Yucca Mountain News Clips
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
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Las Vegas SUN
August 25, 2004
Editorial: Ultimate double take
Las Vegas SUN
Informed viewers in Nevada will do a double take when President Bush's latest re-election ad comes across their TV screens. The pitchman for Bush ravages John Kerry' voting record on Yucca Mountain.
What?! Does the Bush campaign really believe Nevadans are that ill-informed? Yes, Kerry did vote in 1987 to restrict the search for a nuclear waste site to Nevada (but not to "establish" it, as the ad says). Subsequently, though, in votes strictly related to Yucca, Kerry voted against the project. Bush's ad goes on to focus on other yes votes cast by Kerry affecting Yucca issues. It distorts the truth, however, by not mentioning that these Yucca issues had been tacked on to important bills regarding other subjects that Kerry felt compelled to support.
While Bush has been on a mad dash to stick Nevada with Yucca Mountain, Kerry has sided with us. In 2002 Bush persuaded a majority of Congress -- but not Kerry -- to vote for Yucca Mountain. Candidate Bush in 2000 promised to use "sound science" in judging Yucca's fate, but as President Bush he abandoned the promise.
Kerry is four-square against Yucca; Bush is full-speed ahead. To suggest otherwise takes the worst kind of gall -- the kind that leads candidates to beat their chests while stamping on the truth.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 25, 2004
Nuclear industry appeals Yucca ruling
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Attorneys for the Nuclear Energy Institute asked a federal appeals court to reconsider a July ruling against a key part of the Yucca Mountain Project, saying judges made mistakes in applying the law.
The advocacy arm of the nuclear power industry urged a review by the full court before judges formalize a decision that has roiled plans for a nuclear waste repository.
The bid to persuade the court to reopen the Yucca Mountain case is a long shot.
"We can go whole years without that happening," said Mark Langer, clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where the NEI appeal was filed late Monday.
Langer said motions to reconsider a case, or to have it reviewed by all the judges in the circuit, usually are limited to "extraordinary circumstances."
"There would have to be some extraordinarily egregious error or conflict with prior precedent before the court," Langer said.
He did not comment specifically on the Yucca case, which was decided unanimously by a three-judge panel.
Government attorneys declined to file an appeal. An Energy Department spokesman said federal agencies will devise a new radiation health rule for the Yucca repository after the judges, in one of their major decisions, threw out a 10,000-year protection standard as inadequate.
In their appeal, NEI lawyers said the court's ruling on the radiation issue was inconsistent with earlier decisions that give federal agencies authority to write regulations.
The judges ruled the Environmental Protection Agency disregarded a National Academy of Sciences study that recommended repository radiation safeguards be proved effective for hundreds of thousands of years, rather than the 10,000 years set by the EPA.
But NEI said the judges made a mistake to subordinate EPA's authority to a private organization like the academy. And since the national academy was created by Congress, NEI attorneys said, the July ruling upset the separation of powers between the legislative branch and the executive branch.
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New York Times
August 25, 2004
Nuclear Waste: Not in My Backyard (5 Letters)
To the Editor:
Re "Roadblock at Yucca Mountain" (editorial, Aug. 23):
Out here in the heartland, I am skeptical about your argument that Congress should pass new legislation to enable the Yucca Mountain project to proceed. Trust Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency rather than the National Academy of Sciences to set standards of safety for the disposal of nuclear waste? Not me. Especially not when Congress seems to have abandoned the Superfund for cleanup of other toxic waste.
In Missouri, we know that the Yucca Mountain plan will send shipments of nuclear waste along our train tracks and highways constantly, making us vulnerable to accidents as well as acts of terrorism. It is not only the citizens of Nevada who are opposed to the Yucca Mountain storage plan. Every American who lives along the routes over which these spent fuel rods and other nuclear wastes are to be shipped will be at risk.
Why do we continue to produce more and more nuclear waste when we do not know how to deal with it? Why must Nevada receive the dangerous materials generated in other locations?
Why must my family here in Missouri be exposed to radioactive materials generated by energy and defense companies seeking profit but refusing to accept the responsibility to solve the problems of safe disposal of their waste?
Dorothy M. Doyle
St. Louis, Aug. 23, 2004
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To the Editor:
Your Aug. 23 editorial "Roadblock at Yucca Mountain" is on target. Nuclear waste continues to pile up at scores of facilities around the country as environmentalist groups oppose Yucca yet propose no alternative.
Pandering politicians join in, naturally including all of Nevada's, and also Senators John Kerry and John Edwards.
Thomas Letchfield
Palo Alto, Calif., Aug. 23, 2004
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To the Editor:
The Yucca Mountain project is designed to be safe for 10,000 years, but is succeeding in doing this a limiting requirement? Let us assume that the present design will really be effective for only 1,000 years. It seems reasonable to me that if we come back to the project after 200 years and upgrade it with the technology available at that time, that would be a satisfactory safety valve. A check after 400 years might also be prudent.
William Cohen
Metairie, La., Aug. 23, 2004
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To the Editor:
It is as a Nevadan and as an American citizen that I protest the cavalier disregard for the safety of the population that you display in your editorial advocating the shipment of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. You seem to have decided that the ends justify the means.
If you are unconcerned about whether radiation would affect the population in 10,000 years, you might consider how New York would react to a nuclear accident in its midst while waste is transported to the "safe haven" of Nevada.
Michael Green
Las Vegas, Aug. 23, 2004
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To the Editor:
The Department of Energy's recommendation that the Yucca Mountain storage containers be retrievable for 300 years renders moot the requirement to prove their safe storage for 10,000 years. Questions of geological stability and container leakage need no longer be answered, since any changes would allow the nuclear waste to be either dispersed or repackaged.
Congress should delete the requirement for permanent storage from the enabling legislation.
It is the height of arrogance to think that we would not have better ways to handle the waste in the future. France, for example, is currently able to handle the waste by reprocessing it.
Henry Schmid
Las Vegas, Aug. 23, 2004
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Pahrump Valley Times
August 25, 2004
Government declines appeal of Yucca ruling
By Steve Tetreault
PVT Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - The nuclear power industry will be acting alone to appeal a federal court ruling on Yucca Mountain after government agencies decided not to prolong a legal fight over the nuclear waste project, officials said Monday.
Rather than return to court, the government will seek to rework a 10,000-year radiation protection standard that was thrown out on July 9 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, according to Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis.
"Our general belief is that the framework the court decision required is a workable deal," Davis said. "Our best way to proceed is not to engage in litigation but to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to develop a regulatory response.
"Whatever standard they come up with, our commitment is to ensure the repository will meet the standard," Davis said.
The decision to pass up an appeal was made by the Justice Department in collaboration with attorneys from the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, Davis said.
Davis said the Energy Department still plans to file a repository application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the end of the year, although NRC officials have said they are unsure whether it can be docketed without complete safety standards in place.
The government's decision to sit this one out appears to give some shape to other potential paths forward for the embattled Yucca Mountain Project.
Besides the possibility of reworking repository radiation rules, Yucca supporters in Congress are contemplating an attempt to overturn the court's ruling through legislation. The New York Times in an editorial encouraged that option on Monday.
And while Davis said the government would not seek a rehearing at the appeals court level, he did not rule out asking the Supreme Court to take up the case directly. A deadline to file a Supreme Court petition falls in November.
The Justice Department did not reply to a request for comment. An EPA spokesman said he had no information on the matter.
The EPA official, John Millett, also said it was too soon to discuss plans within the agency to rework the invalidated radiation standard.
Nevada officials had expected a government appeal but welcomed the absence of one.
"For us it seems to be good news in the sense they are acknowledging we were right on the merits of the EPA standards, and it keeps us from having to pay lawyers more money," said Bob Loux, executive director of the state Agency for Nuclear Projects.
Joe Egan, the state's lead nuclear waste lawyer, said it was possible the Justice Department withheld a rehearing request before the circuit court - considered a long shot by many attorneys - so as not to damage a possible case before the Supreme Court.
"There is a theory that would say if the case had been denied rehearing, it would be one more strike against it on a cert petition," Egan said, referring to the writ of certiorari the Supreme Court would need to issue in order to consider the case.
While the government is staying out of court for now, attorneys for the Nuclear Energy Institute planned to submit a 15-page petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals by a midnight Monday deadline, spokeswoman Melanie Lyons said.
The NEI was requesting the court reconsider its July ruling that threw out an EPA standard requiring the nuclear repository shield the public from radiation doses for 10,000 years. A three-judge panel said the EPA deviated from a National Academy of Sciences study that recommended safeguards be extended thousands of years longer.
"We take issue with the court's July decision because the EPA did what it was supposed to do by starting with the NAS report, factoring in policy considerations and coming up with a standard," said Michael Bauser, NEI associate general counsel.
The NEI, the nuclear industry's lobbying arm, also appealed a second issue in the court's July 9 ruling.
The judges upheld a separate radiation standard for groundwater outside the repository over the industry's objections that it provided no additional protections while being costly and time-consuming for the Energy Department to meet.
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Pahrump Valley Times
August 25, 2004
Wrong direction
It's hard to move forward when the back pedaling is so furious and that's what the state Democrats are doing with the latest revelation that their hero fight against Yucca Mountain, John Kerry, voted in support of developing Yucca Mountain as a repository.
I'm either going to get dizzy or get caught in a serious web as the political spinner do their damage control and try to put Senator Kerry in a better light. But, the facts remain that John Kerry supported what is commonly referred to as the Screw Nevada Bill in 1987 that singled out Yucca Mountain as the only site to be studied. And nine years ago, John Kerry went against Senator Reid and then Senator Bryan to reduce the budget for Yucca Mountain.
The Democrats have been pushing Kerry's long time opposition to Yucca Mountain now it looks like another flip-flop from Senator Kerry. John Kerry is consistent in one area, he selected John Edwards as his vice president and Edwards supported Yucca Mountain as a Senator from North Carolina and now John Edwards says he's against Yucca Mountain.
They flip-flop more than a cook at a pancake house - Kerry and Edwards better watch their weight because it looks like they want their cake and eat it, too.
Christi Turner
Las Vegas
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Pahrump Valley Times
August 25, 2004
Wrong turn
TV news questioned the public, "How can Pahrump get out of the red?" Many suggested raising taxes. High taxes would keep new business out of the valley and drive out old folks like me.
Watching Eye on Nye, I agree with Mr. Kulkin, Pahrump is heading in the wrong direction. Two callers impressed me commenting how much Clark County gets from Yucca Mountain workers in comparison to Nye, plus mentioning a possible railroad coming through town. I'm not fully aware of the latter.
The money is out there. Show us we have knowledgeable politicians in Nye County that know how to go about getting it. It shouldn't take a big city Philadelphia lawyer like myself to know how to get the pot at the end of the rainbow. Clark County entices workers from Yucca Mountain to homestead in Las Vegas. Needless to say their money is spent in Vegas.
We're being too concerned about fence height or backyard guesthouses. Restrictions can be modified through variances.
Boomtowns are hell towns as building makes city situations change so quickly from day to day that I can't concede to a grandfather clause being forever until eminent domain is stricken from the books. No one can speak about 20 years down the road.
Street talk is politicians figure money from Yucca will be distributed for statewide projects. Hound representatives to tell our governor and senators only Nye should be fully reimbursed for dump usage. Many petitioned for RAZ, how about concentrating on the U.S. government to pay our bills instead of continually circumventing an issue that can monetarily benefit this county.
Charles A. Hagen
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Pahrump Valley Times
August 25, 2004
Incorrect data
In a recent Yucca Mountain article your Washington Bureau writer was incorrect when he wrote that 1700 DOE jobs looks to be lost. Actually, the tally will be 1701 come this November after "Spent Fuel" Abraham has been voted to pack up his carpet bag and leave these Great Western Lands with the rest of his storage mongers. And on the way out tell your boss its pronounced Nevada, not Na-VAY-da. So named for The Great Sierra Nevada, a fitting name for this beautiful state.
William Simmons
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Pahrump Valley Times
August 25, 2004
Candidates' Night
Office hopefuls crowd event
Seniors, Not Surprisingly, Comprise Majority of Audience
By Phillip Gomez
PVT
Twenty candidates for elective office - from the Pahrump Town Board to the United States Senate - stood before voters Friday night and took questions from a packed house of mostly senior citizens at Saddle West Hotel and Casino's convention center.
The event was sponsored by the Pahrump Rotary Club and facilitated by Rotary members and Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller.
Appearing from among the candidates running for the U.S. Senate were Bob Brown, Tom Hurst, Richard Ziser and Cherie M. Tilley, who took the podium and spoke in that order. Republican candidate Carlo Poliak failed to make it to the meeting reportedly due to a flat tire en route.
Other than the Senate candidates, Diane Steel, who is running for the Nevada Supreme Court, was the only other candidate present standing in a non-local contest.
Steel said her legal experience was in family court, and that she wanted to "fill a gap" on the Nevada Supreme Court with respect to family and juvenile court matters. "We don't have anyone on the Supreme Court with any experience in this area," she said. One-seventh of the cases going to the high court on appeal are family court concerns, she said. Nevada will continue to ignore these pressing issues at its peril, she added.
Questions from the audience asked of the local candidates were often threadbare: "Where do you stand on Yucca Mountain?" "What would you do if you had a conflict of interest with an agenda item under review?" "Do you think Pahrump should be incorporated?" "What is your position on land-use planning and adopting the Pahrump Valley Master Plan?"
When asked, "Are you in favor of the (valley's new) master plan and managing growth?" A puzzled Tim Leavitt, a county commission candidate, said that he was adding, "We already have managed growth."
Among the senatorial candidates it appeared that each one was out to prove he was more conservative than the next guy - except for Tom Hurst, the Libertarian candidate whose party, he said, stood for change.
But the change Hurst envisioned would turn back the clock to 1789 under a strict constructionist view of the Constitution.
"I oppose everything not mentioned in the Constitution," Hurst said.
Richard Ziser was asked to define traditional family values. "What we all tended to grow up with," he said.
The favorite quotable person of the night was the late former President Ronald Reagan.
Cherie Tilley, a lifelong miner, mine manager and employee of the Nevada Test Site, had arguably the most boldly original proposal of the evening. Tilley laid out a plan to purchase Columbia River water rights from British Columbia, Canada, divert it south to Pahrump and Las Vegas and build five nuclear power plants in Nye and adjoining counties to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, instead of storing it at Yucca Mountain.
By selling the fuel to the privately owned power plants, he said, the state and counties could solve their budget problems.
Harley Kulkin, a nonpartisan candidate for Nye County commissioner not running in the primary, was asked how he would get roads paved. "We can't afford to do it," Kulkin said bluntly. "We need industry to change that. Bringing in more houses (and real property taxpayers) won't work."
Several candidates identified themselves as agents of sweeping change. Republican Leavitt said, "The politics of the past are no longer good enough. We're at a turning point in Nye County. ... You will know that I am there."
Democrat Dale Lynn, running for Pahrump Town Board, said, "A new broom sweeps clean." Lynn said he wants to see Pahrump remain as it is now and not become another Las Vegas. "We like the rural," he said. He added that it was his ambition to become a county commissioner in two years.
Chuck Patti, in the same contest, said that if elected he would do his best to keep from being "taxed out of my property." He said his platform was property rights.
Sheldon Bass, in a crowded heat for the District III county commission seat held by Henry Neth, said, "Nye County needs to make changes and recognize it is not downtown Pahrump." Bass, the current vice chairman of the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission, also said, "People don't have any concept of the magnitude of problems associated with growth, except for (competing incumbent) Henry Neth."
Asked how he would promote economic development, Bass said the county should establish a redevelopment district with short-term subsidies as an enticement to relocating businesses.
Several candidates spoke forcefully about the county's budget woes. Democrat Charlie Anzalone, running for the Pahrump Town Board, called for a moratorium on county spending for a few months to determine which were essential county services. People were making too many demands on government, he said, and not all could be satisfied.
Jeff Bobeck, in the race for the town board, said his main concern was keeping taxes low. He cited the public library and skate park as examples of frivolous spending that's bankrupting the county. Government should be frugal, he said. "We need to have no impediment to people opening a business in Pahrump."
"We have got to stop using (federal) PETT funds to fund county government," said Gary Hollis, in reference to Yucca Mountain monies Nye County receives for the loss of taxable lands to the federal government.
Henry Neth, however, responded to the issue when it was his turn, saying, "Revenue has been flat while growth has skyrocketed." Essential services to citizens cannot be cut, he said, and if we need to use PETT funds to fund them, then that's what we have to do."
Asked about growth and the chicken-and-egg question of which do you start first, building infrastructure or inviting economic development? Neth came down on the side of infrastructure through development agreements with the county. Without infrastructure there can be no economic development, he said. "There has to be infrastructure for (businesses) to come and take advantage of (this location)."
Laurayne Murray, also vying for two seats on the board, spoke at the very end. Murray put her finger on the overshadowing topic of virtually the entire discussion.
Asked how to control growth and development so the Pahrump Valley remained predominantly rural, Murray said the question was premature.
"I don't know if that's what we want to be," she said. "Are we making decisions to close down the door so that we can keep it that way? Maybe what we need to do is figure out where we want to go first. I'd like to be your ears to find out what that is and your voice to make that happen."
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Pahrump Valley Times
August 25, 2004
Reid promises strong campaign
By Doug McMurdo
PVT
Harry Reid on Saturday promised he would not underestimate any challengers to the United States Senate seat he has held since 1986. Six years ago Reid barely prevailed over John Ensign in what was perhaps the closest election in his lengthy political career. He won with 52 percent of the vote. "I was not impressed with John Ensign and as a result he almost beat me," said Reid in a Pahrump Valley Times interview. "I'm prepared to face whoever comes out of the primary."
Reid, D-Nev., said he kicked off his campaign in January and promised it would be "as good this time as it was bad six years ago ... we're running on all cylinders."
Perhaps no federal issue holds the interest of Nye County citizens more than Yucca Mountain, where the government plans on storing the nation's high-level nuclear waste at the site 50 miles northeast of Pahrump and roughly 20 miles north and east of Amargosa Valley and Beatty, respectively.
While Nye County officials have historically worked hand-in-hand with the Department of Energy and have not opposed Yucca Mountain, state leaders elsewhere, for the most part, have been adamant in their criticism of the project, perhaps none more than Reid, the minority whip and a member of several key Senate committees.
Reid offered a strong reaction when the topic was broached: "I don't think Yucca Mountain will happen," he said, and his reasoning behind that belief has nothing to do with the state's historical opposition.
In fact, Reid said Yucca Mountain was doomed along with 3,000 citizens Sept. 11, 2001. "There's no way we'll haul 100,000 tons of nuclear waste around the country," he said. "The problem is not just in Nevada. St. Louis and Denver have signed resolutions to keep the shipments out. Now these ordinances are likely unconstitutional, but it goes to show that people hate nuclear waste."
The longtime public servant said people now understand that the waste can remain stored on the site where it is generated. Electric power companies and defense firms generate the waste in 39 states - excluding Nevada.
"They'll (those that generate waste) always have a site to store the waste as long at they continue to produce electricity," he said. Reid was also critical of the science that has gone into the project, saying the water tables have proven to change. It has been shown that groundwater under Yucca Mountain flows toward Amargosa Valley, Reid pointed out, as well as the fact the area is known for its earthquakes and is prone to volcanic activity.
Additionally, Reid questioned the federal government's refusal to choose another site. He said Yucca Mountain's unique physical characteristics were supposed to prove adequate to store the waste, but now the Energy Department intends to build "a container within a container."
Reid acknowledged the Bush administration could declare the storage site a matter of national security. If that was to occur, Nevada would be unable to stop the shipments or the licensing of Yucca Mountain.
Besides, Reid doesn't expect Bush to be living in the White House come January. "When (John) Kerry is president Yucca Mountain won't happen," said the senator, who scoffed at recent statements that Kerry has voted for Yucca Mountain in the past after the candidate said he would stop Yucca Mountain during a recent campaign stop in Las Vegas.
Reid said the Democratic presidential hopeful voted for Yucca Mountain a handful of times, including as part of an appropriations bill that passed 94-6. "Kerry never voted against us," insisted Reid. "Anytime we needed John Kerry he's been there."
And Reid is equally candid regarding his once effective relationship with Bush. "It's deteriorated," Reid said. "I have to work with him, I realize that, but he hasn't been good for Nevada." The race for the White House is tight in Nevada, a state considered as one of a few so-called battlegrounds. A poll published in the Reno Gazette-Journal last weekend indicated 44 percent of Nevada voters favor Bush; 43 percent like Kerry.
Reid also pointed out former President Bill Clinton twice carried Nevada and he sees no reason why Kerry couldn't do the same. "We'll have to wait and see what the next 73 days or so bring."
On the local front, Reid said growth in Pahrump has upset many residents, and he doesn't blame them one bit. "Pahrump is not what it used to be," he said. "The population, I understand, is approaching 40,000. Lots of new people here and the problems you folks face today you didn't have four years ago."
Stating what is probably painfully obvious to everyday residents, Reid said the building of a hospital is imperative. "Everybody needs to recognize Pahrump has unique problems. Nye County, especially Pahrump, is burgeoning (with growth) but it is still rural."
Reid said he met with a number of local officials during his stop in the valley. He said he would work with Nye County School District officials regarding the need for new buses, noting more than a million miles are rolled up each school year.
The VA clinic in Pahrump proved to be another concern to the senator. Reid had high praise for Dr. Frank Toppo, who works with veterans in Pahrump. "Pahrump is loaded with vets," Reid noted, "Dr. Toppo is a savior but we need to get him some help. Toppo is the best advocate for veterans in Nevada."
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Mohave Valley News
August 25, 2004
Congressional hopeful makes last-minute campaign stop here
Note — Three candidates visited Laughlin last week: incumbent U.S. Representative Jon C. Porter, incumbent Nevada District 20 Assemblyman Joe Hardy, and challenger for U.S. Representative Anna Nevenic who, as the only one of the three to appear on the primary ballot, is featured here first.
By Nicole Feneberg Lucht
News West
LAUGHLIN — U.S. Congressional hopeful Anna Nevenic stumped in Laughlin on Aug. 16, in an effort to win enough votes on the Sept. 7 primary election to place her on the Nov. 2 general election ballot.
Nevenic, a self-described social, political and peace activist, said she is focused on improving healthcare and education.
A registered nurse for 20 years, Nevenic said she is “very concerned’ about the health care system.
“Health care is a basic human right,’ Nevenic said. “If we don´t have our health, what do we have?’
Nevenic also expressed her dismay over the current educational system.
“I think there is no reason to have so many children graduate from high school that cannot read,’ Nevenic said. “Of course their self-esteem goes down. They commit crimes, or become pregnant, or turn to drugs.’
She said besides the educational system, services that help the mentally ill, drug addicts and homeless are in need.
“We wait for them to break the law so we can lock them up,’ Nevenic said. “At that rate ... very soon we won´t be able to afford the other (needed) services because we keep building prisons like crazy. In the last 15 years, from $5 billion we have increased prison (funding) to $31 billion.’
Nevenic said most prisoners are drug addicts, mentally ill or homeless and said there is a better way to spend tax dollars, for instance on mental health care and drug rehabilitation centers, which Nevenic said are cheaper to maintain than prisons.
She said prisons continue to grow because of special interest groups, something she said she will have no part of, but instead supports the idea of “investing’ in children.
“All the politicians are taking the big bucks from the special interest groups,’ she said. “(I) have great ideas and (am) not influenced by any lobbyists who are working against the interests of the American people.
“Because I love this country and most of us activists love this country ... we want to stop this deterioration of our economic (and) social base,’ Nevenic said. “To have change is to elect the average citizen, for they don´t buy their way in. The only reason they are seeking this office is because they know they can make a difference.
“I feel like I will make a great difference. My plan isn´t going to cost any extra money, just (do) things differently.’
Nevenic said she is a “common-sense person’ and seeks solutions to problems such as disease, illiteracy, teen pregnancy and environmental degradation, including the Yucca Mountain controversy.
“Only a fanatic would suggest to drive (nuclear waste) through 35 states,’ she said.
Nevenic said her book, “Hidden Agendas,’ represents what the Republican party “is really all about.’
“It´s fundamentalists and conservatives who are embedded in the Republican party,’ said Nevenic, who came to the United States from the former Yugoslavia at age seven. “They are equal to fundamentalists in the Middle East, they have the same regressive way of thinking. Unfortunately, not enough people vote who know the truth ... if they did, they would run as fast as they can and vote ... because these are dangerous people.’
There are five others vying for the Democratic spot on the November ballot, including Mark Budetich, who visited Laughlin on June 30, Rick DeVoe, Tom Gallagher, Shanna Phillips and Ron Von Felden.
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Las Vegas City Life
August 25, 2004
Underdog dues
Finally, some coverage that gives Tom Gallagher's opponents a chance to critique him
By Mike Zigler
Of partisan primary races, Democrats in Congressional District 3 have the most options. Despite a field of six, one candidate has enjoyed the luxury of substantial media coverage, prime speech opportunities and the anointment of the state party: former CEO of Park Place Entertainment Tom Gallagher.
This advantage certainly doesn't set well with at least four of Gallagher's five opponents: Mark Budetich, Rick DeVoe, Anna Nevenic and Ron Von Felden. (Shanna Phillips never returned calls to CityLife.) The way these camps see it, the strategy of supporting a candidate with "electability" and deep pockets has failed Nevada's Democratic Party in recent years.
In 2002, District 3 formed. Democrat Dario Herrera enjoyed comfortable and early party backing, but lost miserably (56 percent to 37 percent) to current incumbent, Republican Jon Porter. It's something Budetich remembers well. He ran against Herrera that year.
"I faced this whole thing two years ago," he said. "The party should stand equally behind all the candidates until voters make their decision."
In 2000, the same thing happened during the U.S. Senate race between Republican John Ensign and Democrat Ed Bernstein. Ensign won by 15 points.
Contending money is all Gallagher has going for him, Von Felden wasn't shy about his feelings for the party favorite.
Rick DeVoe
"This guy has about as much charisma as mashed potatoes and as much personality as cold-cooked oatmeal," the attorney and radio show host said. "He has avoided making any commitment to any position because he's afraid he'll have to change his mind come the general election."
George Matthews, DeVoe's campaign director, said supporting a candidate based solely on money prevents the party from running a strong candidate in the general election. It also alienates certain democratic voters.
"Why not vote for the candidate who looks to be the most representative of you?" asked Matthews. "If you vote on that sensibility, you have a shot of getting real change in Washington."
Gallagher said he is representative of the district because he hasn't forgotten where he's come from -- a hardworking background that included putting himself through college and law school then atop Park Place Entertainment.
One thing his opponents aren't soon to forget is a $2,000 donation Gallagher made to the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign in November.
It's a fact Gallagher has brushed off.
"The contribution was very simple and straight forward," Gallagher told CityLife in July. "A friend asked me to buy a ticket with him to a Bush lunch, and as a favor to him I did."
His opponents also bring up the thousands of dollars that Gallagher's Political Action Committee at Park Place gave Jon Porter in 2002. But that same PAC, now dubbed Caesars Entertainment, just gave Porter $5,000 in this year's race.
Gallagher stated his history of donating substantial money to the Democratic Party and its candidates, but Budetich, DeVoe and Von Felden argue the donation to Bush raises credibility concerns.
DeVoe said the state party asked him to stop using the donation as a talking point with district residents. DeVoe, though, said his team has limited resources and even less time to penetrate a voter's consciousness. The donation certainly makes for an aggressive attention-grabber.
"We've come to realize we need to use this fact and inform people because it is significant to everybody who hears it," DeVoe said.
Party spokesman Jon Summers said officials advised DeVoe to not talk about the donation because negative campaigning is discouraged as a whole within the party.
Furthermore, while the party believes Gallagher will win the primary, Summers denies that it has officially endorsed him. Party bylaws prohibit endorsement until after the primaries and subject any official in violation to removal from office. But party material and action suggest another story.
Phone banking takes place at party facilities to determine how John Kerry matches up against President Bush. During calls, volunteers ask Southern Nevadans if they have heard of Gallagher.
Also, an April 13 party letter was addressed to Nevada delegates and included in a program at the state convention. It featured the names of the top eight party officials and two of their signatures: national committee persons Dina Titus and Steven Horsford. It read: "In addition to electing John Kerry as President, our party will continue to ensure Senator Harry Reid and Congresswoman Shelley Berkley are re-elected, that Tom Gallagher becomes Nevada's third congressional representative, and that Democrats are elected to the State Legislature and at entry level to public office."
Summers said national and local leaders are the only ones to officially endorse Gallagher, not party officials. However, since Democrats anticipate a Gallagher victory, the party needs to get an early start on the general election.
"It just doesn't make sense from a strategic point of view to go in with one arm tied behind our backs when Jon Porter, sitting on a million dollars, knows Gallagher is going to be the candidate," Summers said.
When Gallagher spoke at the Kerry rally at the Thomas & Mack Center Aug. 10, supporters of the other candidates wrote the party asking why he was the only one invited. He was the only speaker at the rally not elected to office.
Summers said the state party had nothing to do with the speech. It was something Gallagher's camp organized and a decision the Kerry campaign made.
Other advantages Gallagher has enjoyed include the endorsements of major democratic-based organizations such as the Nevada State Education Association, the Caucus of African American Nevadans and the AFL-CIO -- which DeVoe, a journeyman mechanic, is a member of.
Although upset by the endorsement, DeVoe said it wasn't as much unfair to him as it was a disservice to rank and file union members unaware of his candidacy.
"Connecting with voters and having a vigorous debate is a healthy thing," DeVoe said. "Apparently the party does not share that view.
They are of a mind where, 'Let's have a candidate, let's not spend our resources in a primary fight.'"
No matter the candidate, no matter the race, everyone is "about the issues."
With terrorism, DeVoe, a progressive, believes America exacerbates the problem by bringing violence to perpetrators and their communities. This has increasingly alienated the Arab world and close allies who were once sympathetic to America after 9/11.
He encourages aid in areas likely to harbor terrorists in order to improve the current and poor perception of America.
"The world is very uncomfortable with us right now," DeVoe said. "Under Bush, we are willing to use force to achieve our selfish acts. With pre-emptive war, we have put everybody on notice that we will do what we have to do when we want to do it."
America must declare its intention to withdraw from Iraq, DeVoe said. Under the auspices of the United Nations, neighboring Muslim countries must be involved in stabilizing the region.
Nevenic, a registered nurse, agrees. She said Iraqis need jobs and, more importantly, restored dignity.
"We have destroyed their lives," said Nevenic, also a progressive candidate. "We can correct that by bringing jobs to them as well as infrastructure and water. The only way to succeed in Iraq is to include Iraqis in all aspects of politics, society and economics otherwise we are doomed."
Von Felden, a Vietnam veteran, has another approach in mind. Either America needs to flood the region with 400,000 troops as originally suggested by the military, or the United States need to withdraw completely.
Regarding the PATRIOT Act, Gallagher and Von Felden both believe the measure needs to be amended. Budetich, DeVoe and Nevenic say it must be completely repealed.
New federal rules on overtime time kicked in Aug. 23. Union officials contend that 6 million workers could lose their right to overtime pay. The Department of Labor disputes that while some workers will lose overtime, 1.3 million low-wage workers will gain employment and additional hours.
"This is just a measure to screw the working class and middle class all over again," Von Felden said. "The whole reason we have overtime is to encourage employers to hire those extra workers on a full-time basis in addition to allow someone to have a family life, a personal life and to get some rest.
"This fits a pattern to over-work people and underpay them," he continued. "Adjusting overtime will hurt job creation because it will discourage employers from hiring more people all while current employees receive less money for the same workload."
Each candidate opposes the new overtime regulations.
Big on labor issues, DeVoe said he would support legislation that would prevent companies from working employees on a part-time basis in order to avoid paying benefits. He opposes treaties (like the North American Free Trade Agreement), which contain no provisions for job loss overseas. He also intends to make all meetings between elected officials and lobbyists and PACs public.
More than 400,000 Nevadans do not have health coverage. Earlier this year, Republicans pushed through a Medicare bill that does not allow government to negotiate lower prescription prices and forbids importing medication from other countries.
Nearly every candidate said they support universal health care coverage for all Americans. Gallagher's plan includes lowering prescription drug prices through competition. He also wants to give tax breaks to companies that continue retiree coverage and small businesses that seek to cover current employees.
Oddly, while Von Felden supports same-sex civil unions, he also supports a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
"I am the only Democrat willing to admit that," he said. "Gays should be granted the same legal rights, but I agree with the view that marriage will always be between a man and a woman."
"A big friend to Israel," Von Felden also supports the death penalty and the right for citizens to bear arms.
All candidates oppose the Yucca Mountain nuke dump.
Gallagher said getting out and meeting voters is just as important as the issues. For him, he said it's working.
"It's not just taking positions on issues," he said, "it's being out there and letting people see you, talk to you and measure you."
Early voting runs through Sept. 3. All precinct polling places are open on primary Election Day, Sept. 7.
Mike Zigler is CityLife's news editor. He can be reached at 702-871-6780 ext. 306 or zigler@lvpress.com.
Congressional District 3 Democratic Primary
Mark Budetich
702-658-3570
budetichforcongress.com
Rick DeVoe
702-610-2411
votedevoe.org
Tom Gallagher
702-932-0901
gallagher2004.com
Anna Nevenic
702-290-5747
nevenic.org
Shanna Phillips
702-498-2855
Ron Von Felden
702-263-5150
ronvoncongress.com
126,248 registered Democrats
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Wired News
August 25, 2004
Reactors Trim Radioactive Waste
By John Gartner
Ask most folks -- including the governor of Nevada -- if they want radioactive waste stored in their state for a few hundred centuries, and you'll get a resounding no.
So, in the pursuit of better options, while the Bush administration battles to find a location to store a football field's worth of glowing waste, the Department of Energy is developing new uranium fuel rods that could reduce the amount of nuclear waste produced in the future by half.
Nuclear energy has its proponents, but finding anyone who feels safe around nuclear waste dumps has been a chore for the government. The Bush administration intends to store the radioactive material produced during the past 40 years deep inside Yucca Mountain, Nevada, under a plan initiated in the early 1980s. The decision prompted several lawsuits aimed at blocking the move, including one by the state of Nevada.
According to the Department of Energy, nuclear energy produces 17 percent of the electricity used globally. The total amount of nuclear waste is about 43,000 metric tons.
To create more fuel-efficient nuclear reactors and minimize the not-in-my-backyard problem, the Department of Energy is developing technology for the next generation of nuclear reactors (PDF).
For nuclear power plants to become more efficient and reduce the amount of waste produced, fuel must be processed at higher temperatures, according to David Hill, the associate lab director for energy and engineering sciences at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Lab. Hill, whose lab is the lead agency in developing materials for so-called Generation IV reactors, said reducing the amount of nuclear waste is an important secondary aspect of the research.
"The question is how much nuclear waste a society will tolerate," Hill said.
Oak Ridge is teaming up with materials company Gamma Engineering to develop ceramic "cladding" material that could double the life span of nuclear fuel rods. The silicon carbide material underwent an initial round of testing in July, and did not degrade as quickly as the zirconium alloy tubes currently used.
Cladding is the tubing surrounding uranium rods, preventing the oxidation that allows water to penetrate and degrade the uranium, according to Oak Ridge research scientist Michael Lance. Ceramic material should be less likely to swell and crack at high temperatures than the metals currently in use, he said. Lance said during the test the cladding "did not recess in the high-temperature environment," indicating a longer useful life for the rods, and therefore fewer rods that must be sequestered for thousands of years.
Stronger cladding material allows the amount of uranium inside to be enriched so that the rods could last up to 10 years instead of the current five-year limit, said Herbert Feinroth, president of Gamma Engineering. Feinroth said the material was tested at 500 degrees centigrade, substantially higher than the 300 degrees currently used in reactors.
Feinroth described the test as preliminary but said, "even if it is risky development work, it is worthwhile because of the potential benefit" of reducing the amount of waste.
"One of the big trends in research is trying to get a higher burn-up rate, which means you can use the same fuel longer," said Rod McCullum, senior project manager at the Nuclear Energy Institute, a policy organization of the nuclear energy industry.
McCullum said that one-third of the nuclear rods in a reactor are usually removed every 12 to 18 months. When fuel rods break down, they begin to fission and become unusable or "spent." The exchange of fuel rods adds to the mounting pile of nuclear waste, but also requires the reactors to be shut down for two to three weeks.
"When you shut down the (reactor) core, you are not producing energy or money," McCullum said, providing another incentive to move to longer-lasting fuel rods.
According to the NEI, Generation III reactors were developed in the 1990s, and Generation IV will be functional around 2030.
The Department of Energy has requested $30.5 million in funding for Generation IV research for 2005. Oak Ridge is overseeing several research projects for the Department of Energy, lab director Hill said, including using nuclear reactors to create hydrogen from water.
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Las Vegas SUN
August 24, 2004
DOE won't join lobbying group challenge of Yucca Mountain ruling
By Ken Ritter
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Energy Department did not join a nuclear power industry lobbying group in challenging a federal court decision that could slow plans for burying the nation's most radioactive waste in Nevada.
"Our thinking is, the best way to proceed is not to engage in further litigation," Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said Tuesday.
The Nuclear Energy Institute met a midnight Monday deadline to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to reconsider its ruling that threw out a 10,000-year radiation safety standard for the Yucca Mountain project, said Melanie Lyons, a spokeswoman for the industry group based in Washington, D.C.
The court ruled July 9 that the Environmental Protection Agency standard for radiation exposure near the site deviated from a National Academy of Sciences recommendation that the standard extend for hundreds of thousands of years.
"The EPA did what it was supposed to do by starting with the NAS report, factoring in policy considerations and coming up with a standard," Nuclear Energy Institute lawyer Michael Bauser said in a statement.
Bauser said a 15-millirem radiation protection standard the EPA set was equivalent to a standard X-ray, and the 10,000-year standard was consistent with other waste management practices.
Nevada opposes the Yucca Mountain project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and the governor's top anti-repository administrator welcomed the Energy Department's decision not to challenge the appellate court ruling.
"I don't think the court will agree to rehear it," said Bob Loux, executive director of the state Agency for Nuclear Projects. "It was a unanimous decision by the three judges. The direction of the court is to go rewrite the standard."
The judges upheld most other elements of the project, rejecting a challenge of the site selection process and Nevada's contention it was unconstitutional to force one state to take all the nation's nuclear waste.
Davis said the Energy Department intends to submit a repository operating license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December, even if the EPA standard remains unresolved.
"We're guessing there's not going to be a full resolution of the process," Davis said. "We don't know what the standard will be, but we have to meet the licensing standards that the EPA specifies."
An EPA official could not be immediately reached Tuesday for comment.
The Energy Department wants to meet a self-imposed 2010 deadline to begin entombing 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel now stored at nuclear reactors and research sites in 39 states.
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On the Net:
Environmental Protection Agency: www.epa.gov
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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Waste News
August 24, 2004
Nuclear Energy Institute asks court to review waste storage ruling
Aug. 24 -- The Nuclear Energy Institute asked a federal appeals court Aug. 23 to review a decision that could impact the progress of a national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled July 9 that the federal government could not use the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency´s 10,000-year compliance standard. The EPA´s standard would require the site to protect the area around the repository from radiation for 10,000 years, less than the National Academy Sciences recommendation that the compliance period last longer than 10,000 years.
Michael Bauser, associate general counsel for the Nuclear Energy Institute, said the EPA properly developed its standard, starting with the National Academy Sciences report and then considering other factors, to come up with the 10,000-year compliance period.
In 1995, the academy acknowledged in its recommendation that it looked only at scientific issues and advised the EPA to also take policy issues into consideration when it developed its standard, Bauser said.
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Public Citizen
August 24, 2004
Government Bows to Nuclear Industry Pressure by Gutting Its Environmental Justice Policy
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ignoring the expressed concerns of citizens´ groups, including Public Citizen and the Washington, D.C.-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) today published in the Federal Register its final policy statement on the issue of “environmental justice’ (EJ), the phenomenon of disproportionate adverse environmental impacts of federal projects on minority and/or low-income populations. The agency should have endeavored to carry out the just and progressive executive order (EO) issued by President Bill Clinton in 1994 calling on agencies to incorporate EJ programs into their respective missions, which then-NRC Chairman Ivan Selin pledged to do. Instead, the NRC has bowed to industry pressure to inexorably weaken its ability to ensure that its licensing actions are fair, just and free of economic and racial discrimination, NIRS and Public Citizen said today.
“While the policy statement on the treatment of environmental justice matters in NRC licensing, rulemaking and regulatory actions purports to be a reaffirmation of the NRC´s commitment to the consideration of environmental justice issues, the new policy is disingenuous and retreats from the basic principles of environmental justice as established in the initial executive order,’ said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen´s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program.
Today´s NRC policy statement asserts that the executive order “does not establish new substantive or procedural requirements applicable to NRC regulatory or licensing activities.’ The result is that the NRC likely will refuse to consider legal challenges regarding issues of racial discrimination, fairness and economic equity in its licensing hearings. In a current proceeding involving a proposed uranium enrichment plant, the NRC commissioners already ordered that only themselves – not the licensing board overseeing the hearing – would determine whether environmental justice issues would be heard.
The new policy appears to be a nod to the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), which is the lobbying arm of the nuclear industry and which submitted a letter to the NRC in December 2002 sharply criticizing the agency for its handling of EJ issues in licensing hearings. Those hearings involve Louisiana Energy Services, which is seeking a license for a uranium enrichment facility in New Mexico, and Private Fuel Storage, which is seeking a license for a high-level nuclear waste storage facility on the Indian reservation of the Goshute tribe in Skull Valley, Utah.Today´s statement appropriates many of the arguments and incorporates some of the recommendations articulated by the NEI in its letter. Moreover, the NEI has the broad interest of securing a license for the U.S. Department of Energy´s Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, which may also face contentions related to EJ. (The state of Nevada submitted comments urging the NRC to retract its EJ policy statement.)
“The NRC is abandoning environmental justice for Jim Crow regulation,’ said Michael Mariotte, executive director of NIRS. “The federal agency might as well hang a ‘Nuclear Industry Only´ sign on the hearing room door.’
As three large electric utilities seek Early Site Permits for the construction of new nuclear reactors and two energy industry consortiums seek licenses for controversial nuclear facilities, there is a manifest industry interest to clear the path for the licensing of these projects. Already, an NRC judicial board has dismissed an EJ contention brought to a licensing hearing for a new nuclear reactor at the Grand Gulf site in Port Gibson, Miss. The draft version of the EJ policy was cited by the board in dismissing charges that the proposed reactor would have disproportionate and adverse impacts on the surrounding area´s predominately African-American population. Grand Gulf is in Claiborne County, Miss., which is 84 percent African-American with 32 percent living at or below the poverty line. Despite the racial and economic makeup of the county, the board was not willing even to consider that reactor operations, nor inadequately funded emergency plans, might cause a disproportionate impact – even though the electricity from the plant is not intended for the region.
“The situation in Claiborne County demonstrates the need for a strong, enforceable policy on environmental justice, but the NRC is instead eviscerating its policy,’ Mariotte said. “It is unfortunate that the NRC appears so willing to violate its regulatory duty by reneging on the directives of the EO, when the only beneficiary of this action is the industry it regulates.’
According to the NRC, more than 700 people submitted postcard comments opposing the changes to the NRC´s policy.
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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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