Yucca Mountain News Clips - Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Yucca Mountain News Clips
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
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Las Vegas SUN
August 10, 2004

Nevada asks NRC to reject Yucca Mountain license as incomplete

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The state of Nevada wants the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reject the government's plan to open a national nuclear waste dump in the desert as incomplete, with corners cut on technical issues.

Energy Department and Yucca Mountain spokesman Allen Benson said Tuesday the Energy Department is moving properly toward seeking a crucial Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to open the repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas in 2010.

"We will honor all of our commitments," Benson said.

Bob Loux, head of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, urged NRC Chairman Nils Diaz in a Monday letter to reject the Energy Department application when it is submitted later this year because it won't resolve all "key technical issues" about the repository.

Energy Department and Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials have identified 293 issues they agreed should be addressed before licensing, including questions about corrosion of waste-bearing canisters, earthquake and volcanic activity near the site, and the chemical environment in the tunnels where waste would be stored.

Benson said the Energy Department will address all key technical issues prior to submitting the license application. But he acknowledged that some questions may not be answered until after the license application is filed.

"Once we submit the application, if the NRC has additional questions, we will respond with the information they require," he said.

Loux focused on July 23 comments by Joseph Ziegler, the Energy Department's Yucca Mountain project licensing director, that 105 technical issues were resolved and 159 were in review.

Ziegler told NRC officials that unresolved technical issues would be answered after license paperwork is handed in.

Loux said that would violate NRC rules requiring "sufficient information" for a complete license application when it is filed.

The Energy Department wants to entomb in Nevada 77,000 tons of the nation's most radioactive waste now stored at commercial, industrial and military sites in 39 states.

Questions remain about whether the licensing process will be stalled by a federal court ruling last month invalidating the project's 10,000-year radiation safety standard.

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On the Net:

Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov

Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov

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Las Vegas SUN
August 10, 2004

Yucca is lead issue as Kerry visits Las Vegas

By Cy Ryan
<cy@lasvegassun.com> and Stephen Curran
Las Vegas Sun

Yucca Mountain was expected to be front and center this morning when Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry addressed a group of community leaders and citizens living along the route to the proposed nuclear waste dump.

Kerry was to speak to a group of invited people at a closed forum at Ralph Cadwallader Middle School in northwest Las Vegas this morning to discuss the economic and health effects of the proposed repository.

It was the first event of a two-day stop in Las Vegas for the Massachusetts senator, who has been in the state two times this election season.

Kerry is scheduled to speak at a rally today at the Thomas & Mack Center. The event begins at 6 p.m. and is expected to draw between 8,000 and 10,000 people, Sean Smith, communications director for Kerry's Nevada campaign, said.

Because of security checks, people are encouraged to arrive early.

The Las Vegas visit comes on the 12th day of Kerry's "Believe in America" tour, which has criss-crossed the country after last month's Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Kerry was in Arizona on Monday, and his bus caravan drove into Las Vegas late Monday night, arriving at the Bellagio. He is expected to be in town through Wednesday morning.

Before leaving Wednesday afternoon, Kerry is scheduled to address a group of Henderson seniors in another closed-door forum, Smith said. The senator is expected to discuss his plan to combat rising prescription drug costs.

Kerry will be followed into town by President Bush on Thursday. Bush has been in town once this campaign season.

Nevada has garnered the attention, becoming a so-called battleground state, because of the close vote in 2000, when Bush beat then-Vice President Al Gore by 3.5 percentage points in Nevada.

Yucca Mountain has been a key part of the debate in the state.

Democrats have criticized Bush for approving Yucca Mountain in 2002, and the party's national platform includes a plank promising to "protect" Nevada against nuclear waste.

Kerry has pledged to stop the plans for the repository if he's elected and has made that a key distinction in the state between himself and Bush, who authorized the plan.

At a press conference in Minden on Monday, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., conceded that the Democratic presidential nominee is "getting some support" in Nevada for his opposition to the nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain.

Ensign added that Nevadans should not trust Kerry because of his flip-flops in the past on Yucca Mountain and other national issues.

When campaigning in Nevada four years ago, Bush said he would depend on "sound science" in making a decision. Democrats have called Bush's statement a "lie."

Ensign is opposed to Yucca Mountain, and on the Aug. 2 edition of the "Face to Face With Jon Ralston," Ensign said "on this one issue, he's been better than George Bush, but that's on one issue."

But Monday, Ensign said, "we don't know" if Kerry would change his position on Yucca Mountain if he were elected president. His record "is not as pure" as he makes it out to be, Ensign said.

As he has repeatedly in recent weeks, Ensign noted that Kerry voted for the "Screw Nevada" bill that singled out this state as the only one to be studied as a dump site. In 1996, Kerry opposed more stringent environmental standards for Yucca Mountain, and in 1997 he voted against an amendment by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., that would have given governors the right to stop the transfer of nuclear waste through their states, Ensign said.

Kerry also opposed an amendment to allow more money for more oversight for the development of Yucca Mountain, Ensign said.

Smith disputed Ensign's charges.

"They're (Ensign's claims) laughable really," Smith said. "John Kerry has a very clear record of opposing Yucca Mountain. He has pledged to stop it if he's president. We're amused that he (Ensign) keeps bringing this up."

Ensign said Yucca Mountain is not the only issue on which Kerry has a credibility problem. At Monday's press conference, Ensign launched into an echo of the Republican party line attack on Kerry. Kerry voted for the Patriot Act and now he's against it, and Kerry voted for No Child Left Behind but now he opposes it, Ensign said.

At the news conference, a video was shown on Kerry's apparent shifting position on Iraq.

"It seems he (Kerry) will say anything and do anything to get elected," Ensign said. "But we really don't know where he stands and that's why we cannot trust John Kerry when it comes to his position on nuclear waste."

"It's one thing in your early career feeling one way and then you change and evolve like that. But he evolves back and forth."

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 10, 2004

Complaint: Yucca issues neglected

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Nevada officials lodged a new complaint Monday that the Department of Energy is cutting corners to license a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

DOE is "walking away" from a pledge to resolve 293 outstanding technical issues before it files a repository license application later this year, the state's nuclear director charged in a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Bob Loux, head of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, focused on comments made earlier this summer by Joseph Ziegler, the licensing director for the Yucca Mountain Project.

Ziegler told NRC officials in a July 23 letter that further questions they might have about unresolved technical issues will be answered in the department's license bid, or after the license paperwork is handed in.

But Loux said that approach violates NRC rules that require the agency be given "sufficient information" before DOE hands over a licensing package.

Under those circumstances, Loux urged NRC chairman Nils Diaz to reject the DOE's application when it is submitted. The NRC had no immediate comment.

The Energy Department wants to file an application with the NRC by the end of the year, although there are questions whether it will be permitted to do so in the wake of a July 9 federal court ruling invalidating the project's 10,000 year radiation health standard.

Staffs for the DOE and NRC had developed a list of 293 issues they agreed should be addressed before licensing, including questions about corrosion of waste-bearing canisters, earthquake and volcanic activity near the site, and the chemical environment within repository tunnels where waste will be stored.

According to Ziegler, 105 of the technical issue agreements were resolved, while another 159 were in stages of review. The Energy Department planned to supply at least some information about the remainder by the end of August, although NRC reviewers generally ask followup questions.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 10, 2004

Kerry brings message to Las Vegas

Democratic candidate ready to talk about Yucca Mountain, health care

By Erin Neff
Review-Journal

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry arrived in Las Vegas late Monday with plans to spend about 36 hours wooing undecided voters in a critical battleground state that both major parties are strongly contesting.

Kerry's motorcade entered the state from Arizona, traveling over Hoover Dam and pulling into a back entrance at Bellagio about 11:50 p.m. Monday.

Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, will have plenty of time to meet voters, talk about the Yucca Mountain Project and health care issues, and rally the Democratic base before his campaign leaves early Wednesday afternoon for California.

They'll get the campaign equivalent of a laundry day: rest and relaxation at the Bellagio to recoup from 12 days on the roads, rails and waterways of 10 states.

His campaign arrived more than two days ahead of President Bush, who is scheduled to visit Las Vegas on Thursday.

This morning, Kerry will meet with pre-selected citizens at Cadwallader Middle School to discuss the federal government's planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. About 75 people representing nurses, first responders, community leaders, parents and environmentalists will take part. The discussion is closed to the public.

"We wanted to get a cross-section of people who are going to be impacted by the decision to store waste at Yucca Mountain," said Kerry Nevada spokesman Sean Smith.

He said he expected Kerry to "make a strong declaration" about Yucca Mountain. When Kerry visited Las Vegas in May, he said if he were elected president, "Yucca Mountain will not be a repository."

The Bush-Cheney campaign held a news conference in Carson City on Monday with Sen. John Ensign. The Nevada Republican again labeled Kerry a "flip-flopper" for the Democrat's 1987 vote to narrow the study of potential nuclear waste repository sites and focus exclusively on Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. That legislation was dubbed the "Screw Nevada Bill."

But Kerry opposed storing nuclear waste on an interim basis in Nevada in the 1990s, and in 2002 he voted with Nevada to sustain Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of the repository. President Bush had designated Yucca Mountain the repository site despite a 2000 campaign statement that he would base any decision on "sound science, not politics."

Smith said he finds it odd that Republicans would question Kerry on Yucca Mountain.

"It's pretty funny to hear the Republicans continuing to bring this up because every time they do, it only serves to remind voters that their candidate is for Yucca Mountain and John Kerry is against Yucca Mountain."

After the meeting at Cadwallader, in the far northwest part of Las Vegas, Kerry will return to Bellagio to prepare for a public rally at the Thomas & Mack Center this evening.

More than 8,000 people are expected to attend the rally. The event is open to the public, but tickets are required. They can be printed from the Internet at http://www.nvdems.com. The doors open at 3 p.m., and everyone who attends the rally will have to pass through metal detectors.

Kerry will head to Henderson on Wednesday morning. He is scheduled to speak about prescription drug costs and the high number of uninsured Nevadans during a meeting with pre-screened attendees at the Valley View Recreation Center. The discussion is closed to the public.

The center is in the heart of the 3rd Congressional District, which has one of the nation's tightest margins between registered Democrats and Republicans. It holds the potential for a close race between freshman Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., and Tom Gallagher, a Democratic challenger. Gallagher has made prescription drug benefits and Medicare reform one of the key issues in his race.

Kerry arrived in Las Vegas after a tour of the Grand Canyon on Monday and remarks in Kingman, Ariz., where the campaign traded its train for buses. Kerry addressed the Kingman crowd of about 5,000 people from a flatbed truck parked between the railroad tracks and Historic Route 66. "I can't tell you how great it is to be in the heart of Route 66 and the mother road of America," Kerry said.

Kerry spoke of improving education and making health care affordable for all Americans. He said he would establish a $20 billion fund to harness alternative and renewable fuels to rid the nation of its reliance on oil from the Middle East. He promised to improve the military and intelligence agencies and partner with other countries to combat terrorism.

Temperatures above 100 degrees took a toll as some in the crowd waited more than two hours for Kerry's visit. Paramedics tended to at least a dozen people, many of them senior citizens, after they fell ill from the heat.

Nevada is being courted by both campaigns. Monday's arrival marks Kerry's third visit this year.

Kerry spoke at a public rally Feb. 13, spent the night at Mandalay Bay and briefly met with voters outside Nevada's presidential caucuses Feb. 14. He spent most of the day in Las Vegas on May 16, speaking at the Teamsters convention and raising money during two events at the Four Seasons.

Bush was in Las Vegas in November for a speech on Medicare reform and a fund-raiser at The Venetian. He spoke June 18 in Reno and is planning to speak at the Carpenters Union International Training Center on Thursday morning.

Vice President Dick Cheney has been in Nevada three times this year, and first lady Laura Bush has been in the state twice.

Bush's political director, Karl Rove, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie and Bush-Cheney Chairman Marc Racicot have campaigned in Nevada this year.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros has been in Nevada twice this year courting Hispanic voters for Kerry. A number of third-party groups, including MoveOn.org and America Coming Together have also been visible in Nevada.

On Monday morning, about 12 volunteers of MoveOn's PAC -- some in hazardous waste suits -- presented 3,000 signatures to the state Republican Party asking it to renew opposition to the Yucca Mountain Project.

"We think we really do have a chance to stop Yucca Mountain this election year," said MoveOn's Charlie Eaton.

Republicans aren't organizing any visible protests of Kerry today or Wednesday. This morning the state Republican Party had planned a pancake breakfast -- just like it did during Kerry's May trip -- to "highlight his flip-flopping record," Carr said.

At Ensign's news conference Monday, the Bush campaign showed a videotape focusing on the Iraq war and different votes and statements Kerry has made about the war. The tape will be shown at the breakfast, which begins at 9 a.m. at 8625 W. Sahara Ave., near Durango Drive.

"It's someone who will say whatever it takes to get elected in whichever state he visits," Bush-Cheney regional spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said.

Review-Journal writer Antonio Planas, Review-Journal correspondent Dave Hawkins and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Nevada Appeal
August 10, 2004

Yucca not only issue in presidential race

Much is being made of comments by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., on how Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is "better than George Bush" on the issue of Yucca Mountain.

It is true the Bush approved the nuclear waste repository in Nevada, arguably breaking his promise of using "sound science" to make the decision. It is also true that Kerry voted against the dump in 2000 and 2002, and has pledged to block it if he is elected.

And if you believe Yucca Mountain is the only issue that affects Nevada's future, then John Kerry is your man.

While the issue of a nuclear waste dump in this state is important, it isn't the only issue. The federal government owns nearly 87 percent of Nevada, and there are myriad issues which directly affect Silver State residents: mining fees, grazing regulations, environmental policies, etc.

Electing a president is also about setting a direction for the entire country, not just what is happening in our own back yard. There are serious issues of war and peace, the economy and health care on the line in this election.

Nevada has been named a battleground state in this election, so we will see more than our usual share of attention this political season. It is important for all voters to carefully look at all the issues before making their decisions. There is a huge amount of information on each candidate for voters to use in their decision making, and we encourage everyone to educate themselves.

Being right on one issue does not make someone the right pick for Nevada.

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Reno Gazette-Journal
August 10, 2004

Kerry to make campaign stop in Vegas

Anjeanette Damon

In two Las Vegas campaign stops today, U.S. Sen. John Kerry is expected discuss his economic plans, policies for lowering health care costs and his opposition to the nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.

His first scheduled appearance is before an invited group of “parents, nurses, first responders, community leaders and local citizens’ at a Southern Nevada elementary school near the proposed route radioactive waste would take on its way to Yucca Mountain, campaign spokesman Sean Smith said.

Later he is expected to speak before a rally of about 9,000 people at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.

President Bush is scheduled to visit Las Vegas on Thursday to speak at the United Brotherhood of Carpenters International Training Center. It will be the president´s second visit to Nevada during his campaign.

Bush did not mention Yucca Mountain during a Reno campaign speech in June, despite ongoing criticism from Democrats for his approval of the project.

It will be Kerry´s third visit to Nevada, considered a battleground state in the race for the presidency. Kerry has yet to make it to Northern Nevada, despite visits by President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, Bush´s top political adviser.

Washoe County Democrats said it is too early to say Kerry is ignoring Northern Nevada, typically a Republican stronghold.

“If he doesn´t come here by Nov. 2, I will be disappointed,’ said Brian Hutchinson, who, as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, lobbied for a Northern Nevada visit from Kerry or his running mate U.S. Sen. John Edwards. “I feel fairly confident we will get somebody here. We´ve still got 80-some-odd days left.’

Smith said it was too difficult logistically to get Kerry to Reno during this visit to Nevada, which comes on the 12th day of his two-week “Believe in America Tour.’ His next stop is Los Angeles.

The campaign hopes to bring Kerry to Northern Nevada before the election.

“We´re fighting for every single vote in Nevada and we believe the votes in Northern Nevada are Kerry-Edwards votes,’ Smith said.

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Washington Post
August 10, 2004

Battleground: Nevada -- Veterans Could Be Key to Nevada's Bigger Prize

Terry M. Neal

LAS VEGAS -- Michael Moody may be the past president of the local Republican Men's Club here, but these days he's feeling more affinity toward the "band of brothers" John F. Kerry trotted out for the Democrats' nominating convention in Boston last month.

Despite his GOP roots, Moody joined a Veterans for Kerry rally in July with about 75 other vets and their spouses. He explained that he has grown alarmed by the Bush administration's approach to Iraq and what Moody considers to be a hostile foreign policy in general. So he has decided to work to put fellow Vietnam veteran Kerry into the White House.

"I think Bush's policies have alienated us from our allies and energized our enemies," said Moody, who was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor here in 1982. "We have to elect John Kerry to show the world that Americans all aren't like Bush. ...I'm coming over to this side."

President Bush's Iraq policy is issue number one here in Nevada, one of about 18 crucial battleground states where both major candidates are focusing efforts this year. Most political pollsters and analysts view Iraq and the economy as the top two issues in the country. But the economy in Nevada has been relatively strong, making the Iraq issue even more prominent.

The state has posted strong economic figures in recent months, including a 4.1 percent unemployment rate in May -- the lowest in nearly four years and lower than the seasonally adjusted national jobless rate of 5.6 percent. Jobs have grown in the leisure and hospitality industry, professional and business services and construction while the population in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, has more than tripled since 1986, to about 1.6 million today, according to estimates compiled by a group of local business boosters.

"I see Iraq as pretty high [among voter concerns] here now because the economic stuff doesn't really matter that much here," Moody said. "The Nevada economy has been pretty strong. I definitely think that Iraq and the issues around it that happen between now and the election are it."

Other than Iraq, perhaps the biggest issue here is a regional one: the Bush administration's plan to develop a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The state's voters and most of its politicians in both major parties oppose the plan. Kerry opposes the plan, and Democrats have tied Iraq and Yucca Mountain together to make a single point-Bush can't be trusted.

The GOP also is using Iraq to illustrate the president's character: His willingness to buck international allies to protect America demonstrates his resolve and toughness, they argue. And they say it's a message that is resonating in this military-heavy state.

"When I talk to people, what comes across is that people know that the president has set a goal of what he's trying to do, and he's not wavering from it," said Henderson resident Paul Adams, a West Point graduate and chairman of Nevada Veterans for Bush-Cheney. "When they contrast that to Kerry, whose positions really aren't that different from the president's, they see a difference between the two."

The Battleground

According to a series of polls conducted by Zogby International for the Wall Street Journal, Bush and Kerry have been in a statistical dead heat here since late May, with independent candidate Ralph Nader rapidly increasing his standing to about 6 percent on July 12.

Bush pulled out a narrow victory here in 2000, winning by just fewer than 4 percentage points. A switch of only about 11,000 votes would have given Al Gore a victory. Bill Clinton won the state by narrow margins -- 2 percent and 1 percent in 1992 and 1996, respectively.

Nevada's current congressional members also reflect its swing-state tradition. In fact, until the addition of a third congressional district following the 2000 census, Nevada had two Democrats in congress, Sen. Harry M. Reid and Rep. Shelley Berkley, and two Republicans, Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Jim Gibbons. Republican Jon Porter was easily elected in 2002 to the newly created and evenly partisan Third District around Las Vegas. And the state's Republican governor, Kenny C. Guinn, is in his second term, giving the state an overall GOP tilt right now.

But Democrats are betting that the state's changing demographics will give them a shot in November. Nevada is one of the fastest growing states, complicating efforts to make predictions. For instance, Nevada has one of the nation's fastest-growing Hispanic populations, a group that tends to vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. Latinos now make up about 20 percent of Nevada's population, compared to around 12.5 percent nationally, according to the 2000 Census.

But there is growth in another demographic that both the Bush and Kerry campaigns are targeting -- the veterans who are drawn to the state for the warm weather, relatively low taxes and low cost of living.

Veterans account for 16 percent of the state's adult population. Since 1990, Nevada's veteran population has increased by 30.8 percent -- the highest increase of any state-even as the national percentage decreased by almost 4 percent. This crucial demographic brings military issues such as the war on terror, Operation Iraqi Freedom and combat pay to the forefront in this battleground state.

The Challengers

Prior to traveling to the Democratic convention in Boston last month, former Georgia senator Max Cleland, a veteran who lost three limbs in Vietnam, appeared before a room full of fellow veterans, railing on Bush and the GOP.

His message was a simple one: The Bush administration has imperiled America's security by waging an irresponsible, poorly managed war with Iraq, a country that was not an imminent threat to the United States. More than 800 Americans have died, and thousands more have been injured, while the bill is $200 billion and counting.

Cleland blames the administration's blunders on hawkish idealism born of a failure of the president and many of his top advisers to serve in combat during Vietnam.

"I keep hearing these Republicans trying to dismiss the three injuries Kerry got in Vietnam," Cleland said. "You know, I didn't see Ann Coulter out there. I didn't see Rush Limbaugh out there. I didn't see Dick Cheney, who got five deferments out there. ...They turn their slime machine on John Kerry. They did it to John McCain. They did it to me. Don't let them do it to John Kerry."

Cleland had the crowd's rapt attention as he told a story about how Kerry flouted procedure to chase after a Viet Cong soldier who had aimed a rocket-propelled gun at Kerry's boat.

Kerry "runs into the woods after the guy and killed him," Cleland said of the incident that earned Kerry one of his medals. "So if you think John Kerry won't go after the terrorists, you're wrong."

Despite Kerry's early vote authorizing Bush to use force in Iraq, the bottom line with Kerry supporters is that this is Bush's war, a war of choice and not one in which a President Kerry would have engaged.

"I truly believe that even though our troops have been successful, this administration has been a failure," said John Hunt, co-chairman of Nevada Veterans for Kerry. Hunt is an Air Force veteran, and his stepson, William Harris, 22, is an Army private based at Fort Bragg, N.C., who just returned from combat in Iraq.

Hunt, who ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for state attorney general a few years ago, helped organize the event at the Cambridge Recreation Center, a few miles from the fabled Las Vegas Strip. He said he's been calling veterans all over Clark County and finding what he describes as widespread disenchantment with the president.

The Defense

There are, of course, people who believe just as strongly that the president made the right call on Iraq. Even many of those who are troubled by his handling of it, say he shouldn't be criticized now that the United States is at war.

Among Bush's supporters is Ralph Ingle, a 75-year-old retired Army sergeant who served in Korea and Vietnam. A couple months ago, he received a call from state Sen. Terry Care, himself a former Veteran volunteering for Kerry in Nevada. Care wanted to know if Ingle would join Veterans for Kerry and work to get him elected.

"He said, 'No thanks,'" Care said.

Ingle, a self-described independent who voted for Bush in 2000, said that his support for the war has grown over the last year. " I think it was sort of a bad deal going in there," he said. "But once we're in there, I'm with the troops and the president all the way. When the commander in chief sends us, you go. Once we're in there, we don't go running scared. Otherwise these people, whether it's the old Commies or these present-day terrorists, if we go running from them, we'll be running forever."

Ingle, who lives near Nellis Air Force Base in suburban Clark County, said he hasn't made up his mind on who he'll vote for this time, but he's leaning toward Bush again.

But not even Bush's supporters here believe the war will help him win Nevada. At best, they say, it'll be a wash.

When Vice President Cheney visited the state last month to speak at a fundraiser in Henderson, he focused primarily on what he described as a reviving economy. He made no direct mention of Iraq.

"As all of us know, these past three-and-a-half years have brought many challenges to America, and our economy has been through a lot," Cheney said. "We have faced recession, terrorist attack and the uncertainties that exist in a time of war."

Republican political consultant Sid Rogich predicted Bush would win the state.

"I have not seen any evidence that people are any more dissatisfied in Nevada than any other place" with the Iraq situation, said Rogich, one of Bush's so-called "Rangers" who has helped the campaign raise at least $200,000. "The war is essentially a split issue here like in any other state."

Adams, the chairman of Bush's state veterans organization, believes the war will help Bush. What voters are looking for in today's uncertain, tense times, he says, is a leader who is unwavering and unshakable in his resolve, someone who won't be intimidated.

"When we talk to people in the discussions they recognize that we're in war and these people are trying to destroy our way of life," Adams said. "You know, terrorism, it's always in the back of people's minds here. Las Vegas always comes up on the radar screen as a potential target," he said. "Many people look at the war as something that is being fought to keep that from happening here locally."

He said his group has not sought to make an issue of Kerry's service and whether he deserves the medals he received, but he insisted many veterans say they won't vote for Kerry because he criticized the war when he returned from Vietnam.

Washingtonpost.com videographer John Poole and producer Amy Tennery contributed to this report.

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Wall Street Journal
August 9, 2004

Campaign 2004

Candidates Pursue Divergent Energy Paths

Bush's Plan to Spur Oil Production Contrasts With Kerry's Emphasis on Reduced Demand

By John J. Fialka

President Bush's main answer to high oil prices is more supply: promoting greater domestic-oil production by easing regulations and offering tax breaks. John Kerry emphasizes reducing demand and fostering alternative fuels such as solar and wind power.

That is the primary difference between the two presidential candidates over a central issue in the 2004 campaign: how to insulate the U.S. economy from sudden spikes in global energy prices, such as the one that cooled growth and rocked financial markets during recent weeks.

The Massachusetts senator has long placed "energy independence" with health care and education as pillars of his domestic-policy agenda. Taking advantage of last week's record oil prices, Mr. Kerry made energy the theme of a campaign stop near Kansas City, Mo., Friday, where he promoted developing fuel from agricultural waste.

"God only gave us 3% of the world's oil reserves," he told the small gathering of farmers. "We have to control our energy future."

In a conference call with reporters arranged by the Bush campaign, Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton countered: "Unless he can do something on the supply side, he's not going to do anything about getting these high energy prices down." Mr. Barton, chairman of the House Energy Committee, blamed Mr. Kerry in particular for leading the fight in the Senate against Mr. Bush's plan to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Sen. Kerry's opposition on other matters has stalled the president's broader energy bill in Congress. Mr. Bush also wants to encourage drilling for natural gas in sensitive areas of the West, including under the Rocky Mountains.

Mr. Kerry opposed those efforts and has instead advocated imposing higher standards for corporate average fleet economy on the nation's auto makers. He has set a goal of requiring vehicles to produce a fleet average of 36 miles per gallon by 2015, up from 27.5 mpg currently. Such a move, he says, would save two million barrels of oil a day.

The two candidates also differ significantly over future uses of nuclear power. The Bush administration is developing plans for a new generation of smaller and safer nuclear-power plants. Mr. Kerry's aides say he supports current nuclear plants, which provide 20% of the nation's electricity but is opposed to permanent storage of nuclear waste in Nevada's Yucca Mountain. That position effectively blocks new plants, since Wall Street won't finance more nuclear production without a clear option for storing waste.

Sen. Kerry's approach to electricity needs includes a federal mandate on utilities to produce 20% of their electricity from so-called renewable resources by 2020, including solar, wind and geothermal sources.

While this stance is hugely popular with environmental groups, politicians from oil states are skeptical.

Because renewable sources produce only about 1% of the nation's electricity supply, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Don Nickles says raising that to 20% would impose "an enormous price tag" on electricity consumers. "It's never going to happen," he says.

On many energy proposals, the candidates agree. They both stress the need for clean-burning coal and a federal mandate to require gasoline sellers to use an increasing percentage of fuel made from corn, soybeans and agricultural residues by 2012. Both candidates approve incentives for hybrid vehicles and fuel-cell-powered vehicles that use hydrogen, which can be made from coal, natural gas or electricity that comes from hydroelectric power, nuclear energy or other sources that don't require oil.

Such measures would, at best, lower energy prices only in the long run, however.

Mr. Kerry's aides argue that he would be more able than President Bush to lower short-term prices. First, they say, the Democratic candidate would be more willing than the incumbent to "jawbone" Saudi Arabia to boost production. They also blame Mr. Bush for Middle East turmoil and hostility to the U.S. "A new president, without all the baggage," says Roger Altman, one of Mr. Kerry's economic advisers, would "quickly restore" stability in world oil markets.

Independent analysts note that recent price increases have had more to do with other factors, such as rising demand in China and oil-industry disruptions in Russia.

Mr. Kerry also proposes to address short-term price spikes by temporarily putting on hold plans to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the government's emergency supply of oil stored in hollowed-out salt domes along the U.S. Gulf Coasts. The Bush administration aims to lift the current reserve supply to 700 million barrels from 665.6 million barrels and announced Friday a new oil-exchange contract that would provide incentives to oil companies to continue filling the reservoir.

Critics say Mr. Kerry's proposal likely would have little effect on prices, since it would free up just 120,000 barrels of oil daily -- barely a drop in the almost 20 million barrels a day the U.S. consumes. And the Bush campaign, on its Web site, says that "using the SPR solely for political purposes to lower gasoline prices would reduce our protection and weaken our position" in countering terrorists.

The energy policies of both campaigns are shaped heavily by politics -- particularly the local and regional interests of the battleground states considered tossups in the election.

The emphasis by both candidates on agriculture-based fuels, for example, is aimed at wooing voters in closely divided farm states such as Iowa and Missouri. Kerry aides see his opposition to White House plans for Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste storage as a reason he could win Nevada, a state Mr. Bush carried narrowly in 2000.

The Bush campaign has, in turn, played up Mr. Kerry's support for fuel-economy standards in the swing state of Michigan, saying the proposal "kills jobs." Even the strongly Democratic United Auto Workers union has expressed concern about Mr. Kerry's plans. So when the Kerry campaign unveiled its energy plan Friday, aides softened his push for the standards, saying that rather than mandate specific efficiency levels, Mr. Kerry would "bring everyone to the table" and work out a compromise standard with industry and consumer groups.

Coal drives votes in the battlegrounds of Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Mr. Bush snatched long-Democratic West Virginia from Vice President Al Gore in 2000, in part by arguing his rival's environmental policies would hurt mining.

On a recent swing through eastern Ohio, Mr. Bush made clear he plans to run on the same arguments this year, telling a rally: "My opponent said -- he called coal a dirty energy source." The remark drew boos from the crowd.

Mindful of those concerns, Mr. Kerry's plan includes a $10 billion, 10-year plan to develop "clean coal" technologies.

Write to John J. Fialka at john.fialka@wsj.com

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PR Newswire
August 10, 2004

Exelon, Federal Government Reach Agreement Over Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Costs WARRENVILLE, Ill., Aug. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC) and the U.S. Department of Justice, in close consultation with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), have reached a settlement under which the government will reimburse Exelon for costs associated with storage of spent fuel at the company's nuclear stations pending DOE fulfilling its contractual obligations to accept commercial spent nuclear fuel.

The settlement resolves all pending spent fuel litigation brought against the federal government by Exelon and subsidiaries Exelon Generation Company, Commonwealth Edison Company and AmerGen Energy Company.

Under the agreement, Exelon will receive $80 million immediately in gross reimbursements for storage costs already incurred, with additional amounts reimbursed annually for future costs. If a national repository opens by 2010 and DOE begins accepting spent nuclear fuel as the department has said, gross reimbursements to Exelon would eventually total about $300 million.

In all cases, reimbursements will be made only after costs are incurred and only for costs resulting from DOE delays in accepting the fuel. The department was to have begun accepting fuel in 1998.

"We're pleased with the result," said Chris Crane, Exelon Nuclear's president and chief nuclear officer. "It resolves the litigation between the parties, it eliminates a financial uncertainty for both Exelon and DOE and it allows the government to meet its legal obligations to a sixth of the nation's nuclear power plants."

Crane said the settlement cannot be considered a substitute for permanent used fuel disposal at Yucca Mountain.

Exelon Corporation is one of the nation's largest electric utilities with approximately 5.1 million customers and more than $15 billion in annual revenues. The company has one of the industry's largest portfolios of electricity generation capacity, with a nationwide reach and strong positions in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. Exelon distributes electricity to approximately 5.1 million customers in northern Illinois and Pennsylvania and gas to more than 460,000 customers in the Philadelphia area. Exelon is headquartered in Chicago and trades on the NYSE under the ticker EXC.

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Middletown Press
August 10, 2004

No fuss over nuke fuel

Josh Mrozinski

HADDAM -- During a public hearing held by Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company about it´s decommissioning process, Paul stood up and asked what would happen if a mortar was shot from the woods into the dry casks storing the nuclear waste and spent fuel.

The man´s concern, said Tim Smith, who has lived in Haddam Neck near the plant during his entire life, was brushed aside. The man, a retired nuclear engineer, Smith said, then asked about what would happen if a plane was hijacked and flew into the casks.

His concerns were again brushed aside, Smith said. And after the Sept. 11 attacks, Smith said, he immediately thought about the retired engineer and his question. The question was asked before the attacks in September 2001.

"That´s the first thing I thought about after Sept. 11," Smith said.

And yet he, like some of his neighbors on Monday evening, expressed more concern about the line of cars that leave the plant in the evening and early in the morning. They said they feel secure or have grown used to living next to the plant.

The plant they live next to, which is more than 560 acres in size, is now being decommissioned. Connecticut Yankee is tearing down the site with the physical part -- demolishing buildings -- scheduled to be completed by the end of 2006. The waste and spent fuel is now being transferred to a site three-quarters of a mile from the plantwhere they will sit in dry casks until the federal government takes them to Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

The last of the spent fuel will be moved to the hockey-rink-sized staging area by the first half of 2005. It could sit there until 2010 or beyond, depending on when Yucca Mountain is complete.

Smith said he thinks about it every once in a while, but is used to it. Eventually, while smoking a cigarette outside of his home, he said the spent-fuel scared him when he thought more about it.

"I know that they´re there and I try not to think about it," Smith said. "I grew up here, I lived next to the power plant all my life."

He said the increased National Guard and state police at the plant makes him feel safer.

Greg Bartoszuk, who moved to his Haddam Neck home from New Haven with his wife and son two-and-a-half years ago, said the risk seems remote. The rush hours, he said, are worse.

While standing outside of his home with white paint still on his hands from doing work, he said the dry storage is safer than storing the material in a pool.

He said his mother asked if it was safe to live next to the plant, and he responded: "You´ll know a second after us."

His wife, Anne, said they moved to Haddam Neck knowing about the plant´s decommissioning, but didn´t know about the spent fuel and waste storage.

Annie and Frank Catucci recently moved to Haddam Neck, and were working on their house Monday evening. They came from Farmington, seeking quiet and open space. Farmington, Annie Catucci said, was becoming too crowded.

But they also said they wish the plant wasn´t there.

"The plant really doesn´t bother us," Frank Catucci said.

Al Carlson, while sitting on his patio in the setting sun, said he has friends who work at the plant that tell him about the redundancies that are built into the system to make it safe. Carlson, who has been living near the plant since it was built in 1969, said it is as secure as it can be.

Nothing is absolutely secure, he said.

"They´re fairly secure down there," Carlson said. "They´ve been a good neighbor over the years."

To contact Josh Mrozinski, call (860) 347-3331, ext. 222 or email jmrozinski@middletownpress.com.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 09, 2004

EPA challenged over health risks at nuclear dump

Critic emphasizes different aspect of repository's hazards

By Keith Rogers
Review-Journal

As an outsider looking in, Jacob Paz believes he is calling the Department of Energy's bluff on its assessment of health risks for its plans to bury nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain.

For five years, in a barrage of written comments, e-mail messages, conversations and public testimony, Paz has told Yucca Mountain Project officials his view of the plan to move the nation's nuclear waste 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

In a nutshell, he is convinced DOE hasn't done its homework on the possibility that toxic chromium from corroding metal canisters will pollute Nevada's drinking water long after the repository closes. That would result in an even more lethal, cancer-causing brew than if radioactive remnants seeped out alone.

"If I'm right, I'm right. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But they have to do the research," Paz, 65, said Thursday at his apartment off a West Charleston Boulevard side street.

"They are required by law to report all of the adverse effects on the environment," he said.

Paz's point was picked up in court papers that Nevada filed against DOE two years ago in a federal appeals court.

The papers, in challenging Environmental Protection Agency health standards, state among other things that DOE failed to assess all of the effects of burying tens of thousands of tons of spent fuel. That includes effects from hazardous metals that DOE is relying on to contain the waste.

When the three-judge panel issued its ruling July 9, the state's challenge of the EPA health standard was its only victory. In terms of just radioactivity, the court acknowledged that, when peak doses occur at roughly 300,000 years, a person at the repository's boundary would receive a dose at least 60 times greater than under the EPA's 10,000-year guideline.

That bothers Paz, who believes the cancer-causing effects of metals in a bath of nuclear-tainted groundwater will be unacceptable under EPA's current guidelines for chemical mixtures.

Paz came to Nevada in 1989 to work as an industrial hygienist for a Nevada Test Site contractor. He said he resigned in 1991 out of frustration and incompatibility with officials outside of his division.

He was among safety specialists who realized early on that certain minerals in the mountain, if disturbed by tunnel drilling, could result in lung ailments that affect some tunnel workers.

Now he is adamant that, if the EPA health standard is extended for a much longer, 300,000-year period, as the appeals court suggests, his argument about heavy metals holds even more weight.

Even at 10,000 years, those health risks need to be thoroughly studied, he said.

When DOE officials say the slow degradation of the waste canisters would only result in a minuscule problem, Paz's gut reaction is, "Baloney."

"They don't have a large study to support their position. They don't have the data to support it," he said.

Abe Van Luik, senior policy adviser for DOE's Office of Repository Development in Las Vegas, insists the release rate of radionuclides and toxic metals in 10,000 years will be "extremely low."

"Even at peak dose time, we're still not looking at issues that would cause anybody to worry," he said.

Paz himself offered to do the research for calculating the effects of more than 100,000 tons of heavy metals mixing with radioactive waste. Paz says he has the resume to do it.

Forty years ago, the Israeli native was an employee of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission. In 1966, he came to the United States and eventually earned a degree in chemistry from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. Later, he pursued a master's degree in marine science and the environment at another New York college.

He went on to earn a doctorate in 1984 in philosophy, specializing in environmental health science at Polytechnic University of New York.

After a two-year stint with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, he went to work as an industrial hygienist for a contractor at the Nevada Test Site.

Van Luik said DOE turned down Paz's health risk study proposal, not because he needed more qualifications for the job, but because it would challenge EPA regulations and probably the standard that the U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit now questions.

Van Luik said to calculate health risks from the combined effects of heavy metals and radioactive materials when there is no requirement to do so would be "like challenging the speed limit."

"We looked at the concentrations coming down and showed what EPA believes is not going to be an issue," Van Luik said.

Nevertheless, an EPA official who spoke on condition of anonymity said it's not out of the question that the issue Paz raises eventually might have to be addressed after DOE officials apply for a license for the repository from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They expect to submit an application by the end of this year.

The EPA official said it's unlikely that legal questions about the 10,000-year standard will prompt the Energy Department to conduct a study as Paz has suggested.

"Our standards don't address details on any specific factors or how DOE should analyze them. That would be dictated through the licensing process," the EPA official said.

Though he has no stake in the project other than as a private citizen, Paz is motivated to get involved because of his roots in academia and his knowledge of health and safety issues.

When Paz learned last month that some of his comments about the Yucca Mountain Project were missing from the millions of public documents that DOE put in an on-line network for licensing review, he sought help from a statewide environmental group, Citizen Alert.

Peggy Maze Johnson, Citizen Alert's executive director, has joined Nevada in filing a complaint with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission asserting that more than 3 million pages of public comments and research documents can't be found in the Licensing Support Network, including those from Paz.

"They claim to have 4 million to 6 million documents, and they've only got 1.4 million," Maze Johnson said.

She asked, "Are they pulling out only what they think they want us to hear" for inclusion in the network?

When DOE's Van Luik was asked specifically about Paz's comments not being transferred to the Licensing Support Network, Van Luik said, "There's a good explanation for that. Per the regulation, it is not relevant for our license application."

Paz sees it differently. "This is a very serious deficiency," he said about DOE's reluctance to take up his issue. "They try to find excuses not to do it because it would cause a very big delay."

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 09, 2004

Letter: Not pure

To the editor:

Although a recent Review-Journal column described Sen. John Kerry's Yucca Mountain record as "pure" ("More politics on Yucca," July 8), a thorough investigation into his voting history reveals a quite tainted record.

It seems that the myth of Sen. Kerry as a warrior on behalf of Nevadans is pure fiction. He talked a good game and endeared himself to many Nevadans with his anti-Yucca rhetoric. But when you take a deeper look, it was Sen. Kerry who helped get the Yucca ball rolling with his vote for the original "Screw Nevada" bill in 1987. Since that fateful vote, he has time and time again cast votes to waive environmental standards, increase funding and expedite the Yucca Mountain program.

It seems that it would be hard to hide from such a record, but Sen. Kerry actually had the audacity to come into our state and claim that, "For 16 years, I have helped Nevada fight the repository ... " For him to brag about supporting us, knowing full well that he had voted against us, is a blatant lie.

A Review-Journal story ("Kerry criticizes Bush on Yucca," April 6) reported that Sen. Kerry stated, "Nevadans should keep in mind the adage, `Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me'." It looks like Sen. Kerry had us all fooled with his "pure" record. But we'll take his advice and tell John Kerry "shame on you."

John Kerry said he was anti-Yucca Mountain and challenged us to check his record. We did. And we learned that, when it came time to protect Nevada, John Kerry has been at best inconsistent. He certainly is not the hero he has been portrayed to be.

Sen. John Ensign
Washington, D.C.
The writer is a Nevada Republican.

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U.S. Newswire
August 09, 2004

Kerry to Meet with First Responders and Community Leaders in Las Vegas Tuesday

To: National and Assignment Desks, Political Reporter

Contact: Allison Dobson of Kerry-Edwards 2004, 202-464-2800, Web: http://www.johnkerry.com

LAS VEGAS, Aug. 9 /U.S. Newswire/ -- On Tuesday, Aug. 10, John Kerry will meet with parents, nurses, first responders, community leaders and local citizens concerned about the local economic and public health impact of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site. The event will be held at a school near the proposed route nuclear waste would travel to Yucca Mountain.

Kerry will emphasize that he will protect Nevada communities through sound science and that a Kerry-Edwards Administration will ensure that the hallmark of the Nation's nuclear waste program is an unwavering commitment to scientific integrity and to the protection of public health and the environment.

Kerry's visit will come on the 12th day of his "Believe in America" post-convention trip across the United States. Traveling by bus, boat, train, helicopter and plane, Kerry has journeyed all the way from Boston, sharing the Kerry-Edwards plan to make America stronger at home and respected in the world with families in cities and towns along the way.

Believe in America Tour Schedule: Tuesday, Aug. 10

WHAT: Kerry Meets with First Responders and Community Leaders Concerned About The Local Economic And Public Health Impact Of The Proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Site.

WHEN: 11 a.m. PDT

WHERE: Ralph Cadwallader Middle School, 7775 Elkhorn Road, Las Vegas, Nevada

OPEN PRESS

Satellite Truck Parking: Marked on site

Cable Run: 400 feet

Press Entrance: Marked on site

Pre-Set: 7:30 8:30 a.m. PDT

First Access: 10 a.m. PDT

Final Access: 10:30 a.m. PDT

Throw: 40 feet

---

WHEN: 6 p.m. PDT

WHAT: Kerry Holds a Believe in America Rally in Las Vegas, Nevada

WHERE: UNLV -- Thomas and Mack Center, 4505 Maryland Pkwy, Las Vegas, Nevada

OPEN PRESS

Satellite Truck Parking: Cox Production Lot on east side of building behind Cox Pavilion

Cable Run: 700 feet

Press Entrance: Main entrance, marked on site

Pre-Set: 3 4 p.m. PDT

First Access: 4:30 p.m. PDT

Final Access: 4:30 p.m. PDT

Throw: 50 feet

------

Paid for by Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc.

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FCW
August 09, 2004

NRC licensing Web site revamped

BY Rutrell Yasin

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) officials have upgraded the Web site dedicated to sharing documents related to the Yucca Mountain, Nev., radioactive waste repository.

Energy Department officials are preparing an application to obtain an NRC license to begin constructing the nation's first long-term repository for used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.

NRC officials have implemented the latest version of Autonomy Corp.'s search and infrastructure software to enable individuals and organizations involved in the licensing hearing to search and share discovery documents more uniformly.

Participants and potential participants in the hearing can access NRC's Licensing Support Network (LSN) Web site (www.LSNNET.gov) to retrieve and share documents that might be used as evidence. This includes officials from Nevada, several of the state's counties, the National Congress of American Indians, various environmental groups, DOE and NRC.

The Web site provides a single interface to access dozens of databases that house the documents related to the Yucca Mountain repository, said Dan Graser, LSN administrator.

The collection contains more than 2 million documents that consist of correspondence, memos, scientific reports and other materials stored in DOE and NRC databases, Graser said. Popular search engines such as Google would not be applicable in this setting, he added.

"Autonomy's [software] is more of a sophisticated knowledge management tool" than a search engine, said Whit Andrews, a research director at Gartner Inc.

The software integrates unstructured, semi-structured and structured information from multiple repositories by understanding the content, or pattern recognition, he said.

At the center of Autonomy's infrastructure is the Intelligent Data Operating Layer server, the platform for understanding the meaning and significance of information. The ability to perform advanced operations can be integrated into it, company officials said.

People using "LSN can index documents from many sources and accept information from hundreds of repositories and formats," said John Cronin, vice president of Autonomy's federal group. "The strength of the software is its ability to take text, audio and video, [analyze it] and link together information."

NRC's Web site, built by AT&T Government Solutions and hosted at the company's facility in Northern Virginia, began operating in October 2001, Graser said.

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Las Vegas SUN
August 08, 2004

Columnist Jeff German: Sierra Club puts heat on GOP

Jeff German's column appears Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays in the Sun. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4067.

Weekend Edition

August 7 - 8, 2004

You don't have to talk to Carl Pope very long to see that he's not a fan of President Bush.

As executive director of the Sierra Club, the nation's oldest and most influential environmental organization, Pope has been critical of Bush's anti-environmental policies.

With equal passion Pope has found fault with the president's push to make Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the site of the country's high-level nuclear waste repository.

For years Pope and his San Francisco-based organization, which has 700,000 members nationwide, have been one of Nevada's strongest allies in the fight against the dump.

Last week, sensing that Bush is vulnerable at the polls in Nevada, Pope took the Sierra Club's opposition to the next level. He came to Las Vegas to launch an ambitious voter education program pointing out the dangers of Yucca Mountain and why Bush is no friend of this state.

This is good because many people who live here -- including some of our Republican leaders -- still think of Bush as a friend.

"Nevada's not alone anymore," Pope told me. "If Nevada can hold on and demonstrate this November that this issue can't be swept under the rug by politicians, I think Yucca Mountain is dead."

The Sierra Club plans to spend more than $500,000 and dispatch 1,000 volunteers into the community to reach 30,000 households. The goal is to get voters fired up in November to vote for Democratic challenger John Kerry, who has promised to kill the Yucca Mountain project.

The grassroots campaign, which is being backed by the Culinary Union, is significant because it could put Kerry over the hump in Nevada, a battleground state, and determine the outcome of the entire presidential race.

It's a perfect example of how groups traditionally aligned with the Democrats have banded together with enthusiasm to defeat Bush.

But more than that, it's an indication of how this election could rest on the Yucca Mountain issue.

Don't let anyone tell you that Yucca Mountain isn't the most important issue for Nevadans in the race. There is nothing more crucial to our well-being than keeping the deadliest substance known to man as far away as possible from our children and our tourism industry.

This is a no-brainer. This is our future.

The Sierra Club's campaign will highlight the profound differences between the Democrats and the Republicans on Yucca Mountain.

Democrats are solidly behind Kerry and his pledge to stop the dump in its tracks. Republicans are against the dump, but they are pushing for the re-election of Bush, who is shoving the dump down our throats.

I find it pathetic watching our highest-ranking Republicans -- Gov. Kenny Guinn, Attorney General Brian Sandoval, Sen. John Ensign, and Reps. Jim Gibbons and Jon Porter -- dance like party puppets every time they're asked to explain how they can work to re-elect a president who wants to send the deadly nuclear waste our way.

They look like flip-flopping fools.

Is there not one among them who has the strength to stand up and tell the president he doesn't deserve our votes until he can assure us he will kill Yucca Mountain?

Carl Pope knows Kerry pretty well, and he's convinced that the Massachusetts senator will follow through with his Yucca Mountain pledge, which is why Pope is willing to make a big investment in the presidential race here.

Kerry will make another campaign stop in Las Vegas this week, so we'll have a chance to press him for more details about his plans to halt the project.

In the meantime, I'm glad the Sierra Club has taken a keen interest in the race.

I'm hoping it beats a drum loud enough to wake up our Republican leaders so we'll be united in electing a president who's on our side in the Yucca Mountain fight.

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Nevada Appeal
August 08, 2004

Sierra Club steps up role in presidential campaign in Nevada

Martin Griffith

RENO - As President Bush and John Kerry prepare to visit Nevada again, the Sierra Club is stepping up its political involvement in the battleground state.

Dozens of Sierra Club members began taking to neighborhoods in Reno and Las Vegas on Saturday as part of the environmental organization's voter education campaign designed to highlight the candidates' differences on green issues.

Similar door-to-door efforts will be launched in upcoming weeks in other key battleground states, including Oregon, Michigan, Ohio, Florida and New Hampshire, spokesman Eric Antebi said.

The Sierra Club has been sharply critical of the Bush administration's environmental record.

"We realize there's no substitute to talking to people one on one," Antebi said, adding Nevada is the only state where an environmental issue could turn the election.

Nearly 50 Sierra Club members - most of them from the San Francisco Bay area - talked to more than 500 Reno voters on Saturday about how Bush and Kerry differ on plans to bury the nation's nuclear waste in southern Nevada.

Bush has approved Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the dump site, while Kerry has pledged it will not be a repository if he wins in November. Kerry voted against the project in 2000 and 2002 in the Senate.

"There's a real clearcut choice here and we know the next president will have the power to stop it," Antebi said. "Nevada has the power to decide its own fate on Yucca Mountain."

Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

But in Las Vegas last week, Interior Secretary Gale Norton defended the Bush administration's oil, natural gas and coal development policies on federal land.

Norton said the pace of development over the last three years has been the same as the last three years of the Clinton administration.

"Less than 2 percent (of federal lands) is going for energy production," she said.

Bush and Kerry are locked in a tight race in Nevada, according to a poll conducted July 20-22 for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the most recent available.

Bush had the support of 46 percent of those surveyed while Kerry had 43 percent.

A majority of Nevada voters said Bush's Yucca Mountain decision would have no effect on their vote. But among undecided voters, 31 percent said they would be less likely to vote for Bush because of Yucca Mountain.

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Nevada Appeal
August 08, 2004

Letters to the Editor

Yucca Mountain chosen during Carter's term

In a July 20 article concerning Yucca Mountain, the Associated Press stated, "The Bush administration and Congress picked the site in 2002 to hold waste now stored at three military sites and commercial nuclear reactors across the country."

Fact: The Yucca Mountain site was selected and approved in 1980 during the presidency of Jimmy Carter.

Diane Gordon
Gardnerville

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Cincinnati Enquirer
August 08, 2004

Nevada: No deal on Fernald

Refusal to take waste costs $9,000 a day

By Dan Klepal
Enquirer staff writer

CROSBY TWP. - The state of Nevada has no intention of making deals with the federal government when it comes to the disposal of radioactive waste from the former Fernald nuclear weapons plant in northwest Hamilton County.

Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval has threatened to file a federal suit to stop the intended disposal of 153 million pounds of Fernald's most dangerous waste from being buried in the desert at the Nevada Test Site, a giant government-owned parcel of land 65 miles outside Las Vegas.

That threat has brought to a standstill the work of removing powdery waste from one of three concrete storage "silos" at Fernald, at a cost to taxpayers of about $9,000 per day. The bill for doing nothing on Silo 3 over the past two weeks is at least $126,000 ... and counting.

The centerpiece of Nevada's legal claim is that the Fernald waste must be disposed of at a licensed Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) site. The Nevada Test Site, which has accepted and continues to accept lower-level radioactive waste from Fernald, is a DOE-run facility that is not licensed by the commission.

Department of Energy lawyers, who have promised Nevada a 45-day notice before the first shipment of waste is sent, responded with a six-page letter last week that says Nevada's legal claims are all wrong, and asks that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission be used as an independent third party to vouch for the safety and appropriateness of the plan to dump Fernald waste in Nevada. No notice has yet been given to Nevada regarding the planned shipments.

It is "worth exploring whether our legal differences can be compromised and set aside by developing a process through which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would be called upon to vouchsafe" for the federal government's plan, says the letter, signed by Department of Energy General Counsel Lee Liberman Otis.

No dice, Nevada officials say.

"Under no circumstances will we negotiate," Sandoval said in response.

Bob Loux, director of the Agency for Nuclear Projects in the Nevada Governor's Office, added that the federal government's lawyers are asking his state to break federal law. Loux's agency has been battling with the federal government for more than a decade over its plan to use Yucca Mountain as a permanent dump for the country's most dangerous nuclear waste.

"They are trying to induce us into a conspiracy to break the law," Loux said. "They're saying 'Let's work together and compromise on the law.'"

"If the Department of Energy believes the NRC will sign off on its plan, we believe they ought to go ahead and get an NRC license. The instant we get the (45-day shipping) notice, we'll be in court."

Bill Taylor, the Department of Energy's second-in-command at Fernald, said the cost of keeping workers on standby at the Silo 3 cleanup will go higher starting next month. It could reach a cost of $57,000 per day, if the legal dispute stretches into late fall.

"We're not going to allow that to continue for a long, long period of time. It's just not practical," Taylor said of the standby mode, which means crews at the Silo 3 project continuously monitor and check the computer and mechanical systems they'll use to remove the waste, and continue to practice with those systems on fly ash.

Taylor said that after the 45-day notice is sent to Nevada, it will take his crews about 10 days to get ready to begin removing the material from Silo 3. Complicating the matter is a rule that says the waste cannot be removed from the silo, then stored at Fernald for any substantial length of time. That means crews might have to wait for a judge's ruling on the Nevada suit before moving forward with the job.

"I don't think (our lawyers) will ever put us in a situation where we have material half in and half out," Taylor said. "So sure, that might mean a further delay."

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E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com

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Las Vegas SUN
August 07, 2004

Sierra Club steps up role in presidential campaign in Nevada

By Martin Griffith
Associated Press

RENO, Nev. (AP) - As President Bush and John Kerry prepare to visit Nevada again, the Sierra Club is stepping up its political involvement in the battleground state.