Yucca Mountain News Clips
Wednesday, September 1, 2004
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Las Vegas SUN
September 01, 2004
DOE takes another Yucca hit from NRC
By Benjamin Grove
<grove@lasvegassun.com> and Molly Ball
Las Vegas SUN
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission handed Yucca Mountain another setback Tuesday, saying the Energy Department did not have all of its project documents in order when the 5.6 million pages were submitted in June.
The action cast renewed doubt on the department's plan to open the proposed nuclear waste repository in Nevada by 2010, although Energy Department officials vow to stay on schedule.
It also cast further doubt on whether the Energy Department ultimately can defend and document years of research on the first-of-its-kind project, Yucca critics said.
The NRC ruling demonstrated just how difficult it will be for the department to obtain a license for Yucca in the coming years, said Joe Egan, an attorney who is leading a court challenge against the project for Nevada.
"There is no doubt that the license application will be just as much a piece of trash as this initial certification was," Egan said today.
"The practical effect is really a sort of loss of confidence," Bob Loux said of the NRC action. Loux is executive director of Nevada's Yucca watchdog group, Agency for Nuclear Projects.
At issue were the Yucca documents submitted by the Energy Department to the NRC on June 30. Federal rules require the department to submit the material -- backup work for its license request -- for public scrutiny on an Internet database.
The NRC ruling could result in a project delay because it delays the Energy Department's bid to win NRC approval of an application for a license to construct Yucca. The NRC cannot officially recognize that application until six months after the NRC certifies the documents, according to federal rules.
The Energy Department had hoped the NRC would promptly "docket" the license application when the department submits it at year's end.
Department spokesman Joe Davis said the department would submit additional documents within about 30 days in an effort to win the NRC's certification.
But Davis reiterated that the department remains dedicated to all its project deadlines.
"We are still working toward our goal," to open Yucca by 2010, Davis said.
Colleen Curran, a spokeswoman for Bechtel SAIC in Nevada, declined to comment on how Tuesday's ruling affects the company, which is due for a million-dollar bonus if DOE submits the license application by the end of the year.
"The certification issue is purely DOE," she said.
Energy Department officials aim to open the world's first permanent underground repository for high-level nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
They have said they aim to keep the project on track despite budget shortages in recent years and a recent federal court ruling that favored a Nevada challenge to the project.
"It has not been a good six months for the Department of Energy," Loux said. "The project's dead -- they just don't want to admit it yet."
Energy Department officials have said the project is nowhere near dead.
In this latest setback, however, the Energy Department had certified on June 30 that it was making available to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission all pertinent Yucca documents. The department handed the NRC 1.2 million documents.
But Nevada officials challenged the department. They said the Energy Department was depriving the public of millions of additional documents as well as the public's six-month comment period.
In a 54-page ruling released Tuesday, the NRC's three-member Atomic Safety and Licensing Board essentially agreed. The panel threw out the department's bid to certify the documents until all the paperwork is in.
The department withheld about 1 million documents that are still under review, mostly for "privacy and privilege" legality reasons, Davis said.
Some of the documents contain sensitive "pre-decisional communications" between project officials and department lawyers that needed further checking before public release, Davis said. Other documents contain personal information about project officials, he said.
It's good news that the department plans to stick to its timeline, said Steve Kerekes, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the leading pro-Yucca lobby and nuclear industry advocacy group. There's no reason the NRC action Tuesday should delay the Energy Department's plan to submit the Yucca application by year's end, Kerekes said.
Anti-Yucca groups said the NRC panel ruling on the lack of documents was another indication of project bungling.
"There are a lot of eerie similarities between the way that the Bush administration has rushed this process, and the way they have rushed the science," Sierra Club spokesman Eric Antebi said.
The NRC's ruling means that the NRC would not docket the Energy Department's application until after Election Day. Nevada Democrats say that may bode well for the state if John Kerry wins, because Kerry pledged to stop Yucca Mountain.
Kerry has said he would revoke the license application.
"John Kerry has to become president for the benefits of this (NRC) ruling to come to fruition," said Sean Smith, Kerry Nevada spokesman.
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said, "This is a setback for President Bush's effort to bury nuclear waste in Nevada."
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Public Citizen
August 31, 2004
A Victory for Consumers in Yucca Mountain Fight; NRC Overrules Energy Department´s Claim That It Made Information Public
Statement of Wenonah Hauter, Director of Public Citizen´s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission´s (NRC) judicial arm, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, unanimously ruled today that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) failed to make publicly available on the Internet all documents related to the Yucca Mountain Project, as required by law. As a result, Yucca Mountain´s timeline has once again been postponed due to the government´s inability to follow its own guidelines.
Federal regulation requires the DOE to make all of its documentary information related to its Yucca Mountain license application available online six months in advance of filing its application. Therefore, to meet its self-imposed application deadline of December 2004, the DOE would have had to post all its supporting documents online by June 30, 2004. At 5 p.m. on June 30 – exactly six months to the day – DOE certified in writing that its documentary material was “available.’
Posting all relevant Yucca Mountain documents online allows the public to review the materials and participate effectively in the Yucca Mountain licensing proceedings. This purpose cannot be achieved unless the Web site is fully functional and complete.
Despite DOE´s self-certification, all of the information related to the Yucca Mountain licensing application was not available to the public on June 30, nor is it all available to this day. The agency admitted to the licensing board that of the estimated 2.1 million documents related to the project, only half are posted online, although officials did not explain why. In addition, more than four million e-mails related to research on the Yucca Mountain Project – often important sources of information – have not been posted.
According to the licensing board, “[W]e conclude that because of the incompleteness of its document review and production, the many years that DOE has had to gather and produce its documents, and the fact the date of production was effectively within DOE´s control, DOE´s document production on June 30, 2004, did not satisfy its obligation to make, in good faith, all of its documentary material available pursuant to’ NRC´s regulations. The NRC will not accept the DOE´s licensing application until six months after all the documents have been made available, meaning the project will be delayed indefinitely until the documents are posted.
The DOE does not appear to be capable of this task. Together with the recent court ruling that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) illegally set a 10,000-year compliance period for the radiation release standards of groundwater at Yucca Mountain (a ruling that also has delayed the project), it is clear that the Yucca Mountain Project is flawed both in its science and in its management and should be abandoned.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 01, 2004
Yucca database problem criticized
Nuclear licensing board rules against Energy Department
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department was dealt a new blow on Tuesday when a nuclear licensing board ruled DOE mishandled a public database that is supposed to contain all documents for the planned Nevada nuclear waste repository.
The ruling is likely to force an undetermined delay in the Yucca Mountain Project while the Energy Department fixes problems and gets its work recertified, according to attorneys for Nevada and environmental activists.
Federal rules require DOE's documents on the Internet database, known as the Licensing Support Network, to be certified as complete and available electronically to the public for six months before a license application can be docketed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
"They will have to certify again after they get their act together, either in a month or if ever, maybe sometime after the first of the year," said Martin Malsch, a former NRC attorney who represents the state of Nevada in Yucca Mountain cases.
Malsch called the ruling a major setback for the Yucca program, which already faces myriad uncertainties stemming from budget shortfalls and a court ruling this summer that threw out a key radiation safety guideline.
Joe Davis, a DOE spokesman, said the department has continued to work on the database and could be ready to seek recertification in about a month.
Davis said he could not say how the ruling might affect the DOE's timetables. Department officials had set an internal deadline to submit a repository license application to the NRC by year's end.
"The attorneys are going to look at this," Davis said. "Our goal is to have this repository open in 2010, and that remains our goal."
The department issued its database certification on June 30, six months in advance of its year-end goal.
DOE said it had made available 1.2 million documents totalling 5.6 million pages of technical reports, studies and e-mails chronicling years of DOE's repository effort.
Attorneys for Nevada challenged the database, saying DOE rushed an incomplete job to stay on deadline. They argued 30 million pages of documents and more than 4 million e-mails were missing, while access to documents on key issues such as repository canister corrosion was blocked by being improperly classified for secrecy.
A three-judge Atomic Safety and Licensing Board panel assembled by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed with the state in a 54-page ruling released Tuesday that struck down DOE's certification.
The department "did not satisfy its obligation to make, in good faith, all of its documentary material available," the judges stated, even though DOE had 15 years to organize the material and the funding strength of the federal government to pay for the effort.
"It does not appear that it will take DOE a significant amount of time to complete its processing of the outstanding documents prior to being able to make a recertification," the judges said.
Federal rules require DOE to place all its documents on the database and to share them electronically with the public and parties that will be involved in Yucca Mountain licensing.
The idea, officials have said, is to make all pertinent information available upfront, to avoid delays in an NRC licensing process that resembles a courtroom trial.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff have completed loading all their Yucca documents onto the database. The judges' ruling allows Nevada and others to delay posting their documents until DOE's contributions are recertified.
The safety board's ruling was a victory for open government, said Wenonah Hauter, director of the Public Citizen Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program.
"Posting all relevant Yucca Mountain documents online allows the public to review the materials and participate effectively in the Yucca Mountain licensing proceedings," Hauter said.
"It was obvious the White House was so anxious to keep the licensing process for Yucca Mountain on track that they cut corners," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.
Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., said the ruling was "a wake-up call for the DOE to be forthcoming with public documents, and prepare the material in such a way that is accessible and user friendly to the general public."
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Las Vegas SUN
September 01, 2004
Edwards' wife discusses military benefits, Yucca
By Kirsten Searer
<searer@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN
Her staff was trying to hurry her along, so they sighed Tuesday when a reporter asked Elizabeth Edwards about medical malpractice reform.
It was, apparently, the right question to get her talking.
Edwards, the wife of Sen. John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, is well-known for being one of the more personable faces on the Democratic ticket, someone who talks publicly about her weight struggles and how she misses her children on the campaign trail.
But in a trip to Las Vegas on Tuesday, the 55-year-old wasn't afraid to mix her Southern charm with a knowledge of issues in an hourlong session in a blazing hot room in which the main topics were military benefits and pay.
The crowd or more than 75 people was dotted with undecided voters and Republicans who voted for Bush in 2000.
That's just the way Edwards likes it.
"This is the time for us to use venues like this to answer questions," she said.
Later, in the back of the restaurant, she told newspaper reporters that Edwards supports Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's promise to stop Yucca Mountain.
Edwards, she said, has voted against the project because he had concerns about safety. He did, however, cast a pro-Yucca "procedural" vote after the nuclear industry promised to upgrade safety for North Carolina, she said.
"He was making a concession in order to get the safety concessions in North Carolina," she said.
Should Edwards ever become president, he would uphold Kerry's promise to stop the project, she said.
"We need to find a safer way than digging a hole," she said.
And, she said, medical malpractice reform such as the cap on damages to appear on Nevada's November ballot isn't the answer to rising insurance rates.
Instead, she advocates penalizing attorneys that bring up too many frivolous lawsuits, weeding out the 5 percent of doctors who cause 50 percent of the medical malpractice suits, and coming to terms with the fact that insurance companies suffered their greatest losses from stock market reverses.
Profits, she said, "are a direct reflection of what happens in the stock market."
The jury system of awarding damages isn't perfect, but it's the best system around, she said.
"It doesn't mean that they're always going to get it right," she said. "But they're going to get it right more than they get it wrong."
Edwards' voice is calm while she speaks, even as she offers pointed criticism of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who said in his Monday speech to the Republican National Convention that when he was watching the towers burn on Sept. 11, 2001, he turned to Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and said, "Thank God George Bush is our president."
"No one in that moment of horror would have made a statement like that," she said.
She has been lauded on the campaign trail as a down-to-earth person -- a "mother earth" figure, as Teresa Heinz Kerry described her.
"She spoke in simple terms that a layman could understand," said 69-year-old Harriet Bernstein of Las Vegas after Edwards' talk in Las Vegas.
"She is a real person," added Harriet's sister, 63-year-old Roz Tessler.
Edwards told a the crowd of people in the military, veterans and their families -- some who support Bush -- that Bush has advocated for them.
But, she added, he also cut hospital benefits for some veterans with service-related injuries, advocated a $250 enrollment fee to use veterans hospitals, closed veterans hospitals and cut hazardous duty pay benefits.
"You have these two men who are running for office," she said. "You have to ask, whose side are they on?' "
Kerry would increase military pay and benefits partly because "he's been there," she said. That includes stopping the remaining limits on concurrent receipts, which require veterans to deduct the pay they receive for disabilities from their military retirement.
"Senator Kerry is absolutely committed to getting rid of this tax on disabled veterans," she said.
Later, 36-year-old Karen Ammons, whose husband has been deployed twice through the National Guard, said she remains undecided on who to vote for, even after talking to Edwards.
She agreed with some of the issues presented on military benefits but said she fully supports the way President Bush has handled the war on terror, including the war in Iraq. Her husband returned from Iraq in December, she said.
"I think what she had to say, if it does come about, will be very good for us," Ammons said. "I want to hear more about it."
Edwards said Tuesday she was eager to get back to her Washington home to her 4-year-old son, Jack, and 6-year-old daughter, Emma Claire, who starts the first grade after Labor Day.
Of the many hats she is wearing as mother and a candidate's wife, campaigning "is actually the easy part," she said.
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Las Vegas SUN
September 01, 2004
Sandoval to address delegates
By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau
NEW YORK -- Attorney General Brian Sandoval will take the podium and address his fellow Republicans tonight, praising the Bush administration's record on protecting children, representing his strong support for Bush's re-election.
But Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., cannot understand how he can praise one part of Bush's record while suing him over another: the administration's and the GOP's support for a nuclear waste repository.
"You can't fight the president in the morning and support him as a candidate in the evening," Berkley said. "He's the very man that's giving us Yucca Mountain."
Sandoval believes Bush is a great leader and that he will allow legal decisions to stand and the repository to be safe, as the president has promised, but still does not want the waste to come to Nevada.
Sandoval said his support for the president does not diminish his fight against the proposed repository.
"The White House knows that I will use every tool at my disposal to fight the Yucca Mountain Project," Sandoval said. "The president knows that and we've had that conversation."
"This is a party where the people can disagree on issues," he said, referring to a message brought up by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger during his address to the convention Tuesday.
"We looked each other in the eye and we disagreed." Sandoval said there is no conflict and the protection of children, which he will address tonight, the president's efforts to combat terrorism, protecting the homeland and many others reasons are why he is good for the state.
He called Tuesday's ruling by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- that the Energy Department did not follow documentation rules -- "a monumental victory for the State of Nevada," because it will most likely delay the licensing process for nuclear waste repository at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. He said it is a "good sign" the board is listening to Nevada's arguments.
Sandoval called the project "dead" when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in July that the 10,000-year radiation standard did not meet the legal requirements set for the project by Congress and agreed the NRC board's ruling was another nail in Yucca's coffin.
"We are finally in a level playing field with an impartial third party and they are agreeing with us," Sandoval said of the recent NRC decision.
But Berkley said that is because it is clear the Bush administration does not agree with Nevada and has done everything it can to move the project forward.
"The president is ignoring the court's decision that says the Environmental Protection Agency was short," Berkley said. "That is not leadership. This is lying to the people of the state of Nevada. I am astounded (Sandoval) is not using his post to protect the state."
She said that by strongly supporting the president he is sending mixed signals to the White House. Sandoval and Gov. Kenny Guinn, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and Rep. Jon Porter R-Nev., all work toward the president's re-election, with Guinn and Sandoval co-chairmen of Bush's Nevada effort.
"They are in a perfect position to say if you go ahead with this we are withdrawing our support," Berkley said. "If I was president I would be ignoring them too."
Republicans and the Bush campaign point to Kerry's support of several bills that helped advance the project and the fact that Clinton administration science is what the Energy Department used to help establish that the project was safe, which Nevada disputes.
But Berkley insisted that it does not matter what happened in the past.
"It matters what is happening now," Berkley said.
When Bush visited Nevada in August, he criticized Kerry for flip-flopping positions on Yucca.
"My point to you is that if they're going to change, one day they may change again," Bush said then. "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."
Berkley said "what he's going to do is give us nuclear waste. I don't care if it's honest. It's wrong."
She said the Republican platform wants more nuclear power and a nuclear waste repository, "and we know where they plan to put it."
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 01, 2004
Nevada Republicans ready to take talking points home
By Erin Neff
Review-Journal
NEW YORK -- Most of the messages from Madison Square Garden are designed for the masses watching at home, but when delegates gather for breakfast, they get an earful of talking points aimed at making the convention buzz last beyond this week.
Jim Dyke, the communications director for the Republican National Committee, highlighted some of the key quotes from Monday's speeches as he talked to Nevada delegates over breakfast.
Before Tuesday night's addresses by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and first lady Laura Bush, Dyke stressed several points: compassion, education reform, Medicare reform and faith-based initiatives.
"This election is about big choices," Dyke said. "It's important to know the facts because there's a lot of style out there."
Dyke said any bounce Democratic challenger John Kerry got from his convention in Boston went away quickly because that event was about "style and not substance."
Dan Bartlett, White House communications director, made similar remarks to reporters from battleground states such as Ohio, Nevada and Florida when he called the Democratic National Convention "a lot of sizzle and no steak."
Bartlett said that moving forward from the convention and into the battleground states will be easier than thought.
"I don't want to say we have wind at our back, but we do feel a nice breeze," he said.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton spoke to Nevada's delegates Tuesday morning and said Republicans in the Silver State can court voters by talking about the Bush administration's record on environmental issues.
Norton said she thought the administration's Healthy Forest Initiative worked wonders in Carson City despite the recent Waterfall Fire, which burned several homes and acres.
"Thankfully because of putting in firebreaks and because of thinning, I saw people's homes that were spared by fire," she said.
As a Southwesterner who owns a ranch, Bush "understands going out and working on the land," she said.
She said her department has produced cooperation with diverse partners, such as ranchers and Sierra Club members.
She said that approach can resolve pending problems, such as the proposed listing of the sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act, better than government enforcement.
Norton said Kerry's plan to provide $600 million for national parks would come from the mining industry and would cost 46,000 people, including many in Nevada, their jobs.
"He doesn't understand Western issues," Norton said.
Delegates cheered her message and asked why the media fail to discuss the same positive message.
Norton said the media cover only conflict. "A new sewer system at Yellowstone National Park. What kind of a front-page story is that?" she asked.
By the end of her talk, delegate Al Valdez rose to ask a question and instead criticized Kerry for having "no substance to his message and no substance to him."
"We need to get you up on that stage," Norton told him.
One of the goals of the convention is getting the nearly 5,000 delegates to go home and stump for their nominee.
"It's just been such a positive message," state GOP Chairwoman Earlene Forsythe said. "These are the points we have to stress."
Norton's speech, on the heels of a national Republican platform referring to Nevada's proposed nuclear waste repository as "moving forward," did not include any mention of the Yucca Mountain burial site.
"It's ironic that Secretary Norton is visiting the Nevada delegation just hours after it approved the most environmentally dangerous platform in Nevada history," said Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. "Through the pro-Yucca Republican platform that was passed last night, the Nevada delegation has helped the Bush administration carry out the president's broken promise to rely on 'sound science' and turn Nevada into the nation's nuclear dump."
Nevada Republicans are focused less on Yucca and more on national security, economic and social issues they think can help Bush carry Nevada.
Attorney General Brian Sandoval, who is speaking tonight in prime time at the convention, said he thinks Bush has been "intellectually honest" with Nevada residents.
Sandoval will not raise the Yucca Mountain issue and will seek to stress Bush's record on law enforcement.
Sandoval, who leads Bush's re-election campaign in Nevada, said that although Democrats might focus on Yucca Mountain, Republicans will continue to stress other messages that resonate with swing voters.
"One of the most important things with someone running for president is to check his record," Sandoval said. "Kerry's record on Yucca and other issues contradicts a long history of votes."
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 01, 2004
Military families listen to pitch for Democrats
Elizabeth Edwards hears concerns at town hall meeting
By Juliet V. Casey
Review-Journal
Military families who gathered on Tuesday to hear Elizabeth Edwards, wife of vice presidential nominee John Edwards, said they were heartened by her sensitivity to their issues, but not all were persuaded to vote for the Democratic ticket.
Democratic Party officials organized the town hall meeting to target undecided voters, among them relatives of people who are in the military, and get them to elect Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts president.
The event at a small pizzeria on Vegas Valley Drive drew close to 100 people, including news media.
"She did change my mind on a few things," said Karen Ammons, a Republican whose husband is in the Army National Guard. "But I'm still not on the whole Kerry-Edwards thing. I liked her. She is concerned and compassionate about the military. If her husband was running for president, I'd vote for him."
Matthew Hutchings, an independent who runs Family Support of Southern Nevada, the family services arm of the Nevada National Guard, said he felt more informed having heard Edwards' views.
"I guess what I still want to know is why weren't these issues addressed before?" he said, referring to problems with the pay and benefits systems of the military and National Guard.
"Both the president and Sen. Kerry have been in office for some time," Hutchings said after the meeting. "Why weren't these issues important before? I think it's going to be real important to find if they're going to follow through with their promises to fix these problems."
Among the problems identified by military families were shortcomings in the health insurance system, and with delays in pay transfers. When the National Guard gets activated, Hutchings said, pay sources change from one agency to another and checks are delayed.
In answering their concerns, Edwards mentioned her own experience growing up on naval bases around the world, and touted the plan Kerry and Edwards want to implement to help military families and American families in general.
That plan, she said, includes providing to all Americans the same health care system that is offered to senators. She also repeated her husband's oft-quoted comment about two Americas.
"One America that gets the best health care and the America that gets the health care that's doled out to us," she said. "We're trying to move to 100 percent of Americans covered, and start with 100 percent of children being covered."
Edwards said John Kerry and her husband want to improve housing for military families, ensure retirement pay and protect family separation allowance from cuts. Military families receive $250 a month when their loved ones are sent to war. She said the Bush administration wants to cut that to $100.
"Sen. Kerry wants to keep that $250 for families and link it to inflation," she said.
Attempts to reach Republican Party officials for comment were unsuccessful Tuesday afternoon.
Amelia McLoughlin, a Democrat, asked Edwards what the Democratic team would do to improve education.
"I have a 2-year-old daughter and don't feel confident with the No Child Left Behind Act," she said.
Edwards told her the Bush administration's push to improve education by identifying schools that struggle by increasing testing is good. She said the concept started in North Carolina, where her husband is a U.S. senator.
But the Bush administration has been unable to make it work because it hasn't fully funded the effort, she said.
Following the meeting, Edwards held a small news conference and addressed a number of issues, including her husband's stance on the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
Edwards said her husband is against the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository but voted to move the issue forward as a way to get "much-needed concessions" from nuclear interests in North Carolina. She said the nuclear industries in that state had safety issues they had to address and, in exchange, her husband voted for the repository to open. But she said her husband and Kerry are both against Yucca Mountain.
"Now, you have a clear choice," she said. "If President Bush is re-elected, Yucca Mountain opens. If Sen. Kerry is elected, Yucca Mountain does not open."
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 01, 2004
CORRECTIONS
Shirley Blair, the sister of Gov. Kenny Guinn and a delegate to the Republican National Convention, was misidentified in a Tuesday story on the GOP supporting the Yucca Mountain Project.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
August 31, 2004
GOP approves platform including support for nuclear repository
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — The Republican Party has adopted a campaign platform that doesn´t mention a Nevada nuclear waste repository by name but pledges support for nuclear energy to reduce the dependence on foreign oil.
A plank approved Monday by voice vote with the platform at the GOP convention in New York points to a key issue in the presidential campaign in Nevada — the government´s plan to bury the nation´s highest-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
“President Bush supports construction of new nuclear power plants through the Nuclear Power 2010 initiative and continues to move forward on creating an environmentally sound nuclear waste repository,’ the platform states.
The energy plank also pledges support for renewable sources such as solar and wind power.
A Nevada spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry took issue with the reference to “an environmentally sound nuclear waste repository.’
“If they found one of those, I´d like to know where it is,’ said Sean Smith, spokesman for the campaign in Nevada.
Some of the state´s delegates said they were pleased with the language and said the state should be negotiating for benefits in exchange for the project, which was approved by Congress and Bush in 2002.
“We´ve gotten denied a lot benefits,’ said Yucca supporter Paul Willis of Pahrump. “The real losers will be the state of Nevada and Nye County for not negotiating for benefits.’
The convention delegation also includes Republican statewide officials who have fought against the repository, including state Attorney General Brian Sandoval, who sued the Bush administration, and U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Reno, who voted against the repository in Congress.
The national Democratic platform, approved by delegates in Boston last month, includes a plank opposing efforts to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain that are not based on sound science.
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry has pledged to stop the project if elected. Bush defended his decision to approve Yucca Mountain during a trip to Las Vegas earlier this month, saying it was based on science.
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KLAS
August 31, 2004
Nevada's Electoral Votes Play Critical Role
Edward Lawrence, Reporter
As the early voters cast their votes, predictions about who may win the presidential election have surfaced from analysts. President George Bush is starting to see momentum in the polls from the Republican National Convention. Nevada is still too close to call whether the president or Senator John Kerry is favored.
UNLV political science Assistant Professor David Damore has followed the presidential election as it progressed in Nevada. He says the economy will not be a big issue for local voters, but the war in Iraq will. "Events in Iraq -- for a long time there was a very strong war support in Nevada. That is slipping a bit as that issue comes along. The other big issue will be Yucca Mountain. It's something both candidates have tried to use to their advantage."
At the Republican National Convention members of the Nevada delegation are talking about Senator Kerry's pledge to end the Yucca Mountain Project.
Gov. Guinn, (R) Nevada, said, "Senator Kerry says consistently, 'If I am elected, I will kill it.' If that is the case, President Clinton was against it and he was there for 8 years and he could not kill it."
Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn says that we will beat the project in the courts not the political arena. U.S. Senator John Ensign agrees and hopes voters understand that. This is why we will see more attention on this state over the next nine weeks.
Sen. John Ensign, (R) Nevada, said, "Our five electoral votes are playing heavily in the minds of both campaigns. We are seeing a lot of visits from both sides."
Gov. Guinn, "We can get out 2.5 to 3 percent more votes. In a 50-50 state that is important for us. It will come down to the independent voters."
CNN analysts estimate that President Bush will win this state, making him the favorite in the election. However, the latest poll by Zogby shows Senator John Kerry with a slight lead in the state. With the margin of error, it's too close to call.
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Kansas City Star
August 29, 2004
Power Play for The Presidency
Americans need winner in November to push through a comprehensive energy plan
By Yael T. Abouhalkah
The Kansas City Star
Bush promotes more production of energy from oil, nuclear power, coal and natural gas. Kerry spends much of his time talking about renewable energy as well as conservation and efficiency.
The United States hasn't had a coherent energy policy for decades. And the consequences affect all Americans.
Gasoline and oil prices have soared to near-record levels this year. U.S. reliance on imported crude has increased, while renewable energy production grows slowly. Interest in energy conservation waxes and wanes; notice the growing number of SUVs on the roads? Nuclear power's future remains mired in controversy and uncertainty.
Enter George Bush and John Kerry, two presidential candidates who have some vastly different — but also a few surprisingly similar — plans to deal with the nation's energy problems.
Generally, Bush promotes more production of energy from oil, nuclear power, coal and natural gas.
Kerry spends much of his time talking about renewable energy as well as conservation and efficiency.
Neither candidate has had a sterling record of accomplishments in recent years in the field of energy.
As president, Bush has failed to convince a Congress led by fellow Republicans to pass his comprehensive energy package, the one privately developed by Vice President Dick Cheney and others. The primary and reasonable objection to the proposal: It relies too heavily on incentives for fossil-fuel producers and does not include enough money for renewable energy research or conservation measures.
As a Democratic senator, Kerry has failed in his overall goal to pass significant pieces of legislation to increase the fuel efficiency of cars and to considerably increase federal funding for renewable resources.
Highlights of some solutions offered by Bush and Kerry are outlined in the accompanying chart. The information was culled from sources that included official Web sites for the candidates and news articles. To read more, go to www.georgewbush.com/energy/brief.aspx and www.johnkerry.com/issues/energy.
An assessment of the Bush and Kerry stands on energy matters:
• Oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Bush says technology will “bring oil and gas to the surface cleanly and safely while protecting our environment.’ He argues that prospecting for petroleum on only 2,000 acres of the refuge could produce 1 million barrels a day.
But for valid reasons, Kerry and Congress have consistently and successfully opposed drilling in this part of Alaska. The potential of harming the environment is great, which Kerry has emphasized.
And, even if 1 million barrels a day could be extracted — which wouldn't start for at least another decade — that would be less than 5 percent of U.S. consumption. It would be an insignificant sum at a high cost for such a large environmental risk.
• Cleaner coal technology
Both candidates support initiatives to help plants burn coal more cleanly. These are admirable goals because they would reduce pollution and because the nation has an ample supply of domestic coal.
However, the price tags are high.
Kerry's $10 billion, 10-year plan in particular makes it clear he wants to win votes in coal-rich states such as West Virginia and Kentucky, which Democrat Al Gore lost in 2000.
Burning coal produces more than 50 percent of the country's electricity. But coal also is a major contributor to air pollution. For years, researchers have been trying to find the easiest and cheapest ways to pulverize coal and burn it more cleanly.
Slashing harmful emissions from the nation's plentiful supply of coal would be great news for Americans, especially the elderly, children and people with breathing problems.
One criticism of any clean-coal initiative is that pouring this significant amount of taxpayer money into an established energy source could be questionable. The potential payoff could be greater for investing similar amounts in less-mature alternative and renewable energy technologies.
• Fuel efficiency
Bush's high-profile support for hydrogen-powered cars has met with much skepticism, especially the concern that building a supply system across the nation for those vehicles would be expensive and time consuming. Bush also has not supported any meaningful improvements in fuel economy for new vehicles during his term in office.
Kerry once backed a large increase in mileage requirements for cars and trucks, but no more. That's disappointing, because building more fuel-efficient vehicles is a responsible way to cut gasoline consumption. One of the largest reasons behind the nation's dismal energy record is that the standard for passenger cars hasn't budged in 15 years.
Alternative biofuels made up of materials such as corn and soybeans play a big part in Kerry's vision for the future. If the subsidies don't become outlandish, producing more of these cleaner fuels would be good news for the environment.
Kerry's proposed $10 billion retooling of U.S. auto plants to make less wasteful vehicles would be a costly although potentially effective way to produce more of these cars and trucks. Once again, though, the size of the taxpayer subsidy matters. Automakers (such as Ford at the Claycomo plant in the Kansas City area) already are pouring funds into making hybrid vehicles that more buyers are demanding.
• Nuclear power
To start with, the potential of adding reactors in America in the near future is quite low. Electric utilities have not been able to convince Congress of the need for new rules to make it easier to build new plants, often because valid concerns exist about where the waste eventually would go.
Bush has talked for years about trying to streamline regulations and jumpstart the nuclear power industry. He also favors sending high-level nuclear waste to the Yucca Mountain repository, a site studied for more than two decades. That could make utilities more comfortable about investing in future plants.
Kerry does not support outright construction of more nuclear power plants and opposes the Yucca Mountain site. But the country needs a place to safely bury its nuclear waste, and the Nevada location is the best available. U.S. reactors are storing the hazardous material at more than 100 temporary facilities around the nation.
• Natural gas pipeline from Alaska
Energy experts aren't unanimous, but this plan has plenty of advocates, including Kerry and Bush.
Natural gas is a cleaner-burning fuel that helps heat houses for millions of Americans, including most Kansas City area residents. But wild price swings have occurred in recent years, in part because of tight supplies. Increased production could make natural gas a more dependable fuel.
The question for Congress, though, is just how large of a subsidy the U.S. government should make available for this project, expected to cost in the tens of billions of dollars. No matter which candidate wins the election, this idea should be among the top energy priorities tackled in the first months of 2005.
• Renewable energy
Kerry has unveiled the more ambitious program, to produce 20 percent of electricity from renewable resources by 2020. The current figure is around 2.5 percent for wind, solar, geothermal and other renewable sources excluding hydropower.
Bush's plan includes tax incentives that would promote alternative and renewable sources.
Energy experts have long discussed the importance of increasing production from renewable sources. But the market penetration remains low.
Presidents and members of Congress from both parties have refused for years to dramatically increase the amount of money spent on renewable research.
Meanwhile, federal research dollars have flowed to car makers and coal companies to improve their industries and maintain their market shares.
• Strategic Petroleum Reserve
Bush has the responsible point of continuing to fill the reserve to its 700 million barrel limit. The country would be able to tap into the reserve if a true emergency came along, such as a terrorist attack against Middle East supplies.
Kerry has contended that filling the reserve and not releasing oil is hurting Americans at the gasoline pump. However, draining the reserve a little at a time would hold prices down by only a few pennies per gallon. That's not a good reason to risk the country's energy security.
America needs a well-focused energy plan, and soon. The nation has squandered too much time in crafting a comprehensive energy plan.
Even if the winner in November comes up with a good plan, truly sweeping changes in U.S. energy production are years away.
Or, the status quo could continue. President Bill Clinton's energy overhaul plan never got off the ground in the early 1990s. The same fate has befallen Bush's proposed legislation a decade later.
The logjam needs to be broken.
To reach Yael T. Abouhalkah, a member of the Editorial Board, call (816) 234-4887 or send e-mail to abouhalkah@kcstar.com.
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Las Vegas SUN
August 31, 2004
NRC panel says Energy Department missed key Yucca document date
By Ken Ritter
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Energy Department failed to meet a self-imposed deadline for making documents public about a national nuclear waste repository in Nevada, a federal panel said in a ruling Tuesday that might slow the Yucca Mountain project.
"Clearly, they can't move forward," said Marta Adams, a deputy Nevada state attorney general.
Adams said the decision by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, coupled with a recent court decision invalidating an Environmental Protection Agency radiation standard, seemed certain to stall the project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
An Energy Department spokesman said lawyers were reviewing the 54-page opinion and would decide whether to appeal the panel's ruling to the full commission.
"We're continuing to move forward," spokesman Joe Davis said from Washington, D.C. "We've got a goal of opening Yucca Mountain in 2010. With all the process of getting the NRC license and congressional funding, that remains our goal."
He declined to say whether the Energy Department will meet another self-imposed deadline for submitting a license application for the project to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by Dec. 31.
The department had declared June 30 that it had made public some 1.2 million documents about its plan to entomb spent nuclear fuel from 39 states at Yucca Mountain.
The state, which opposes the repository, challenged the declaration July 12 - just three days after a federal court in Washington, D.C., ruled that a 10,000-year EPA radiation safety standard for the project was insufficient.
Energy Department officials have insisted after both actions that they could press on toward the Dec. 31 deadline. A delay could push back the government's tight timeline, which aims to open the repository in 2010.
The Energy Department is required by law to certify six months before applying for a license that all Yucca Mountain documents are publicly available on a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Web site.
The Energy Department had said it made the documents, totaling 5.6 million pages and accumulated over 20 years, available to the NRC through a DOE Web site.
The NRC panel, appointed to rule on the state's challenge, said the Energy Department had not met NRC requirements. But it added that it did not appear it would take long for the Energy Department to re-certify that the documents are available.
Davis said the process could take about a month.
Nevada and other participants in the licensing process will then have 90 days to submit their project documents.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to spend several years deciding whether to allow the repository to open.
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On the Net:
Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste
Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov
Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov
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Las Vegas SUN
August 31, 2004
Republicans reaffirm stance on nuke dump
By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau
NEW YORK -- Republicans reaffirmed their commitment to development of a nuclear waste repository in the party's platform, adopted at the national convention Monday.
The document does not specifically name Yucca Mountain -- the only planned national nuclear waste repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas -- but it makes clear that it wants nuclear power to advance.
"We believe nuclear power can help reduce our dependence on foreign energy and play an invaluable role in addressing global climate change," according to page 54 of the 98-page platform booklet distributed at the convention. "President Bush supports construction of new nuclear power plants through the Nuclear Power 2010 initiative, and continues to move forward on creating an environmentally sound nuclear waste repository."
The platform is a sharp contrast from the platform Democrats adopted in July, which called for the party to "protect" Nevada from the shipment of nuclear waste. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said having Yucca Mountain in the platform will not really make a difference in the state's fight against the project, since it has always been 49 states versus Nevada. He noted that the one good thing was that it did not name Nevada specifically.
"We have started to see alternatives bubble up through the surface," Gibbons said, speaking specifically on the temporary nuclear waste storage facility proposed by several nuclear utilities in Utah.
Gibbons said there are other options but that laws would need to be changed to make the policy different because currently the law only allows Yucca Mountain to be studied.
"Environmentally sound nuclear waste repository -- now there's an oxymoron," Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said. "It's clear this plank refers to burying nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, which cannot be done safely. And it fails to make a single mention of the terrorist threat that nuclear waste shipments pose to our families and our communities -- an issue the GOP desperately wants to avoid discussing."
Attorney General Brian Sandoval, who is leading the state's legal fight against the project said the president has "been honest with the state of Nevada" by stating clearly he would base it on sound science and obey the rulings of the court.
"That's leadership," Sandoval said. "The people of our state realize there is a need to store the waste somewhere but that it needs to be safe."
Sandoval said there are still more court decisions, such as those by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that are still not complete.
Delegate James Forsythe said Bush has supported sound science and will do whatever the courts say to do. He pointed out that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry voted for the 1987 "Screw Nevada" bill and sees no difference between the two candidates on that issue.
Delegate Elena Lopez-Bowlan of Reno said that other presidents have not wanted to touch the issue because it is so "politically inflammatory," but that Bush has at least opened up the discussion.
"It's important because we have to deal with it, we can't have an elephant in the room," Lopez-Bowlan said. "He has bothered at least to open up the discussion and start to look for solutions."
The platform, which outlines the party's positions on issues, includes opinions on homeland security, winning the war on terrorism, intelligence including the creation of a national intelligence director and a national counterterrorism center, tax reform, education and health care.
Nevada delegates Rew Goodenow and Bonnie Weber, both from Reno, served on the platform committee that finalized the document.
Alfred Valdez, a convention delegate from Henderson, said only the media and Democrats talk about Yucca Mountain. "It's not the top issue among people I've talked to," Valdez said.
But according to a poll conducted by the Reno Gazette-Journal and KRNV-TV, 53 percent of likely Nevada voters said Yucca Mountain is an important factor when deciding who they will vote for, the Associated Press reported Monday.
Among Republicans, 38 percent said Yucca Mountain is important, compared with 67 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of independent voters.
Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry has promised to stop the project if voters send him to the White House.
The Democrats' platform, approved in Boston in late July, contained the phrase: "We will protect Nevada and its communities from the high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain which has not been proven to be safe by sound science."
Nick Shapiro, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, said differences between the platforms show the Republicans are trying "to pull a quick one" by leaving out Nevada and the project name.
"The fact that George Bush and the Republican Party are not taking Yucca Mountain seriously and are not even discussing their positions on it shows that the people of Nevada clearly need someone that is going to represent their interests and stop the Yucca Mountain project, as John Kerry has promised," Shapiro said.
The day the Democrats approved their platform, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., dismissed platforms as "worthless" while pointing to Kerry's past votes on bills in the Senate that contained language supporting the Yucca Mountain project.
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Las Vegas SUN
August 31, 2004
GOP approves platform including support for nuclear repository
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Republican Party has adopted a campaign platform that doesn't mention a Nevada nuclear waste repository by name, but pledges support for nuclear energy to reduce the dependence on foreign oil.
A plank approved Monday by voice vote with the platform at the GOP convention in New York points to a key issue in the presidential campaign in Nevada - the government's plan to bury the nation's highest-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"President Bush supports construction of new nuclear power plants through the Nuclear Power 2010 initiative and continues to move forward on creating an environmentally sound nuclear waste repository," the platform states.
The energy plank also pledges support for renewable sources such as solar and wind power.
A Nevada spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry took issue with the reference to "an environmentally sound nuclear waste repository."
"If they found one of those, I'd like to know where it is," said Sean Smith, spokesman for the campaign in Nevada.
Some of the state's delegates said they were pleased with the language and said the state should be negotiating for benefits in exchange for the project, which was approved by Congress and Bush in 2002.
"We've gotten denied a lot benefits," said Yucca supporter Paul Willis of Pahrump. "The real losers will be the state of Nevada and Nye County for not negotiating for benefits."
The convention delegation also includes Republican statewide officials who have fought against the repository, including state Attorney General Brian Sandoval, who sued the Bush administration, and Rep. Jim Gibbons, who voted against the repository in Congress.
The national Democratic platform, approved by delegates in Boston last month, includes a plank opposing efforts to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain that are not based on sound science.
Presidential nominee John Kerry has pledged to stop the project if elected. Bush defended his decision to approve Yucca Mountain during a trip to Las Vegas earlier this month, saying it was based on science.
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Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 31, 2004
GOP backs nuclear repository
Plank divides Nevada Republican delegation
By Erin Neff
Review-Journal
NEW YORK -- Though it doesn't mention the Yucca Mountain Project by name, the platform approved Monday by the Republican Party probably won't help the GOP much in Nevada.
In a plank pledging support for nuclear energy's role in alleviating dependence on foreign oil, the platform hits upon the key issue of burying the nation's high level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"President Bush supports construction of new nuclear power plants through the Nuclear Power 2010 initiative and continues to move forward on creating an environmentally sound nuclear waste repository," the platform states.
The platform was approved by a voice vote early Monday afternoon without delegates even seeing the document.
The energy plank also pledges support for renewable sources such as solar and wind power.
Environmental groups lashed out at the overall energy planks, but some Nevada delegates were particularly pleased with the language referring to the repository, which was approved by Bush in 2002.
"We've gotten denied a lot benefits," said Paul Willis of Pahrump, a staunch repository supporter. "In my 50 years as a resident of Nevada, I've never seen the federal government denied anything.
"The real losers will be the state of Nevada and Nye County for not negotiating for benefits," said Willis, who wore a pin that identified him as "Paul Willis -- Chairman Nye County -- Home of Yucca Mountain."
Willis said the pin was to remind the rest of the Nevada delegation how a majority of the members feel about Yucca.
About a dozen of the 33 delegates support Yucca Mountain and think the state should negotiate for benefits, according to a survey of delegates by the Associated Press.
A Reno Gazette-Journal, KRNV-Channel 4 poll of statewide voters this month found that 53 percent consider Yucca Mountain an important factor in deciding which presidential candidate they will back. Among Democrats, 67 percent said Yucca Mountain is important, compared with 38 percent of Republicans.
But the delegation includes Republican statewide officials that have fought hard against the repository. Attorney General Brian Sandoval, who sued the Bush administration, is a delegate along with Rep. Jim Gibbons, who voted against the repository in Congress.
Gov. Kenny Guinn's wife, Dema, and his sister, Shirley Barber, are also delegates. Guinn vetoed Bush's designation of Yucca Mountain in 2002, triggering a congressional vote on the issue.
The divide within the Republican Party on the repository has already opened the door to criticism by the Democrats.
Kerry Nevada spokesman Sean Smith scoffed at the language about an "environmentally-sound nuclear waste repository."
"If they found one of those, I'd like to know where it is," Smith said.
He also said the platform can play a role in Nevada's presidential election because "it's consistent with Bush's record for the past four years and it reinforces the notion that he's pushed forward on this."
The national Democratic platform, approved by delegates in Boston last month, includes a plank opposing efforts to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain that are not based on sound science.
Presidential nominee John Kerry pledged to kill the project if elected, and in a television commercial running now in Reno and Las Vegas, he tells voters: "It's wrong. It's dangerous and I won't let it happen."
During a trip to Las Vegas two weeks ago, Bush said his decision was based on science and that he would stand by any ruling by a court or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
"This is something you've heard the president address himself," said White House spokesman Ken Lisiaus. "And Spencer Abraham has also addressed it. He (Bush) is strongly committed to making sure this moves forward on sound scientific principals and that the people of Nevada are safe."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
August 31, 2004
Letters to the editor
Disregarding science will hurt our families
I am sure that Laura Bush is a nice person, but in refuting U.S. Sen. Kerry´s criticism of the president´s ban on stem cell research, she appears to join her husband in believing that she knows more than the scientific community.
In Nevada, we have seen the president´s disregard for science first hand in his hurry-up approval of Yucca Mountain, and we take it personally. My desire to see the best science possible pursuing a cure for Alzheimer´s disease, from which my mother died, is not “ridiculous,’ and I take it personally when Laura Bush says it is.
Scientific discoveries in many areas have made this country great, and we do ourselves a terrible disservice when we allow politics to stifle science. The Bushes talk about family values, but they show their disregard for real families. American families touched by Alzheimer´s, Parkinson´s, diabetes and other diseases whose potential cures may be found through stem cell research deserve better.
Vicki LoSasso
Reno
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Mohave Valley News
August 31, 2004
Congressman visits community
By Nicole Feneberg Lucht
News West
LAUGHLIN — U.S. Rep. Jon C. Porter, R-Nev., campaigned in Laughlin Aug. 18 for his race to be reelected to represent Nevada´s Congressional District 3.
“I always enjoy Laughlin and having represented Laughlin for 10 years, I feel like folks in Laughlin are family,’ Porter said. “I´ve seen the community grow, I´ve seen ... business leaders as their businesses have grown. I enjoy coming here.’
Porter said his 10 years on the Boulder City Council, from 1983 to 1993, gave him some of his best experience because council people look for solutions to problems and it gave him insight to challenges Nevada families and communities face.
“(Laughlin and I) have fought a lot of battles together,’ Porter said. “From the work on Needles Highway to parks and recreation to special events.’
Porter said he has accomplished much for Nevada, including securing $1.5 million dollars for Clark County School District teachers, $500,000 to establish an accelerated nursing program for the Nevada State College in Henderson, $300,000 to develop a women´s health center to research specific women´s health issues at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and $1.4 million to UNLV for research on advanced weapons components.
“Most every major initiative, from air quality in Nevada to water to conventions to education, I´ve been involved with,’ the freshman congressman said. “I´m very proud of what we´ve done.’
Porter, who has been in office for 18 months, said education is a “passion’ of his and that he has worked hard to secure additional funds for Nevada schools. That includes sponsorship of the Education Savings Act, which allows employers to match employee contributions tax-free, in an effort to encourage the employees to save for their children´s post-secondary school education.
The congressman also discussed the 2003 energy bill, which some have criticized as giving incentives to energy producers that create waste which could ultimately end up at Yucca Mountain.
Porter rebutted the criticism, saying the energy bill has incentives for alternative forms of energy. He said he has been fighting Yucca Mountain since 1983, although he does support nuclear energy.
“No one has been a bigger champion than I have and I´m gonna continue fighting the fight (against Yucca Mountain),’ Porter said. “I think there are lots of other options of where the waste should go. It can stay on those sites with power plants, in those states. There is new technology out in the world we should be and can be using, but I do know that we are so dependent on foreign oil because of some prior administrations that we have to continue looking at alternative sources of energy.’
Beyond Yucca Mountain he noted other concerns of the Laughlin community. Those include a veterans outreach program for Laughlin which is being worked on, according to Porter. The program would allow veterans to access some services without having to travel to the new veterans´ hospital in Las Vegas.
“We try to take a good cross-section of the community and present and pass legislation that can really improve the quality of life of Nevadans,’ the congressman said.
“I´m really proud of what we´ve accomplished ... but we also have new challenges,’ Porter pointed out, adding that Nevadans still need affordable health care and nurses.
“I want to continue serving Nevada, because I do understand the challenges for Nevada families,’ the congressman concluded.
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Platts
August 31, 2004
NRC board faults DOE on HLW document availability Washington (Platts)--31Aug2004
In a stinging indictment of DOE, an NRC licensing board ruled today that the department failed June 30 to meet NRC regulations to make all documentary material available related to its planned Yucca Mountain, Nev. high-level waste (HLW) repository. The ruling, which granted the state of Nevada's motion to strike DOE's June 30 certification of documents, means that the earliest NRC can now docket DOE's Yucca Mountain license application is March 2005. NRC regulations state that the agency won't docket an application for a HLW repository until at least six months have elapsed from the time of DOE's certification that it has made all its documentary materials electronically available. Nevada attorney Martin Malsch called the decision of the three-person Atomic Safety & Licensing Board a "major victory for Nevada."
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NRC
August 31, 2004
NRC Licensing Board Issues Decision on Adequacy of DOE Document Production Relating to Yucca Mountain Licensing Proceeding
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled today the Department of Energy (DOE) certification that it made available all DOE documentary material on its proposed Yucca Mountain high level waste repository failed to meet NRC regulations.
Specifically, the Licensing Board unanimously found that the June 30 certification failed to make publically available substantial quantities of documentary material in DOE´s possession at the time of certification, and that the manner in which DOE made the material publicly available on its own internet web site failed to satisfy the regulations.
The decision was in response to a July 12 motion to the Licensing Board from the State of Nevada in connection with the expected future application of the DOE to build a repository for high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The motion challenged DOE´s certification of the availability of its documentary material regarding the application. The Licensing Board heard oral arguments on the motion, from Nevada, DOE and the NRC staff, July 27 at the NRC´s Rockville, Md., headquarters.
NRC regulations require, in order to provide for efficient discovery in the formal NRC hearing that will be associated with review of the application, that all potential participants in the Yucca Mountain proceeding make their documents available to other potential participants in electronic form through the publicly available, web-based Licensing Support Network (LSN). The LSN is available for anyone to access documents, at http://www.lsnnet.gov.
Under the regulations, DOE must certify, six months before submitting its license application, that its documents are electronically available. DOE made that certification on June 30, 2004. Shortly thereafter the NRC Chief Administrative Judge appointed a three-person Licensing Board to serve as the Pre-License Application Presiding Officer (PAPO) to decide disputes brought by parties or potential parties regarding documentary materials submitted to the LSN. Members of the PAPO Licensing Board are Thomas S. Moore, Chairman; Alex S. Karlin; and Alan S. Rosenthal.
Thirty days after the DOE certification, on July 30, the NRC certified that its documents were electronically available. Other potential parties and interested governmental participants must also make their documents electronically available on the LSN prior to DOE filing its application for the Yucca Mountain repository license.
The Board ruled that Nevada and other potential participants are not required to make their documents available until 90 days after DOE recertifies that it has made all of its documents available on the central LSN site. “It does not appear that it will take DOE a significant amount of time to complete its processing of the outstanding documents prior to being able to make a recertification,’ the Board said.
The PAPO Licensing Board decision may be appealed to the Commission that heads the NRC.
A copy of the decision will be available from the NRC´s web site by entering http://hlwehd.nrc.gov/Public_HLW-EHD/home.asp and following the directions on the screen. Help in accessing information on the web is available from the NRC Public Document Room at 1/800/397-4209 or 301/415-4737.
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Las Vegas SUN
August 30, 2004
Nader denounces gaming, Yucca during stop
Independent presidential candidate visits Las Vegas
By Molly Ball
Las Vegas SUN
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader denounced the gaming industry and the planned Yucca Mountain repository in a brief stop in Las Vegas on Sunday, his first visit to Nevada since 2000.
On the eve of a lawsuit challenging his presence on the state's ballot, the liberal firebrand, who's becoming a worry for many Democrats, encouraged an enthusiastic audience of about 80 people not to settle for the "least worst" of the mainstream presidential candidates.
A hearing is scheduled for today on a lawsuit, filed by the state Democratic Party, alleging that signature-gatherers for the Nader campaign misled signers or misrepresented themselves in collecting the 5,002 signatures needed to get on the state ballot.
Nader denied the accusations and tried to position himself above the fray.
"I say to both parties, get off our backs and don't involve us in your insidious schemes," he said.
Nader said he has not accepted the help of Republican operatives who hope to use him to draw liberal votes away from Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry, paving the way for a Republican victory. In Nevada, GOP activist Steve Wark has claimed he funded the Nader signature drive to the tune of $30,000.
Democrats who want to keep Nader off the ballot ought to be working harder to appeal to voters, Nader said.
"They're saying to these voters, 'You're too stupid to be allowed to vote for this ticket,' " he said.
In his speech, Nader weaved local issues into his themes of anti-corporatism and environmentalism.
Las Vegas, he said, is "a gambling paradise where people come as hopefuls and leave as losers," a place where "people are induced to bet on their future instead of build their future."
As gambling in various forms is increasingly legalized around the country, Nevada will lose its monopoly, Nader predicted. To avoid economic devastation and the city's descent into pornographic "adult" pastimes, he recommended diversifying into solar energy, taking advantage of the state's abundance of sunshine.
Nader, whose 40 years as a consumer activist bred a deep-seated hostility to corporations, painted the casinos as yet another of the big-business behemoths that victimize consumers and control Democrats and Republicans alike.
"Their only redeeming feature in the ethical sense is they might be able to stop Yucca Mountain -- stop this state from being turned into a depot for radioactive waste from nuclear plants that never should have been built in the first place," Nader said.
He pointed out that, as an opponent of nuclear power, he has opposed Yucca longer and more consistently than either Kerry or President George W. Bush. In 1976, Nader co-authored "The Menace of Atomic Energy" with John Abbotts.
But Nader faces lingering liberal anger over the 2000 election, when, running on the Green Party ticket, he took about 3 percent of the vote and was blamed by Democrats for the deadlock and defeat in Florida.
Earlier this month, filmmaker Michael Moore, a Nader supporter four years ago, got down on his knees on Bill Maher's cable television show and begged Nader to quit the race.
This time around, Nader is making it more explicit than he did in 2000 that, while he holds a dim view of both parties, he harbors the greatest distaste for the Republicans, and that his ultimate goal is to get the attention of the Democrats.
Painting the backdrop for his candidacy, Nader pointed to historical third parties whose popularity altered the political landscape: parties that opposed slavery, favored women's suffrage or spoke for the labor movement. None of those parties won a national election, he noted, but they succeeded in fomenting change.
"The only vote that's wasted is when you vote for someone you don't believe in," Nader said. "The only vote that's wasted is when you vote for an agenda you don't believe in -- when you're so freaked out by the worst that you vote for the least worst."
Nader predicted defeat for Bush in November. "He's self-destructing," he said. "Kerry isn't laying a glove on him, but Iraq is his swing state."
Those who attended the speech said they liked Nader's message, but they were divided on whether or not he would get their vote.
Clarke Finneran, 44, stood outside the speech holding a cardboard sign with the slogan, "Nader...unsafe at any speed," a reference to the candidate's famous 1965 book about the auto industry. He handed out slips of paper reading, "Ralph Nader needs your adulation, John Kerry needs your vote!!!"
Finneran said liberals in Nevada have to be practical and team up to defeat Bush in a state most polls show to be a virtual dead heat between the two major candidates.
"We don't have the luxury of voting for Ralph Nader," he said. "It's going to be either John Kerry or George Bush, so as Ralph Nader would suggest we can pick the lesser of two evils."
Finneran also accused Nader of selling Kerry short. "He (Nader) acts like he's the only one with a health care plan," he said.
Lea Daleo, 63, agreed wholeheartedly.
"I have a lot of respect for Ralph Nader, a lot of respect for him," she said. "I loved him. I thought he was great. And I will be voting for John Kerry."
But some said they would stand by their man.
"Everybody says a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush," said Erica McNeely, 20. "But if everyone's too scared to vote for Nader, we'll lose the only voice that's questioning the system in place and isn't just siding with corporations."
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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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