Yucca Mountain News Clips
Friday, September 17, 2004
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Las Vegas SUN
September 17, 2004
New Yucca oversight limits decried
Nevada delegation sends objections to energy secretary
By Benjamin Grove
<grove@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Utah's senators have introduced a bill to protect the state's "downwinders" if nuclear weapons are tested again at the Nevada Test Site.
But Utah Republican Sens. Robert Bennett and Orrin Hatch say their bill, introduced Sept. 7, was not in response to any recent signal from the White House or Pentagon that President Bush intends to order a new generation of underground blasts.
"This just puts additional safeguards into the law," Bennett spokeswoman Mary Jane Collipriest said.
Renewed testing at the storied Nevada nuclear proving grounds has long been a matter of speculation. President Bush has not signaled that he wants new tests, but Pentagon officials have said they might be necessary to test old warheads or to develop new ones.
The bill would specifically require the energy secretary to notify the public of the time, date and place of any new test seven days before the test.
Further, the bill would require:
· A public meeting in southern Utah after the test, to review the results.
· A National Academy of Sciences analysis of the National Nuclear Security Administration's safety, health and environmental safeguards. (The NNSA manages the Test Site.)
· A new Nevada Test Site Citizens Review Board to review health, safety and environmental issues related to new testing.
The Bennett-Hatch bill also would create new grants for independent radiation testing; an academic center under the National Institutes of Health to study radiation and human health; and a study of anyone exposed to radiation during testing.
President Bush has asked the NNSA to shorten the amount of time the Test Site would need to become ready for new underground nuclear experiments, if ordered, while stressing that he has no plans to order tests.
In separate letters from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and NNSA Director Linton Brooks, the Bush administration officials reassured the Utah lawmakers that there have been no shifts in that stance.
Bennett was concerned that the administration's interest in the development of a nuclear bunker buster bomb might require new tests. But Wolfowitz assured him that the Bush administration had "no plans" to conduct underground tests of the "Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator," or RNEP.
If the administration decided to move from study to eventual testing of the bomb in Nevada, Bush would request the test money from Congress and lawmakers could have their say on it then, Wolfowitz wrote.
Brooks went further, saying that the NNSA believes that resuming testing to certify the RNEP is "not an option."
Brooks also implied that the tests probably were unnecessary. The study of the RNEP is centered on reconfiguring two existing nuclear weapons, Brooks wrote. "Both are well-proven systems with an extensive test pedigree from the 1970s and 1980s," Brooks wrote.
The Test Site is an expanse of desert larger than Rhode Island, with its nearest border 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It was home to 928 full-scale nuclear tests, most underground, from 1951 to 1992, when a moratorium was declared by President Bush's father.
Utah lawmakers are keenly interested in the prospect of renewed testing because many residents of the state developed radiation-related diseases after the Nevada tests.
"We must not jeopardize the health and safety of our citizens as we work to protect our national security," Bennett said. "Utahns have already paid too high a price."
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 17, 2004
Energy funding limits opposed
Lawmakers say new rules restrict Yucca Mountain foes
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Federal lawmakers on Thursday called on Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to rescind new guidelines that some Nevada counties complain are hindering their involvement in the Yucca Mountain Project.
If Abraham does not comply, the next step could be legislation in Congress to overturn the new rules. Or perhaps yet another lawsuit against the Energy Department, according to aides for Nevada lawmakers.
Five Nevadans in Congress asked Abraham in a letter to explain new DOE guidelines for how counties can spend federal money they are given each year through the Yucca program.
Ten counties have divided $4 million this year.
Subject to certain restrictions, the money can be spent to assess how the proposed nuclear waste repository will affect county residents.
Guidelines for 2005 that were given to counties on Aug. 27 include new limits on spending for "transportation activities," including commenting on DOE's proposal to build a railroad from Caliente across rural Nevada to the repository site in Nye County.
Also, counties would be unable to spend federal money to load their research into a Yucca Mountain licensing database, an initial step to participate in Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearings, according to Nevada officials.
Energy Department officials said they were interpreting federal law.
But Nevadans say the new guidelines interpret the law more strictly than in the past, when spending to participate in licensing and transportation was permitted.
"It seems to me the timing is really suspicious," said Abby Johnson, a nuclear waste consultant to Eureka County.
"At a time when transportation planning on the part of DOE is actually starting to occur, when we are actually looking at ground impact from the construction of a rail line, they would find suddenly there is no basis for affected local governments to participate in those activities," Johnson said.
"I just have to wonder if this is a way to marginalize the counties."
The DOE guidelines contained some positives for the counties.
Counties holding unspent funds at the end of a fiscal year can carry it over into the new year, the department said.
Also, counties can keep any interest accrued on federal aid, as long as it is spent on approved Yucca Mountain activities.
Nye County commissioner Candice Trummel said the DOE rules were mixed as far as their impact.
Trummel said she doubted Nye would pursue any complaints about them.
"There were positives as far as Nye County was concerned, and the negatives are things we can work around," Trummel said.
Unlike Clark County and some other rural counties, Nye County participates in cooperative agreements with the Energy Department that provide funding to carry out specific Yucca activities.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to wait for Abraham's response before deciding whether to introduce legislation to reverse the guidelines, a spokeswoman said.
Other Nevada lawmakers have begun research to determine if legal action might be warranted, congressional officials said.
The letter to Abraham was signed by Reid, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Reps. Jim Gibbons and Jon Porter, both R-Nev., and Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.
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The State
September 17, 2004
Time to move ahead on Yucca Mountain
By SUSAN WOOD
Guest columnist
Debate on the need for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository recently resumed. South Carolina has a stake in this because we have seven nuclear power reactors and immobilized high-level waste at the Savannah River Site.
But the issue is far bigger than that. The nation and the world need nuclear power because nuclear is safer, cleaner and cheaper than any alternative way of making large amounts of electricity. The Yucca Mountain repository is needed, and it is needed now because utilities are running out of storage space for their spent nuclear fuel. The federal government has responsibility to solve this, and Yucca Mountain is the agreed solution.
Today, about 20 percent of the nation´s and the world´s electricity comes from nuclear plants. In South Carolina it is 56 percent, which leads the nation. For several decades, all U.S. presidents and Congress have agreed that nuclear power should be part of our energy mix. So the question becomes, what should we do with the spent fuel?
For decades prestigious groups, including the National Research Council, have recommended geologic disposal. In 1987, the government chose Yucca Mountain for the Energy Department to evaluate. Commercial spent fuel and defense high-level waste would go there. Nuclear utilities are storing 40,000 metric tons of spent fuel around the country, and 103 operating plants create an additional 2,000 metric tons annually.
Opponents of Yucca Mountain recently won a partial victory in a court case that ruled that the plan to protect the public for 10,000 years from even minuscule amounts of contaminated groundwater was not long enough. The nuclear utilities may appeal that ruling. If that appeal fails, DOE will either change design to meet a longer requirement or get a new law authorizing the 10,000 years.
Unfortunately, fear-mongering by anti-nuclear groups has convinced many Nevada citizens of dangers from transporting the spent fuel to the site, contaminated groundwater and terrorists blowing up shipment casks spreading “lethal’ radioactivity. Studies by many experts have not found such dangers.
Have all the risks (dangers) been identified and addressed? Potential risks have been exhaustively studied by expert scientists and engineers since 1978. No piece of land on Earth has been more thoroughly studied. The bottom line is Yucca Mountain repository will be ultra-safe. A massive body of more than a million documents supports that conclusion.
What about transportation risks? Worldwide, more than 10,000 shipments of spent fuel and high-level waste have been made without a single release of radioactivity and without radiation harm to anyone. The public routinely accepts far greater risks from shipped hazardous materials such as gasoline, liquid petroleum, acids and ammonia.
The radiation dose a person would receive standing by the road or rail when a spent fuel shipment goes by will be about 0.00001 millirem. That is a minuscule fraction of the 410 millirem annual dose from natural radiation — too low to even talk about.
Is the spent fuel shipping cask a likely target for terrorists? No. Shipping casks are very robust. The spent fuel is now stored less securely in 131 locations in 39 states. Those are much more likely targets. The terrorist risk would drop to near zero when the spent fuel is in the repository.
Why Yucca Mountain? Yucca Mountain was selected because it is arid, geologically stable, remote (90 miles) from population and has a stagnant water table 1,000 feet below where the spent fuel will be. Some have said there´s no safer place on Earth.
The last volcanic eruption there was 12 million years ago. Because of tectonic plate movement, the magma that produced that eruption is no longer under the site. Earthquakes are highly unlikely, and even if one occurred, the chance of damage to the storage casks 1,000 feet down is extremely remote. The chance of contaminated groundwater ever reaching some unsuspecting farmer is incredibly small.
Is 10,000 years not long enough to assure protection? Ten thousand years ago, humans were hunter-gatherers without a written language, with only simple tools and with no energy sources other than fire and their own muscles.
If this problem occurred today, we could solve it. Since human knowledge is growing exponentially, isn´t it a little silly to speculate that our descendants 10,000 years from now wouldn´t know how to solve it?
It is time to end the frivolous lawsuits and get on with it.
Dr. Wood is chairperson of Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 17, 2004
GOP RALLY: Cheney visits Reno
Vice president defends Bush as steadfast, paints Kerry as inconsistent
By Ed Vogel
Review-Journal Capital Bureau
RENO -- As his supporters shouted "flip-flop," Dick Cheney on Thursday said Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry is unfit to be president because he changes his political positions frequently.
"These are not the times for leaders who shift with the winds of polls," the Republican vice president told a partisan crowd of 1,500 gathered in the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. "John Kerry says one thing one day and another the next day."
Cheney and President Bush have been hammering away on what they call Kerry's flip-flops for weeks.
The vice president said Kerry voted for U.S. troops to invade Iraq but then opposed funding the war.
Kerry also has said he backs the No Child Left Behind Act and the Patriot Act, but at other times declares he opposes them, Cheney said.
"I have never seen a candidate go back and forth on so many issues," Cheney added as the crowd again shouted "flip-flop."
Cheney noted that Kerry, who had spoken in Las Vegas three hours earlier, told members of the National Guard Association that U.S. troops deserve no less than the best.
"I am stunned by the audacity of that statement since Senator Kerry voted to send the troops into combat and then to deny them the support they needed once they were at war," he said.
In contrast, Bush has held consistent positions in the wake of opposition and demonstrated the strength a leader needs, Cheney told the crowd that cheered frequently through his 25-minute speech.
"He has made hard choices and kept his word, and that is exactly how he will govern America the next four years," he added.
The visit was the sixth by Cheney to Nevada this year. His daughter, Liz Perry, and granddaughter, Elizabeth, joined him on stage.
"You will see plenty more of us," Cheney promised his supporters. "With your help, we will win this state and this election."
He expressed confidence that he and Bush are pulling away in the race.
"The signs are good, here in Nevada and even in Massachusetts," he said.
The most recent Review-Journal poll, released July 22, showed Bush and Cheney with a lead of 3 percentage points in Nevada. A KVBC-TV poll on Monday gave them a lead of 4 percentage points in the state.
Cheney spoke only briefly on domestic issues, saying the administration wants to end lawsuit abuse and bring medical malpractice liability reform.
"American doctors should spend time healing patients, not fighting off frivolous lawsuits," he said.
Cheney never mentioned the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository, which would be built about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Neither did Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn, who sued the president over his decision to place nuclear waste in Nevada.
Instead Guinn, who talked at the rally before Cheney's arrival, said that the No. 1 issue is "safety from terrorism" and that Bush and Cheney have his support.
Many at the Cheney rally were teenagers, including some who said they received the afternoon off as part of a government class project.
Seventeen-year-old Dina Carano said she opposes Kerry and Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards because "they don't say what they mean. They don't stick to it."
"I think think (Kerry) will raise taxes, and that is ridiculous," added Amber Barker, who turns 18 before Election Day. "Some of their ideas are way too far-fetched."
Outside the convention center, about 150 protesters conducted their own rally.
Pam DuPre, executive director of the Washoe County Democratic Party, walked with the other protesters.
"I bet he didn't tell you the administration has no plan for peace in Iraq," said DuPre about Cheney's address, which she didn't hear because she was outside the building. "He didn't tell you thousands more Nevadans today don't have health insurance. He didn't tell you working families in Nevada are making less than they did in 2000 and paying more for gas, for college tuition and health care. I don't know what he said, but he didn't talk about those things."
Protester Dennis Smith, of Truckee, Calif., said that under Bush the United States "has gone in a very bad direction."
"We have alienated ourselves through the world community," he said.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 17, 2004
LAS VEGAS VISIT: Kerry rips handling of war
Democrat says Bush glossing over deteriorating situation in Iraq
By Erin Neff
Review-Journal
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry issued his harshest criticism yet of the handling of the war in Iraq in a speech Thursday to National Guard conventioneers in Las Vegas, saying President Bush misled the nation, rushed to war and ignored increasingly chaotic signs from that country.
Kerry offered a much different view of the war and homeland security than Bush did Tuesday in his speech to the same group, the National Guard Association of the United States.
"Two days ago, the president stood right where I'm standing and did not even acknowledge that more than 1,000 men and women have lost their lives in Iraq," Kerry said inside the Las Vegas Convention Center. "He did not tell you that with each passing day, we're seeing more chaos, more violence and indiscriminate killings."
Kerry mentioned a Thursday New York Times article on new U.S. government intelligence appraisals offering a bleak picture of the situation in Iraq.
"I believe he failed the fundamental test of leadership," Kerry said. "He failed to tell you the truth. You deserve better. The commander in chief must level with the troops and the nation. I intend to do that, on the good days and the bad days."
Kerry's own staff said afterward the speech was the candidate's most pointed criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the war.
Kerry was greeted politely by the crowd, receiving standing ovations when he was introduced and two other times when he outlined benefits he would pursue for the Guard. But the audience was less energetic than it was for Bush on Tuesday, offering no applause during roughly half of Kerry's 30-minute speech, the half of which he criticized Bush.
Kerry said the mission in Iraq is in "serious trouble," and "with each passing month, stability and security seem further and farther away."
"I believe you deserve a president who isn't going to gild that truth or gild our national security with politics, who is not going to ignore his own intelligence," Kerry said. "I believe you deserve a president who will give the American people the truth, not a fantasy world of spin, but a world where we challenge our brave men and women to be able to meet the test of our times."
Though the response was not nearly as enthusiastic as that given to Bush, many Guard members and civilians crowded Kerry after the speech and he shook hands for nearly 30 minutes.
In an interview afterward, Kerry said a lot of guardsmen who greeted him said they were thankful he came to speak.
"A lot of people came up to me afterwards and said, 'I'm voting for you; boy you told the truth,' " Kerry said.
Thursday marked Kerry's fourth visit to Las Vegas this year and the second time both he and Bush have been in Southern Nevada in the same week. Kerry was in Las Vegas about four hours before heading to New Mexico for a rally.
Outside the convention center, about 70 veterans, union members and other Kerry supporters gathered, waving placards and chanting slogans like "Bush is a zero. Kerry is a hero."
George Saxon, 74, a Korean War veteran who served 23 years in the military, said he opposes Bush because of troop deaths in an unnecessary war.
"Kerry knows what goes on in the military because he has been there," Saxon said. "Bush has only heard about it. Bush doesn't know anything about the military."
Kerry met with local veterans after touching down in Las Vegas. John Hunt, the 2002 Democratic nominee for attorney general, stood with a photo of his son, Billy, 22, a soldier in the 82nd Airborne who learned Wednesday he was being deployed to Afghanistan after returning in April from service in Iraq.
Hunt explained the situation to Kerry and asked whether he would talk to the young man. He said his son was skeptical Kerry would be on the phone.
"I called my son, and he said `No way,' and then Kerry ... took the phone and told my son that he was going to do everything he could to protect all the troops," Hunt said.
Republicans did not let Kerry's visit go unnoticed. In a news conference at a local club for Marines, Nevada Veterans for Bush countered Kerry's assertions.
"He has never supported the troops," said Paul Adams, the group's chairman, referring to Kerry's votes against military funding during his 20-year Senate career.
Adams was joined by Theresa Bunker, whose son, Josh, 21, is in the National Guard, and by Guard member Brandon Upton, 19.
"President Bush is my commander in chief, and I'm proud of it," said Upton, a member of the 777th Transportation Company.
All three speakers chided Kerry for what they described as his changing stance on the war in Iraq, a theme stressed by Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Both hammer Kerry for voting against the $87 billion supplemental funding bill for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan after supporting to go to war in Iraq.
In an interview after his speech, Kerry said he voted against the funding because he disagreed with the way the Bush administration pursued the war he supported.
"My vote was the right vote, and it's been proven to be the right vote because George Bush has messed up Iraq and has messed up the money," Kerry said.
The Massachusetts senator said only $300 million of the $18.4 billion in that bill earmarked for construction has been spent.
"It's sitting in a slush fund over there," Kerry said. "We could have been using the money over here. The president clearly didn't put our country on the right track, and that's why I voted the way I did. I said at the time, 'You've got to get the policy right.' He hasn't."
Kerry said he has been discussing for two years the "right way" and "wrong way" to conduct the war. His approach involved getting broader international support and a coalition of support within the Middle East to share the costs of the war.
"And my right way is being proven more and more every day to have been the right way and to be the way he should have gone," Kerry said. "But the president has stubbornly resisted our advice. And he's gone unilaterally; America's carrying 90 percent of the cost of the war in Iraq, 90 percent of the casualties, and it's going worse."
In his speech to the Guard, Kerry said the Guard and Reserve, which compose roughly 40 percent of the troops in Iraq, are overextended. He repeated his stance that their deployment abroad constitutes "a backdoor draft."
Kerry said he would create new Army divisions focused on bioterrorism and return National Guard members to America to focus on homeland security.
His speech offered no details of his proposals to expand Guard health care and retirement benefits, nor did he offer specifics about his plan to shift military priorities.
In the interview, Kerry said he would not impose a draft. He predicted Americans would sign up for military service because they could have confidence in his leadership, based on lessons he learned in his own military service during the Vietnam War.
Bush, he said, did not go to war as a last resort.
"The fact is, he took his eye off the real war on terror, which is in Afghanistan, and Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, shifted it to Iraq, and we're paying a high price for his judgment."
In several interviews with local television stations Thursday, Kerry repeated his opposition to Yucca Mountain, discussed how he would stop the project and criticized Bush for making a "special interest" decision to bury the nation's nuclear waste at the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Review-Journal writers Frank Geary and Richard Lake contributed to this report.
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KLAS
September 16, 2004
Veterans for Bush Held News Conference
Alyson McCarthy
Out of respect for the National Guard, the Nevada Republican Party says it did not organize a Kerry protest Thursday outside the convention center. But the group "Nevada Veterans for George Bush" held a news conference at the Leatherneck Club of Las Vegas on Spring Mountain Road.
Members of the Nevada National Guard and Veterans for Bush were there to show their support for the President. They say George Bush is the only presidential candidate qualified to lead our nation's war on terrorism and they want four more years of his leadership.
Unlike the crowd of Bush bashers outside the convention center on Tuesday, you didn't find any Kerry protesters outside the convention center during the Senator's visit Thursday. Instead, Republican veterans, National Guard members and their families gathered quietly at the Leatherneck Club Thursday afternoon.
These Bush supporters say Senator Kerry doesn't have the backbone or the experience to do what's necessary to protect this nation against terrorism at home and support peace in the world. These pro-Bush groups said Kerry changes his opinions as often as he changes his clothes and that in today's uncertain world --- they want a leader who is certain in his actions as the nation's Commander in Chief.
Earlier Thursday, Nevada Republican Congressman Jim Gibbons addressed the National Guard Association. Gibbons said that the war ahead and the way ahead will be led by the National Guard.
Nevada Veterans for Bush say its misleading for Senator John Kerry to tells Nevadans that he'll get rid of the Yucca Mountain nuclear dump because Congress is sending the dump to Nevada, not the President.
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Toledo Blade
September 17, 2004
Edwards pledges to keep jobs of workers at uranium plant
Piketon workers show their support
By Jim Provance
Blade Columbus Bureau
PORTSMOUTH, OHIO - Vice presidential candidate John Edwards promised workers at a southern Ohio uranium enrichment plant that their jobs would be safe under a John Kerry presidency.
"John Kerry and I will make sure the Piketon plant stays open [and] that the new Piketon plant is built and built on schedule," the Democratic North Carolina senator told about 75 union members outside their hall as he toured economically struggling Appalachian counties in Ohio and West Virginia yesterday.
"Not only that, we're also going to make sure that the workers who've been sick get the help that they need," he said.
The stop came less than a week after President Bush visited the region and met with four Piketon workers, demonstrating that, while Ohio is considered the national battleground, southeastern Ohio is the state's battleground.
The plant, which once employed about 2,500, was scheduled to close several years ago, but it was placed on standby after George W. Bush was elected. The plant employs about 1,200 today while a new defluorination plant is constructed to remove fluorine from thousands of tons of depleted uranium to make it marketable for fuel at nuclear power plants.
"Bush made a promise in 2000 as governor of Texas, and he honored that promise…" said Chuck Wiltshire, of the Triangle of Prevention Program, a safety program with the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union. Despite that promise, he supports Mr. Kerry.
"We're not sure about the future for one thing," he said. "We haven't gotten a letter of support from President Bush, and it isn't because we haven't asked."
Bush spokesman Kevin Madden said it was hypocritical for the Democratic ticket to talk up nuclear jobs in southern Ohio while opposing federal plans to store nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
"The Piketon plant was hemorrhaging jobs under the previous administration," he said. "Because of President Bush, Piketon is creating jobs in the Portsmouth area, which is important to southern Ohio. The President is cognizant that Piketon is vital to the nation's energy. The President is committed to the plant."
Ohio and West Virginia went with Mr. Bush in 2000 over Al Gore by margins of 3.5 and 6 percent respectively. But the Kerry-Edwards ticket is banking that it can deny Mr. Bush the two states' total of 25 electoral votes in 2004 by focusing on regions that have missed the economic turnaround touted by the President.
Ohio's and West Virginia's unemployment rates for July, the latest figures available, were 5.9 and 5.1 percent respectively, compared to an August national average of 5.4 percent.
In Scioto County, Ohio, where Mr. Edwards rallied yesterday, voters opted for Mr. Bush by 4 percentage points in 2000. The county's jobless rate is 8.5 percent.
"One out of every five jobs lost in America was lost right here in Ohio," Mr. Edwards said during a rally in the center of Portsmouth on the Ohio River. "Why in the world would people in Ohio rehire a man to be their president who lost them 230,000 jobs?"
Contact Jim Provance at:
jprovance@theblade.com or
614-221-0496.
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Portland Maine Press Herald
September 17, 2004
Explosives bring down Maine Yankee´s dome
By David Sharp
WISCASSET, Maine — With a thunderclap of explosives, Maine Yankee´s containment dome toppled to the ground Friday in one of the final steps toward completion of the nuclear power plant´s decommissioning.
The 150-foot-tall structure served as the most visible symbol of the 900-megawatt plant during 24 years of operation.
Friday´s event marked the first time explosives have been used to knock down a commercial reactor containment building, officials said.
About 1,100 pounds of explosives were placed in holes drilled into the structure to topple the reinforced concrete dome that was designed to withstand earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricane-force winds.
As the countdown concluded, the explosives lit up, the legs supporting the dome buckled and the structure came down in one piece as planned.
The crowd broke into applause as a cloud of dust rose from the rubble.
The nearly 500 people permitted to enter Maine Yankee property to witness the blast were required to stay 1,000 feet from the containment.
Dudley Leavitt Sr., who helped build the dome, watched its destruction with a tinge of sadness. He said he thought the plant had a lot more life left in it.
"It´s a shame that they shut this down. There are plants that are older that are still in operation across the country," said Leavitt, 66, of Topsham, who oversaw the steel reinforcement of the dome.
Steve Ward, Maine´s public advocate for utility issues, had mixed emotions about what he witnessed.
Maine Yankee provided low-cost energy without producing greenhouse gases, he said, but the problem of long-term storage of the nuclear fuel assemblies has never been resolved.
"The federal government has utterly failed to deal with the spent fuel issue. It´s like building a wonderful, livable mansion that has no septic system. It doesn´t even have an outhouse," Ward said.
Ray Shadis, a nuclear power opponent who lives in neighboring Edgecomb, noted that the dome could be seen above the trees from homes near the plant.
"This is strictly symbolic and nothing more," he said of the demolition, calling it just another step in the lengthy decommissioning process. "It´s the last major demolition activity."
In advance of Friday´s blast, a steel plate lining the structure was removed and holes were cut to weaken the structure, whose walls were 4 1/2 feet thick at the base and 2 1/2 feet thick at the top.
The explosives were not designed to reduce the dome to rubble. The idea was simply to lower the dome so it could be reached by heavy equipment that would complete the job of picking apart the structure.
About 20 million pounds of rubble from the building will be hauled by rail to a low-level radioactive waste repository in Utah.
The pressurized water reactor began operation in 1972 and survived three statewide referendums aiming to close the plant in the 1980s.
It was shut down following operational problems that escalated after the discovery of cracked steam generator tubes in 1994. The plant was shut down in 1995 while sleeves were installed to reinforce each of the 17,000 tubes.
Problems continued to mount in 1996 and the plant was placed on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission´s list of worst-run plants in 1997.
Maine Yankee´s board voted to close the plant permanently in August 1997, 11 years before the plant´s license was set to expire.
By the time decommissioning is completed next year, it will have cost $500 million. All that will remain are a security building and storage facility where 60 canisters contain the highly radioactive fuel rods.
The spent fuel assemblies will remain until the federal government follows through with its promise to build a repository for high-level radioactive waste.
Maine Yankee and other utilities have sued the federal government for the costs of storing the fuel rods until 2010, the target for the proposed national nuclear waste site to open at Nevada´s Yucca Mountain.
On the Net:
www.maineyankee.com
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GovExec
September 16, 2004
Temporary funding measure still a possibility
By Peter Cohn
CongressDailyPM
The lagging fiscal 2005 appropriations process is renewing speculation that a continuing resolution might be used to fund many agencies and programs through early next year, perhaps as late as March, aides in both chambers said.
That prospect gained purchase this week after House GOP leaders voiced a renewed interest in avoiding a lame duck session. But House and Senate Republican aides said GOP leaders want to avoid that scenario, and that talk of a long-term continuing resolution might just be a trial balloon to spur action -- particularly in the Senate, which as passed only two of 13 spending bills. There even has been talk of a CR that would cover the rest of the fiscal year, although one House Republican leadership aide said Wednesday that prospect is unlikely.
"If it had 218 votes, sure," the aide said. "Right now, it gets about 20 or 30 votes."
Aides also said leaders are discussing what can be completed in the time left before the scheduled Oct. 8 adjournment. They said leaders are beginning to recognize the stark realities of trying to complete 12 more appropriations bills in three weeks.
"One of the little known facts around here is that the calendar drives the bills. The bills don't drive the calendar," a senior Senate Republican aide said.
Few appropriations measures are expected to be completed in those three weeks other than the fiscal 2005 Homeland Security spending bill, which will contain fiscal 2004 supplemental funds for relief related to Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan. Senate appropriators have all but given up on the fiscal 2005 Energy and Water appropriations bill, because of the lingering stalemate over Yucca Mountain funds. Procedural issues also are driving talk of a longer CR. The House most likely will not consider the $92.9 billion VA-HUD spending bill on the floor this year, which would necessitate a CR to fund agencies and programs covered by that bill at last year's levels -- perhaps a more palatable option for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, a proponent of space programs. NASA would be funded at a higher rate than in the fiscal 2005 VA-HUD bill, which would cut $229 million from current levels.
Also, fiscal conservatives, who have been advocating a long-term CR as a way to hold down spending, are becoming increasingly vocal. They cite various budget gimmicks employed by Senate appropriators to boost spending by more than $5 billion over the $821.4 billion fiscal 2005 overall spending cap as evidence that things would only get worse in a lame duck session.
"If we're here, we tend to spend money," said an aide to a prominent House GOP conservative. However, appropriators in both chambers have expressed derision over a long-term CR, contending that key programs would go without needed funding. And both Appropriations and Budget committee aides said a long-term CR would not necessarily save money. They said agencies would merely spend money at a slower rate until the fiscal 2005 bills are enacted, and then spend money faster to make up for operating under the previous year's levels for so long. A House GOP leadership aide noted agencies would be hurt in their planning for the next year's budget under a long-term CR.
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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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