Yucca Mountain News Clips
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
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State of Nevada
September 15, 2004
Mr. Gregory Friedman
Inspector General
United States Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20585
Re: Silica Dangers at Yucca Mountain
Dear Mr. Friedman:
I want to call your attention to a complaint that was filed in federal district court in Las Vegas on September 1 by a group of private attorneys. A copy of the complaint is enclosed. I have reviewed the lawsuit and believe it raises grave issues of possible malfeasance and deliberate violations of law by Department of Energy contractors who dug several miles of tunnels at the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository site, with the result that thousands of people working or visiting in the tunnels apparently were exposed to potentially life-threatening levels of silica and other carcinogenic dusts. Some of the workers have already contracted silicosis. I was particularly struck by the extensive number of documentary citations that were compiled in the complaint, most taken from DOE or contractor records. It clearly warrants a thorough investigation by your office, which I assume is already underway.
The State of Nevada will also be closely following this matter to determine if it warrants action by state authorities.
Sincere regards,
BRIAN SANDOVAL
Attorney General
Enclosure
By Facsimile (202-586-7851) and United States Mail
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State of Nevada
August 25, 2004
To the Editor:
Re "Roadblock at Yucca Mountain" (editorial, Aug. 23):
The headline of the Times editorial (Roadblock on Yucca Mountain, August 23, 2004) accurately captures the effect of a recent federal appeals court decision invalidating the radiation standard for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The Court of Appeals has indeed "thrown a gigantic roadblock" in the way of the site's approval. Unfortunately, other than the headline, nearly everything else in the Times editorial is incorrect.
The court did not rule that the Environmental Protection Agency's radiation standard had to extend for hundreds of thousands of years. Rather, the court held that the EPA standard should be based on ''the time when the greatest risk occurs." Any notion that the court is unrealistically holding EPA to an impossible task is based on ridiculously optimistic Energy Department estimates on the longevity of its "miracle metal" waste containers. Nevada's experts believe that the time of greatest risk may actually occur in thousands of years-because the containers will corrode faster than DOE estimates. The scientists on the federal Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board agree.
The real problem with the 10,000 year standard is that it allows DOE to avoid addressing Yucca's unfavorable geology by creating the fiction that its containers will stay intact beyond 10,000 years. This fiction assumes truly mythic proportions when considered in light of the highly corrosive environment the containers would endure over time. Nevada can't help asking: If the containers really are that good, why can't they just go anywhere? Why does the most lethal material known to man have to be trucked across the country to Nevada?
Your editorial states that the nuclear waste should be buried in "stable geological formations resistant to leaking." But, Yucca does not remotely meet this test. Yucca is a sieve down to the water table, which then acts as a conveyer belt to farms in Amargosa Valley and then into Death Valley. DOE proposes to treat Yucca as a gigantic septic field for radioactive waste.
The complex geologic and geochemical issues can't be passed off casually by saying that "the site has a lot to recommend it." Do not be misled by Yucca's "arid" designation. There is lots of water--many times more than DOE first imagined. To limit the corrosive potential of Yucca's mineral-laden water, DOE has supplemented its original design by covering each waste package with a titanium "drip shield"-a name that says it all. What it comes down to is that the site offers nothing; rather DOE is using its containers and drip shields to overcome the inadequacies of an inadequate site.
The Academy recommendation that you deride was one of several Yucca-specific standards the Academy prepared for EPA at the behest of Congress. The NAS actually relaxed previous generic repository standards and eased the way for Yucca Mountain approval. In only one respect-protecting people past the peak dose-did the Academy stand firm on the previous standard. It's a package deal. The alternative would be a return to the generic EPA and NRC regulations for nuclear waste repositories. They are much more stringent with respect to geology than the Yucca Mountain-specific ones.
There are US locations that would meet the overall Academy-recommended radiation standards. Yucca is not one of them because it is a uniquely bad choice. Yucca would be the only repository above the water table. No other country has even considered such a repository over the water table where the presence of water and oxygen promote corrosion. DOE's choice is universally regarded as an aberration. Other countries are taking their time to get it right. We have the time, too.
The most important thing in terms of safety at US nuclear power plants is to secure the spent nuclear fuel in NRC-approved "dry" containers. Many utilities are already doing this. Dry casks will provide safe storage for decades, if not longer, and at a modest cost compared to Yucca Mountain's nearly $100 billion price tag. The only ones who gain from rushing forward with the Yucca Mountain project are DOE's overfed contractors.
The Times is surely correct that one reason the Yucca Mountain site was chosen was "a perception that Nevada lacked the political clout to reject it." The appeals court has given Nevada its chance to contest the site on geologic grounds in the NRC licensing hearing. For Congress to legislate this right away on behalf of DOE and its contractors would be to elevate raw political muscle over public safety and the environment.
Sincere regards,
BRIAN SANDOVAL
Attorney General
State of Nevada
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Las Vegas SUN
September 15, 2004
OPINION: Yucca project to fail regardless of politics
By Brian Sandoval
Weekend Edition
September 11 - 12, 2004
Brian Sandoval, a Republican, is attorney general of Nevada.
It is unfortunate that the debate in Nevada over Yucca Mountain has drifted into election-year politics. Because, if you haven't noticed, Nevada has recently won several crucial legal battles, and, as a result, the project will soon collapse under its own ill-conceived weight. It will do so irrespective of politics.
Allow me to summarize some of our successes. In July a federal appeals court ruled that the federal government had "unabashedly rejected" sound science in setting the radiation standards for the repository. It overturned the Environmental Protection Agency's rules for the repository, and it overturned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's licensing rules for the project.
Last week the full D.C. Court of Appeals denied the nuclear industry's petition for rehearing, voting 7-0. The mandate of the court will shortly take effect, with the result that the Yucca project will have no regulatory infrastructure. The rejected regulations took a decade to develop.
That's not all Nevada won at the court of appeals. The court denied the federal government's claim that all environmental issues surrounding the project were moot, and invited Nevada to file as many environmental challenges as it wants. Last week I filed the first such lawsuit, contesting the transportation decisions made by the Energy Department, including its decision to construct in Nevada the longest new rail line in America in 80 years. It is important to note that many of the proposed waste shipments would go through Las Vegas.
In Congress this summer, the efforts of Nevada's delegation apparently helped solidify an 85 percent slashing of the Yucca budget for the new fiscal year -- the critical year when the government was supposed to file an application for a construction permit.
In federal court in Las Vegas this year, Nevada successfully preserved the state's claims against the federal government for the massive amounts of water Yucca will use. Without water, the project cannot even be constructed.
In that same court, a powerful class action lawsuit is pending against Energy Department contractors who built the exploratory tunnels at Yucca, contending workers and visitors were grossly overexposed to toxic mineral dusts through corruption, fraud and concealment. Several workers are already dying, and liability to the project's builders and the Energy Department, which may have to indemnify them, may be enormous. And to build Yucca at least another hundred miles of tunnels will have to be dug. Who will dig them? The workforce no longer trusts the department.
There's more. In the Energy Department's first-ever appearance before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last month on issues concerning mismanagement of millions of Yucca documents, a three-judge Hearing Board granted every request by Nevada's attorneys. The board threw out the federal government's "certification of compliance" with applicable rules, which was supposed to have triggered a whole sequence of events to commence construction. Now it will take at least a year for the Energy Department to regroup.
More important is the signal this case sent. After years of flouting and changing its own rules to cure its failures, the Energy Department now has to meet someone else's rules. Its first experiment was a disaster. Indeed, I'm told that the board's 61-page decision is the most scathing ever issued in an NRC licensing proceeding.
Notwithstanding Nevada's victories and the federal government's failures, the Energy Department insists it will file a construction application for Yucca by the end of the year. If and when that application is ever docketed, Nevada will be ready to counter it with a full-court press in a three-year proceeding in Las Vegas. The state's technical experts and attorneys are preparing up to 200 scientific challenges. Of these, there are dozens which, taken alone, would kill the project if granted by NRC's judges.
Many will depict glaring, embarrassing technical errors by the federal government, such as underestimating the probability of a volcano at Yucca by a factor of 10, or using the wrong water to test the corrosion of waste containers in the mountain. It is this proceeding that will, in fact, test the soundness of the science used at Yucca. We expect to prevail on the merits, and to do so resoundingly.
Some in Nevada, prodded by nuclear industry lobbyists, have suggested the state should throw in the towel and negotiate for unspecified "benefits" from the federal government for hosting Yucca. But Nevada is winning this war. And those benefits, whatever they might be, will not make the repository safe.
A state's first duty is to safeguard its citizens, and, as the attorney general of Nevada, I am convinced that the Yucca Project is unsafe. Therefore, I will exhaust every remedy at my disposal to defeat it.
Nevada has recently enjoyed important legal victories, but it is incumbent upon everyone in this fight to remain steadfast in our commitment to work together and prove to the world that the project poses unacceptable risks to the health, safety and welfare of our citizens and the environment.
The final battle over Yucca, at the NRC, will prove that a safe repository cannot be built in the porous volcanic rock that constitutes Yucca Mountain. If the project has not collapsed by then, this final battle will expose it for being the ill-considered project that it is.
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Las Vegas SUN
September 15, 2004
State protests limits on Yucca oversight
By Benjamin Grove
<grove@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Nevada officials say the Energy Department is trying to limit the state's ability to oversee the department's efforts to make Yucca Mountain a nuclear dump.
Nevada lawmakers today are drafting a letter to the Energy Department objecting to the department's stricter new interpretation of rules on how nine Nevada counties can spend federal money for Yucca oversight.
Clark County Commission Chairman Chip Maxfield and Vice Chairwoman Myrna Williams also fired off a letter this week to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.
The letter said that department staffers at an Aug. 27 meeting in Las Vegas explained to county officials that there may be new curbs on how the county could spend money analyzing the department's Yucca project.
The letter asks Abraham to reconsider new limits.
"The latest action by the DOE cuts deep into the (counties') ability to provide meaningful oversight of DOE activities at perhaps the most critical juncture in the Yucca Mountain program," the letter said. "This attempt to curtail (county) activities in the most critical program areas at a time when important decisions are being made should not be supported."
Congress in recent years has given the state and nine counties money to oversee the federal project, a proposal to construct a national high-level nuclear waste dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Last fiscal year the counties received $7 million for oversight. This year they received $4 million, said Irene Navis, Clark County nuclear waste division manager.
There are limits on how the money can be spent. The money cannot be used for lobbying or lawsuits against the project, for example.
The Energy Department is simply following the federal law that limits the Yucca oversight spending, department spokesman Joe Davis said.
But Nevada officials are concerned that department staffers have said they will now be using a strict new interpretation of the rules to enforce new limits on basic project oversight.
Specifically, Nevada officials are concerned that the department will no longer allow them to spend their oversight money for certain kinds of research of a new Yucca document database called the License Support Network. They are also concerned that they would be limited in analyzing a proposed new nuclear waste rail route in Nevada.
"We're prohibited from scoping out any of the transportation stuff," Williams said in an interview.
Nevada lawmakers could introduce legislation to ease Energy Department restrictions on how the money is used, Reid spokeswoman Sharyn Stein said today. In the meantime, the lawmakers plan to send Abraham a letter of their own requesting a reconsideration of the rules.
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Las Vegas SUN
September 15, 2004
Editorial: Yucca lawsuit well warrants strong action
Las Vegas SUN
A class-action lawsuit against nine Energy Department contractors that have performed work at Yucca Mountain is gathering momentum. The civil suit, first filed in March in Clark County District Court, claims that the contractors willfully exposed workers to toxic dust in order to meet deadlines. This week the suit was amended to add the names of two former industrial hygienists who worked for Yucca contractors. The two claim they were fired, one in 1996 and the other in 2002, after warning their separate employers about the toxic dust.
The lawsuit was filed by the Washington-area law firm of Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsh & Cynkar, the same firm Nevada has hired to lead the state's legal efforts against the opening of Yucca Mountain in Southern Nevada. The Bush administration and its Energy Department are pushing to open the mountain by 2010 as a burial vault for the nation's high-level nuclear waste.
Joe Egan, the attorney handling the lawsuit, told the Sun that what has happened at Yucca Mountain since research and tunneling began there in 1992 is nothing short of an industrial disaster, one of the worst in U.S. history. "There are many people who will die prematurely as a result of this," Egan said. The suit says that as many as 1,500 workers may have been exposed to deadly dusts, including silica and erionite. It claims that the contractors "intentionally and fraudulently concealed the truth about the hazards at Yucca Mountain" and "placed a higher priority on ... deadlines than they did on human safety and health." The contractors deny the allegations.
In August the Sun's Washington reporter, Suzanne Struglinski, uncovered memos and e-mails showing that the Energy Department knew about the danger of toxic dust at Yucca Mountain years before it warned the workers. The documents were among the papers the Energy Department has filed as part of its application to open Yucca Mountain. In January the Energy Department started a silicosis screening program for former contract workers, after acknowledging that dust protections, including proper respirators and ventilation, may not have been up to date or even enforced at Yucca from 1992 to 2000.
Also adding to the lawsuit's momentum this week was Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval, who notified the Energy Department that he is considering criminal charges against the nine contractors. The lawsuit "raises grave issues of possible corruption, malfeasance and deliberate violations of law ..." Sandoval said in a letter to the Energy Department's inspector general. Sandoval is right to be monitoring this case and his strong warning is justified and welcomed.
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Las Vegas SUN
September 15, 2004
Letter: GOP plays word games on Yucca
During the Republican National Convention, party officials agreed upon their party platform, the basis from which their party positions derive. Once again they have tried to fool Nevadans with word games.
In 2000 "sound science" were the words of choice to hide their true intentions on moving forward with Yucca Mountain. Now, rather than mentioning Yucca Mountain or Nevada by name, their platform states, "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."
Don't fall victim to word games like "environmentally sound nuclear waste repository." They mean the unsafe Yucca Mountain site, which will put our families at risk if opened.
Scott Garncarz
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 15, 2004
New DOE rules concern Clark County officials
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Clark County officials are up in arms over Energy Department guidelines that set new limits on how Nevada counties can spend federal aid to monitor the Yucca Mountain Project.
The officials said the guidelines will restrict Nevada counties from raising concerns about nuclear waste transportation, including DOE plans to build a railroad from Caliente to the proposed Yucca repository site in Nye County.
The new rules also would disallow use of federal money for counties to fully participate in Yucca Mountain licensing hearings, including placing their research on a document database operated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that had been allowed in previous years, they said.
"This latest action by the DOE cuts deep into the (counties') ability to provide meaningful oversight of DOE activities at perhaps the most critical juncture in the Yucca Mountain program," Clark County commissioners Chip Maxfield and Myrna Williams said in a letter sent to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on Sept. 8.
Maxfield and Williams asked Abraham to reconsider the guidelines.
County officials also notified Nevada's federal lawmakers in hopes Congress will pass legislation this fall to reverse the rule, according to Irene Navis, manager of the Clark County nuclear waste division.
The guidelines were distributed during an Aug. 27 meeting in Las Vegas involving DOE officials from Nevada and Washington and representatives of local governments who receive an annual government stipend to study potential repository impacts.
Nine counties in Nevada and one in California have split $4 million in oversight funds this year, including $880,000 for Clark County.
The counties are forbidden by law from spending any federal money to lobby on the Yucca project, to develop litigation or to build coalitions to oppose the program. Counties submit work plans for the DOE to review each summer.
The Energy Department had no immediate comment on the letter to Abraham. Department spokesman Joe Davis said Congress sets rules for how counties can spend their oversight funds through annual spending bills.
But Clark County officials said the DOE appeared to be applying a stricter interpretation of the law this year.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 15, 2004
National Guard Association: Bush: 'America is safer'
President's audience supportive
By Erin Neff
Review-Journal
On his second visit to Las Vegas in as many months, President Bush on Tuesday vigorously defended the war in Iraq, telling a National Guard convention that "America is safer because of your service" and warning against changing leadership this election year.
His remarks came during a 30-minute address to about 3,000 members of the National Guard Association of the United States at the Las Vegas Convention Center, at a time when the war in Iraq and his service in the Texas Air National Guard are dominating the news.
Sen. John Kerry will address the group Thursday.
"These are dangerous times," Bush told Guard members at the annual convention. "If America shows uncertainty and weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward tragedy. This is not going to happen on my watch."
Bush was warmly received and was interrupted several times by sustained standing ovations. After his speech, he spent about 20 minutes signing autographs and shaking hands in the hall.
It was the president's third trip to Nevada this year. He thanked Guard members for their service and promised them the government would "honor" and provide more services to them when returning home to civilian life.
Kerry has criticized Bush for relying too heavily on the National Guard to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan and has likened the mobilization of nearly 100,000 Guard members to active duty as "a backdoor draft."
Bush addressed concerns about uncertain lengths of deployment, health benefits and education credits.
"We're working to give you as much certainty as possible about the length of your mobilization," he said. "You deserve to know when you can expect to resume civilian life."
Bush also used the issue of funding for the National Guard and other troops serving in the Middle East to attack Kerry for his vote against the $87 billion supplemental spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It is a key theme of his campaign, and Kerry's vote is a staple in his stump speech. The vote is also central in a Bush campaign ad and was hammered home by speaker after speaker at the Republican National Convention in New York earlier this month.
The idea is to paint Kerry as indecisive on the war in Iraq, based on the senator's support for the war and his later opposition to the funding measure.
"What's critical is that the president of the United States speak clearly and consistently at this time of great threat in our world, and not change positions because of expediency or pressure," Bush said. "Our troops, our friends and allies, and our enemies must know where America stands and that America will stand firm."
Bush did not stray from the war on terrorism during his remarks, delighting some members of the Nevada contingent at the conference.
"It was wonderful," said Shawn Murphy, 22, a guardsman recently relocated from Texas to the Signal Unit in Las Vegas. "It was nice to hear his support for the National Guard."
Murphy and Maj. Debbie Meyer, who has also recently been stationed in Las Vegas, are both planning to vote for Bush.
"I definitely prefer Bush," said Meyer, who has served in the Guard for 19 years, most of it in Reno. "I think that personally he did an excellent job when the terrorists hit, and I don't know if Kerry could."
Michael Taylor, an operations officer with the Nevada National Guard, said he was pleased both candidates accepted invitations to speak to the convention this week.
"It gives the National Guard a voice to be heard," Taylor said. "I'll be able to see in turn what they say they are able to do for the Guard."
Taylor said he plans to vote for Kerry because he supports the Democratic nominee on social and economic issues.
Bush made his only mention of his own service in the Texas Air National Guard at the beginning of his speech, when he named several presidents who also served in the National Guard.
"Nineteen individuals have served both in the Guard and as presidents of the United States, and I'm proud to be one of them," he said.
He did not discuss gaps in his service from 1972 and 1973 or any of the controversies surrounding reports suggesting he received special treatment. The White House has responded that Bush served honorably in the Guard and the controversies are politically driven.
About 200 protesters marched outside the hall, with one woman holding a placard that read: "Bush Finally Shows Up for the National Guard."
In interviews, demonstrators assailed the invasion of Iraq as an unnecessary war that continues to needlessly claim American lives. They also blamed the president for an ineffective domestic agenda that has led to millions of lost jobs and a ballooning deficit.
Las Vegan Lea Daleo, 63, was among four protesters carrying a small coffin draped in an American flag.
"This is a symbol for the men and women who've lost their lives for no reason," Daleo said, referring to the more than 1,000 Americans killed in Iraq.
Clad in a black robe and a dark shroud that concealed her face, Las Vegan Dorothy Turner said she dressed up as "the angel of death" to protest the Bush administration's restrictions on photographing the coffins of soldiers returned from Iraq.
"It's unfair that families don't get to see their dead relatives coming home from Iraq with dignity," said Turner, 48.
At an earlier news conference, families of Guard members from across the country now serving in Iraq gathered at the Las Vegas Hilton to attack Bush for relying on part-time soldiers to fight the war.
Their sons, daughters and husbands signed up to serve their communities at home, not in the Middle East.
"Our message is simple: Bring them home now," said Adele Kubain, of Corvalis Ore., whose daughter, an Oregon National Guard sergeant, was injured in Iraq earlier this year.
Bush said Tuesday that Iraq was "the toughest decision" after Sept. 11, 2001.
"We must take threats seriously before they fully materialize," Bush said. "In Saddam Hussein, we saw a threat."
Kerry criticized Bush's speech, saying America is paying the price, in both human casualties and rising expenses, for a "go it alone" foreign policy in Iraq.
"The fact is, no matter what he says, all of us can see for ourselves what's happening in Iraq. We can see it on the front pages and on the nightly news," Kerry said in a statement. "But why would we expect George Bush to level with us about Iraq? He never has."
The president arrived in Las Vegas at 11:35 p.m. after a morning event in Colorado. He met briefly on the tarmac with Theresa Bunker and her son, Josh Bunker, 21, a member of the U.S. Army National Guard's 777th Engineer Utility Team, who spent more than a year in Iraq.
Theresa Bunker is a volunteer with a group that offers support to families of Guard members serving abroad.
Later during his speech, Bush thanked Bunker for volunteering, calling people like her "the heart and soul of America."
"What an exciting day for me. I'm just floating," Bunker said after meeting Bush. "I appreciate everything he supports."
From the airport, Bush rode with Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval and Secretary of State Dean Heller to the convention center.
He briefly discussed Yucca Mountain, vowing to support any court decision on the proposed repository. He also touted Nevada's successful primary election, the first in the nation with the use of voting machines with verifiable receipts, Sandoval and Heller said.
Bush was in Nevada for less than two hours Tuesday, lifting off at 1:24 p.m. for a return trip to the White House.
Kerry will make a similar brief trip to Las Vegas on Thursday, his fourth of the year.
Vice President Dick Cheney is expected to speak in Reno on Thursday afternoon, shortly after Kerry's speech to the National Guard Association.
Review-Journal writers J.M. Kalil and K.C. Howard contributed to this report.
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Nevada Appeal
September 15, 2004
AG calls for investigation of Yucca construction hazards
Geoff Dornan
Attorney General Brian Sandoval has called on the inspector general of the federal Department of Energy to investigate allegations of dangerous health violations during construction of Yucca Mountain.
In a letter to Gregory Friedman of the DOE, Sandoval referred to a private lawsuit filed in Las Vegas on Sept. 1 charging that employees and visitors to Yucca Mountain were repeatedly exposed to dangerous levels of silica dust during construction of the Yucca tunnels.
"I have reviewed the lawsuit and believe it raises grave issues of possible corruption, malfeasance, and deliberate violations of law by Department of Energy contractors who dug several miles of tunnels at the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository site, with the result that thousands of people working or visiting in the tunnels apparently were exposed to potentially life-threatening levels of silica and other carcinogenic dusts," the letter states.
It says a number of those workers have already contracted silicosis - a progressive disease which eventually destroys the lungs.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 10 former workers, but seeks status as a class- action suit on behalf of all workers exposed to dangerous levels of silica dust from 1992 through 2000.
It also covers all visitors to the Yucca Mountain site who were exposed for more than two hours - potentially thousands of people.
It names Bechtel Corp., TRW and several other contractors involved in constructing the site and drilling more than five miles of tunnels under Yucca Mountain, charging they "intentionally, deliberately, callously and/or with reckless disregard, exposed workers and visitors to known, highly carcinogenic airborne hazards."
It says those contractors "fraudulently concealed the nature of such hazards and they took measures to deceive workers and visitors by hiding, doctoring or failing to accumulate key data on actual workplace conditions."
The suit says those dangerous conditions were hidden until exposed publicly earlier this year. And during those years, the suit charges, contractors took extensive efforts, including threatening employees with the loss of their jobs, to conceal the dangerous levels of silica dust being generated in the tunnel drilling and ordering them to change their reports. It says the company repeatedly downplayed the dangers to workers and didn't provide proper respiratory gear and protective clothing during the drilling.
Sandoval's letter says he was "particularly struck by the extensive number of documentary citations that were compiled in the complaint, most taken from the DOE or contractor records.
"It clearly warrants a thorough investigation by your office, which I assume is already underway," the letter states.
And it says the state will be closely following the matter to determine if state action is warranted.
Contact Geoff Dornan at nevadaappeal@sbcglobal.net or 687-8750.
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Detroit Free Press
September 15, 2004
State's status in election slipping
Hopefuls shift focus with Kerry leading
By Kathleen Gray
Free Press Staff Writer
When U.S. Sen. John Kerry speaks to the Detroit Economic Club this morning about his plan to bolster the American economy, it will be the first time in six weeks that he's been in Michigan -- a state he can't afford to lose.
In those six weeks, he's been to Ohio five times, launched state-specific TV ads in four battleground states -- Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and West Virginia -- and crisscrossed the nation from New Hampshire to Nevada to California to Washington, D.C.
President George W. Bush, who lost Michigan in 2000, has been to the state four times in those same six weeks, most recently to western Michigan on Monday.
But during those weeks, the president made eight visits to Ohio, six to Pennsylvania and five each to West Virginia and Florida.
Michigan and its 17 electoral votes are still in play, but there are subtle and concrete signs that the Bush and Kerry campaigns are putting more of their time and money elsewhere as Kerry seems to have an upper hand in the state.
In August, Michigan dropped out of the top 10 markets for political advertising spending for both candidates. According to surveys done by the Nielsen Monitor-Plus and the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project, Ohio -- where recent polls show Bush with up to a 10-percentage-point lead -- is the epicenter of the two campaigns. Ohio has six of the top 10 slots for advertising by the Bush and Kerry campaigns and surrogate groups. The Toledo market is tops for spending by the Kerry campaign and third for the Bush campaign.
"Other states are becoming more important to the campaigns, particularly the rise in importance of Nevada," said Joel Rivlin, deputy director for the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project. "But there's an ebb and flow to the campaigns. One of the reasons behind Nevada rising up in importance is Yucca Mountain and the Democrats talking about what Bush had done sending the nuclear waste out there."
Kerry and organizations like the Sierra Club and Democratic National Committee have far outspent Bush and surrogate supporters in Michigan advertising. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, Kerry and the DNC spent $4.6 million, and Bush and the Club for Growth spent $2.9 million in advertising in the state, said Rich Robinson, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, which tracks campaign spending in the state.
"The disparity invites the question whether the Bush campaign is quietly pulling the plug on Michigan," he said. "If this was truly a competitive state, you would expect that there would be competitive spending."
The spending advantage has helped Kerry in Michigan polling. In every poll taken in the last 60 days, Kerry has held onto a modest lead over Bush. Most recently, a poll by the Zogby organization for the Wall Street Journal during the Republican National Convention showed Kerry with a 6.6-percentage-point lead over Bush in Michigan.
"The key messages in the state are domestic issues and that's not going well for the president," said Ed Sarpolus of the Lansing-based polling firm EPIC/MRA. "But Bush is still going for the swing vote. That's why he focused on health care yesterday."
With a significant lead, Kerry can afford to spend time and money elsewhere and send surrogates in his place to Michigan. Vice presidential candidate John Edwards has been in Michigan three times since mid-August. And both candidates' spouses -- Teresa Heinz Kerry and Elizabeth Edwards -- have visited the state in the last month.
The Bush/Cheney campaign notes Bush's frequent visits to the state -- he's been here eight times this year -- as proof that Michigan is still in play.
But there are strategic reasons for the president to maintain a frequent presence in the state. A Bush adviser noted during the convention that the president's many visits to Michigan in 2000 may not have helped him, but it did force Al Gore and Joe Lieberman to spend precious resources in Michigan and not other battleground states during the last week of the campaign.
"This is a chess game; some of it is offense and some of it is defense," said Craig Ruff of Public Sector Consultants in Lansing. "You're trying to get your opponent to spend more time and effort in an area of the chessboard where they probably shouldn't be focusing."
Campaign visits and money are the two biggest measures of how a campaign views a state. But some delegates at the recent Republican National Convention, saw another indication.
Delegations from top-tier states Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio were treated like political royalty at their daily breakfast meetings. The Florida delegation had a visit from former President George Bush and his wife Barbara and attended a private reception aboard the USS Intrepid with U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Ohio got Bush campaign gurus Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman along with Vice President Dick Cheney and U.S. Sen. Zell Miller, a Democrat of Georgia. Rove also made the rounds to the Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Washington state delegations.
On the last morning of the convention, Michigan delegate Bob Drebenstedt of Charlevoix said he hoped the surprise guest at the delegation breakfast would be former President Bush. The group had heard from Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and native Michigander Spencer Abraham, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy -- interesting speakers, but not heavy hitters.
Instead, former U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma showed up to rally the Michigan GOP. On the last night of the convention, the layout of Madison Square Garden was reconfigured to accommodate a different stage setup for Bush's acceptance speech.
The Michigan delegation was moved from its prime perch behind Ohio to the back of the arena.
Contact KATHLEEN GRAY at 248-351-3298 or gray@freepress.com.
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Lincoln County News
September 15, 2004
Dome Demolition Marks Close of Era
By Greg Foster
All eyes have been on Maine Yankee in Wiscasset since decommissioning began in 1997 as a model for other closing nuclear power plants, and demolition of the containment dome Friday morning is no exception.
The collapse of the 145-foot high dome with the implosion of concrete columns hewn from the structure is in a very real sense, a symbolic end to an era of economic boon for Wiscasset and the Midcoast.
Maine Yankee began operation in 1972 bringing new employment opportunity and business but then closed more than 10 years sooner than the 2008 license.
About 200 invited guests, former employees, and news media will gather at the plant site to observe the dome fall from its concrete columns at around 10 a.m.
Many other people are expected to observe the spectacle from across the river from the plant.
“It will not totally disappear, though,’ said company spokesman Eric Howes.
Referring to inaccuracies of current news reports, he explained that the columns now supporting the dome are themselves 145 feet high. They will collapse from explosives wired to them, and explosion experts anticipate the top of the dome falling down intact.
The top will then be accessible to excavation equipment for demolition and later, transportation elsewhere. “That´s the purpose, to get the dome closer to the ground,’ Howes said.
There will be a 1000-foot exclusion zone in place prior to the blast, which, according to Maine Yankee officials, is the “safest most efficient method of demolishing a building of this size’.
The steel reinforced concrete walls range from 4.5 feet thick at the base to 2.5 feet thick at the top.
The entire dome has been radiologically surveyed inside and out to assure that it meets the standard for demolition, according to Howes. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the State of Maine have independently confirmed the survey results, he said.
With the dome and all the other buildings soon missing from the scene, the site will revert back to it natural setting except for the spent fuel storage installation. The storage facility will be there until the federal government opens the national repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., which is scheduled to begin taking high-level nuclear waste in 2010.
Dismantling of the rest of the buildings will continue until the end of the decommissioning process, which officials have said is on target for the company´s 2005 goal for completion.
The plant site at Bailey Point is expected to have only restricted use aside from the onsite storage facility, but infrastructure work for a multi-use technology park is underway for the 441 acres of land on the other side of Ferry Road. The parcel recently exchanged hands from the company to Natural Resources via the Town of Wiscasset, which purchased it from Maine Yankee.
The other property, known as Eaton Farm, is to go to the Chewonki Foundation for recreational-educational purposes.
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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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