Yucca Mountain News Clips
Thursday, September 30, 2004
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 30, 2004
Congressional candidates in Yucca duel
Porter answers Gallagher ads suggesting challenger better suited to keep nuclear waste out of Nevada
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Skirmishing escalated Wednesday about whether Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., or Democratic challenger Tom Gallagher is better suited to protect Nevada from nuclear waste.
Gallagher began running a TV ad last week challenging Porter's votes in 2003 for an energy bill that included incentives for utilities to build more nuclear power plants.
On Wednesday, Porter hit back in their 3rd Congressional District race, which encompasses Henderson, Boulder City and rural Clark County.
Porter's campaign tried to tie Gallagher to a hardball public relations blitz the nuclear industry initiated in 1992 to drum up support for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
Gallagher's law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, had as a client the Edison Electric Institute, a utility group that helped finance the $8.7 million "Nevada Initiative." Planning for the campaign came to light in November 1991 with the leak of a memo written by Las Vegas consultant Kent Oram.
Porter charged Gallagher as a partner shared profits from the nuclear industry client, "and partners know what other partners are doing."
"This is a dirty little secret that Tom doesn't want to talk about." Porter said. "I felt the public needed to know that he is a hypocrite."
Gallagher aide Mara Gassman said he played no role in the Nevada Initiative, and was not aware of it. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher had 800 attorneys and 300 partners and Gallagher worked in New York in the early 1990s, she said.
By the time the project would have gotten under way, Gassman said, Gallagher had left the firm. From 1988 until he left Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in 1992, Gallagher's sole client was entertainment mogul Merv Griffin, she said.
"He's dredging up stuff that Tom didn't do 15 years ago," Gassman said. "Next Porter will want to be comparing their high school records. This is complete character assassination.
"Porter is reaching because he knows we are gaining on him," Gassman said. "He is clearly grasping at straws."
Porter said he raised the issue after Gallagher questioned his commitment against Yucca Mountain.
"I turn on the TV and find it laughable he would imply I'm for nuclear waste after 20 years of fighting Yucca Mountain," Porter said.
Organized by the American Nuclear Energy Council, the Nevada Initiative included media training for Energy Department scientists and formation of "an accuracy response team" to answer Yucca critics.
The media campaign featured television commercials of former Las Vegas sportscaster Ron Vitto discussing nuclear waste transportation safety and other issues.
The Nevada Initiative largely backfired as it was roundly denounced by Nevada leaders as transparent propaganda.
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KVBC
September 29, 2004
First Lady Laura Bush Makes Third Trip to Southern Nevada
Maria Silva
The First Lady is leaving Las Vegas this morning. Her next stop, Albuquerque, New Mexico to give a speech about the economy. Yesterday, Laura Bush was greeted in Henderson by a crowd of almost 2500 cheering supporters.
Women's issues were the focus of her speech. Mrs. Bush also touched on other issues such as the War in Iraq, the economy, and why her husband should be given 4 more years.
"My husband knows that there is more to do to make our country safer and stronger and more hopeful and he'll continue the work of leading America forward."
Some supporters seemed a bit disappointed the First Lady didn't touch on more issues affecting Nevadans, such as the nursing shortage and the Yucca Mountain controversy.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
September 30, 2004
Letter: Bush hasn´t been a good president
Bush is down-home friendly, a guy you´d gladly invite in for a beer and barbecue, but he´s not a good president. Bush scores in polls for “strong and decisive’ leadership. Ain´t that sweet. A strong decision to wreck the train assures we´ll have us one sincerely fine train wreck!
Hundreds of scientists recently signed a letter stating the Bushies routinely skew data to promote policy. So what, you say. OK: Yucca Mountain´s safe based on expedient interpretation of data that solves a big problem. Yeehaa! If anything goes wrong, we´ll just call it Bush´s Burning Desert for the next 50,000 years. He won´t be living here anyway, will he?
Terrorism? Incidents have increased, not diminished. The world´s not safer, as Bush brags; it´s more dangerous! Bush´s judgments have alienated allies, killed thousands, cost hundreds of billions, and there´s no end in sight. The measurable results: slashed domestic budgets and increased terrorist ranks plotting against a still unsafe America. Officials across this nation are screaming that shipping containers, baggage, chemical and nuclear facilities, ports and borders all need better security. Why isn´t our president using our tax dollars to secure our country? For whom, exactly, is George Bush working?
Donald Shipley
Reno
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Columbia Journalism Review
September 30, 2004
Darts & Laurels
By Gloria Cooper
The Austin Chronicle, for unearthing a hidden source of editorial energy that is somewhat less than clean. When William M. Adler, a writer driven by what he calls “an obsession with matters nuclear,’ came upon an op-ed piece in the Austin American-Statesman written by a University of Texas professor promoting the controversial national nuclear waste repository at Nevada´s Yucca Mountain, Adler found the words and the melody so naggingly familiar that he decided to conduct a little experiment. Tracing the elements of that op-ed, and then of others like it, Adler´s article in the weekly Chronicle documented his findings: a secret process that, since 1978, has put myriad op-eds about various nuclear issues on the editorial pages of the nation´s major newspapers. Though signed by university academics with impressive credentials, the pieces originate with a Washington p.r. outfit funded by the nuclear industry lobby. To thwart this “centrally orchestrated plan’ to present “the propaganda of one hired atomic gun as the learned musings of disparate academics and other nuclear-industry ‘experts,´’ Adler suggested in a later article published in The Washington Post, editors should ask more questions of their outside contributors before they accept their offerings. Surely it doesn´t take a nuclear scientist to do that.
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Salt Lake Tribune
September 30, 2004
Battles over nukes stall 2005 budget
Time out: A stopgap bill would keep funds flowing until after key elections
By Christopher Smith
Salt Lake Tribune
WASHINGTON - Congress appears incapable of resolving multiple battles over agency spending levels for the new federal fiscal year that begins Friday. So, lawmakers are working to pass a stopgap spending bill today, effectively postponing key votes on 2005 budgets until after the Nov. 2 election.
Anti-nuclear proliferation lobbyists say the delay provides political cover for Sen. Bob Bennett and other members of the Senate Appropriations Energy Subcommittee because it puts off a vote on whether to slash spending on research into new versions of nuclear weapons and boosting the readiness of the Nevada Test Site.
"This funding is definitely not going to get resolved before the election," said Jim Bridgeman of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, which delivered a report to Congress this week challenging the need for the weapons programs requested by the Bush administration.
In June, the House over- whelmingly voted to eliminate funding for studies on developing "bunker buster" and "battlefield" nuclear weapons, and drastically reduced a White House request to put the Nevada atomic proving grounds at a state of readiness not seen since the Cold War.
But the Senate version of the Energy Department budget has been stalled for months because of a standoff between Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. Domenici wants to restore near-fatal cuts the House made to the 2005 budget for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository while Reid is using his political muscle to kill the waste dump.
Bennett's Democratic challenger, Paul Van Dam, has made a campaign issue of the two-term Republican's past votes in support of weapons research, arguing such programs open the door to a renewal of the nuclear arms race and the potential for resumed testing. Bennett doesn't believe the studies will ultimately require experimenting with a live weapon, and has introduced legislation setting health and safety requirements for nuclear tests and has posted on his Senate Web site letters and testimony from top Bush administration officials pledging no future testing plans.
Anti-proliferation groups intend to keep pressure on Congress to cut the funding, especially lawmakers from the Mountain West whose constituents were subjected to downwind fallout from atmospheric nuclear bomb tests in Nevada during the 1950s and 1960s.
"There are people in the West who remember those tests and the government lied to them about the safety risk so they are distrustful, as they should be," said Robert Norris of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Just raising the specter [that] testing might be ahead sets off an emotional issue underneath the factual analysis and congressmen and senators are going to react to that."
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Xinhua News
September 30, 2004
UK needs nuclear power to meet demand, cut emissions
Elena Moya
Beijing, Sept. 30 (Xinhuanet) --The UK, Western Europe's third- largest energy consumer, needs to build nuclear reactors to meet government emissions limits and rising demand, says the head of General Electric Corp's nuclear unit.
According to Thursday's China Daily, Prime Minister Tony Blair's government is deliberating whether nuclear plants should replace 30-year-old reactors that generate a fifth of the UK's supply. Britain will miss a goal for 10 per cent of power to come from wind and renewable sources by 2010, a House of Lords committee said in July. The target was set to help meet emissions guidelines agreed in Kyoto, Japan.
"It's vital for the UK to support nuclear energy," said Andrew White, chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric's global nuclear unit, in London. "I don't see a good energy policy in the UK to meet Kyoto and secure supplies."
Nuclear plants may be needed soon to avoid blackouts because half of Britain's reactors will shut by 2010, according to the Adam Smith Institute, a London-based think-tank. New plants would reduce dependence on Russian and Norwegian imports as UK natural gas reserves dwindle, an Adam Smith report said last year.
Blair said September 14 that while the government hasn't ruled out nuclear power, ministers aren't pushing for it. He said then the government won't make a decision until a report about nuclear waste is finished, expected in 2006. Environmental groups including Greenpeace oppose its use.
A delegation of Finnish politicians and industry officials are visiting London this week to advise the UK government on how to gain popular support for nuclear energy and for a waste dump. They were scheduled to speak at the Labour Party conference in Brighton, England yesterday.
Nuclear stations and renewable energy sources don't emit carbon dioxide, unlike coal and gas-fired plants. British Energy's Sizewell nuclear station, on the south east coast, can generate electricity for 2 million people, while the largest UK wind farm can supply about 30,000.
Nuclear energy is opposed by some members of Blair's party who started their political careers as protesters with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Margaret Beckett, secretary for the environment, and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott are some of the opponents, The Guardian newspaper said last year.
"I challenged the new energy minister in the House of Commons, he was sitting on the fence" about nuclear power, said Robert Key, a Conservative party member of parliament for Salisbury.
The Committee for Radioactive Waste Management finishes a report about handling waste in 2006. Radioactive waste is the 3 per cent of uranium that can't be reused and has to be either reprocessed at a site such as Sellafield, in Northern England, or stored underground. England and France reprocess the uranium by keeping containers under water for as many as five years.
Finland has dug a cavern at Olkiluoto some 500 metres beneath the earth's surface to store nuclear waste. The US is developing a similar site in the Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
"Bury is the best option, because there's no chance of anybody attacking, stealing the material," said John Clarke, director of commercial operation at Sellafield. "The problem the government has is to find a site, because nobody wants a site near them."
Britons mostly oppose nuclear power because the technology was first developed to build an atomic bomb, said Timo Seppala, communications manager at Posiva Oyj, Finland's nuclear waste-management company, which is building the Olkiluoto underground site.
"Finland doesn't have the military legacy, that makes things easier" to win support for nuclear, Seppala said.
Environmentalists including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth oppose nuclear energy for being "dirty and dangerous," Greenpeace says on its website. Nuclear waste "has no solution" and will "threaten ourselves and future generations."
Blair doesn't have to wait for the report on waste before deciding on nuclear energy, said Gordon Campbell, chairman of British Nuclear Fuels Plc, which owns the nuclear reprocessing plant in Sellafield.
"Psychologically you may need a waste decision to decide on build-up, but not technically, the two aren't necessarily related," he said. "It's quite a difficult political decision. The government, from whichever party, is going to see people who oppose to it."
Waiting for the report on disposing of nuclear waste also risks causing a shortage of engineers in the 5 billion-pound (US$8.9 billion) industry, which employs 60,000 people in Britain, mostly at British Energy Plc and BNFL.
"The longer we wait, the more skills you lose, the harder it will be to get new build," said Clarke at his office in Sellafield, Cumbria. "The UK indigenous skills are getting fewer and fewer."
(China Daily)
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Sierra Club
September 28 , 2004
Four-Year Anniversary of Bush's Yucca Mountain Promise
Review of Record Shows Bush Broke Key Pledge Multiple Times
Las Vegas -- Tomorrow marks the four-year anniversary of George W. Bush's letter to Governor Kenny Guinn promising to authorize the storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain only with backing of the best science. A review of Bush's record on Yucca over his Presidential term shows that he has broken that promise not once but multiple times, even when faced with warnings from different research bodies.
"As I've said before, I believe the best science must prevail in the designation of any high-level nuclear waste repository," Bush wrote to Governor Guinn in a letter dated September 28, 2000. "As President, I would not sign legislation that would send nuclear waste to any proposed site -- either on a permanent or temporary basis -- unless it has been deemed scientifically safe."
Despite that promise, the record shows that whenever Bush has been faced with major scientific concerns about Yucca Mountain, he has responded by redoubling his commitment to the project.
* In 2002, President Bush officially recommended Yucca Mountain as a national storage facility despite receiving a General Accounting Office report documenting 300 different scientific concerns about the designs for Yucca.
* In 2003, President Bush pledged to deliver nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain by 2010 only months after the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board warned that the designs for Yucca were unsafe.
* In July 2004, the Bush administration reaffirmed its plans to deliver nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain by 2010 despite a U.S. Appeals Court ruling that the administration's Yucca designs failed to meet safety standards set by the National Academy of Science.
"I urge all Nevadans to tell President Bush that if he's a man of his word, he'll stop ignoring the warnings from scientists and dump his plans for Yucca Mountain," said Tara Smith, speaking for the Sierra Club in Las Vegas.
Added Smith, "This is one flip flop Nevadans shouldn't tolerate."
The following is Governor and candidate George W. Bush's September 28, 2000 letter to Governor Kenny Guinn in its entirety:
September 28, 2000
Dear Kenny,
Thanks for your recent letter regarding temporary storage of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
As I've said before, I believe the best science must prevail in the designation of any high-level nuclear waste repository. As President, I would not sign legislation that would send nuclear waste to any proposed site -- either on a permanent or temporary basis -- unless it has been deemed scientifically safe.
The Department of Energy has not completed its impact study of Yucca Mountain and important questions of environmental protection and safety have not yet been answered. Therefore, I would veto legislation that would provide for the temporary storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.
I also believe the federal government must work with the local and state governments that will be affected to address safety and transportation issues.
Sincerely,
George W. Bush
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Guardian
September 29, 2004
Notes and Quotes From Campaign in Nevada
By Ron Fournier
AP Political Writer
John Kerry is betting on Nevada as he scours the political map for a Republican state he can call his own.
Four years after President Bush defeated Democrat Al Gore by 4 percentage points in Nevada, Democrats have found hope in the state's growing Hispanic population and a controversy over a high-level nuclear waste site.
Nearly 5,000 new residents flock to Nevada each month, many of them Hispanics who tend to vote Democratic. Republicans, however, have seen gains in the growing suburbs around Las Vegas.
Nevada is fighting the Bush administration over the Yucca Mountain dump site 90 miles from Las Vegas. Kerry has voted against it. Bush supports it.
But a recent poll by Mason-Dixon raises questions about the dump site's impact on presidential politics. Only 3 percent of voters listed it as their top issue, and two-thirds said Bush's position would have no influence on their vote.
The top issues in Nevada are homeland security and the war on terror, with the Iraq war and the economy close behind.
In most battleground states, jobs and the economy top the war on terror on voters' lists, but Nevada has gained nearly 90,000 jobs since Bush took office. Three Nevada troops have died in the Iraq war.
Several public and private polls give Bush a slight lead in the state.
After Ohio and Florida, both won by Bush in 2000, Nevada may be Kerry's top target on the GOP state list. Colorado, New Hampshire and West Virginia, all won by Bush four years ago, are also high on Kerry's list while Arizona, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Virginia have fallen off.
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BY THE NUMBERS:
5 - Number of electoral votes.
4,700 - Average number of new residents each month, since 1990.
77,000 - Metric tons of radioactive waste that would be stored at Nevada's Yucca Mountain under plans endorsed by George Bush and opposed by John Kerry
315,400- Casino-related jobs, almost a third of all jobs in the state.
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QUOTABLE:
- ``I don't know how people can know what policies Kerry stands for because he's changed his position so many times on so many issues, like war.'' - Gregory Green, 24, a Reno college student who served five years in the Air Force including a brief stint in Iraq.
- ``He's trying to take away women's reproductive rights.'' - Darcy McCormick, 23, of Reno, on Bush. ``Enough said.''
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NOTABLE:
Almost evenly divided between registered Democrats and Republicans, Nevada has voted for the winner in the past six presidential elections.
Paper-trail electronic voting machines are in use in much of Nevada this election season. Seven of 17 counties used punch-card machines in the last election.
Nevada is fighting the Bush administration over construction of a high-level nuclear waste dump in the desert 90 miles from Las Vegas. Kerry has voted against Nevada's Yucca Mountain as the dump site. Bush supports it.
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WHAT TO WATCH ON ELECTION NIGHT:
Clark County, encompassing Las Vegas, accounts for about 70 percent of the statewide vote and its returns will be among the earliest on election night. Watch for returns that tend to come in later from Washoe and Douglas counties and Carson City in northwestern Nevada, all with more GOP voters than Democrats.
Democrats say Kerry could benefit from the turnout for a statewide ballot initiative that would add $1 to the state's $5.15 minimum wage for employees lacking health insurance. It is backed by organized labor.
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IN NEVADA FOUR YEARS AGO:
Gore won populous Clark County 51 to 45 percent but lost statewide by 4 percentage points. Exit polls indicated Gore received only half the labor vote in Nevada, and that might have cost him a crucial swing state. About 47 percent of Nevadans voted before Election Day, either by absentee or early balloting.
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AP Correspondent Brendan Riley contributed to this report from Carson City.
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On the Net:
An interactive look: http://wid.ap.org/campaign2004/battleground-nv.html
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Middletown Press
September 29, 2004
Minor fire hits office building at CY
By Josh Mrozinski
Middletown Press Staff
HADDAM -- There were no injuries in a fire that broke out in the insulation of a two-story building on the non-nuclear side of the Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Plant on Monday.
The fire broke out during the demolition of the building, which is a part of the decommissioning process, Kelley Smith, spokeswoman for the nuclear power plant, said.
The fire, which occurred 350 feet from the spent-fuel storage site, was contained and small, Smth said.
"The building was in the process of being demolished and being prepped for demolition," Smith said. "It was a relatively small fire. There was more smoke than fire, because it was smoldering."
During the decommissioning, which began in 1998, buildings will be demolished and 43 spent-fuel and greater than Class-C Waste canisters will be moved into dry casks at storage area that is three-quarters of a mile from the plant. Greater than Class-C Waste is cut-up metal from the reactor vessel.
The spent-fuel and waste will eventually be transported to Yucca Mountain in Nevada when it opens.
Gary Bouchard, nuclear safety and regulatory affairs director, said at a Sept. 21 Community Decommissioning Advisory Committee meeting that 17 of the 43 spent-fuel and waste canisters have been moved to the storage site.
Workers were outside of the building pulling down steel beams when the fire broke out.
Earlier they had been cutting the steel beams with torch cutting equipment. The beams became hot from the cutting, and the insulation that was behind the beams caught fire when it was exposed to the air from the workers pulling down the beams.
At 4:51 p.m. the fire was reported to the control room and at 4:53 p.m. 911 was called. Workers were evacuated from the scene and the onsite fire brigade began to douse the fire with water.
The Haddam Neck Fire Department and the East Hampton Fire Department responded.
"Their response was excellent," Smith said.
The fire was declared extinguished at 6:18 p.m.
Smith said the section of the roof that caught on fire has been pulled down, but the rest of the 30 foot by 80 foot building still needs to be demolished as part of the decommissioning process.
Torch cutting has temporarily been suspended, Smith said, until the investigation is complete, corrective actions are implemented and the fire is documented.
Corrective actions include instructing contractors to remove flammable materials before they cut or to use fire blankets, Smith said.
To contact Josh Mrozinski, call (860) 347-3331, ext. 222. or email jmrozinski@middletownpress.com.
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Las Vegas SUN
September 28, 2004
Trips to Yucca rank high among lawmakers
By Benjamin Grove
<grove@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress took 159 privately funded trips to Las Vegas in the past four years on Yucca Mountain fact-finding missions, often paid for by the pro-Yucca nuclear power industry, a new study found.
The study, led by Northwestern University's Medill News Service, also examined the privately funded travel of every member of Congress from Jan. 1, 2000, to June 30, 2004, and ranked them by the amounts that private groups spent on travel for lawmakers.
Congressional rules allow lawmakers to take trips paid for by lobbyists, academic organizations and private interests. Lawmakers also take trips paid for by Congress -- taxpayers -- but the Medill study examined only privately funded trips.
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., ranked 30th on the list of 583 lawmakers in the survey. There are 535 members of Congress, but the study dated to 2000 and new lawmakers were elected in 2002.
Berkley had $82,359 worth of travel, the study said. The study said she traveled for 51 days on nine trips since Jan. 1, 2000, often with her husband, to places including New York; Taiwan; India; Barcelona, Spain; and two trips each to Greece and Israel.
According to the study, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., ranked 289th, with $14,954 in trips. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., ranked 332nd with $12,235 worth of trips. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., ranked 408th with $6,874 worth of trips. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., ranked 536th with $1,248 in travel.
Nevada was the fifth most popular lawmaker destination, largely due to trips made by lawmakers to Las Vegas to visit Yucca Mountain, the proposed site of a national nuclear waste dump. The nuclear industry lobby group Nuclear Energy Institute paid for most of the trips.
The Medill study found that overall, private groups paid nearly $14.4 million for 4,851 trips for lawmakers in the last four and a half years. Critics say the trips allow lobby groups to buy access to lawmakers that typical citizens cannot afford. But the lobby groups say the trips cannot buy votes and they offer lawmakers invaluable education on issues while saving taxpayer money.
Some lawmakers took no trips. Rep. Tom Bliley, R-Va., took the most expensive trip in the Medill study, a $31,000 trip to England in July 2000 paid for by Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corp.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 28, 2004
Letter: Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., says she spends "a good part of her day" fighting the Yucca Mountain Project.
Please, Rep. Berkley, spend your time doing more productive things like working to improve Nevada's education, health care, infrastructure, and water issues instead of trying to kill 1,600 mostly high-tech, non-gaming Southern Nevada jobs. And to all Nevada politicians, Democrat and Republican: Quit using Yucca Mountain as a bogeyman. The shrieking, Chicken Little arguments are getting tired.
According to a recent Review-Journal poll, 3 percent of Nevadans think it's the most important issue in the upcoming election. The other 97 percent say your time is much better applied somewhere else.
Fred DeSousa
Las Vegas
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Washington Times
September 28, 2004
Redford blasts Bush on green issues
Vegas, NV, Sep. 28 (UPI) -- Movie star Robert Redford has hit out at President Bush for endangering the environment, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported.
The paper said Redford blasted the president and his advisers in a speech last week at Las Vegas' Rainbow Library amphitheater for allowing oil, gas and coal-fired companies to drag their feet on complying with federal clean air and water legislation at the expense of the environment.
Redford, 67, has been a prominent environmental activist for 30 years. He also criticized Bush for pushing ahead with the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project in Nevada despite legal concerns over the radiation protection standard.
"When you narrow it down to specifics like Yucca Mountain and Yucca flat you've got to be kidding," Redford said. "The consequence is toxic and it's toxicity that's not going to go away overnight."
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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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