Yucca Mountain News Clips
Monday, September 13, 2004
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Las Vegas SUN
September 13, 2004
Where I Stand -- Brian Greenspun: A missed opportunity
Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun
Weekend Edition
September 11 - 12, 2004
Some apolitical thoughts in the middle of a political maelstrom.
Nevada's attorney general, Brian Sandoval, has responded quite eloquently to a column I wrote last week in which I criticized him, specifically, and other Nevada Republicans in leadership positions, generally, for not standing up for Nevadans on the Yucca Mountain issue, choosing instead to give President George W. Bush a political pass after he decided -- and he was the only human being on the planet who could make such a decision -- to put the high-level nuclear waste bull's-eye on the backs of every man, woman and child living in this state.
I was critical because Brian Sandoval, most likely because he is a pretty face with a good mind and a much-needed Hispanic name, was given four minutes at the Republican National Convention to give a speech. He gave one, but it was not the one that should have been given by the chief law enforcement officer of the Silver State.
Sandoval had a captive audience of Republicans in the hall and a nationwide audience in the millions of people who would have been far more interested in learning about Yucca Mountain -- the violation of state's rights, the abdication of scientific discovery and the pure political power playing exhibited by the nuclear power industry and its puppets in the Department of Energy -- than they would about whatever piling on he was doing in the name of the Bush re-election effort.
After all, wouldn't it have been interesting if our attorney general had told the American people -- as "60 Minutes" did a few weeks earlier -- that the deadliest substances known to man would be trucked and trained through the major cities across America?
Wouldn't it have been helpful to Nevadans if the man we elected to represent our interests told his fellow Americans how wrong it was for the federal government to force this down our throats and how muddle-headed it was for them to put such a plank in the Republican Party platform so everyone who worries about the dump, its travel schedule, and the terrorist activities it invites, would know which party and which party leader -- that would be President Bush -- is to blame for their troubles?
Those are rhetorical questions because everyone in this state above the voting age knows the answer, and it is not the one that Brian Sandoval came up with when he allowed his party to manipulate his obligation to the people who elected him. That, in short, is the message I wrote last week.
This week you can read below what Sandoval responded with, which, I am happy to say, is some good news and, potentially, some better news if the courts uphold the lower court decision. And, if the DOE and the EPA are not forced to change the rules by a president hellbent to shove that stuff down our mountain and into our lives for thousands and thousands of years.
It is interesting reading and I commend all readers to pay attention to what is happening on the legal side of the ledger. But, with all due respect to Sandoval, who knows exactly what he is doing, you did not respond to my criticism!
You did not explain to the people of this state why you squandered four minutes of prime national television time and didn't even once mention Yucca Mountain or the great fear in which every Nevada family lives, concerned that the first and worst nuclear accident will happen in our backyard.
You didn't share one idea with the American public about alternatives to burying that poison in our back yard -- or anyone's back yard -- and the few extra dollars it might take to accomplish that 21st century solution.
You didn't because you couldn't. Instead, Brian, you allude to the difficulty of discussing such a grave concern in the middle of a political year and let it go at that.
Sorry, sir, but a political year is exactly the time when the American people should hear as much as they can about all matters which affect their lives and their well-being. And a political year and your political opportunity was the time for you to have stood up for this state and the people who placed their faith in you.
Unless I have this thing all wrong, you are a Republican to be sure. But, first, Brian you are a Nevadan. And you didn't act like it in New York.
And now, much closer to home.
I couldn't help thinking back to the rough and tumble days of Las Vegas while listening to Mayor Oscar Goodman's little press briefing earlier this week.
I think about those early days a lot, partly because it is easier to remember 50 years ago than it is to recount what I had for breakfast this morning but, mostly, because much of what is happening in 2004 has already happened to us before. The old saying that if we don't learn from history we are doomed to repeat it is as true today as it was when first uttered.
Our good mayor was being questioned -- far more politely than his self-defensive and agitated answering deserved -- about one of his son's activities in buying land next to some land earmarked by the city of Las Vegas for redevelopment dollars. The effect of such a designation would be to drive land values up all around the designated area, which would make the young Mr. Goodman a handsome penny or two for his troubles.
The questions, of course, centered on the propriety of a member of the mayor's family taking advantage of a city action with which his father would obviously play a part. They were legitimate questions and unworthy of Oscar's short and smart-alecky answers that basically said his son is his own man and there is nothing the mayor could do about his offspring being smarter than most and taking advantage of a good deal when he sees it.
Maybe Oscar is right. Maybe there is nothing wrong with the actions of his son who, incidentally, is suing an 85-year-old woman who won't get out of the way of Goodman the Younger's growth plans. But, in this day and age, I think the people of this city who elected Oscar as a reformist of sorts who promised to make government transparent and work for the people not just the moneyed few, deserve better answers to the legitimate questions raised.
As for the rough and tumble days? The whole episode reminded me of the time when someone involved in city government teamed up with a businessman of renown and purchased much of the land tracts that just happened to be bordered by the new roads and infrastructure that was going to be approved by the city fathers but which had not become public. The two in question had, what you would call it, a leg up on the competition.
I remember my father writing about those two fellows. He called them, for obvious reasons, the Gold Dust Twins. There is probably no connection between those times and today and the hundreds of acres tied up for pennies 50 years ago that today are worth millions. In fact, I am almost certain there is no connection.
But, just the same, don't you think, Mr. Mayor, whether legal or not, either you or your son should be more sensitive to the lessons of history? It sure would make those press conferences go a little easier and it would go a long way in making the public think they are getting a fair shake under your steady hand.
It's just a thought from a guy who loves this city, loves your family and loves the storied history of Las Vegas.
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Lahontan Valley News
September 13, 2004
Flip-flopping flops
Glen McAdoo
President Bush and Vice President Cheney have been trying to persuade voters that Senator Kerry has flip-flopped on the issues while serving in the Senate, even though during thirty years any rational human might change their mind from time to time.
So, when I suggest that President Bush and Vice President Cheney are flip-floppers I am not being mean spirited, just returning the favor.
On Aug. 16, President Bush told NBC he didn't believe we could win the war on terrorism. The next day he told the veterans that we not only could, but would win the war on terrorism. Flip-flop or just confusion?
Bush told the world during his convention speech how much he has done and would do for seniors. He didn't mention a thing about a 17 percent increase in Medicare premiums, announced the following day, which are a result of out of control healthcare cost. Flip-flop, confusion, or deliberately misleading?
Cheney is telling the world that during his 30 years in the Senate, Kerry voted against weapons systems that could have helped our troops. Since Kerry now says he supports our fighting men and women, he must be a flip-flopper, says Cheney. Turns out that when he was in the Senate Cheney voted against many of the same weapons systems that Kerry voted against, because they weren't cost effective. Star Wars will not help our troops in Iraq. So just who is the real flip-flopper?
According to Bill Maher, the other day President Bush called the war in Iraq a catastrophic victory because, as he put it, those people who were supposed to surrender didn't.
I don't know what the heck catastrophic victory means, but it definitely sounds like a flip-flop from the message President Bush delivered on the deck of that carrier. Catastrophic victory? Is this guy for real?
When he was running for President, Bush told our Governor that he would veto legislation that called for a depository for nuclear waste to be located at Yucca Mountain. He signed the legislation two years later. Flip-flop, confusion or just plain old fashion deception?
Weapons of mass destruction, oops , no weapons of mass destruction. Flip-flop or just plain bungling? Cheney told reporters that there was proof that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda and then denied he ever said it until a clip of him making the statement was shown on "The Daily Show." Flip flop and red face.
When running for president, Bush announced a plan for education that he said would leave no child behind. Then he failed to fund the program he touted, leaving many children behind. Flip-flop.
Bush said he would restore respect for the United Sates and the office of the Presidency throughout the world. Now the United States and our President are less respected in the world than at any time in history. Flip-flop or just a catastrophic diplomatic victory, perhaps?
Fiscal responsibility and prudent spending were a promise of our President when running for office. Now with his party in control of both the Senate and House we have the largest deficit in our history and a Vice President who proclaims that deficits don't matter. Flip-flop.
The other day President Bush said Kerry's plan to fund health care improvements by taxing the wealthiest Americans wouldn't work because wealthy people just dodge their taxes anyway. One has to wonder just how the President hoped to stimulate the economy by giving tax breaks to those who he now says weren't paying those taxes to begin with. Flip-flop, voodoo economics, or did he just misspeak again?
Finally, the Kerry children, the Edwards children, and the Bush children all appeared on stage with their parents at their respective conventions. The absence of the Vice President's openly gay daughter on the stage at the Republican convention spoke volumes of just how much the party of "family values" actually values families. A major flip-flop.
John Kerry was right when he said we need people that don't just talk about family values but actually value families.
Maybe my Republican friends need to rethink their position about flip-floppers, since their candidates seem to do their fair share on a daily basis.
They are just plain flip-flopping flops, to coin a phrase.
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San Luis Obispo Tribune
September 13, 2004
Preparing for the worst
The security at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant is constantly being evaluated to protect it from attack.
Patrick S. Pemberton
The Tribune
Inside a glass booth, a trainer speaks into a microphone, reciting the drill: Each shooter will fire five rounds from a prone position at a target 100 yards away.
Four shooters, dressed in black uniforms, position themselves on their stomachs, eyes lined up with their gun sights.
“Ready!’ the trainer announces. When he triggers a buzzer, the shooters begin firing AR-15s — the equivalent of the military´s M-16 rifles. After each shot, spent bullet shells spurt out of their magazines and onto the ground. Directly behind the hillside targets, clouds of dirt rise into the air and evaporate as bullets imbed in the earth.
What seems like a military combat exercise is actually a quarterly training drill for security guards at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.
Efforts like this, Diablo officials say, will help keep the facility safe from terrorists.
“Unfortunately, nuclear opponents try to portray that nothing´s been done to enhance security since 9/11,’ said Jeff Lewis, a spokesman for Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which operates the Avila Beach plant. “It´s just not true.’
Three years after the tragic attacks on U.S. soil, the energy company has reportedly spent $15 million to enhance physical security at its plant, in addition to beefing up its armed force by 30 percent.
“Almost everywhere you look, there are signs of new activity related to security,’ Lewis said.
In some ways, the plant — surrounded by concrete barriers, fences and armed guards — seems like a fortress. Still, not everyone feels safe from terror.
“They´re not taking it seriously,’ said Rochelle Becker, an activist for the San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace.
The organization, backed by state and county officials, filed a lawsuit in March claiming the Nuclear Regulatory Agency illegally held hearings on nuclear security at Diablo without public input.
“If our community is being forced to be a radioactive waste dump — and it´s not likely to go anywhere — then it ought to be as secure as it possibly can be,’ Becker said. “And it´s not.’
The issue of security at nuclear plants was highlighted this past summer, when the Sept. 11 commission revealed that Osama bin Laden´s terror network considered using 10 planes to attack the United States in 2001. Possible targets included nuclear power plants.
Victor Dricks, a spokesperson for the Nuclear Regulatory Agency — which oversees the nation´s 104 commercial nuclear reactors that generate electricity — said no plants were ever specified. However, plants across the country were prepared for an attack even before Sept. 11, and measures have been strengthened since then, he said from his Arlington, Texas, office.
With input from law enforcement, the intelligence community and the military, Dricks said, the NRC has prepared for numerous terrorist scenarios, though he declined to specify what those scenarios are.
Around Diablo, guards seem omnipresent. Each one is armed with pepper spray, a .40-caliber pistol and an assault rifle strapped across the chest. Many of the guards are former police officers and military veterans, said security manager Ron Todaro.
He said the law prohibits him from revealing how many guards are employed there or what their response times are, but each guard undergoes six to seven weeks of initial training, followed by regular testing.
The NRC requires guards to be prepared for multiple defense situations including shooting on the run, shooting while wearing a gas mask, shooting from a tower (a 55-foot-tall practice tower will soon replace a 25-foot-tall scaffolding now in use) and shooting at moving targets. During each drill, the shooting must be 80 percent accurate.
The NRC also requires what it calls force-on-force drills.
“That´s where we use a group of mock terrorists who attempt to gain entry to the plant and sabotage it,’ Dricks said.
Though the Diablo security guards are not licensed as officers like police or sheriff´s deputies, they can shoot to stop an assault, Todaro pointed out. To reinforce that fact to the public, the plant will soon add signs to the plant, declaring: “Deadly Force May Be Used to Protect This Facility.’
And protection for the facility is crucial. Situated in a cove some seven miles from the main gate are two nuclear reactors and two spent fuel storage pools. Because nuclear energy is created with uranium, nuclear opponents fear a terrorist organization could attack the plant, causing deadly radiation to leak into the community.
“The administration doesn´t want to let the public know that we´re sitting by these ticking time bombs because they want to build more of them,’ Becker charged.
The Diablo plant provides energy to 2 million homes in northern and central California. The state has one other active plant, in San Onofre, along with five plants no longer in operation.
Preventing penetration
After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, locals feared that terrorists could fly planes into the Diablo reactors. But Jearl Strickland, program manager for used fuels storage, said even a large commercial plane, such as a 767, couldn´t penetrate the reactors.
The reactors are located inside two massive, dome-shaped containment structures at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The containment structures are made of 31/2-foot-thick solid concrete, which covers six layers of weaved rebar, with each rebar 21/2 inches thick. The concrete and rebar form a dense protective blanket that officials believe could not be penetrated by bombs or aircraft, unlike New York´s airy glass and steel World Trade Center.
Less powerful than the reactors are the plant´s spent fuel storage pools, made of concrete and steel, located in a storage building behind the containment structures. Currently, PG&E is considering storing waste temporarily in cement-encased, stainless steel casks that would be located behind the reactors. Eventually officials hope to remove its spent fuel to another site, though that possibility is dimming with growing opposition to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility in Nevada.
To ensure both the reactors and spent fuel don´t pose a risk, Diablo officials say they have considered all possible scenarios, including terrorists, earthquakes, tsunamis, propane explosions and even unlikely events, like a tornado in California. To that end, tornado barriers were built in one area to protect the plant from flying shrapnel.
Overall, the key to keeping the plant safe, Todaro said, is protecting the perimeter. To do so, there are layers of security. Armed guards are posted at the initial entrance, a gate located nearly six miles from the plant. Closer to the plant, guards await at a vehicle inspection station. All autos approaching the station are subject to an examination for explosives and a random check by guards. Meanwhile, concrete and steel barriers block entry until the vehicles are approved.
Identification and admission
At the main entrance to the plant itself, employees and visitors go through several more checks. At first, they walk through a personal explosives detector, a metal detector and an X-ray machine similar to ones used at airports.
From there, they approach a locked turnstile. To get past the turnstile, they must first insert a card containing data about the shape and size of their right hand into a device called a Recognition System. Then they place their hand in the device, which compares the data on the card with the hand. If there´s a match, the turnstiles unlock and the employee enters.
In addition to that, cameras are located throughout the plant, providing around-the-clock surveillance, and shielded gun ports have been added around the facility for guards to take shooting positions.
Assuming a terrorist organization might infiltrate from the inside, Lewis said, employees are now given more rigorous background checks, which might include information about finances (financially troubled employees might be more likely to be lured by terrorist money) and in some cases, psychological exams.
The security measures are ongoing, Lewis said (larger barriers are currently being added closer to the reactors). And thus far, Dricks added, the plant is secure.
“They have a very rigorous and effective security program,’ he said, “and the NRC is confident that they are able to defend that plant from a terrorist attack.’
Becker, who recently toured the plant, is still not satisfied. The underground spent fuel pools, she said, are only located in a metal storage unit, the plant should be guarded by military personnel and the government should issue a no-fly zone around all nuclear plants.
“If there´s a no-fly zone at the Pentagon and the White House and Disneyland, there ought to be one at nuclear power plants,’ she said.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
September 12, 2004
Letters to the Editor
Mother concerned about nuke dump
As a mother and concerned citizen, I continue to be alarmed by the dangerous bill passed in 2002 and signed by President Bush declaring that Yucca Mountain will be used as the nation´s nuclear waste dump. The concept that the government is willing to put over 70,000 tons of radioactive trash in our backyard (only 90 miles from Vegas!) is truly disappointing and will put our children at risk.
The well-documented threat of increased radiation exposure around Yucca Mountain is simply unacceptable. Would the president be willing to raise his children in a community where radiation is in the air?
Bob Loux, chief of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, says that the current Department of Energy relaxed its environmental and scientific regulations in regard to the Yucca Mountain project. I need no further evidence to prove that Washington and George W. Bush clearly think of us Nevadans as second-class citizens.
I truly can not imagine raising my kids in the shadow of the world´s most dangerous dump. To force this upon our families against their will is simply un-American.
Joyce Ann Steward
Sparks
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 12, 2004
Editorial: George W. Bush for president
Only one candidate holds in his hand a hope for resurgent American greatness
As John Kerry's inability to connect with the average voter manifests itself and President Bush's lead in the polls widens, it would be easy for Republicans to become complacent.
But that would be a mistake.
Energized Democrats could still make this a very close race. Eight weeks is an eternity in politics. That means demographics and the Electoral College could still combine to make Nevada one of perhaps a dozen states so closely contested that a few thousand voters could actually decide who will steer the nation through the dangerous next four years.
Democratic activists in the Silver State are hoping Nevadans will choose Sen. Kerry based on his promise to stop nuclear waste from coming to Nevada. So it's time for some straight talk. Sealing up the nation's nuclear waste inside a mountain where no one can watch for cannister corrosion is absurd. It is unlikely to happen, primarily because safer and cheaper reprocessing technologies are not 50,000 years away, but -- in all likelihood -- closer to 50 years away.
That said, Yucca Mountain has been on track for 20 years, under Democratic and Republican congresses, under Democratic and Republican presidents. Are we to pin our future on the hope that one politician can (or even wants to) change all that, based on a last-minute election-year conversion?
Hardly.
Sen. Kerry's entire campaign has been like the red cape that's designed to keep the bull from seeing where the matador really stands. The only government spending he has ever opposed has been boots and rifles and ammo for our troops. A Kerry administration would mean a resurgence of job-crippling environmental, land-use and workplace over-regulation, a turn-tail foreign policy designed to please no one but the Spaniards and the French, and an economically crippling tax-the-rich regime that would make Washington look like Leningrad on the Potomac.
John Kerry is the kind of liberal even the Democratic Party abandoned when it loudly nominated moderate "New Democrats" Bill Clinton and Al Gore in 1992. Yet was any of this admitted in the recent Democratic convention in Boston? No, this was all kept carefully hidden, as Mr. Kerry presented himself as the personification of George S. Patton and Dwight D. Eisenhower rolled into one.
Did Mr. Kerry show courage during his four months in Vietnam, 35 years ago? Yes he did, and he is to be honored for it. But if that were all the qualification needed to lead this nation in the age of al-Qaida, there are thousands of other worthy veterans ahead of Mr. Kerry in line -- ahead because they did not come home and give comfort to the enemy by accusing their fellow soldiers of atrocities.
Meanwhile, what of George Bush?
On the domestic front, President Bush's first term has been a disappointment to many Americans who favor smaller, constitutionally limited government. That said, however, Americans need to remember that moment on Sept. 11, 2001, when the first shock of the collapsing towers began to wear off, and many of us said to ourselves, "Bush, Powell, Rumsfeld, Cheney. Thank God we've got the starting offense already on the field."
George Bush identified the enemy and took the battle to them. There's a reason there has been no second attack here -- he has the enemy scurrying from hole to hole. George W. Bush sets his course, straightens up in the saddle, stands firm in the face of all the name-calling from the left, and stays a resolute course.
The genius of American democracy has somehow done it again. George Bush is the right president at the right time. The economy is making significant strides post 9-11 and Mr. Bush has sketched out a second-term domestic agenda that would move the nation firmly back toward sound free-market principles. He is far more likely to appoint judges with a crucial respect for freedom, the free market, prosperity and property rights.
At this moment in history, when a cowardly and increasingly desperate enemy that beheads the defenseless and murders innocent women and children is finally on the run -- an enemy allowed to fester and gather strength through eight years of Democratic procrastination -- now is not the time to turn tail and give the gibbering mullahs time to rebuild their strength.
A great man is not a perfect man, but rather a man who finds the strength to overcome his own flaws, and then to lead others to unlikely triumph over great adversity and great odds. There is only one man in this presidential race who holds in his hands a vision and a hope for resurgent American greatness and triumph.
President George W. Bush.
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Guardian
September 12, 2004
Bush Environment Record an Issue in Nev.
Sunday September 12, 2004 7:16 PM
By John Heilprin
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - For environmentalists hoping to turn anger at President Bush into electoral votes for John Kerry, the biggest and perhaps only field of dreams is a nuclear waste dump site in Nevada.
Lesser hopes are pinned on mercury-polluted waterways in Wisconsin and Florida, and woodlands threatened by road-building and other development in Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon. Voters upset at Bush's environmental record might give Kerry a boost in all those states.
But Nevada, where Bush wants to entomb a half-century's waste from atomic power plants, is the only state where an environmental issue can realistically swing the outcome, according to environmental leaders and political analysts.
``Kerry is competitive because of it,'' said Ted Jelen, chair of political science at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. ``He otherwise wouldn't have much of a chance.''
Environmental groups are mostly staying away from Nevada, aware their unpopularity in the state might hurt Kerry, a Massachusetts senator.
Bush won Nevada, 50-46 percent, over Democrat Al Gore in 2000. But the state is fighting the Bush administration over building a nuclear waste dump in the desert 90 miles from Las Vegas.
Kerry has consistently voted against Nevada's Yucca Mountain as the site for the waste repository from the time Congress picked it in 1987.
Jelen said there is a widespread perception Bush lied about basing his decision on science, and Democrats profited with heavy turnout at caucuses in February. Yet environmental causes remain ``an unpopular symbol'' in a state heavy with ranching and mining interests.
``Kerry's position is simple: 'Bush lied to you, I will reverse it.' The Republicans and the Bush campaign have not come up with a good response to that,'' Jelen said.
The Bush and Kerry campaigns declined to comment. On Sunday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's largest newspaper, endorsed Bush for re-election in an editorial that applauded his response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and called him ``the right president at the right time.''
Questions remain over the movement of water through rocks and whether waste canisters might corrode as part of the $58 billion Yucca project. In February, Bush said 20 years and nearly $7 billion worth of study had convinced him the project was scientifically sound.
More broadly, Republicans do not see the environment as a bright spot for Bush. Jim DiPeso, policy director for REP America, a pro-Republican environmental group based in Albuquerque, N.M., pointed only to Bush's new goals for increasing wetlands and rules to reduce diesel pollution.
``There isn't much that he has to run on to turn out environmental voters for him,'' DiPeso said. ``It's not their strength; they know it's not their strength.''
He said Kerry could benefit in Western states like New Mexico and Arizona where ranchers, hunters, fishermen and environmentalists all worry about oil and gas drilling on public lands and logging in national forests.
Likewise, in Nevada. ``If enough votes are guided by concern about Yucca Mountain ... it's very conceivable those five electoral votes could end up in Kerry's column,'' DiPeso said.
The League of Conservation Voters, which considers itself the political arm of the environmental movement, is spending $6 million to defeat Bush. The Sierra Club, the only other major political player among environmental groups, is spending $5 million. Defenders of Wildlife is spending $750,000, its first such political foray.
The three groups are each going after voters in Florida, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. All but Pennsylvania had the closest margins in the 2000 presidential race.
The Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife also are putting efforts into Nevada and New Hampshire. The Sierra Club also is working in Minnesota and Ohio. Defenders of Wildlife is in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington state.
``We may yet move into Nevada,'' said Mark Longabaugh, senior vice president for political affairs at the League of Conservation Voters. ``Partly, it's a resource decision.''
Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, says his group missed recognizing the potential for the race to tighten in Arizona.
Seldom does the environment play more than a background role in determining who occupies the White House. But Pope see worries about air and water pollution fitting with broader security concerns this election.
``It's about family safety this year,'' Pope said. ``This election is about turnout.''
Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife, described Bush and Kerry as polar opposites on reducing air and water pollution, and protecting and using natural resources.
``We think if it's as close as it was in 2000, we can make the difference in three or four states,'' he said.
On the Net:
League of Conservation Voters: http://www.lcv.org
REP America: http://www.repamerica.org
Sierra Club: http://www.sierraclub.org
Defenders of Wildlife: http://www.defenders.org
Bush-Cheney: http://www.georgewbush.com
Kerry-Edwards: http://www.johnkerry.com
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San Luis Obispo Tribune
September 12, 2004
Where they stand on two environmental concerns critical to SLO County
David Sneed and Nathan Welton
The Tribune
President George Bush and Sen. John Kerry have contrasting platforms on two environmental issues critical to San Luis Obispo County voters: nuclear waste storage and offshore oil development.
The president has consistently supported the establishment of a national repository for highly radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Such a facility would take spent fuel from Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. Kerry, meanwhile, opposes Yucca Mountain.
Regarding offshore oil, the Bush administration has sought to work with California officials over plans to buy back offshore leases from oil companies. But the administration has also taken steps to weaken state oversight of such offshore development. Kerry would limit oil exploration to places where production already occurs, such as regions of the Gulf of Mexico. The candidates differ on ways to develop new domestic supplies elsewhere.
Drilling could turn out to be a critical issue to many local voters, but whether it'll make a difference in the election remains to be seen.
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Portland Maine Press Herald
September 12, 2004
Maine Yankee's dome coming down this week
By Ann S. Kim
Portland Press Herald Writer
WISCASSET — Workers will bring down the Maine Yankee containment dome with explosives this week, demolishing the last significant remnant of the nuclear power plant that fueled discord as well as homes and businesses. For more than a quarter-century, the steel-reinforced, concrete dome has served as the most visible symbol of Maine's sole nuclear power plant. Maine Yankee has variously represented an economic engine, a source of cheap, clean power and a potential danger.
The dome is visible from Westport Island, across the Sheepscot River from the plant's site on Bailey Point. One hundred and fifty feet tall, it rises above a thin fringe of trees over a now-empty space that once housed the reactors and steam generators.
"It's nice to see it go," said Dennis Cromwell, a 44-year-old islander who as a child watched the blasting for the site construction from across the water. "I never thought I'd live to see the day when I'd see it go the other way."
The announcement in 1966 that a nuclear power plant would be built in Maine came at a time when atomic energy was seen as source of clean, cheap power. The coming years, however, brought increased skepticism and eventually, in 1979, the country's worst nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.
Maine Yankee soon became a magnet for controversy as opposition to nuclear power grew. In the 1980s, activists brought forward three ballot initiatives that would have shut the plant down. Each sparked bitter debate, but Maine Yankee survived each attempt.
In the end, it wasn't the voters who decided the plant's fate. The aging plant had grown too expensive to run as shutdowns and repairs became more frequent and costly. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission put Maine Yankee on its list of worst-run nuclear plants in the country in 1997 and, by the spring of that year, daily operating costs were running close to $1 million.
Ultimately, the plant's owners and a prospective buyer were unable to reach a deal to keep Maine Yankee operating. In August 1997, the board of directors voted to permanently cease operations with 11 years left on the plant's license.
About 92 percent of the decommissioning process has since been completed, according to Maine Yankee spokesman Eric Howes. The total estimated cost is $500 million, of which about $460 million has been spent.
The buildings that housed the turbines, and the storage pools that once held spent fuel rods, have already been demolished. Some warehouse space and offices remain, but only 42 of the 480 employees who once worked for Maine Yankee remain on its payroll.
"Suffice it to say, we're very close to the end," Howes said.
During its heyday, Maine Yankee proved to be an economic boon to the area.
"They had paid about 95 percent of our taxes," said Judy Flanagan, a member of Wiscasset's board of selectmen. "We called it the golden goose."
Residents enjoyed low property taxes, the fire department got new vehicles and the police added more officers. The schools could afford to take in the children of nearby communities at reduced tuition rates.
For many in the area, employment at Maine Yankee was desirable and often a family affair. Bryan Selee, an engineer who now owns a business in Portland, met his wife at Maine Yankee. His father, stepmother and father-in-law have also worked there.
"A job at Maine Yankee was a good job to have, good benefits, the job security was there," he said. Selee, 36, said he felt very comfortable at the site because he knew about all the controls in place and felt the people working there were highly competent.
Opposition to the plant, he said, may have come in part from a lack of understanding.
"I think there was an element of overreaction to certain things. I guess it would be hard without working there and not having the information that someone has working there," he said.
Ray Shadis of Edgecomb, who has spent the better part of two decades trying to shut down the plant, said voters were getting weary of the issue by the time the third referendum was held in 1987.
"Maine, maybe more than any other place in the country, had an ongoing, tense, adversarial kind of debate on nuclear," he said. "You could say, the 24 years the plant operated, there was never a quiet period that lasted more than a year or two."
Shadis, who has been involved in various incarnations of the anti-nuclear effort in Maine, is now head of a watchdog group called Friends of the Coast and serves on a community advisory panel to the decommissioning. He works closely with some of his former adversaries.
Maine Yankee anticipates decommissioning to be complete in the spring, but Shadis doesn't believe his work will be finished then because of the radioactive waste that will remain on the site.
As the site undergoes decommissioning, its license area is shrinking. Eventually it will be limited to the dry-field storage facilities, where the spent nuclear fuel rods are stored in casks. That waste will stay there until the federal government is able to find a permanent disposal site for high-level waste.
The federal government wants to send nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain in Nevada in 2010, but Nevada is suing the Department of Energy to keep the material out. Maine Yankee, meanwhile, is among the parties suing DOE for delays in accepting the waste.
The blasting of the containment building is scheduled for Friday morning. The building has been gutted, and already 13 million pounds of steel and concrete have been removed to create openings. Workers are wrapping the columns created by the openings with fabric and chain-link fencing to keep debris from scattering.
The columns have been drilled to hold up to 1,900 pounds of explosives that will bring the dome down. Large equipment can then break up the pieces for shipping to a low-grade radioactive waste site in Clive, Utah. In all, about 20 million pounds will be hauled away.
Although Maine Yankee provided some of his family members with a living, Cromwell, of Westport Island, said he wasn't sad when it was shut down. He said he will be among the many people who are likely to line up opposite Bailey Point to watch the demolition.
"Watched it go up, got to watch it come down," he said.
Staff Writer Ann Kim can be contacted at 791-6383 or at:
akim@pressherald.com
HISTORY
1966: Maine Yankee Atomic Power Co. formed.
1968: Construction begins after the Atomic Energy Commission issues a permit.
1972: The Maine Yankee nuclear plant begins commercial operation following a four-year construction period. Original cost: $231 million.
1978: Maine Yankee establishes world records for most continuous days of operation (392) by a nuclear power plant and most electricity produced in one continuous run of operation (7 billion kilowatt-hours) by a nuclear power plant.
1980: Referendum vote to close Maine Yankee fails.
1982: Second referendum to close plant fails.
1987: Third referendum to close plant fails.
1988: Maine Yankee ranks seventh among 300 free world nuclear power plants in total generation, third among 110 U.S. nuclear power plants.
1989: Highest production year in the history of the plant: 6.9 billion kilowatt-hours produced.
1993: Highest production in the history of the plant during a refueling year: 5.7 billion kilowatt-hours produced.
1997: Maine Yankee closes after officials determine it is no longer economical to operate the plant. Planning for the decommissioning process begins.
1999: Maine Yankee begins gutting buildings.
2000: Maine Yankee ships three giant steam generators by barge to a facility in Tennessee. Construction of a "dry" fuel-storage facility begins.
2001: Maine Yankee starts to demolish buildings.
2002: Reactor vessel shipped off-site; more buildings demolished; company begins moving spent fuel assemblies into dry storage facility.
2003: Reactor containment dome to be disassembled and moved off-site.
2004: Remaining buildings to be demolished. Final stages of decommissioning process will begin. No buildings will be left except for the fuel storage facility.
2005: Decommissioning process will be completed, but Maine Yankee will remain responsible for storing spent nuclear fuel assemblies until a federal storage site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada starts accepting waste.
- Research contributed by staff researcher Beth Murphy
Source: Maine Yankee
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Lahontan Valley News
September 11, 2004
County may borrow to finance water utility
Marlene Garcia
Churchill County Commissioners will discuss Monday a plan to seek $5.1 million in medium term financing to build phase one of a county water system.
Comptroller Alan Kalt said Friday grants will cover $3.2 million of the cost for phase one. But the grants require the county to do the work and then apply for reimbursement. A long term note will be sought later and paid through user and new hook-up fees, he said.
Initially, the system will combine five small water systems along Highway 50 into one. It will be built so it can be expanded later to accommodate growth in the area. That would eliminate the need for individual wells in regions where growth is anticipated or already approved.
The commission will also consider a resolution that would create an administrative fee to property owners when enforcement of county codes is necessary. The resolution is intended to shift part of the cost of handling code enforcement violations to the property owner instead of the taxpayers, a report states.
Another agenda item centers on changing an ordinance to offer more options when county employees must be disciplined. The current ordinance permits weekly unpaid suspensions for salaried employees.
The amended document would allow suspensions on a daily basis if a supervisor finds a suspension is warranted but the offense is not serious enough to send the employee home for a full week.
A second change to the ordinance would limit how long disciplinary reports could remain in an employee's personnel file.
Other business commissioners will address include: a Yucca Mountain project update; changes to the county safety committee; a water right dedication reimbursement; canvass of Tuesday's election results; acquisition of water rights to build the county water system; and an update on a traffic improvement plan.
The board meets at 1:15 p.m. in the Churchill County Administration Building, 155 N. Taylor St.
County commission meetings are open to the public.
Marlene Garcia can be contacted at mgarcia@lahontanvalleynews.com
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Voice of America
September 11, 2004
Science & Tech
New Study Finds Technology Already Exists to Solve Global Warming
Rosanne Skirble
Washington
A new study finds that technologies already exist to solve the problem of global warming. It says strategies employing these technologies over the next fifty years could put the brakes on rising levels of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the earth's atmosphere - a chief cause of global warming. But critics say the study fails to address the economic, social and political costs of such a plan.
The study says global warming could be prevented by deploying a wide array of technologies, from renewable energy sources like solar, wind and nuclear power, to alternative bio-fuels, and the capture and storage of climate-changing emissions of carbon from power plants. The study also identifies changes in forestry and farming techniques that could provide additional reductions in carbon emissions.
"Anybody that is out there can look at the paper and visit the things that we are talking about and see that they exist at an industrial scale in the marketplace today," says Steve Pacala, the study's author and Princeton University ecology professor. He says a scaling up of the technologies can work to stabilize carbon emissions, which otherwise are expected to double by mid-century. "And most of the science and most of the indicators that we have of what's happened in the past say that we start to encounter serious dangers at about the doubling mark. That means we have to act at the first half of the century because we would reach a doubling by mid-century otherwise, and we would be faced with an energy system that was emitting carbon like crazy and the momentum would carry us on to a tripling."
Mr. Pacala says that an excessively carbon- rich atmosphere will likely cause decreased crop yields, increased threats to human health and more frequent extreme weather events. But critics like Marlo Lewis, a senior fellow in environmental policy with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, say the Princeton University study is flawed because it fails to take into account the economic and social costs of its recommendations. "One of their strategies which they said would eliminate a billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the next fifty years would be to reduce the number of automobile miles traveled, in other words reduce the amount of driving by fifty percent. And, that is going to impose a horrendous cost in terms of people's time, convenience, and lifestyle choices. But then there are the political costs and the intangible costs, which all of us would experience if our driving were somehow limited," he says.
Marlo Lewis says the study also ignores political reality, as in the case of nuclear power. The study recommends doubling the current global nuclear capacity to replace coal-based electricity, a strategy that most environmentalists find troubling. "Who are the biggest boosters of the Kyoto Agenda [Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change] of forced de-carbonization? It is the environmentalist movement? [Yes] Is the environmental movement pro-nuclear? [No it is not.] We have spent over a decade in this country debating where to put spent nuclear waste and we still can't come up with an answer. And the environmental movement is still hostile to the transport and disposal of nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, [New Mexico]. And, it is because the environmentalists have blocked it."
Steve Pacala says the study contributes to the on-going debate about how the Earth's complex ecosystems should be managed. "We have the technology to engage in wise stewardship of the earth now at a cost that is not prohibitive. So I just think that we have a responsibility as a species to do it," he says.
Study author Steve Pacala says aggressive action now would create new industries, improve air quality and decrease reliance on polluting fossil fuels. The research is published in the Journal Science.
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Pahrump Valley Times
September 10, 2004
Time to Wean
Commission 'coming to terms' with PETT
By Phillip Gomez
PVT
Nye County's Board of Commissioners, meeting the day after Labor Day, discussed the need for coming to financial terms with its budget shortfall and continued borrowing from the PETT fund to augment general fund expenditures.
Commissioner Candice Trummell placed the item on the agenda for discussion of which specific expenditures the commission wanted to prioritize as recipients of PETT funds.
PETT money is the Payment Equal To Taxes paid by the federal government for the Yucca Mountain project. The commissioners have frequently used the fund to "augment" or makeup the shortage of actual revenues available, although lately they have taken to referring to "Fund 492," instead of calling it by the more common name, "PETT Fund."
Budget Director Charles Rodewald asked the un-askable questions: "What if we don't get that (January PETT funding) money? What are we going to cut?"
The answer may depend on whether Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is elected in November. Kerry has vowed to discontinue the Yucca Mountain project when he takes office.
The commissioners have previously discussed prioritized funding of specific projects and programs by marking them as "A" items, with other desired budget expenditures designated as "B" items.
With a projected negative balance of $4.4 million, made up by borrowing from the PETT fund, Nye County is looking at adding to that figure by another $3.2 million for its recent purchase of the Calvada Eye property. That brings the total amount of current fiscal year expenditures funded through PETT money to $6.2 million.
"It's a problem," said Rodewald. "When you're looking at this at the last six months of the year, it's a significant hit." Rodewald was speaking of the possibility of the county's not getting its expected January disbursement and finding itself $6 million short halfway through the fiscal year.
No contractual obligation exists compelling the federal government to fund Payments Equal To Taxes, according to comments made by the commissioners.
"I think we need to go with caution on PETT money until we're made assured of it," Rodewald advised. "We have some commitments out there that we have no choice about."
The discussion that ensued pitted "optional" versus statutorily mandatory expenditures in the county's general fund. The discussion was inconclusive and put off until next Thursday's budget workshop meeting at 8:30 a.m. at the Bob Ruud Community Center.
Meanwhile, Capt. Gus Sullivan of the Nye County Sheriff' Office asked for $200,000 to purchase two replacement vehicles for transporting prisoners and $57,496 for eight new Yamaha quad vehicles for off-road riding, the latter of which was the only bid received from Nevada West Cycles II of Pahrump.
Both expenditures were approved by the commissioners; Commissioner Trummell's was the only vote against. Once again, the money came out of Fund No. 492, the PETT fund.
Sullivan explained that the present 1991 Ford Econoline, 11-passenger vans have in excess of 130,000 miles. The sheriff wants the new vans in order to segregate male and female prisoners, as well as potential hostile inmates, during transport. An on-board video system equips the van for monitoring inmates who are separated by sight and sound. Additionally, the van comes with a removable modular passenger compartment. The fully equipped vehicles will cost $100,000 each.
Sullivan said the request was based on the need for officer safety and the comfort of the inmates. He added that recently, when the air conditioner went out at the Pahrump Detention Facility, the inmates had to be transported en masse to Tonopah.
The commissioners voted $135,000, to come from Account No. 492 (the PETT Fund), for the Long Term Water Resource Stewardship Program, to protest water filings.
The county expects to fill two newly created positions by the end of the month: a human resources director and a comptroller. Each carries with it a hefty salary. "Lots of candidates" have applied for the comptroller position, reported Ann Silver, currently acting as human resources director.
The commissioners also authorized hiring an executive search firm to fill the recently vacated position of Natural Resources and Federal Facilities manager.
Twelve comfortable chairs were requested by the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission and the Pahrump Town Board for use in the Bob Ruud Community Center. The request comes because of the long hours these entities spend sitting and because of reported back problems of some of the sitters. The total cost of the chairs comes to about $3,600, with each chair's estimated value placed at $300. The chairs are to be funded out of Account No. 492.
Finally, Commissioner Patricia Cox's agenda item came up: to fund, out of the county manager's budget, the hiring of a public relations official on a trial contractual basis for six months. The position will pay $18,000 per year, or $9.38 per hour, and does not come with county benefits.
Cox said the reason for the public relations official was "to keep Nye County residents informed on important issues about the county." She indicated that it was "a way to inform more people of things the public is not aware of, ... a way of getting it out there. A lot of misinformation (exists) on how the county is running things," she said.
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Pahrump Valley Times
September 10, 2004
Ziser on cruise control for general
By Sandra Chereb
The Associated Press
RENO - Richard Ziser is banking on conservatism and an influx of cash as he sets his sights on incumbent Democrat Harry Reid after cruising to victory in Tuesday's Republican U.S. Senate primary.
Ziser, who to date has raised only $1 for every $18 in Reid's hefty $7.8 million campaign fund, said he thinks his primary win will generate more money to bolster his bid to unseat Reid, who is seeking his fourth, six-year term in November.
"The biggest problem we have is our primary is extremely late," Ziser said. "It's difficult for the national organizations, when you have a contested primary, to jump on board."
A lot of prospective contributors, he said, were "sitting in the wings" waiting for the primary results.
"There's a lot of groups out there that are really interested in helping us defeat Harry Reid," he said.
Ziser won Tuesday's GOP contest by a nearly 2-1 margin over his closest rival, getting 34 percent of ballots.
Kenneth Wegner, a disabled Las Vegas combat veteran, was a distant second with 21,325 votes or 18 percent, while Georgia rancher and Florida resident Bob Brown had 19,504 votes or 16 percent.
"None of these candidates," a symbolic option for Nevada voters in statewide races, received 14 percent (16,759), which was better than the other three GOP candidates - Royle Melton, a Reno lawyer, 9 percent (10,505); Cherie Tilley of Spring Creek, 9 percent (10,337) and perennial candidate Carlo Poliak of Las Vegas, 1 percent (1,764).
Ziser is the former chairman of the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, which successfully backed an initiative to prohibit the state from recognizing gay marriages. Voters overwhelmingly approved the constitutional amendment in 2000 and 2002.
Given that exposure, Ziser's victory was not surprising, said David Damore, a political science professor at UNLV.
"He had the most name recognition. His name was in the paper for two years," Damore said.
But he predicted it would be an uphill battle to unseat Reid, the second most powerful Democrat in the Senate.
Reid, 64, who was unopposed in the primary, was not taking any chances.
"I'm certainly not taking anything for granted in this election," Reid said by telephone from Washington, D.C. "I hope we can talk about the issues that are important to the people of Nevada."
Reid defeated Republican John Ensign in 1998 by only 428 votes after a lengthy recount. Ensign won Nevada's other Senate seat two years later, and Reid began amassing funds to avoid another squeaker in 2004.
Reid's slim victory showed he is vulnerable, Ziser said, adding he plans to target conservative, or so-called Reagan Democrats, in the coming weeks.
"He has a voting record. It doesn't align with what Nevadans believe," said Ziser, who said limited government, national defense, free enterprise and family values are issues important to voters.
Reid said health care, Medicare, energy, national security, terrorism, education, and nuclear waste will dominate the discussion heading into November.
"The middle class is being squeezed; seniors are terribly concerned about Medicare," Reid said.
"And we have to talk about getting our soldiers out of Iraq."
Reid and Ziser have differed on the federal government's proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nye County.
Reid has helped lead Nevada's fight against the nuclear waste dump for nearly two decades. Ziser has said Nevada should negotiate for benefits from the project 50 miles from Pahrump and 20 miles east and north of Beatty and Amargosa Valley, respectively.
"There's nothing to negotiate," Reid said. "There's nothing the federal government can give us except poisons."
Other candidates on the November ballot include Libertarian Thomas Hurst, Independent American David Schumann, and Natural Law candidate Gary Marinch.
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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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