makes a distinction between votes on studies and votes on where to place the dump. "When it came to siting, Kerry has always been there with us. When we needed Kerry, he was with us. When we needed Bush, he signed the bill."
Four years ago, candidate Bush promised he would rely on "sound science" to decide whether to store nuclear waste in Nevada. Then in February 2002, despite unanswered scientific questions, President Bush said: Send it to Nevada.
The Kerry team countered Wednesday with a list of seven Kerry votes in which he supported Nevada, calling one the "Screw Nevada Bill."
Will the real "Screw Nevada" bill please stand up?
The GOP research cited the December 21, 1987 bill; the Kerry research cited one taken Nov. 12, 1987.
The dueling "evidence" goes to the heart of the problem. Because of the number of procedural votes and amendments, researchers can cherry pick a vote saying someone is for or against something and have at least a kernel of truth.
In this case, the Republicans' research cited the real "Screw Nevada" bill. The Democrats cited an earlier vote on some of the same issues. Unlike Reid, former U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., conceded Wednesday that the GOP list of votes undercuts the Democrats' arguments. "Although Kerry is clearly the better choice for Nevadans on nuclear waste, it does muddy up his position," Bryan said.
But, Bryan also insisted, "On the critical votes where it really counted, John Kerry would be supportive."
In a Review-Journal poll released this week, 54 percent of respondents said Yucca Mountain has no influence on whether they will vote for Bush. The same percentage believe the state's leaders should keep fighting Yucca Mountain in court.
Count on seeing Republican political ads designed to make it harder, not easier, for voters to tell the difference between the two men's positions on nuclear waste.
In the end, Bush wants nuclear waste stored here and Kerry says he doesn't.
Democratic presidential contender Michael Dukakis came out against nuclear waste in Nevada in 1988, then switched his position when he thought it would help him in Minnesota.
Kerry is unlikely to switch, but his votes have swung both ways.
Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at jane@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0275.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
July 29, 2004
Reid takes his turn in spotlight
By Erin Neff
Review-Journal
Sen. Harry Reid got a little prime-time exposure for Nevada's fight against Yucca Mountain and levied a fresh dig against President Bush during a 10-minute speech Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention.
Reid began with a speech echoing his campaign kick-off address, with talk of his home in tiny Searchlight.
But he also drew huge whoops from the Nevada delegation when he credited Sen. John Kerry with promising to block nuclear waste shipments to the state.
"We know that Nevadans will never again stand for being exposed to dangerous nuclear tests or nuclear waste," he said.
"We agree that Nevada should be a proving ground for renewable energy, not a dumping ground for nuclear waste," Reid said. "That's why, when John Kerry is elected president, he will stop wasting billions of dollars trying to dump nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, and he'll lead us to energy independence."
Reid, the Senate Democratic whip, whipped up Nevadans and those paying attention in Boston's FleetCenter when he talked of learning the difference between real gold and fool's gold with his father, a miner.
He then listed several of Bush's promises, including job creation and an education plan that leaves no child behind.
"He promised to cut prescription drug costs, and he promised to unite our country and bring the American people together," Reid said. "Those promises turned out to be fool's gold."
Tracey Schmitt, spokeswoman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, said, "Senator Reid should check his facts."
"More than 50,000 new jobs have been created in Nevada alone, and this administration has the largest education funding increase since the Johnson administration," she said.
The Nevada delegation chanted "Harry, Harry, Harry" as Reid concluded his speech, cheering wildly for C-Span and CNN cameras. As that chant subsided, they started a new one: "No nuke waste, no nuke waste."
"I hope that the nation is seeing that we're opposed to Yucca Mountain," said delegate Ed Beaman, a Mount Charleston resident and Clark County firefighter. "Harry's our leader, and hopefully this will help get more national support for the fight."
Democrats gathered in Las Vegas and Reno to watch the speech.
"They were energized Reid supporters happy to see him speaking to Nevada and to Americans and fighting for John Kerry," said Reid campaign spokeswoman Megan Jones, who joined about 80 supporters at Magura Pizza in Las Vegas to watch the speech.
U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, chairwoman of the Nevada delegation, said Reid spoke eloquently about jobs, Yucca Mountain and the "future of America."
"Harry Reid is one of the most important people in the U.S. government," Berkley said. "For Nevada to be represented in that fashion and have someone from Searchlight, Nevada, representing our nation is unbelievable."
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
July 29, 2004
Nominee electrifies Silver State delegation
By Erin Neff
Review-Journal
BOSTON -- Nevada Democrats said the hopeful message they heard from vice presidential nominee John Edwards gives them a similar optimism about working to turn their state out to vote for Sen. John Kerry.
"Hope is on the way," the crowd cheered, echoing Edwards' speech refrain at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night.
Edwards' vision for America will resonate with undecided or independent voters considering voting for Ralph Nader, delegates said.
"Right now, people in our country are looking for solutions to problems," said Las Vegas delegate Jeanne Maust. "We're looking to move forward and facilitate the type of change independent voters want."
A wild scene erupted on the convention floor after Edwards spoke, when the Black Eyed Peas pumped up the crowd with "Let's Get It Started."
The enthusiasm felt in the hall Wednesday might be a continent away from the Silver State, but Fallon delegate Marcia de Braga said Edwards' message will appeal in rural Nevada, which is dominated by Republican voters.
"I am finding there is a lack of respect for the president from some Republicans," said de Braga, who is campaigning for a rural Assembly seat covering seven counties. "There's a lot of Republicans who are saying they're sick of (President) Bush and this is the kind of message they need to vote for John Kerry."
Edwards' speech was anticipated with a buzz the FleetCenter hadn't felt since the convention opened Monday.
"It is a message of hope that we can change this country," said County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, a convention delegate.
Edwards rocked the FleetCenter in ways that rivaled crowd noise at the Boston Garden, which once stood in its place.
"Between now and November -- you, the American people -- you can reject this tired, old, hateful, negative politics of the past," Edwards said. "And instead, you can embrace the politics of hope, the politics of what's possible because this is America, where everything is possible."
Nevada's delegation erupted with the rest of the crowd, turning the FleetCenter into a sea of thin, red, vertical signs that read, "Edwards."
"John Edwards is one of the most remarkable speakers I've ever heard," said U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.
Much of Edwards' speech focused on his "two-Americas" theme -- a country he sees that is still split between the haves and have nots, and one in which the government plays a role evening the divide.
After his speech, Berkley took the microphone, wearing a glittering red suit and gold heels, to pledge Nevada's 32 delegates to Kerry.
Nevada's moment in the roll call came at 11:40 p.m. local time, after Kerry had already amassed the number of delegates to win the nomination.
Berkley used the spotlight to describe Nevada as home to the entertainment capital of the world, Las Vegas, and the home of the man she said will be the next Senate majority whip, Harry Reid.
The third-term congresswoman also said: "It is a state that is standing united against becoming the home of the nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain."
But she stumbled when she pledged all 32 delegates to "John Fitzgerald Kerry." The presidential candidate's middle name is Forbes.
Later, Berkley laughed about the mistake, saying she didn't even realize she had misspoke until her husband brought it to her attention.
"I just said it," Berkley said of the gaffe. "It was electric and fun, and it sounded good."
Earlier in the day delegates heard a warning about Nader's impact in an election that is expected to be close.
Elizabeth Holtzman, a former New York congresswoman providing coordinating advice to those trying to challenge Nader's ballot access in a variety of states, told delegates: "Our country's counting on you."
Bob Brandon, representing United Progressives for Victory, said if Nader does qualify for Nevada's ballot, "we will try to persuade the pro-Nader voters not to vote for Nader and to stop Nader from stealing the election from the Democrats."
The Nevada Democratic Party has been analyzing some 11,000 signatures submitted to put Nader on Nevada's ballot as an independent candidate. The party's executive director, Rebecca Lambe, said a decision would be made by the Aug. 24 deadline on whether to mount a challenge.
Las Vegas delegate Duane Chesnut asked for a complete list of organizations that are supporting Nader.
"I want to make sure I never contribute another nickel," he said.
A recent poll conducted for the Review-Journal and reviewjournal.com showed Bush with 45 percent, Kerry with 42 percent and Nader with 4 percent, making the Silver State a tossup.
With the state polling at a dead heat, the small percentage of voters Nader attracts could tip Nevada for Bush, according to pollster Brad Coker of Washington-based Mason-Dixon Research.
The overriding theme of the convention -- national security -- dominated the speeches leading up to Edwards' address and, Nevada delegates said, could help swing military voters and veterans at home.
"To us the real test of patriotism is how we treat the men and women who have put their lives on the line every day to defend our values," Edwards said. "And let me tell you, the 26 million veterans in this country will not have to wonder, when we're in office, if they'll have health care next week or next year.
"We will take care of them because they have taken care of us," he added.
Republican Congressman Jim Gibbons, a veteran of the Vietnam and Gulf wars, defended Bush, saying he has "a strong record when it comes to supporting our veterans."
"Senator Kerry fails to acknowledge the 40 percent increase in veterans' care under President Bush's leadership," Gibbons said in a statement released by the Bush-Cheney campaign before Edwards' speech. "This is a record that all Americans, from all political backgrounds, should be proud of."
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Nevada Appeal
July 29, 2004
Reid brings Yucca Mountain to national stage at convention
Associated Press
BOSTON - Sen. Harry Reid brought the issue of a planned nuclear waste dump in Southern Nevada to the national stage Wednesday, telling the Democratic National Convention that Sen. John Kerry would kill the Yucca Mountain project if he becomes president.
"We agree that Nevada should be a proving ground for renewable energy, not a dumping ground for nuclear waste," Reid told thousands of delegates inside the Fleet Center. "That's why when John Kerry is elected President he will stop wasting billions of dollars trying to dump nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain."
The Bush administration and Congress picked the site in 2002 to hold the waste now stored at military sites and commercial nuclear reactors across the country. The planned repository would be located in a volcanic ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Reid's speech coincided with a defense by Kerry's Nevada communications director, Sean Smith, of Kerry's record on the waste dump. Smith said Republicans are distorting Kerry's record of long-standing opposition to the project, adding, "The fact is, it's George Bush who has pledged to deliver the nation's nuclear waste to Nevada."
"Sen. Reid has been a fighter, has been a leader from the very beginning and used the opportunity as a national leader in the Democratic Party to remind Americans why this issue is important to them and not just Nevada," said delegate Steven Horsford, Nevada's national Democratic committeeman.
Reid is the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, serving as minority whip. He was first elected to the Senate in 1986.
In his 7-minute speech, Reid criticized President Bush, likening his promises to create millions of jobs and to cut prescription drug costs as "fool's gold."
Reid also evoked the down-home values of rural Nevada.
"I was born and raised in a rural mining town called Searchlight, Nevada," Reid said. "My mom and dad lived through the Great Depression. Those hard times taught them that people need to help their neighbors."
Although Kerry, D-Mass., and his running mate Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., came from different parts of the country, Reid said they learned the same values.
"We all learned about the importance and dignity of hard work. That's why John Kerry will create millions of good jobs," Reid said. "We all believe that education opens the door of opportunity. That's why John Kerry will make our schools better, so every child can get a quality education."
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PR Newswire
July 28, 2004
The Honorable Harry Reid's Speech before the Democratic National Convention
BOSTON, July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a transcript of a speech by The Honorable Harry Reid, before the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, July 28, 2004:
The legendary singer and songwriter Loretta Lynn said she was proud to be a coal miner's daughter. Well, I'm proud to be a gold miner's son.
I was born and raised in a rural mining town called Searchlight, Nevada. My father was a hard rock miner who toiled in the dark depths of the earth. My mom took in laundry to help make ends meet. Both my parents taught me that hard work is a virtue. Even though our house didn't have hot water or an inside toilet, it was truly a family home to me and my three brothers.
My mom and dad lived through the Depression. Those hard times taught them that people need to help their neighbors. And President Franklin Delano Roosevelt taught them there is always hope.
On the wall of our home in Searchlight my mother hung a blue pillowcase with yellow fringe and stitching of a quote by President Roosevelt. I can still see his words on the wall of our home:
WE CAN.
WE WILL.
WE MUST.
In my mind's eye I can see the schoolhouse where my teacher, Mrs. Pickard, taught all eight grades. We had to go to high school in another town so some didn't get to go. I can picture my brothers and me playing baseball in the dirt and rocks just below our home. In Searchlight there were no lawns, almost no trees, mainly because there wasn't enough water.
My brother Larry broke his leg in a bad bicycle accident. I can still see him lying in bed with that painful injury. Because we had no doctor in Searchlight, Larry's leg had to heal on its own a little bent to this day. I vaguely remember World War II. But I soon learned of the sacrifices so many had made, including Searchlight's hero, Bill Nellis. He was a fighter pilot who never came back from his last mission in Europe.
Today Nevada proudly boasts the No. 1 Air Force fighter training facility in the world and it's named Nellis Air Force Base. And I recall how the dark desert night would turn to day when the government exploded a nuclear weapon at the Nevada Test Site. Today I still call Searchlight home. And I still try to live by the lessons and values I learned there.
Senator John Kerry is from New England, but he learned the same things I did. Senator John Edwards, who was born and raised in the south and in the factories there, learned about hard work and hope.
We all learned about the importance and dignity of hard work. That's why John Kerry will create millions of good jobs. We all believe that education opens the door of opportunity that's why John Kerry will make our schools better, so every child can get a quality education.
We know that even today, millions of Americans still can't see a doctor when they need to that's why John Kerry has a real plan to fix the health care system in this country. And we know that Nevadans will never again stand for being exposed to dangerous nuclear tests or nuclear waste.
We agree that Nevada should be a proving ground for renewable energy not a dumping ground for nuclear waste. That's why, when John Kerry is elected President, he will stop wasting billions of dollars trying to dump nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain and he'll lead us to energy independence.
John Kerry and John Edwards will make America stronger at home and they'll restore our respect around the world.
WE CAN DO IT ...
WE WILL DO IT ...
AND WE MUST.
As a boy in Nevada, I started going down into the mines with my dad. He taught me how to tell the difference between real gold and something we call fool's gold. Real gold is precious. But even though fool's gold glitters to look like gold it is worthless.
George Bush promised to create millions of jobs. He promised to Leave No Child behind in school. He promised to cut prescription drug costs and he promised to unite our country and bring the American people together. Those promises turned out to be fool's gold. John Kerry is the real deal. He is a hero in war and a leader in government.
With John Kerry's leadership, we can work together to create more good jobs. We will work together to improve our public schools. We will cut health care costs, and make sure every American who is sick can see a doctor and we must develop an energy strategy that makes our nation stronger.
WE CAN ...
WE WILL ...
AND WE MUST ...
Thank you all very much.
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Berkshire Eagle
July 29, 2004
No solution on site
People in North Berkshire are right to be worried that the highly radioactive nuclear fuel rods that used to power the Yankee Rowe plant are still there, in a secure storage facility but in casks designed to last little more than 50 years. Adding to those worries, a federal court just sent plans for the Yucca Mountain high level radioactive waste storage facility back to the drawing board as not sufficiently safe. The picture of the train wreck on the same page was not reassuring either, considering that plans call for shipping much of that waste, 77,000 tons in all, to Nevada by rail. What was our society thinking when it started making that stuff with nowhere to put it?
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KRNV
July 28, 2004
Nevada poll finds voters favor fighting Yucca Mountain plan
A new poll finds a majority of Nevada residents want the state to keep fighting a national nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.
54 percent of those surveyed statewide for the Las Vegas Review-Journal say the battle should continue. 39 percent say the state should strike a deal for federal benefits in return for accepting the repository.
The poll of 625 registered voters was conducted last week by a Washington, DC, polling firm. It had a sampling error margin of plus or minus four percentage points.
Seven percent say they're unsure what the state should do.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Pahrump Valley Times
July 28, 2004
YMP Shortfall
State running out of Yucca project money
Nevada Having Problems Challengeing Government's Bid Due to Lack of Funding
By Steve Tetreault
PVT Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Nevada is running short of money to challenge the government's licensing bid for a Yucca Mountain repository, a state official and attorneys said Thursday as they applied for a $13.75 million grant to continue their efforts.
Nevada managers have directed contract scientists to curtail research into some elements of the Energy Department's nuclear waste proposal, and are negotiating to have Clark County pick up some costs, according to the state's nuclear coordinator.
The financial squeeze comes at a bad time for the state - when its lawyers and scientists need to step up for complex licensing hearings that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission might convene early next year, said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.
Loux said the severity of the problem is difficult to pinpoint because of myriad uncertainties facing the Yucca project, including a court ruling this month that could force DOE into long delays and relieve some of the financial pressures.
"In a world where there are constants, we would be thinking we're in trouble but we may not be," Loux said.
Nevada had relied heavily on federal appropriations to pay for its Yucca work, but only got $1 million from Congress last year. This year, no money has been set aside yet for the state. Attorney General Brian Sandoval is suing the Department of Energy for more funding but decisions in that case are not expected until next year.
Loux said the Nevada Protection Fund that Gov. Kenny Guinn established for a Yucca Mountain fight contains about $800,000 and that also is being tapped.
As its funding has shrunk, state costs have grown to pay a team of lawyers and 25 technical experts that are dissecting the Energy Department's repository science looking for flaws. Loux has said the state projected needs at about $10 million a year through the licensing process that could take four years or longer.
On Thursday, Loux and two of the state's attorneys appeared before officials at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ask for close to $14 million.
"We are coming to you with hat in hand but with a justifiable argument why we should get assistance," said Joe Egan, the state's lead nuclear waste lawyer.
Egan, accompanied by partner Martin Malsch, said Nevada is the only one performing comprehensive research that could add to understanding Yucca Mountain and the science that the Energy Department will put forth to support its repository plan.
"It's impossible to penetrate what DOE is doing without credible experts and credible resources," Egan said. "It is essential to determine whether this is a safe project or not and Nevada is the only one doing it."
Janet Kotra, an NRC senior project manager, said the agency could decide the state's application by the end of the summer. The decision will be made by Jack Strosnider, head of the agency's nuclear materials safety and safeguards division.
But, Kotra warned during the meeting, there are questions whether the NRC can grant the request. She said commissioners in 1985 interpreted NRC regulations to rule out financial assistance for independent application reviews, which is what Nevada has undertaken.
Afterwards, Loux said his expectations "are not high" that Nevada will win funding. "But the way we read the regulations, clearly it can be done," he said.
Included in the state's request was $2 million to examine repository performance, $1.8 million to continue corrosion research, $800,000 for hydrology work and $600,000 for transportation analyses.
Nevada also is seeking $4.75 million to pay its lawyers. State officials said the financial request for attorneys was 31 percent of what the Energy Department has budgeted for its attorneys.
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Pahrump Valley Times
July 28, 2004
President race tight in state
By The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS - The presidential race in Nevada has tightened significantly and is beginning to reflect its national status as a battleground state, according to a statewide poll of likely voters conducted for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The Republican ticket of George Bush and Dick Cheney led the Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards 46 percent to 43 percent. Seven percent were undecided, and four percent went for Ralph Nader, who's heading the independent ticket.
That's significantly closer than a similar poll conducted in March, which showed Bush up 49 percent to 38 percent over Kerry with nine percent undecided.
The poll of 625 voters was conducted from Tuesday to Thursday by Washington, D.C.-based Mason-Dixon Polling & Research. The margin of error is plus or minus four percentage points.
Some factors that could tip the state for Bush include Nevada's strong economy and Nader's potential to take votes away from Kerry. But Kerry could nullify Bush's edge on those fronts as a result of the Yucca Mountain issue, the poll suggests.
Voters were asked whether Bush's approval of Yucca Mountain as the nation's nuclear waste repository would make them more likely or less likely to vote for him, or if it would have no influence in their decision.
Statewide, a majority of voters said it would have no effect on their presidential vote. But among undecided voters, 31 percent said they would be less likely to vote for Bush because of his Yucca Mountain decision.
"Yucca really kind of jumps out as an issue," pollster Brad Coker said. "It could be the Achilles' heel for Bush because among that little group of undecided voters, by about a three-to-one margin, it's working against him."
Kerry voted consistently against Yucca Mountain in the Senate and has vowed to halt the project if he is elected.
Steve Wark, a Republican political consultant who said he aided the effort to get Nader on the ballot in Nevada, said he thinks Nader can also help the president.
"Any third party candidate with appeal to an electorate will garner some votes in the general election and most of the votes that Ralph Nader will garner will come from Democrat leaning voters," Wark said.
Coker said he believes the race in Nevada probably will lean more to Kerry after this week's Democratic National Convention and could even out again after the Republican National Convention in late August.
Kerry's climb in the poll since March shows the presumptive Democratic nominee withstood "that first big wave of attack ads," Coker said. The Bush campaign was advertising heavily in Nevada around the time of the March poll.
Coker also said Kerry gained from increased public concerns about the war in Iraq and from his selection of Edwards as his running mate.
The same poll showed 46 percent of voters recognize Bush favorably, compared to 40 percent unfavorably. Kerry's recognition is split in thirds between favorable, unfavorable and neutral. Nader is recognized favorably by 19 percent compared to 45 percent unfavorable.
Bush is supported more by men, while Kerry gets more support from women. The breakdown in counties statewide falls along voter registration with Kerry winning in Clark, Bush winning in Washoe and Bush winning decisively in rural Nevada.
The Kerry campaign was "elated" with the poll, said Sean Smith, Nevada spokesman for Kerry. He said the numbers show Kerry within range of putting the state back into the so-called blue column, after Bush's 3.5 percentage point margin of victory in Nevada in 2000.
"We're in a dead heat with him after we were down 11 points in March," Smith said. "We haven't even had our convention yet."
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Pahrump Valley Times
July 28, 2004
We know best, or do we?
A century ago there was a movement in the United States called desert reclamation. It involved diverting water from its natural courses into the desert to convert the land into farmland. Its supporters were more than just supporters. They were adherents, believers, disciples.
Reclamation became something resembling an organized religion and was sold on the basis of a pseudoscience whose tenets (Rain Follows the Plow: When ground is plowed, rainfall will increase - and I am not making this up) rested on faith and a suspension of disbelief. It was a cult of "We Know Best" and it disdained critics. Nor were its adherents discouraged by its failings, because they believed.
Reclamation went nowhere under private enterprise so its adherents turned to government. It faced opposition in Congress and President McKinley was indifferent to it, but after McKinley's murder his successor Theodore Roosevelt championed the cause and in 1902 Congress approved it.
Nevada's Churchill County was selected for one of the first five desert reclamation projects. A dam was built on the Truckee River diverting water from Pyramid Lake (and annihilating the fishing industry on the Pyramid tribal reservation) into the desert at Fernley and Fallon. Then the trouble started. The desert soil, it turned out, was alkaloid. Adding water to it made the alkaline desert groundwater rise to the level of plant roots and killed the crops. And since drainage in the desert was poor, the problem got worse when water was added. The more water, the more dead crops. If Congress had known this going in, desert reclamation would never have been approved, but because supporters of the concept were fired not by the actual merits but by faith and belief, there was never a real debate on the merits that might have turned up the problems.
Worse, because faith is not deterred by facts, because religious zeal does not permit admission - much less correction - of error, when the problems with reclamation appeared, its adherents kept trying to make the concept conform to their faith instead of making their faith conform to the facts. To do otherwise would have been a betrayal of theology.
So bad tax dollars were thrown after good. Gargantuan sums were applied to the problem. The U.S. Reclamation Service had to install more than a hundred miles of deep drains to artificially drain land that, if it had been in Nebraska, would have drained naturally. And while this helped solve the alkaline problem, it never solved the fundamental problem of desert reclamation - that it is unnatural. The Nevada project has never reached the number of acres or farmers envisioned, and the first bale of hay and the first cantaloupe each cost thousands of tax dollars. The money that would have been saved if Congress had made an informed decision (or if the disciples had been less possessed by a fever) has never been calculated.
This syndrome repeats itself time and again. Psychiatry in the 1930s and '40s was led by those who arrogantly believed they knew best for ordinary people and thus felt free to experiment on those people with shock therapy, ice pick lobotomies, and other terrible practices that were licensed by zealotry. Atomic engineers and scientists in the late 1940s and 1950s, fired with hubris, unleashed cancers and leukemias on the public. In the Kennedy administration it was an almost religious belief in counterinsurgency Vietnam led by white people from our side of the world - Green Beretism, as David Halberstam wrote, "was something of a Washington fad" on the New Frontier. (Something similar is now going on in Iraq.) Economists driven by a religious fervor to believe in an unregulated market convinced Congress in 1978 to pass airline deregulation. "Over the next two years," wrote two scholars in 1994, "the astronomical losses - about $7 billion or $8 billion - would wipe out the airlines' entire profits of the previous sixty years." Since the Nixon administration, the war on drugs - promoted by a zealous group of true believers - has destroyed the African American family in the United States.
And in each of these cases, the practices and policies, stoked by zealotry, continued for far too long. In each case, had decision makers' views not been clouded by faith, the practice or policy would never have been launched in the first place. And once launched, they would certainly have been reversed if dogma had not prevented reassessment.
If Congress had known in the late 1970s and early '80s that some of the things they were hearing from nuclear engineers and scientists about building a single national nuclear waste dump were derived not from science but from orthodoxy, they might never have chosen to abandon the policy of on-site power plant storage. And once the project was launched, Congress would have found it easier to reevaluate the policy when the dump at Yucca Mountain encountered so many scientific difficulties and safety concerns if messianic nuclear engineers contemptuous of those not a part of their elite circle had been less of a factor.
Last year historian John Barry wrote that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, "Engineers claimed [that] scientific management mean not only improved profit margins but salvation for humanity. It was a faith, a religion."
Little has changed.
Myers is a veteran capital reporter. His column, "Against the Grain," appears here on Wednesdays.
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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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