Yucca Mountain News Clips
Friday, August 13, 2004
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Las Vegas SUN
August 13, 2004

NRC staff not pushing for Yucca, attorney says

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

WASHINGTON -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff is not advocating for the Energy Department's Yucca Mountain project, the agency's attorney assured Nevada officials Wednesday.

Nevada had accused the commission's staff of being partial to the department based on comments made by an attorney during an administrative court hearing last month.

Attorney Mitzi Young used the phrase "hard sell" when describing the agency's support for the Energy Department's position on Nevada's challenge to the document database.

Nevada officials believe the department violated the rules when it created its own Web site and posted millions of documents to it, only to have the site be unusable for days following its release. Energy Department officials believe the database is acceptable under the law. The department needed to make the documents public six months before it planned to turn in its license application.

"Merely because the staff's views may diverge from those of the state in a particular instance, it is irresponsible to suggest that they therefore reflect an inappropriate bias towards the Department of Energy," NRC General Counsel Karen Cyr said in a letter sent to Bob Loux, executive director of the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects Wednesday.

"Please be assured that there have been no communications that would compromise the separation of functions requirements or suggest that the staff should depart from its traditional role in this matter," Cyr said.

She said she had spoken with Young and other attorneys and found nothing wrong.

The state emphasized that the agency is required to be an independent evaluator in the whole process.

The administrative court has not yet issued a decision on whether the database satisfies the law. A ruling in the state's favor could delay the project.

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Las Vegas SUN
August 13, 2004

Columnist Jeff German: Kerry has guts to stop nuke waste

Jeff German's column appears Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays in the Sun. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4067.
•••
If the presidential race for Nevada's five electoral votes comes down to Yucca Mountain, which it should, Sen. John Kerry already has won the race.

The difference between Kerry and President Bush on this issue was as clear this week as the bright Southern Nevada sky after a summer rainstorm.

While Kerry, the Democrat, spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Las Vegas hammering home his opposition to Yucca Mountain at public event after public event, Bush, the Republican, let it be known during a single campaign appearance Thursday that he was determined to ram nuclear waste down our throats.

With Gov. Kenny Guinn and other top Republicans at his side, Bush offered no reassurance in a televised speech that he would stop sending the deadliest substance known to man our way. Instead he attempted to poke holes in Kerry's voting record on Yucca Mountain which, any way you look at it, is a zillion times better than the president's. Bush had one vote in 2002 and that was to recommend the project to Congress.

Kerry, on the other hand, whether chatting with local officials at a small town hall meeting or preaching to an overflowing crowd of an estimated 15,000 supporters at the Thomas & Mack Center, stepped up his tough anti-Yucca Mountain talk. And he backed it up with specifics. He appeared much more knowledgeable about the dangers of the project than he did back in May when he first promised that Yucca Mountain would not happen on his watch.

What impressed me the most was not Kerry's campaign rhetoric, but the depth of his opposition, which came into focus during a news conference Wednesday with a half-dozen local journalists.

In a relaxed mood, after addressing a group of friendly seniors in Henderson, Kerry said he's no longer even sure storing radioactive waste at a centralized location is the right way to go. That's a significant statement when you consider that some $20 billion in taxpayer money already has been poured into the still-unfinished Yucca Mountain project.

"The more I've looked at the issue and the more I've learned about it, the less comfortable I am with the concept of a repository," Kerry said.

It's why the Massachusetts senator said earlier during his visit that, as president, he would put the nation's scientists to work to once and for all find the best and safest way to deal with nuclear waste.

More than that, however, Kerry outlined how he would move to kill the dump.

He said he would start by finding an energy secretary and an interior secretary who share his anti-Yucca Mountain vision for nuclear waste. That sounded like an invitation for the likes of former Nevada governors Bob Miller and Richard Bryan, two of the fiercest Yucca Mountain critics, to update their resumes.

Then he said he would not only hold up the Yucca Mountain licensing process, but would also veto any anticipated congressional legislation aimed at lowering the safety standards for storing waste. The legislation is being contemplated by the pro-Yucca forces in Washington to circumvent a federal court decision that said the current standards by law are unsafe.

One thing that could interfere with Kerry's pledge to derail Yucca Mountain is pressure from the wealthy nuclear industry, which is desperate to move nuclear waste from power plants in 33 states. The industry has spread plenty of money around Capitol Hill, winning many friends.

But Kerry appeared undaunted.

When I asked him whether he was concerned about taking heat from the influential industry, he looked me in the eye and said in a confident voice, "I'm not worried about the pressure."

They are the words of a winner.

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Las Vegas SUN
August 13, 2004

Letter: A vote for Bush is a vote for waste

I would implore Gov. Kenny Guinn and Sen. John Ensign to encourage all Nevadans not to vote for President Bush. If our elected officials are truly looking out for the citizens of this state, then they most certainly would not want nuclear waste being shipped here.

Gov. Guinn and Sen. Ensign are Republicans, but they should show some courage and oppose President Bush for the benefit of Nevada. Any Nevadan voting for Bush is voting for nuclear waste. If they can live with it and all the danger, well, so be it.

But Republican voters and state Republican officials should ask themselves: Because you belong to a certain party, are you going to vote for somebody who will hurt your state?

Clem Sienkiewich

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Las Vegas SUN
August 13, 2004

Democrats say Bush didn't address Yucca problems

By Kirsten Searer
<searer@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN

Democrats have called on President Bush to talk about Yucca Mountain for months, and after hearing him Thursday they remained unsatisfied.

"He has spoken loud and clear, and now the people of the state of Nevada need to speak equally clearly," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. "And they'll do that in November."

Bush told about 1,300 supporters that he looked to science when he decided to proceed with the project and will heed the decisions of the court system and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"I said I would listen to the scientists, those involved with determining whether or not this project could move forward in a safe manner," Bush said. "And that's exactly what I did."

But Berkley pointed out that a recent federal court decision pointed to a standard that suggests the project be designed to hold nuclear waste for 300,000 years. The standard for the project, however, is 10,000 years.

"They missed the mark by 290,000 years," Berkley said.

Despite the court ruling, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has said the Yucca project will continue until the matter is resolved.

"If he was serious about standing with the people of the state of Nevada, he would have stopped this project instead of fighting the ruling," Berkley said.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, a Democrat, mocked the president's assertion that he would follow the court challenges.

"He doesn't have a choice, does he?" Goodman said.

Regardless of what the president says, "he's shown his true colors" on the issue, Goodman said.

Some Republicans said Thursday they were glad that the president commented on the issue while in Las Vegas.

Before they rode with Bush from the airport to the event Thursday, both Reps. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and Jon Porter, R-Nev., said they were glad the president was addressing the issue. They said they planned to express concerns about Yucca Mountain to the president -- just as they said they do every time they see him.

In his visit to Las Vegas, Bush made it clear that he is not allowing politics to influence his decisions, said Porter spokesman Adam Mayberry.

"Congressman Porter was very pleased that President Bush took Yucca Mountain head on," Mayberry said. "But that doesn't stop the fact that Congressman Porter is dead set against bringing 70,000 tons of nuclear waste to Nevada, period."

Soon after his speech, Democrats issued a press release saying that Bush claims to have relied on science but ignored the more than 200 scientific questions that remain to be answered about Yucca Mountain.

Nor did he address a 2001 General Accounting Office study that urged the Bush administration to postpone the waste site just a few months before Bush approved the site. The study said that plans for Yucca Mountain "may not describe the facilities that (the Department of Education) would actually develop."

Democratic party spokesman Jon Summers said Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry spoke with local print reporters for about 30 minutes on Wednesday and answered questions about Yucca Mountain.

Bush, he said, "chose to slip out the back door and avoid any sincere discussions about the most important issue facing our state."

Hundreds of people protested Bush outside of the event at the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America training center, including many members of other unions, who criticized the carpenters for hosting the president.

In recent years, some building trade unions have said that Yucca Mountain would provide construction jobs. But Monte Byers, chief of staff for the Carpenters Union, said Yucca Mountain was not the impetus for hosting the president.

"That's not our emphasis," he said. "We've been working with the administration in a number of areas, none of them are related to Yucca Mountain."

A few years ago the union had issued an invitation to the president to tour the Las Vegas facility, and the White House recently informed them that Bush would take their offer, Byers said. Byers said the union has received a couple of calls in protest.

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Las Vegas SUN
August 13, 2004

Bush explains Yucca stance to LV

President says fate of dump now up to courts

By Kirsten Searer
<searer@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN

Reaching back to his campaign promise in 2000, President Bush said Thursday that he did rely on science when he signed off on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository site.

Speaking for the first time in Nevada about the Yucca Mountain decision, Bush said he did what he said he would when he made the decision in 2000 to move forward with the repository.

Bashed in the state for the decision and accused of breaking the 2000 campaign promise, in which he said he would rely on "sound science," Bush said he listened to the scientists and to Nevada's leaders.

He said he would now leave the issue to court appeals and the licensing process.

"We need to keep facts, not politics, at the center of the debate," he said to applause Thursday at the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America International Training Center in Las Vegas.

The president spent about two hours in Las Vegas on a campaign swing Thursday, touring the training center and making a speech before leaving just after noon.

An estimated 1,300 Bush supporters and union members attended the speech, at which Bush spoke for about 45 minutes on several topics, including the economy and the war on terrorism.

His comments Thursday about the Yucca project were the first Bush has made publicly since he approved it in 2002.

He told the crowd that the issue has been brewing for a while, including in 1987, when Congress voted on the "Screw Nevada" bill that focused on Yucca Mountain as the sole site that could host the nation's nuclear waste.

His opponent, Sen. John Kerry, voted in favor of that bill, though Kerry has since voted against Yucca Mountain and has pledged to stop it if he is elected president.

"When I campaigned here, I said I would make a decision based upon science, not politics," Bush said. "I said I would listen to the scientists, those involved with determining whether or not this project could move forward in a safe manner. And that's exactly what I did."

Bush said he has listened to Nevada representatives such as Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn, Attorney General Brian Sandoval and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who have argued against the site. Guinn and Sandoval co-chair Bush's re-election campaign in Nevada.

"And I said, 'Well, I appreciate your opinion, but I'll tell you what I will do: I will allow this process to be appealed to the courts and to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,' " he said. "And I will stand by the decision of the courts and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."

Bush did not mention the federal court rulings issued this summer that found the Environmental Protection Agency did not follow the law setting radiation standards for the proposed repository.

A law passed by Congress required the EPA to set a standard in consultation with the National Academy of Sciences. The court, which stayed its decision pending appeal, said the EPA failed to do that when it said the project must hold in radiation for 10,000 years.

The National Academy of Sciences suggested a standard of more than 100,000 years.

Congress could change the law so that it fits with the EPA requirements. Bush did not comment on whether he would support changes to the radiation standards, and Bush campaign spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt declined to comment further, saying Bush's comments on the project stand on their own.

Kerry has promised to veto any attempts by Congress to loosen the radiation standards.

It was one of several hard-line positions against Yucca Mountain that Kerry took during his two-day tour here. He also pledged to stop the licensing project for the site.

On Thursday, Bush accused Kerry of using the issue as a "political poker chip" and pointed out that Kerry voted for the "Screw Nevada" bill.

"He says he's strongly against Yucca here in Nevada, but he voted for it several times," Bush said to laughter. "And so did his running mate.

"My point to you is that if they're going to change, one day they may change again. I think you need straight talk on this issue. I think you need somebody who is going to do what he says he's going to do."

The crowd gave Bush a standing ovation in response.

Bush also focused on another Nevada issue, water rights. He credited his administration with working out an agreement in the dispute over Colorado River water and creating the Water 2025 initiative to promote conservation and technology to create automated pumping and canal controls.

"We look forward to working with the states and the local authorities to better safeguard this precious resource," he said.

Bush toured the carpenters union's national training facility and, during his speech, he said the strong American work ethic has helped the country pull out of a recession pulled down even further by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the corporate earnings scandals.

"We've overcome these obstacles because we refuse to be intimidated," he said. "The spirit of America is strong and our economy is strong."

In his tour of the training program, workers pointed out giant bolts to Bush and let him flip the switch on a machine that would be similar to one found in a power plant.

"I believe we ought to increase our budgets for these training programs, and we'll continue to call upon Congress to do so because it's money well spent," Bush later said.

"See, I think the role of government is to help people help themselves, and one way to do so is through good, valid education programs just like they do here at this site," he said.

Bush defended the war in Iraq, partly by comparing Iraq to post-World War II Japan, which became a self-governing country during U.S. occupation and now is a key American ally.

The war on terror is a different kind of war, however, that allows enemies to hide around the world, Bush said. Therefore, the U.S. has to go after them and people willing to harbor them.

Saddam Hussein also defied U.N. inspectors, Bush said.

"I thought we were going to find stockpiles," he said. "Everybody did. But he had the capability of making weapons. And if the world had turned away from watching Saddam, that capability could have been passed on to terrorist enemies. It's a risk we could not afford to take."

He joked about Kerry's comments that he would vote for the war in Iraq if he had to do it again.

"It looked like for a while he was trying to squirm out of that vote," Bush said. "The other day he said that knowing what we know today, he agreed that the use of force in Iraq was necessary. I welcome that clarification. Still got 82 days left in the campaign, though."

The president got some of his biggest applause when he said his administration worked to eliminate the marriage penalty.

"I mean, it's a backward tax code, isn't it, when you penalize marriage?" he said. "We ought to be encouraging marriage in our country."

The crowd also applauded loudly when he said the nation needs a national energy policy that makes it less dependent on oil.

"In order to keep jobs here at home, we need an energy policy in America to make us less dependent on foreign sources of energy," he said.

Health care can be made more affordable by welcoming technology that will deliver efficient services, enact medical liability reform, and to create health savings accounts so that federal bureaucrats stay out of decision making, he said.

Kerry's health care plan relies largely on reinstating taxes for people in upper income levels. Bush cautioned the audience about Kerry's plan.

"You know how that goes," he said. "The so-called rich hire accountants and lawyers to maybe not pay as much. And therefore in order to meet all of these promises, guess who ends up getting stuck with the bill? The working people.

"Be careful of this language. We've heard it before in American politics."

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Las Vegas SUN
August 13, 2004

Protesters brave the heat

By Christina Littlefield
<clittle@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN

John Kerry supporters and/or George Bush despisers came out in droves Thursday morning -- despite the scorching heat -- to protest the U.S. president's speech at the local Carpenter's union.

Organizers passed out water bottles constantly throughout the event, which lasted about four hours, but as the temperature rose 10 degrees throughout the morning, the once-energetic crowd began to peter out.

With sweat dripping from his hair, 20-year-old Vincent Carson was even begging other protesters to take their turn in the hot Hazmat suit the young man was wearing to protest Bush's support of the Yucca Mountain dump.

While Yucca Mountain brought several dozen of the protesters out, most were union members who said they were upset at what they called the Bush administration's anti-labor policies, the outsourcing of American jobs, and the new overtime law that they said hurt American workers.

"We can't afford four more years of this guy," Danny Thompson, executive secretary treasurer of the Nevada AFL-CIO, said.

The Nevada AFL-CIO organized the protest along with the Democratic party and were joined in the protest by political groups Move-On and America Coming Together.

The protesters never got a glimpse of the president, as his entourage took a back way into the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America International Training Center, where he gave a speech, and bypassed the union members and John Kerry supporters lining Gilespie Street just south of McCarran International Airport.

Police estimated the crowd at about 250 to 300 people, but Democratic party leader Jon Summers said his people had counted 1,300 -- well above the 1,000 the party had hoped to get. The crowd grew to 500 or more when the protest hit its peak just before 11 a.m., when Bush began his speech.

Led by bull-horn wielding protesters, the crowd displayed high energy as they chanted together, shouting things like "No more Bush," "Three more months" and "Bush and Cheney have to go."

Most protesters held signs that said "Bush hands off overtime," but others displayed more creativity. One younger protester, Meagan Lewis, a 15-year-old canvaser for America Coming Together, held a sign that was almost bigger than she was and that said "Let's kick this son-of-a-Bush out."

Dozens of police cars blocked most of the protesters away from where some Bush supporters entered and exited the union training center, and about 25 officers initially guarded the area.

As temperatures began to rise, so did tempers in the formerly peaceful crowd.

Just before noon, as temperatures hit 102 and many protesters had been out in the heat for almost four hours, Bush supporters began trickling out of the union facility.

By then, the protesters had dwindled to less than 100 people, but they began to heckle the Bush supporters coming out, and the heckling quickly turned to profanity.

Most of the protesters asked the Bush supporters how they felt being lied to, or, as one man put it, "Bush-ited."

Most of the Bush supporters just waved at the protesters, but a few of the Bush supporters decided to heckle them back, and a few shouting matches turned into minor shoving matches police had to break up. In one fight, a Pro-Bush man shouting "Four more years" had to be protected from Kerry supporters shouting "Three more months."

By then, the number of officers guarding the area had doubled to nearly 50.

No arrests were made, Metro Police Lt. Dave Braden said.

One man, Jose Martinez, shouted "flip-flop" to the protesters. Another, Vietnam veteran Tino Mendoza, held a sign that said he had served a "full tour of duty in Vietnam," referencing Kerry's short term.

Police had to escort some union members to their cars and protected a little girl and her mother after protesters began to shout "Shame on you" at the pair as they were the only Bush supporters left on the street.

For the most part, the Bush supporters said they supported the rights of the Kerry people to protest.

"They're exercising their right to free speech, and that is great," Claire DeJesus said. "That's what makes this country great."

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 13, 2004

NRC denies Yucca Mountain bias claim

Letter rejects Nevada agency official's charge

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- A suggestion by Nevada officials that Nuclear Regulatory Commission evaluators are biased in favor of the Yucca Mountain Project drew a sharp rebuttal.

Karen Cyr, NRC general counsel, said Nevada leaders were irresponsible to suggest agency staffers are biased after the state expressed unhappiness with a legal opinion on a segment of the nuclear waste repository plan.

Cyr commented in a letter sent Wednesday to Robert Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. Loux had asked Cyr to investigate whether agency staff was being encouraged to tilt in favor of the Department of Energy on Yucca Mountain matters.

Loux said NRC attorney Mitzi Young crossed the line Aug. 4 when she delivered a legal opinion favoring the Energy Department at a hearing.

Cyr wrote that she spoke to Young and that staffers have not been compromised.

"Merely because the staff's views may diverge from those of the state in a particular instance, it is irresponsible to suggest that they therefore reflect an inappropriate bias toward the Department of Energy," the NRC official wrote.

Loux said Thursday he still believes the Energy Department and the NRC "are in bed together" to get the nuclear repository approved.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 13, 2004

John L. Smith

Thorny Issue: While surveys suggest that most Nevada voters aren't likely to be swayed by the presidential candidates' positions on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, their differences on the topic are better defined after this week's visits.

For Sen. John Kerry, it appears to be a question of "getting his mind right" on the issue, thanks in no small part to Sen. Harry Reid. Although Kerry previously had voted on both sides of the issue -- oh, no, not another flip-flop -- he vowed to veto Yucca as president.

President Bush, meanwhile, said he based his decision to forward the project on "sound science." But surveys suggest that most Nevadans believe the Yucca question is more political than scientific.

At one point in his Thursday appearance, Bush called for "straight talk" on the Yucca issue.

Straight talk?

During a presidential campaign?

Who says Mr. Bush lacks a sense of humor?

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 13, 2004

President stands by Yucca Mountain decisions

By Erin Neff
Review-Journal

President Bush on Thursday stood by his decision to locate a national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain and pledged to abide by any court or licensing decision related to the project.

"I will allow this process to be appealed to the courts and to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and I will stand by the decision of the courts and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," Bush said in his speech at the carpenters union training center south of the airport.

Bush called Yucca Mountain a "vital question" and said "we need to keep facts, not politics, at the center of the debate."

In his first public statements on the issue, viewed as central in a key battleground state, Bush accused Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry of "trying to turn Yucca Mountain into a political poker chip."

Bush said the issue has been developing over the years and mentioned the 1987 congressional vote to exclusively study Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as a potential repository. Implied, but not spoken, was Kerry's vote in support of that bill.

During a two-day campaign tour in Southern Nevada this week, Kerry said his 1987 vote was to study the issue, and he noted he voted against the repository on every substantive vote.

Bush has been criticized by Democrats for approving Yucca Mountain a year into his presidency, which they contend violated a 2000 promise to Nevada voters that he would base his decision on "sound science, not politics."

The president addressed his promise.

"When I campaigned here in this state, I said I would make a decision based upon science, not politics," Bush said. "I said I would listen to the scientists, those involved with determining whether or not this project could move forward in a safe manner. And that's exactly what I did. ... I listened to the people who know the facts and know the science, and made a decision."

Bush also addressed Nevada's Republican leaders who disagree with him on the decision, including Gov. Kenny Guinn, who attended the event.

"They didn't agree with my decision. I understand that. They made themselves very clear," Bush said.

The president went on to say that he would allow the process to be appealed.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she couldn't believe Bush's comments.

"He didn't allow the state of Nevada to go to court," she said. "The state has a constitutional right to go to court, and we won on this issue."

Berkley was referring to a recent U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision which invalidated a requirement that the repository be able to contain radioactive materials safely for at least 10,000 years, suggesting the period should be longer -- perhaps hundreds of thousands of years.

During his trip to Las Vegas, Kerry called on Bush to hold off submitting an application for licensing the repository. Kerry also said that, if elected, he would withdraw any application for a license the Bush administration submits, and that he would veto any congressional attempts to change the EPA's radiation standards.

The Bush-Cheney campaign said Kerry has been playing politics with the issue.

The campaign handed out a 1996 letter Kerry and fellow Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy wrote to then-Department of Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary.

In the letter, the senators urge her to comply with the congressional budget bill directing the department to complete core scientific tests at Yucca Mountain.

"It is important for us to move towards a viable and safe solution to the nation's need for a permanent nuclear waste repository," the letter states. "We are hopeful that DOE will move expeditiously to comply with the direction of the conferees and properly fund scientific and technical suitability testing at Yucca Mountain."

On Wednesday, Kerry said he has studied the science over the years and no longer believes geological burial of the waste can be done safely.

The Bush campaign also pointed to a 1999 letter Kerry, Kennedy and the two Connecticut senators wrote to then-Sen. Frank Murkowski, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, seeking to expedite shipments to Nevada if an interim repository were approved.

On Wednesday, Kerry said he didn't recall signing it, suggested it was a delegation-generated letter and pointed out that he voted against interim storage when it did come to Congress.

Murkowski, now governor of Alaska, issued a statement for the Bush campaign Thursday that said: "John Kerry's message with this letter was clear; get nuclear waste out of my state now, and send it to Nevada."

Bush was less blunt, saying: "My opponent says he's strongly against Yucca here in Nevada, but he voted for it several times. And so did his running mate."

Kerry voted against the repository in 2002 and in 1999. Vice presidential candidate John Edwards voted for the repository in 2002 and now says he would defer to Kerry's position on Yucca Mountain.

"My point to you is that, if they're going to change one day they may change again," Bush said to a standing ovation. "I think we need -- I think you need straight talk on this issue. I think you need somebody who is going to do what he says he's going to do."

Peggy Maze Johnson, president of Citizen Alert, is one of the plaintiffs in Nevada's lawsuit challenging the Yucca Mountain repository. She disputed Bush made his decision based on science, saying the Government Accounting Agency has identified more than 200 unresolved scientific issues involving the repository and that the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board has found no leak-proof canister for storing the waste.

"The citizens of Nevada are not stupid," Maze Johnson said. "Don't lie to us once again, Mr. President."

According to a poll commissioned in July for the Review-Journal, 57 percent of Nevada voters said Bush's approval of the repository would have no influence on their presidential vote. Thirty-five percent said the decision would make them less likely to vote for Bush, and 6 percent said it would make them more likely to support Bush.

Just before his speech, during a tour of the training center, Bush was asked twice why he approved Yucca Mountain. He smiled and waved at the reporter.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 13, 2004

Bush supporters, protesters face to face at union hall

By Richard Lake
Review-Journal

Democratic protesters shouted personal insults at people who attended President Bush's speech Thursday, capping off a protest rally led by labor union members who support John Kerry.

"Hey you bunch of losers, keep walking," shouted Bill Pasiecznik, with the laborers local 872, as a steady stream of speech attendees walked to their cars.

"Shame on you. Shame on you," came the taunts from Randy Soltero with the sheetmetal workers union. "Did you believe the lies?"

The protesters began gathering before 9 a.m., armed with signs declaring Bush a liar, a war monger and a bad manager of the economy. Police said they had to break up a fistfight at one point between a Bush supporter and a Kerry supporter, and officers were seen escorting Bush supporters to their cars. But police said they made no arrests.

"I don't have a problem with protesting," said Gaylene Teshima, who attended the speech with her family. "But for them to be so rude and go so far as to tear the bumper stickers off our car, that to me really spoke volumes about where they stand as far as integrity and honor."

Bush was in town briefly to speak at the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America's training center, just south of McCarran International Airport. The president arrived at the center through a rear entrance about 10:30 a.m., and left about an hour later. The protesters never got to see him before he took off for Southern California.

Police estimated the number of protesters at about 250, though the crowd looked to be about twice that size. A Democratic Party volunteer said he thought there were 2,000 protesters there, though that number seemed inordinately high.

In heat that topped 100 degrees, the protesters varied chanting "No more Bush," "Hey hey, ho ho, George Bush has got to go," and "Hell no, we won't glow," a reference to Bush's approval of Yucca Mountain, located 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as a proposed nuclear waste repository.

Some protesters wore T-shirts declaring "Bush sucks," or "Bush is an idiot." There were others, however, who toned down their message.

"I don't want four more years of Bush, and I'll stand out here in 150 degrees if I have to," said Connie Gilmore, a homemaker whose husband is a member of the Carpenter's union. "Bush has united Americans like no one has united them before, and we're all against him."

Amid the signs was one made by Lyla Bartholomae, 62. "Bush, you lied. You're fired. Here's your pink slip," said the sign, which featured the kind of pink slip typically worn under a dress.

Review-Journal writer Brian Haynes contributed to this report.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 13, 2004

Editorial: The Kerry mining tax

Could cost 44,000 jobs in states such as Nevada

Democratic presidential aspirant John Kerry drew cheers from a partisan crowd at the Thomas & Mack this week when he said he'd stop any more digging from going on in Nevada.

He was referring to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, of course, which Mr. Kerry has recently discovered he vehemently opposes -- even if he can't quite pronounce it yet.

(And a happy coincidence that is, what with Nevada's five electoral "swing" votes actually proving vital in this year's presidential race.)

What Sen. Kerry might not have made clear is the extent to which he actually wants to stop all digging in Nevada.

It surely should surprise no one that a politically correct, East Coast liberal with the nearly perfect "environmental" voting record of a Sen. John Kerry turns out to be opposed to anyone making a living by cutting timber or raising cattle or digging minerals from any of the billions of acres the federal government manages in the Western states.

We have long observed the only way to awaken the tree-huggers east of the Mississippi from the pipe dream which sees them snuggling into bed each night, comfortable in the warm and fuzzy belief that they've done something "nice for Mother Nature" by keeping people west of the Mississippi from feeding their families (and providing the whole nation with wooden roof beams, copper pipe and beefsteak dinners) would be to send the bulldozer drivers to knock on their doors in Salem and Hyannis, explaining the land under their new four-bedroom Cape Cod is needed under the "New England Cranberry Bog and Mosquito Habitat Restoration Act."

Sen. Kerry, you see, is back to sounding that old one-note environmentalist horn, which claims the welfare ranchers and welfare miners of the West are just scooping up the wealth for free from the rich grasslands and nugget fields of Nevada, without paying their "fair share" of all these easy pickin's back to the federal treasury.

Sen. Kerry unveiled a plan last April -- he brought it up again Monday during a campaign stop at the Grand Canyon -- to "reduce the federal budget deficit" by doubling the current $200 fee for filing a mining claim (not likely to hurt him much in Rhode Island), and imposing a brand new 8 percent royalty fee on extracted minerals.

Needless to say, this "deficit reduction" money would not be used to pay off any actual treasury bonds, but would instead be immediately transferred "to the national parks."

A new 8 percent royalty fee would close down so many existing mining operations that it would "turn thriving Nevada mining towns into ghost towns," objects Sen. John Ensign, R. Nev.

Of course, it's election time and Sen. Ensign is a Republican. So let's allow for a little partisanship.

But Carol Raulston of the National Mining Association says the proposal could cost as many as 44,000 jobs and $500 million in revenue in the mining states. And it would appear Ms. Raulston is not exaggerating -- Sen. Kerry himself estimates the move would raise an extra $600 million for the national parks.

That would only be the tip of the iceberg, of course, should Sen. Kerry get elected with enough Democrats in Congress to start enacting the billions in new federal spending he envisions.

All that money has to come from somewhere. And it's a good bet it's not going to be a new levy on the scallops and flounder scooped up by Gloucester fishermen "without paying their fair share to the government that holds those offshore waters in trust for all the people."

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Reno Gazette-Journal
August 12, 2004

NRC denies favoring Energy Department

Ken Ritter
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is denying it favors the Energy Department in a dispute about whether the department met a requirement to submit documents about a national nuclear waste repository in Nevada.

Responding to a state complaint, a commission lawyer said in a letter made public Thursday that NRC officials sometimes advocate positions “consistent with one party or another.’

But Karen Cyr, Nuclear Regulatory Commission general counsel, called it “irresponsible’ to suggest bias “merely because (NRC) staff´s views may diverge from those of the state.’

Commission officials offered no additional comment about the letter, dated Wednesday and sent to Bob Loux, the state´s top anti-Yucca Mountain project administrator.

Loux called the response expected. He said it could prompt a legal challenge if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission decides the Energy Department met a June 30 deadline for sharing millions of pages of documents underpinning its application to build and operate the repository.

“We have said, and we continue to say, they are biased,’ Loux said. “We´ve put them on notice.’

The state complained Aug. 3 about a commission lawyer´s comment at a July 27 hearing that NRC staff was making a “hard sell’ on behalf of the Energy Department.

Loux insisted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should have a neutral role judging the Energy Department´s plan to entomb the nation´s most radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Energy Department plans to seek a repository operating license from the NRC by the end of the year. Licensing is expected to take several years, and the government wants to begin storing spent nuclear fuel from 39 states in 2010.

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KTNV
August 13, 2004

President Bush's Turn

After 2 days of John Kerry in Las Vegas, it was President Bush's turn to woo voters. The President spoke to more than 1,000 people Thursday morning at the "United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America." He talked about a number of things, from national security to Yucca Mountain. He voted in 2002 to allow Yucca Mountain to be the storage site for 77,000 tons of nuclear waste, and while it's an issue that could determine the presidency, he said it was a decision based on science.

I'll tell you what I will do; I will allow this process to be appealed to the courts and to the nuclear regulatroy commission and I will stand by the decision of the courts and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," the President said.

While his opponent, John Kerry maintains mister Bush broke his promise to Nevada, the President said check out Kerry's voting record.

"Now my opponent is trying to turn Yucca mountain into a political poker chip, he said he's strongly against Yucca here in Nevada, but he voted for it several times," he said.

The President also said America must make good on it's word when it comes to Iraq and standing up to terrorists.

"It's a risk we could not afford to take and knowing what I know now, I would've made the same decision and the world is better off for it," he said."

Hundreds showed up outside to protest the President's visit.

---------------------------

KVBC
August 12, 2004

President Bush Addresses Yucca Mountain Issue While In Las Vegas

President Bush surprised a lot of people with the speech he gave here in Las Vegas this morning. Bush was at a local union training center when he addressed a hand picked crowd of supporters. We knew he'd talk about the economy, and he did. We knew he'd talk about the war in Iraq, and he did. What we didn't know was whether he would talk about his decision to approve Yucca Mountain, a sore subject with a lot of people here. Some expected him to steer clear of it, but he didn't.

"The other issue, of course, I want to talk about is Yucca Mountain. It's a vital question. We need to keep the facts, not politics, at the center of the debate." President Bush addresses Yucca Mountain head on, taking a swipe at Senator Kerry. "My opponents try to turn Yucca into a political poker chip. He says he's strongly against Yucca, but he voted for it several times, and so did his running mate."

The President says he's the only candidate that's offering straight talk to the American people. "When I campaigned here in this state, I said I would make a decision based upon science, not politics. I said I would listen to the scientists, those involved with determining if this project could move forward in a safe manner, and that's exactly what I did. I listened to the people who know the facts and science and I made a decision."

The President said he took decisive action on an issue that had been debated for years before him. His decision on Yucca Mountain earned him criticism from Nevada politicians within his own party. The president said that he heard those voices loud and clear and leaves the decision now with the courts, and the outcome, Bush says, he would support.

"I will stand by the decision of the courts and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission." The President says he picked the Carpenters Union Training Center for his speech because it's a great example of what America needs, more chances for workers to learn new skills for the jobs of the future.

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New York Times
August 13, 2004

Political Points

Who's King of the Mountain?

By CARL HULSE

LAS VEGAS, Aug. 12 — The fight for Nevada's small allotment of five electoral votes has grown to mountainous proportions — Yucca Mountain that is.

Both the Bush and Kerry campaigns are aggressively pursuing the state because even a handful of electoral votes could be decisive in this election, so the duel has come down to their respective positions on the plan to locate a nuclear waste depository about 90 miles from here.

Suffice it to say, the idea is not wildly popular with residents or elected officials.

When he visited earlier this week, Senator John Kerry accused President Bush of reneging on a promise to not move ahead with the waste dump unless it was proven safe. When Mr. Bush visited here Thursday, he said he was willing to let some challenges to the decision proceed, but he said it was Mr. Kerry who was playing games.

"Now, my opponent's trying to turn Yucca Mountain into a political poker chip," said Mr. Bush. "He says he's strongly against Yucca here in Nevada, but he voted for it several times."

Throughout the day, the two campaigns traded charges over Yucca mountain. Bush supporters claimed Mr. Kerry and his running mate, John Edwards, had voted for legislation that would have allowed the Yucca repository to move forward, while the Kerry campaign said that Mr. Kerry had opposed the repository every time he was given a chance on that subject alone. Mr. Kerry's campaign also noted that a Las Vegas newspaper had portrayed Mr. Kerry as a strong opponent of the nuclear site while suggesting Mr. Bush abandoned the state on the issue.

Nevadans will have to sort out who they believe on the issue.

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North Adams Transcript
August 13, 2004

Yankee official: Activists' requests would create hazard

By Susan Bush
North Adams Transcript

ROWE -- Calls for spacing and dirt barriers between dry-cask storage containers that house nuclear spent fuel rods at the Yankee Rowe facility are misguided, according to Kelley Smith, a representative of the Yankee Atomic company.

Deb Katz, the executive director of the Citizens Awareness Network, said during a Tuesday press conference held in Greenfield that the dry-cask storage area could be a terrorist target, and that by moving the containers 12 feet further apart, creating double-walled canisters of stainless steel, piling dirt mounds between the containers and camouflaging the units would make the area safer and less appealing to terrorists.

But Katz's suggestions would actually create a hazard, Smith said on Thursday.

"There is major flaw [with Katz proposal]," Smith said.

Smith said that the casks are air-cooled, and additional layers of steel coupled with dirt mounds and then camouflage material would hinder the cooling process. That in turn traps the fuel rod heat and creates an obstacle for cask maintenance and inspection, Smith said.

"This would turn the casks basically into furnaces, trapping the heat," she said.

Smith said that environmental testing has occurred at Yankee Rowe since before the facility was actually erected, and that testing is on-going.

"Since before the plant was built there has been an off-site monitoring program," she said, referring to testing that is conducted in areas surrounding the facility. "During the more than 40 years of testing, there's been no impact on the environment."

However, tritium levels exceeding the drinking water standards has been detected at one of the numerous test wells drilled at the site as part of the facility decommissioning process, Smith said. The affected water has been detected in a well drilled very close to the area that housed the spent fuel rod pool. The pool contained spent fuel rods until the rods were placed in dry-cask storage, Smith said.

Remediation efforts are underway at that site and the remediation is expected to resolve the matter, Smith said.

"Any water that was discharged into the Deerfield River over the course of [facility] operations was strictly regulated and met the standards for releases," Smith said. "It met the drinking water standards. All groundwater at that plant except that one site meets drinking water standards."

The Yankee Rowe facility no longer produces nuclear energy and is in the final phases of a decommissioning process. Because spent fuel rods are being stored at the site, Yankee officials will not be allowed to abandon responsibility for the entire property but will have to oversee the dry-cask storage area until the rods can be moved.

The federal Department of Energy did contract with Yankee officials to remove and store the rods but a planned nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nev. has not been erected and will not likely be built by a previously publicized expected completion date of 2010. During the press conference, Katz said that the moving nuclear waste to such a site creates another terrorist target.

Smith said that the planned nuclear waste storage facility would be underground and receive federal protection.

"The site would eliminate various storage sites across the country," Smith said, and added that Yankee Rowe was not designed as a nuclear waste storage facility nor was it intended to serve as one.

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Las Vegas SUN
August 12, 2004

Kerry hopes for advantage with stance on repository

By Kirsten Searer
<searer@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN

John Kerry may have a trump card in Las Vegas -- his pledge to stop the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

And during his visit this week, he wasn't afraid to play it.

"This is a serious promise," he said Wednesday while outlining for local reporters his plan for Yucca Mountain.

"This is not something I'm going to study," he said. "I've studied it. I've voted on it. I've listened to these experts. It's very clear to me that we shouldn't rush this thing."

But during his two-day visit, Kerry also portrayed himself as a moderate -- once calling himself an "entrepreneurial Democrat" -- who could appeal to this closely divided state with his plans for the economy, the war on terror and health care.

On Wednesday he reached out to seniors at Henderson's Valley View Recreation Center and won the endorsement of the Alliance for Retired Americans, a group of 3 million that broke off from the AARP.

During the event, Kerry pummelled President Bush's prescription drug bill, which Kerry said has not stopped the rising drug costs that eat away at seniors' incomes.

He promised to lower prescription drug costs by importing drugs from Canada, buying them in bulk and tightening regulations on drug companies that keep patents so that people cannot buy generic forms of the drugs.

Bush's drug plan doesn't allow for free market competition that would lower drug prices, he said.

"I thought these were the people who believed in the marketplace, in fair competition," he said. "This isn't fair competition, it's a monopoly. And it's been put in place by George Bush and his friends. It's costing you a bunch of extra money.

"It's wrong," he said. "It's fundamentally wrong."

Kerry was warmly received at the event by about 300 people, including many seniors. One Las Vegas first-grade teacher complained that she cannot afford to retire because of her benefits. A Vietnam veteran said his disability benefits from being exposed to Agent Orange have been deducted from his military pension.

After the rally, Teresa Heinz Kerry shook hands and signed autographs until the crowd dwindled, just as she did after Kerry's rally Tuesday at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Kerry briefly mentioned his position on Yucca Mountain, and, as on Tuesday, he garnered cheers from the crowd.

After the event, Kerry explained his position to local reporters.

Republicans have criticized Kerry for voting in 1987 for the so-called "Screw Nevada" bill that singled out Yucca Mountain as the sole site being considered for the nation's nuclear waste.

Kerry said he voted for the bill because he was interested in learning more about a nuclear waste repository.

"Back in 1987, the idea of a national repository seemed like a reasonable thing," he said. "You presume the study's going to come back and say, 'Hey, this really works, it's great, whatever.' It hasn't."

Over the years, Kerry said, he has grown more concerned with the reliability of the casks that would store nuclear waste and the issues of transporting nuclear waste around the country.

The Yucca site, he said, is particularly problematic because it sits on fault lines and water sources. But he said he has begun to question the idea of one centralized repository, no matter where it is.

"I think people would be happier with people who say, 'gee, I'm glad we studied it and I'm glad we learned some things that raised the caution bells,' " he said.

"And there you are," he said. "I subsequently voted no, which puts me in a very different position from George Bush, who is pushing to open the damn thing. There's the difference. He wants to open it, I don't. Big difference."

Kerry said he is unafraid of the pressure he would receive from states that want to get rid of the nuclear waste in their area and from the nuclear industry, which is a powerful force in Washington.

"I'm not prepared to go shove it into someplace, not just Yucca Mountain, anywhere," he said.

Kerry also touched on recent concerns in Las Vegas that there was failed communication between the FBI and local law enforcement agencies over a terrorist cell video that surveyed hotels on The Strip.

His administration would overhaul the terrorism threat system, he said. Local law enforcement agencies need to be informed about potential threats in their area, he said.

"I promise you this, you won't have to struggle to get the answers out of us," he said. "And we'll do it rapidly, proactively, not be dragged kicking and screaming to the table the way this administration has," he said.

He also is interested in establishing crime watch systems in high-risk areas, similar to a neighborhood crime watch, so that people have a better capacity to observe and report potential problems, he said.

The public should be alerted to information when they can provide assistance in combating terror, he said, but should not be routinely scared by warnings the average person can do nothing about.

"The test is whether you're making Americans safer by doing what you're doing," he said.

Kerry said his two-day stay at the Bellagio was his longest in one bed in recent memory. On Tuesday, he ate dinner at the hotel and, according to the Washington Post, stopped Tuesday night to cheer on an aide playing at a $10-minimum blackjack table.

He was in the state long enough to learn how to pronounce its name. On Tuesday, Kerry said "Ne-vah-da" and "Yooka Mountain."

But on Wednesday morning, Henderson Parks and Recreation public information specialist Debra Haskell took it upon herself to pointedly pronounce "Nevada" for Kerry when she met him in a receiving line.

Kerry later told the crowd he is trying not to pronounce the state's name like he is from Massachusetts.

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Las Vegas SUN
August 12, 2004

Bush comment on Yucca anticipated

President in town to visit labor union

By Kirsten Searer
<searer@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN

President Bush was expected to address the issue of Yucca Mountain during his visit today to the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America International Training Center.

The campaign stop, which comes on the heels of a two-day visit from Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, will highlight the president's plans to strengthen the economy and build a strong national security, Bush spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said.

Also, she said, Bush "will speak to the issue of Yucca Mountain."

Before his speech, a reporter yelled a question to Bush asking about Yucca Mountain. The president just smiled and waved.

The president has not made a statement on the proposed nuclear waste repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, since approving it in 2002. In the 2000 campaign, he promised to use "sound science" to determine the fate of the plan. He angered many Nevadans by signing off on the project.

Bush arrived a few minutes earlier than announced, with Air Force One touching down at 10:10 a.m.

The president exited the plane at 10:25 and greeted Nevada's two Republican House members, Jim Gibbons and Jon Porter, as well as with Republican National Committeewoman Beverly Willard.

Bush then took a moment to talk with longtime Las Vegas Habitat for Humanity volunteer Mike Peschl before his motorcade left for the union training center.

Bush was then scheduled to tour the union's training center before speaking at the union building. He was expected to spend two hours here before leaving for a fund-raiser in California.

The president is speaking to the carpenters union because Bush and the carpenters "both share a commitment to growing the economy in creating jobs," Schmitt said.

"The president understands that good jobs require good training," Schmitt said. "The program that President Bush will tour reflects these priorities."

Some local union members have been critical of the carpenters hosting Bush, saying he disagrees with unions on many key issues. Democrats and Kerry are drawing much of their support from labor unions.

Bob Welch, director of operations for the training center that Bush will be visiting, said the president was invited to tour the facility two years ago and just now has accepted the invitation. The tour does not represent support for Bush as a candidate, he said.

"Officially we are neutral," Welch said.

Democratic Party spokesman Jon Summers called the situation "a little different," but said the party will focus on Bush's support for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

"I'm just focused more on hoping that we get answers from him about Yucca Mountain," Summers said. "This is the third opportunity that he's been in Nevada to explain why he lied to us about Yucca Mountain."

Bush visited Las Vegas in November and Reno in June but did not mention the Yucca Mountain issue.

Kerry has made Yucca Mountain a centerpiece of his campaign in the state. He has pledged to stop Yucca Mountain if he's elected president.

Democrats hope to rally hundreds of people outside of the training center to protest Bush, Summers said. Nevada has been an election hot spot this week. Vice President Dick Cheney is scheduled to make his fourth trip to Nevada this year on Saturday, when he will attend a rally at Elko High School in Elko.

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Las Vegas SUN
August 12, 2004

Hundreds protest at site of Bush LV speech

By Christina Littlefield
<clittle@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN

Hundreds of protesters lined the street outside the carpenters union facility in Las Vegas where President Bush held a campaign event.

The AFL-CIO -- the umbrella organization for most labor unions in Nevada, but not the carpenters union -- organized the protest.

"It's a bad sign that they (carpenters union) are speaking for labor and they don't. They're just one small union," said Danny Thompson, executive secretary treasurer of the Nevada AFL-CIO.

Bush toured the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America International Training Center in Las Vegas before his speech.

Most of the protesters were union members who say Kerry will do a better job for America's workers. Dozens of members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 357, the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, the Bricklayers Union Local 13 and other unions were at the protest.

Other protesters -- including one in a Hazmat suit -- spoke against bringing nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain.

Most shouted or displayed anti-Bush slogans.

One sign read, "Bush -- Hands off overtime." Some protesters shouted, "No more Bush." Others booed.

Some union members attacked the carpenters union local for hosting Bush.

"I don't understand why the carpenters are supporting him, but that's their decision," said Raymond Keen, president of the bricklayers union.

"We're the backbone of the economy and he (Bush) doesn't care about us," Keen added.

Jeffrey Westover, assistant business manager for the electrical workers union,said, "Kerry's more (pro-)labor. He's not sending American jobs out of the nation. He's not shrinking down jobs we need."

Rick DeVoe, a Democratic congressional candidate in District 3 and a member of the insulators union, was also at the protest.

Devoe said he's voting for Kerry because "Bush does everything in his power to undermine workers, from pay to safety."

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Reuters
August 12, 2004

Bush Accuses Kerry of Using Political Poker Chip

By Steve Holland

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - President Bush accused Democrat John Kerry on Thursday of shifting positions to oppose storing nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada and using the issue as a "political poker chip" in a gamble to grab a state Bush won in 2000.

Bush made the accusation during a brief stop in the U.S. gambling capital before heading to California, where he was to appear with popular Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Aides said Bush would announce $320 million in federal assistance for California. The state holds 55 electoral votes in the presidential election, the most in the country. Polls give Kerry a wide lead over Bush there and the Bush campaign is hoping Schwarzenegger can give him a boost.

Bush and his wife, Laura, will also appear on CNN's "Larry King Live" show from Los Angeles and attend a Republican fund-raiser.

Nevada's Yucca Mountain -- which Bush approved in 2002 as a burial site for radioactive refuse from nuclear power plants and weapons -- has become a centerpiece of the closely fought Nov. 2 White House race in Nevada.

Kerry said in a visit to the state on Tuesday that Bush had broken his promise as a candidate in 2000 to base his decision on "sound science, not politics" and cited a number of skeptical studies from the U.S. government's General Accounting Office, the National Academy of Sciences and other bodies.

The issue is largely local but could help determine the presidential race. Nevada is a key battleground state that Bush won in 2000, and without its five electoral votes would not be in the White House.

BUSH DEFENDS DECISION

Bush defended his decision to move ahead with Yucca Mountain but made clear he was comfortable with the state's appeals to the courts and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"I said I would make a decision based on science, not politics. I said I would listen to the scientists in determining whether this project can move forward in a safe manner and that's exactly what I did," Bush said.

The Bush campaign says Kerry voted for the 1987 Nuclear Waste Policy Act Amendments that began the process of studying Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste storage.

"My opponent is trying to turn Yucca Mountain into a political poker chip," Bush said. "He says he is strongly against Yucca, here in Nevada, but he voted for it several times, and so did his running mate (John Edwards). My point to you is that, if they're going to change, one day they may change again. I think you need straight talk on this issue."

Kerry has consistently voted against a nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain. The 1987 amendments act was tacked onto budget legislation, for which he voted, but Kerry said on Tuesday, "When it has counted -- on real votes to say no to Yucca mountain, I voted no."

The Bush campaign handed reporters traveling with the president a copy of a letter signed by Kerry and other senators calling for an "accelerated" schedule for the removal of waste from permanently shut-down nuclear power reactors.

The letter makes reference to legislation that would provide for the removal of waste to a "centralized permanent facility" and says the problem of these reactors should be addressed as part of any legislation.

The letter makes no mention of Yucca Mountain but Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said the "centralized permanent facility" refers to Yucca Mountain. "They're calling for waste to be removed from the East Coast and sent to Yucca Mountain," he said.

(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan)

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Knight-Ridder
August 12, 2004

Bush accuses Kerry of changing stance on nuclear waste repository

By Laura Kurtzman

Knight Ridder Newspapers

LAS VEGAS - President Bush on Thursday defended his decision to send the nation's nuclear waste to a repository at Yucca Mountain and accused Sen. John Kerry of flip-flopping on the issue.

Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee who says he'll stop the dump, was in Nevada the day before, where he accused Bush of breaking an election-year promise four years ago not to allow it. In fact, Bush's position in 2000 wasn't that simple.

The Yucca Mountain issue is radioactive politically in Nevada. Democrats hope Kerry's stand will help them win the state, which is closely divided and went to Bush by 4 percentage points in 2000.

But Bush said Kerry's opposition to Yucca Mountain is less ironclad than it might appear because he cast several votes favoring it in the past.

"Now, my opponent's trying to turn Yucca Mountain into a political poker chip," Bush said to a hand-picked audience at a union hall of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. "He says he's strongly against Yucca here in Nevada, but he voted for it several times. And so did his running mate."

The Kerry campaign said any such votes were procedural, but could be interpreted as support for the site. In fact, on the key Senate procedural vote to move toward approval of Bush's Feb. 15, 2002, decision to make Yucca Mountain the nation's permanent nuclear-waste repository, Kerry voted no, according to Congressional Quarterly.

John Edwards, a senator from North Carolina, voted for the dump and changed his view only after he was chosen as Kerry's running mate.

"My point to you is that, if they're going to change one day, they may change again," Bush said. "I think you need straight talk on this issue. I think you need somebody who's going to do what he says he's going to do."

Bush promised in 2000 that he wouldn't let the dump be built until scientists had deemed it safe. In September of that year he emphasized in a letter to Nevada's governor that he would veto any legislation that would store the waste at Yucca temporarily.

Once he became president, he let the project go forward and, upon the recommendation of his energy secretary, Spencer Abraham, approved it as a permanent repository, although its safety was still being debated.

Nevada Republicans, including the governor, a U.S. senator and the state's attorney general, have distanced themselves from Bush on the issue. Bush said Thursday that he understood that.

A federal court dealt the project a setback this summer, saying the government didn't have adequate standards to protect against leaks for more than 10,000 years.

Without mentioning the ruling, Bush said he would allow court appeals and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission decide the issue.

Without responding directly to Bush about Yucca Mountain, Kerry - campaigning in Carson, Calif. - blasted Bush for suggesting recently that his administration would consider a national sales tax. The president later backed off that remark, but it gave Kerry ammunition in his argument that Bush has been insensitive to the middle class.

"This is from an administration that has offered almost no new ideas for our economy - and the few they have proposed have only hurt middle-class families," Kerry said.

Kerry also responded to Vice President Dick Cheney's attacks on him for wavering on the Iraq war and promising to wage a more "sensitive" war on terrorism. "It's sad that they can only be negative. They have nothing to say about the future vision of America," Kerry said.

While many unions have endorsed Kerry, the carpenters have held back because they say some of his environmental positions, such as restricting timber harvesting in the Pacific Northwest and his opposition to drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge, would mean fewer jobs for their members. Carpenters union leaders meet next month to consider an endorsement but may remain neutral.

One carpenters union member who sat onstage said the president's speech, which ranged from the economy to national security, didn't sway him.

"I'm still up in the air," said George Cappiello, 55, of Shelton, Wash. A Democrat, Cappiello said Bush had no advantage on national security.

"I feel they're kind of even, Kerry and Bush."
---
(Kurtzman covered Bush from Las Vegas. Knight Ridder Newspapers correspondent Tom Fitzgerald, who is with Kerry, contributed to this report from California.)

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Guardian
Thursday August 12

Bush: Kerry Using Nuclear Issue in Nev.

By Pete Yost
Associated Press Writer

LAS VEGAS (AP) - President Bush, who favors storing nuclear waste in Nevada, accused Democratic rival John Kerry on Thursday of using the issue as ``a political poker chip'' to woo the state's voters.

Addressing a volatile issue that has forced him into a tight race in Nevada, Bush said Kerry has voted for the Yucca Mountain repository and then campaigned against it. In fact, the four-term Massachusetts senator consistently voted against creation of the site when addressing the specific issue.

Some 16 years ago, Kerry voted for an overall budget bill that included a provision favoring putting the nuclear waste in Nevada.

``My point to you is that if they're going to change, one day they may change again,'' said Bush, whose administration has pushed for using Yucca Mountain as the nation's nuclear waste repository.

``My opponent is trying to turn Yucca Mountain into a political poker chip; he says he's strongly against Yucca but he voted for it several times,'' Bush told members of a friendly labor union that numbered more than 1,000 who applauded his remarks.

During a visit to Las Vegas earlier in the week, Kerry tapped into voter anger over Bush's designation of Yucca Mountain. Kerry said Bush broke the promise he made as a candidate in 2000 to ensure science and not politics determined his decision whether to ship waste to Yucca Mountain. Bush approved the site after winning the presidency, even though many scientific studies remained unfinished.

Bush's brief remarks about Yucca Mountain came in the middle of lengthy remarks about job training to a friendly labor union, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners.

A Nevada political analyst, David Damore, said ``it doesn't surprise me'' that Bush's remarks were so brief, since the issue ``is just not a winner for him.''

Damore, an associate political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, pointed to the difficulty the issue has caused for the president, who was appearing before a relatively small crowd at a union job training facility. Damore noted that Kerry in his appearances this week in Nevada played to large crowds.

``I don't know that the Republicans would show up for him the way the Democrats did for Kerry,'' Damore said.

Sig Rogich, an aide to former Presidents Reagan and Bush, said Kerry is ``pinning his hopes'' on the Yucca Mountain controversy because ``there's nothing else'' for the Democrat to run on in Nevada.

Adriana Martinez, chair of the Nevada Democratic Party, says Yucca Mountain is a recruiting poster.

``We get several e-mails a day from Republicans saying 'We'd like to volunteer,''' said Martinez. ``We definitely have a good shot.''

A recent federal appeals court ruling raised questions about whether the waste repository will be built, or at least meet its target of 2010 to begin operation. The court ruled that the federal plan for Yucca Mountain does not go far enough to protect people from potential radiation. Bush's energy secretary, Spencer Abraham, says the project is moving ahead.

Environmental groups and lawyers for Nevada say the court's rejection of proposed radiation exposure limits could doom the project.

A complicating factor for Bush is that Nevada has hundreds of thousands of new residents since the 2000 presidential election. The influx at first trended Republican but lately has been moving in the other direction politically with many Hispanics coming to the state, says Rogich.

Rogich sees Bush winning the state and its five electoral votes because ``the president has been good to Nevada mining, ranching, farming and tourism. The economy is booming,'' a fact that Bush was quick to point out in his remarks to the labor union.
---
On the Net:

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

Kerry-Edwards campaign: http://www.johnkerry.com

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U.S. Newswire
August 12, 2004

Las Vegas SUN - Energy Department won't wait for key

Kerry-Edwards Campaign: The Truth on Yucca Mountain

To: National Desk and Political Reporter

Contact: Chad Clanton or Phil Singer, 202-464-2800, both of Kerry-Edwards 2004, Web: http://www.johnkerry.com

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by the Kerry-Edwards Campaign:

"Yucca Mountain is George W. Bush's version of 'read my lips.' George W. Bush broke his pledge to Nevada and put politics over science the same way that he broke his promise to be straightforward with American people. John Kerry knows we can do better and is going to restore trust and credibility to the White House," Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said.

KEY POINTS

-- In 2000, Bush Said He would base Yucca Mountain decision on sound science, but in 2002, Bush signed bill to store nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain.

-- 2004 Bush "Pioneer" Has Lobbied to Send Nuclear Waste to Yucca Mountain; Nuclear Industry gave Millions to Bush and RNC

-- In deciding to allow storage in Yucca Mountain, Bush ignored the GAO, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, and Nevada legislators from both parties.

-- Kerry voted TWICE with Reid and Bryan to remove offending provision in that bill

Las Vegas Sun has said, "Kerry has been one of the few consistent friends Nevada has had in the U.S. Senate regarding Yucca Mountain."

-- Bush Broke Pledge, Decided to Send Waste to Yucca --

In 2000, Bush Said He Would Listen to Local and State Officials and Base Yucca Mountain Decision on Sound Science. In late May 2000, Bush released the following statement in regard to storing nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain: "I believe sound science, and not politics, must prevail in the designation of any high-level nuclear waste repository. As president, I would not sign legislation that would send nuclear waste to any proposed site unless it's been deemed scientifically safe. I also believe the federal government must work with the local and state governments that will be affected to address safety and transportation issues." (Associated Press, 5/23/00)

In 2002, Bush Signed Bill to Store Nuclear Waste in Yucca Mountain. On July 23, 2002, Bush signed a bill which formally adopted storing nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, a plan that was also adopted by both the House and Senate. (Los Angeles Times, 7/24/02; Associated Press, 7/23/02)

-- Sound Science Told Bush to Postpone Yucca Decision --

GAO Urged Bush Administration to Indefinitely Postpone Decision on Yucca. In a December 2001, the General Accounting Office urged the Bush administration to indefinitely postpone its decision to store nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain. The GAO also said that plans officials showed lawmakers and Nevada residents "may not describe the facilities that DOE would actually develop." In June 2001, the administration released the final health and safety standards for Yucca, but the GAO report said the Energy Department was still gathering and analyzing technical information on nearly 300 separate issues dealing with the Yucca site. (Washington Post, 11/30/01; GAO "Nuclear Waste: Technical, Schedule, and Cost Uncertainties of the Yucca Mountain Repository Project")

Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board Criticized Energy Department Analysis of Yucca Mountain. The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, an 11-member board created by Congress comprised from the scientific and engineering fields, said no matter where nuclear waste was put it would be impossible to avoid unexpected problems over the more than 10,000 years the material would be highly radioactive. The board said they had "limited confidence" in the Energy Department's analysis of Yucca Mountain and urged the department to find ways to make their projections "more realistic." (Associated Press, 1/25/02; 5/23/00)

Nuclear Waste Would Pass Through 43 States, One Mile from 50 Million Americans. In order to store the nation's nuclear waste in one site, Yucca Mountain, the "deadly waste" would have to be transported through 43 states and come within one mile of 50 million Americans. "If this goes through, some communities along major corridors, including St. Louis and Omaha, might see shipments every hour on the hour for the next 38 years," said Robert R. Loux, executive director of Nevada Governor Guinn's nuclear projects agency, which receives federal funding to provide scientific oversight of the project. (Washington Post, 1/11/02; State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/maps2002)

-- Local Officials of Both Parties Were Against Yucca Plan --

Bush Ignored Warnings From Nevada Leaders From Both Parties. A number of prominent Nevada officials, including Republicans Governor Kenny Guinn, Senator John Ensign, and Rep. Jim Gibbons opposed the plan to bring nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. (Associated Press, 1/10/02)

Nuclear Power Industry Had Access to Bush Administration. When the White House was putting together the energy plan, the nuclear industry were offended that they were not included in decision making. In mid-March, a cadre of seven nuclear power executives sought and won an hour-long meeting in the White House with a number of top advisors. "We said, Look, we are an important player on this energy team and here are our vital statistics, and we think that you should start talking about nuclear when you talk about increasing the nation's supply," Christian H. Poindexter, chairman of the Constellation Energy Group, recalled today. And then a surprising thing happened. "It was shortly after that, as a matter of fact I think the next night, when the vice president was being interviewed on television, he began to talk about nuclear power for the first time," Mr. Poindexter said, according to the New York Times. (Time, 2/11/02; New York Times, 5/23/01)

-- Nuclear Industry Gave Millions to Bush, GOP --

RNC, Bush Took Millions From Nuclear Industry. During the 2000 and 2002 election cycles, the owners and operators of nuclear power plants gave over $7.8 million to Bush, the RNC and GOP candidates and committees. Energy companies with nuclear interests gave over $340,000 to Bush in 2000 and over $3.2 million in soft money to the Republican National Committee from 1999 to 2002. (http://www.crp.org ; Updated Nuclear Energy Institute of Nuclear Power Plant Operators and Owners, 4/5/01; http://www.tray.com )

2004 Bush "Pioneer" Has Lobbied to Send Nuclear Waste to Yucca Mountain. Thomas Kuhn has served as a Bush Pioneer in 2000 and 2004, pledging to raise at least $100,000 for Bush's presidential campaign. In May 1999, Kuhn, President of Edison Electric since 1990, wrote a fundraising letter asking industry executives to include their "tracking code" at the bottom of their checks to Bush to "ensure that our industry is credited" for the contribution. In 1992, the Edison Electric board approved the so- called Nevada Initiative, which was, according to the publication Nuclear Fuel, "an industry advertising campaign aimed at building public support for DOE's study of the proposed repository site at Yucca Mountain." (UPI, 4/21/87; Nuclear Fuel, 2/3/92; Newsweek, 1/24/00; Journal of Commerce, 11/9/87; Electric Utility Week, 6/26/89; http://www.whitehouseforsale.org)

Nuclear Industry PACs Have Given To Bush in 2004. So far in 2004, the political action committees of nuclear power companies have given $49,500 to Bush's re-election campaign and $97,500 to the Republican National Committee. (http://www.tray.com -- Updated Nuclear Energy Institute of Nuclear Power Plant Operators and Owners, 6/20/03)

-- Kerry Has Stood With Nevada on Yucca Mountain --

-- Kerry voted TWICE with Reid and Bryan to remove the offending provision

Kerry voted against an amendment which would allow the DOE to designate sites, possibly in Washington and Nevada, as nuclear waste sites. Kerry voted against the Johnston motion to table Adams-Reid amendment which adds texts of remaining committee amendments except the amendment incorporating the nuclear waste policy act amendments (s 1668) which would allow designation of a single site for full characterization.(Vote number 367, 11/4/1987, Motion to table HR 2700 Passed 55-30)

Kerry voted to recommit the Energy bill back to committee in order to remove the provisions promoting Nevada site selection for nuclear waste storage. He voted for the Motion to recommit bill to appropriations committee with instructions to report back with language to require further analysis of the 3 candidate nuclear waste storage sites. this would revise the current bill provisions promoting Nevada site selection. (Vote number 382, 11/18/1987, Motion to recommit HR 2700 Failed 34-61, Kerry-Y)

-- Las Vegas Sun: Kerry "stood with us" --

"Kerry has been one of the few consistent friends Nevada has had in the U.S. Senate regarding Yucca Mountain, the most important issue facing this state. Kerry understands our concerns, and has stood with us when Nevada has needed him, something that can't be said for Bush." (Las Vegas Sun, 8/1/2004)

-- Gov. Bob Miller: "Kerry has voted with us" --

"Whether it's some of the time or all of the time, Kerry has voted with us," said former Gov. Bob Miller, a warrior in the anti-Yucca Mountain trenches long before Ensign and Porter. " (German, Review-Journal, 8/1/2004)

-- Senator Harry Reid: "No one better" --

"I wish I'd said it stronger: If he's president, there will be no Yucca Mountain. No one has been better for us on Yucca than John Kerry." (Review-Journal, 7/28/2004)

Senator Richard Bryan: Kerry there when it counted "On the critical votes where it really counted, John Kerry would be supportive." (Review-Journal, 7/29/2004)

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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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