Yucca Mountain News Clips
Friday, July 30, 2004
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
July 30, 2004

NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE: Scientists shift view on Yucca

Potential corrosion of canisters now of less concern to review board

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Prominent scientists have shifted their stance on a key element of the Yucca Mountain repository, saying they no longer fear that corrosive brines could penetrate nuclear waste canisters and cause radioactive particles to leak within relatively short periods.

Members of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board said new science presented by the Department of Energy caused them to rethink the problem.

A new position by the panel could boost DOE as it maps out blueprints for the proposed Yucca facility.

Conversely, it could downgrade an issue that repository opponents have seized upon.

Staff members for the technical review board cautioned that while some specific concerns have been allayed, much more still needs to be known before scientists fully can be confident that a Yucca repository would work as the Energy Department has advertised.

"This does not mean the board does not have concerns about corrosion of the packages; it means that this specific (corrosion) issue is not a concern," board spokeswoman Karyn Severson said.

The board outlined its position in a letter Wednesday to Margaret Chu, director of DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. She did not plan to comment, a spokesman said.

The Energy Department considers the review board's shift a "huge deal" that will encourage DOE to pursue its preferred designs, said one Yucca manager who asked not to be identified.

Explaining the change, board director William Barnard said science is evolving as more is learned about the first-of-its-kind repository.

"This is part of a long-term learning process," Barnard said. "It's a learning process for DOE, and a learning process for the board."

The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board caused a major stir among scientists and policy-makers in October when it issued a report raising questions about the Energy Department's preferred repository design.

Current DOE plans call for canisters of waste to be spaced tightly within tunnels.

The review board said in October that, based on DOE's own research, the metal containers would be vulnerable to localized corrosion within 1,000 years. Such a scenario would make it difficult for the repository to win a safety operating license.

The review board, which was created by Congress to evaluate Yucca science, in May convened a two-day seminar at which the Energy Department and other organizations put forward updated analyses.

Based on those presentations, the board told Chu in its letter that the corrosion scenario it envisioned last year now "appears unlikely."

New research concluded that calcium chloride, a mineral compound, would not be present in dust flakes that will settle on the canisters, according to officials.

The technical review panel had believed that calcium chloride would boil with seepage water or humidity vapors to form a corrosive brine that would eat into canister welds at a fast rate.

The board said in its letter that DOE still needs to draw a clear picture of environmental conditions within the repository and other factors that might encourage package corrosion.

The state of Nevada was among the groups making presentations in May. Steve Frishman, a full-time state consultant on Yucca Mountain, said it appeared clear that DOE had solved the problem.

But, Frishman said, the Energy Department has yet to address questions about the presence of other minerals that could create problems when the decaying nuclear waste causes temperatures to rise inside the repository.

"It is still implicit in all this that (DOE) really doesn't understand what is going on above boiling," Frishman said.

The Energy Department "will try to claim victory, but it is not," Frishman said. "Their usual way of responding to a problem is they will take a specific problem and beat it to death without looking at associated problems."

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Nevada Appeal
July 30, 2004

Yucca Mountain on the national stage

Nevada Appeal editorial board

Playing the Yucca Mountain card on a national stage, as Sen. Harry Reid did Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention, seems like a bit of a risk.

After all, most people in the country would just as soon see nuclear waste dumped in Nevada rather than their home states.

Nevadans' attempts to make it a national issue - shipping the radioactive material across country will expose more people to potential risk than leaving it where it is, one argument goes - haven't exactly excited the masses, either.

Placing a Yucca Mountain plank in the national platform does, however, illustrate just how important Nevada ranks as a battleground stake in the Nov. 2 presidential election.

The risk nationally is small, because few people around the country will decide between John Kerry and George Bush on a single issue that mainly involves a faraway state. In Nevada, though, it makes a clear distinction between the candidates that may well tilt the scales.

So there you have it. Bush gave the green light to nuclear-waste storage; Kerry won't let it proceed.

Except that, like most of the issues out there, what Nevadans and fellow Americans really want to know is: What's your solution?

We don't want nuclear waste in Nevada any more than anybody else. We know it took a political whipping for Nevada to be designated the one and only site to be studied. We know the rules of "sound science" changed in the middle of the game.

But nobody has proposed an alternative solution, including Kerry. Nobody is even studying one. Where would the billions of dollars collected for nuclear-waste disposal be spent?

It isn't enough to swing a little temporary political clout to get it "killed" temporarily. We still need a better idea.

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Reno Gazette-Journal
July 30, 2004

Editorial

Keep on fighting Yucca Mtn. despite feeling it´s inevitable

Former Nevada Gov. Bob List, consultant to a pro-Yucca Mountain lobby, isn´t alone in recognizing changing attitudes. Most people still oppose the dump, as they should, but a finger to the wind points to a growing sense of inevitability and a desire to negotiate, to see what the state can get out of the bargain.

Results of the Las Vegas Review-Journal poll showing more people advocate continuing the fight are predictable. No one wants a nuclear dump in his back yard or, worse, in a volcanic ridge. The dangers have been enumerated ad nauseum and the fight has dragged on against a determined federal government for many years. It makes sense that people are a little weary.

Further, there´s no indication the election will bring relief. President Bush is solidly behind the project, and it is questionable whether John Kerry would do much about it, even if he could, as long as the nuclear industry and politicians refuse to look for a sensible, economical alternative. But there´s no reason to stop fighting.

The state´s congressional delegation has faithfully opposed Yucca. And they should continue. It would be great if someone could come up with a viable alternative to the current plan. It would be great if a miracle could happen.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
July 30, 2004

Letter: Panic button

To the editor:

I am tired of this political red herring called Yucca Mountain. Politicians have created this big red panic push button to deflect attention from more critical issues that affect each and every Nevadan, today.

In addition, to speak of sound science as related to the containment issue over a 1,000-year time frame is questionable, but over a 10,000-year time frame it is absurd. Our present knowledge in science and engineering simply does not allow us to be able to make those types of analysis with any true certainty.

Let's face it: The decision to store the nuclear waste at Yucca was a political one. As an aside, why haven't we been able to come up with a better solution? Look around you, other nations have.

Jon Hamel
Las Vegas

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
July 30, 2004

Nevada delegates ready for race

By Erin Neff
Review-Journal

BOSTON -- When Nevada delegates look out the windows from their hotel they can see the yellow-and-blue finish line of this city's famed marathon.

That wide stripe has meaning these Democrats can bring back from Massachusetts as they consider the 13 weeks until the Nov. 2 election to be more of a marathon than a sprint. And it was their role in the Democratic National Convention that gives them hope John Kerry will cross the tape first in the Silver State.

Kerry's acceptance speech Thursday night in a festive FleetCenter helped set that very stage.

"It's everything we stand for as Democrats," said Adriana Martinez, state party chairwoman, whose eyes teared with joy as balloons and confetti filled the arena. "America and Nevada now know what he wants for America. They can't say they don't know John Kerry anymore.

"If they watched they know everything they need to vote for him," she added.

Kerry's speech included sharp criticism of President Bush's foreign and domestic policies and offered ideas the Democratic candidate said could send the country in a better direction.

"Saying there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq doesn't make it so," he said. "Saying we can fight a war on the cheap doesn't make it so. And proclaiming mission accomplished certainly doesn't make it so."

A recent pool of Nevada voters for the Review-Journal and reviewjournal.com showed Bush leading Kerry by 46 percent to 43 percent, which was within the margin of error.

Whether Kerry's message will help him win the battle for Nevada will come into sharper focus in the coming weeks with numerous campaign trips expected from candidates on both sides of the aisle.

Beginning today with a Reno visit from Vice President Dick Cheney and continuing about two weeks from now with a Kerry-Edwards campaign stop, Nevada's five electoral votes will be courted intensely.

The Kerry campaign closed the convention Thursday night stressing a message of strength and hope for the country and will embark today on a nationwide tour of key battleground states, including Nevada, which Bush won by about 21,000 votes in 2000.

"It is not an exaggeration to say that Nevada will be key in this election," said Henry Cisneros, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Cisneros said that with population increases and demographic changes, Nevada is "very close to be number one on the list."

Nevada's delegates spent the week being courted, and have agreed to the task.

"When I get home, I'm going to an event that night and then a barbecue and then some meetings," said Las Vegas delegate Debbie Springer.

Did the convention inspire her to do more?

"I've been jazzed up," Springer said. "I just want to get back and go."

Republican Sen. John Ensign said he expected some convention-related bounce to go to the Kerry campaign, but promised Bush and Cheney will be working hard in the weeks leading up to the GOP convention.

"They'll have pretty simply messages -- why we live in a very dangerous world and why the policies President Bush and Dick Cheney have put into place are making us safer," Ensign said.

Kerry spent much of his convention speech stressing homeland security and America's role in the war on terrorism. It is the main issue for which polls continue to give Bush the edge.

"In these dangerous days there is a right way and a wrong way to be strong," Kerry said Thursday in his acceptance speech. "Strength is more than tough words. After decades of experience in national security, I know the reach of our power and I know the power of our ideals."

That message will play well to veterans, considered a key voting bloc in the Western swing states, according to Kerry political strategist Michael Meehan.

"The great battle in the middle is for some disaffected Republicans and for independents," Meehan said.

During a rousing address Thursday night, retired Gen. Wesley Clerk drew loud applause when he said: "Anyone who tells you that one political party has a monopoly on the best defense of our nation is committing a fraud on the American people."

Nevada has a high concentration of veterans -- about 165,000 out of a statewide population of about 2 million.

By devoting much of Thursday's prime-time convention speeches to national security, the campaign is hoping to give voters on the fence a reason to pick Kerry.

Delegate Dan Hinkley, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War, said the most poignant part of Kerry's speech was when the former Navy lieutenant said he would never ask the armed forces "to fight a war without a plan to win the peace."

"We will provide our military with whatever it would need to be successful and we would strengthen the support from other countries," Hinkley said.

Kerry supporters gathered at parties in Las Vegas and in Reno, not just to watch the speech, but to organize for Kerry's campaign.

During a convention strategy session Thursday with the state directors from Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Colorado, the campaign discussed advantages they believe they have in the West.

"There's a nearly unprecedented situation of unity among office-holders and stakeholders in Nevada and we're approaching this task with a single-minded unity," said Kerry Nevada director Anne Sheridan.

Sheridan stressed that Kerry's opposition to making Yucca Mountain a nuclear waste repository could make a difference.

"There's a very clear contrast with President Bush and a Kerry candidacy," she said.

Earlier this week, Ensign came out firing at Kerry's past votes on Yucca Mountain, including his support in 1987 for the so-called "Screw Nevada" bill, which narrowed the list of sites the government would study to store nuclear waste to just one, Yucca Mountain, located 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Sheridan said Kerry's votes with Nevada in 2002 and in the mid-1990s on interim storage plans shows him as the right choice "moving forward."

"We know we're not going to change President Bush's stance," she said.

Yucca will continue to play out locally while the issues of homeland security, health care and the economy will dominate the national discussion.

For the next five weeks the Kerry campaign will stop its media advertising in a move required by the nominee's acceptance of public financing. Meehan said he expected the Bush campaign to spend $25 million during the time when the Kerry campaign will be dark.

Rules will permit state parties and groups like MoveOn.org to spend money on advertising during the period. But those ads cannot be coordinated with the Kerry campaign and cannot advocate for his candidacy.

That is where the national tour by Kerry and Edwards comes in. Northern Nevada is hoping for a visit to offset the recent attention the Bush-Cheney campaign is paying to secure its base in Republican Northern and rural counties.

Bush and political director Karl Rove visited Reno last month. The party held its state convention in Northern Nevada.

Washoe County Democratic Chairman Chris Wicker said he believes Kerry will appeal to independent voters in Northern Nevada.

"I think anybody who watched that speech (Thursday night) knows John Kerry will live up to his promise of restoring integrity and telling the truth to the American people," Wicker said.

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The Oregonian
July 30, 2004

Kerry campaign setting sights on the West

Gun ownership, abortion rights and nuclear waste are seen as key issues to winning votes in the swing states

JIM BARNETT

BOSTON -- Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry focused on jobs and national security in his acceptance speech Thursday, but his campaign plans to raise second-tier issues such as gun ownership to win key states in the West.

Although Kerry hopes to win Oregon, Washington and New Mexico as Al Gore did in 2000, campaign officials said they hope to compete in Colorado, Arizona and Nevada, where opinion polls have moved in their favor.

"We've seen some good progress in the state-by-state polling," said Michael Meehan, a senior campaign adviser.

Campaign officials said they hope to capitalize on growing dissatisfaction with President Bush's performance. They also cited several specific issues that could help carry Western states where the race is close.

The issues include: Gun ownership: The campaign will tout Kerry's record of support for the Second Amendment, officials said in a news briefing. The issue is important to blue-collar voters who might feel disaffected by calls for gun control legislation backed by urban Democrats from the East, they said.

In 2000, Gore shied away from the gun issue, and he resisted being photographed holding a hunting rifle. Kerry, by contrast, is a sportsman, and his campaign has promoted images of the candidate hunting.

"We feel very, very confident that we have inoculated that issue," said Sam Rodriguez, Kerry's campaign manager in Washington state. "John Kerry is a hunter." Nuclear waste: In Nevada, Kerry officials said, the election could turn on one issue: the federal government's plan to open a nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

The Bush administration has proceeded with the repository. But Nevadans overwhelmingly oppose the facility, and it "will not happen" under Kerry, Meehan said. Abortion rights: Democrats' pro-choice stance should play well with independent voters in suburban areas such as Washington County, Ore., campaign officials said. Rodriguez said Democrats see the issue as crucial in the Seattle area, where they hope to claim the district of outgoing Rep. Jennifer Dunn, a Republican.

Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., who heads Bush's re-election effort in the state, said Kerry's hopes to win Oregon and other Western states outside of California were overblown.

Kerry's voting record shows that his values are out of sync with Westerners' economic interests, Smith said. He said he doubted that Kerry's efforts to win states Bush won in 2000 would succeed.

"I think it will be good money chasing bad," he said in a conference call.

Kerry campaign officials nevertheless said they are confident they can win the same Western states that Gore won in 2000, and they plan to make Bush defend his advantage in the interior West.

"We're going to make the Republicans defend their home court," Rodriguez said.

In Arizona, Kerry will appeal to growing ranks of Latino voters, and in Colorado, home of the Air Force Academy, the candidate hopes to court disaffected veterans, state campaign officials said.

Paige Richardson, Kerry's coordinator in Oregon, said an especially anemic economy has caused many people in the state to lose faith in Bush. And with large numbers of Oregonians telling pollsters that the country is on the wrong track, Kerry has a clear advantage, she said.

"People not only are having a bad time; they know they're having a bad time," Richardson said.

Jim Barnett: 503-294-7604; jim.barnett@newhouse.com

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Paducah Sun
July 30, 2004

USEC to buy firm that deals in storing waste nuclear fuel

By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650

USEC Inc. has taken a major step toward diversification by agreeing to pay $16 million in cash for NAC International, which has the largest fleet of spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste casks in the nation.

On Thursday, USEC announced the purchase agreement with Pinnacle West Capital Corp. of Phoenix, whose subsidiary, El Dorado Investment Co., owns most of NAC's stock. The deal, expected to close later this year, marks USEC's first acquisition since the company was privatized in 1998.

USEC spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said the purchase will have no immediate direct effect on the 1,300 jobs at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, but it strengthens the company for shareholders, employees and customers. Asked if the NAC deal could eventually create more work at Paducah, Stuckle said the firm "has not ruled out" any possibilities.

USEC, based in Bethesda, Md., has been seeking cleanup contracts and other ways to expand work at the plant, which it will close starting in 2010 and replace with a new gas centrifuge plant in Piketon, Ohio.

After the transaction closes, NAC is expected to generate about $30 million in yearly revenue, reaping $1 million in annual earnings and positive cash flow from operations starting in 2005.

"This acquisition is a strong strategic fit for USEC as we seek to strengthen our presence in the nuclear fuel cycle," said William "Nick" Timbers, president and chief executive officer. He said USEC will be able to offer broader services to utilities that buy enriched uranium for nuclear fuel.

NAC is a leading provider of spent fuel storage solutions, nuclear materials transportation and fuel cycle consulting. It has handled a significant share of the Department of Energy requirements for retrieving spent foreign reactor fuel during the past 15 years. It will retain its name as a USEC subsidiary and continue to be based in Atlanta.

The acquisition means being able to help utilities as they await the opening of the Energy Department's long-term nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., USEC said. NAC is developing a new spent fuel canister technology and plans to apply for licensing with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission later this year. The NAC consulting division has done a variety of federal work related to tracking nuclear materials.

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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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