Yucca Mountain News Clips
Thursday, October 28, 2004
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Las Vegas SUN
October 28, 2004

Old nuke waste shipped to Nevada

Associated Press

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. -- About 429,000 gallons of radioactive wastes have been retrieved from old storage tanks on the Oak Ridge nuclear research and weapons reservation and shipped to Nevada since January, officials said Wednesday.

Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., praised the Department of Energy and contractor Foster Wheeler Environmental Corp. for their efforts in beginning to remove some of Oak Ridge's hottest and nastiest wastes dating to its Manhattan Project creation a half century ago.

"Working closely together, DOE and Foster Wheeler were able to successfully clean up this very hazardous material," he said. "The end result is an excellent outcome for Tennessee and a model for other DOE projects."

Foster Wheeler built a $76 million processing plant to handle the project, which ultimately could involve up to 700 shipments of nuclear waste to long-term disposal sites in Nevada and New Mexico.

Wednesday's ceremony marked the first of four milestones in the process -- the safe completion of 97 shipments of low-level radioactive waste, known as Supernate, to the Nevada Test Site.

Later, the Oak Ridge plant will begin processing and packaging transuranic or highly radioactive wastes, such as plutonium and californium. They will be sent to the Waste Isolation Plant, an underground disposal facility in Carlsbad, N.M. -

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Arizona Daily Sun
October 28, 2004

Yucca Mountain tour underscores Flag challenge

Larry Hendricks
Sun Staff Reporter

YUCCA MOUNTAIN, Nev. -- At the top, cold wind cuts to the bone. Creosote bush grabs defiantly to parched soils of a dozen different shades of brown. Desolation abounds in spartan splendor.

The nearly three dozen visitors from Coconino County stare in one direction last Tuesday morning at the Nevada Test Site, where hundreds of atomic bombs have been detonated over the years. In another direction, they see a mountain range that shrouds Groom Lake, also known as Area 51, in mystery. Death Valley is beyond another mountain range to the southwest.

And 1,000 feet below them, through dense and sometimes porous volcanic rock called "tuff," a 5-mile tunnel runs through the mountain. They stand on the site proposed (but yet to be licensed to operate) as a repository of all high-level radioactive waste in the country.

Three Flagstaff elected officials are among the crowd atop Yucca Mountain. Based on what they've heard by staff under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy, they said the repository appears to be a done deal. What concerns them is not the safety of the repository itself, which has more than a decade of scientific study to its credit, but the fact that tons of the radioactive waste to be stored here -- tentatively scheduled to begin in 2010 -- will have to come through Coconino County and Flagstaff to get here.

Mayor Joe Donaldson took the trip for a better understanding of the repository. "I know enough now to take a solid position on it," he said, adding that he supports the site's completion.

"Doesn't it make sense to bring (high-level radioactive waste) to one location? It certainly does to me," Donaldson said. "There has to be some place for it."

According to information from DOE, nearly 50,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste sit in 131 locations in 39 states. All of that material is above ground and within 75 miles of more than 160 million citizens, posing vast environmental hazard and making the material potentially vulnerable to sabotage or theft. Yucca Mountain is an effort to put all of that radioactive waste in one spot, deep under ground.

If Yucca Mountain gets licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to be built and operate, tons of deadly radioactive waste will be transported by rail or by truck through Coconino County and Flagstaff.

Jim Driscoll, emergency services coordinator for Coconino County, said the trip was organized for the benefit of the county's Local Emergency Planning Committee as part of the federal Community Right-to-Know Act. The LEPC is responsible for developing local hazardous material plans, and the act requires that communities to be informed of all hazardous materials that go into and through a community -- including high-level radioactive waste.

The Flagstaff Fire Department has radiation response capability, Driscoll said. The county also has hazardous materials emergency response plans in place, to include radioactive waste. And radioactive waste of a much lower level than the waste proposed to be stored at Yucca Mountain already gets transported through the city on a regular basis to a low-level nuclear waste site near Carlsbad, N.M.

"Our main concern is transport, and the transport of those materials through Coconino County," Driscoll said. "(The Yucca trip) gives us the opportunity to see the safety measures for its storage."

Among the agencies that sent staff on the trip were the Coconino County Department of Health Services, Flagstaff Medical Center, Flagstaff Fire Department, Flagstaff Police Department, Coconino County Sheriff's Office, Williams Police Department and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.

Transportation safety is what concerns Donaldson and city councilmembers Karen Cooper and Kara Kelty, who also took the trip to Yucca Mountain. During the trip, Donaldson began planning with Driscoll on setting up a demonstration in the near future for city residents to see how high-level radioactive waste will be transported through the city.

Cooper said her next order of business on the issue is to get busy educating herself on who to lobby for railroad and highway safety and maintenance to ensure deadly loads like those going to Yucca Mountain make it to their destination.

Although transportation issues were addressed and information was made available by the DOE contractor (see related story), the focus of the tour was on the safety of the repository and how much money was spent on the project so far: in excess of $5 billion.

Kelty said the tour had a "propaganda feeling." Cooper characterized the tour as a "concerted selling effort."

Donaldson, Cooper and Kelty all said they were impressed with the amount of study and science that has gone into the project. The trip has increased their knowledge about the project and their ability to talk about the project with Flagstaff residents.

The tour began with a visit to the Yucca Mountain Science Center, located in downtown Las Vegas. The center contains volumes of literature about the site and has dozens of displays on how the site is supposed to work. The displays explain how nuclear reactors work, why Yucca Mountain is a good choice for a repository, how a repository would work -- and how radioactive materials would be transported to the repository.

Max Powell, with the company Bechtel, the contractor for DOE, acted as tour guide for the group.

"It's the most studied piece of real estate in the world," he said during the two-hour bus ride across the Nevada desert from Las Vegas.

That study has focused on storing, for at least 10,000 years, high-level radioactive waste, Powell said. That waste includes used nuclear fuel rods from civilian power plants and military vessels and material left over from making nuclear weapons.

In the early 1980s, Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which made the federal government responsible for the waste. To fund the creation of a national repository, citizens who used power from nuclear power plants were taxed on the electricity used, creating a surplus of more than $20 billion to find a site, conduct studies, build a repository, operate it until full, then monitor it. The military portion of the waste will be covered in the federal budget.

Currently, there is about 50,000 tons of solid radioactive waste slated to make the journey to a repository, Powell said. The Yucca Mountain project makes accommodation for more than 70,000 tons of waste, and if it becomes operational, will remain open, at present calculations, for approximately 25 years, with approximately 175 rail and truck shipments to the site per year.

Because there is no railway to the site, more than 300 miles of track will have to be laid. And roads will have to be paved for trucks bearing shipments of waste.

Powell said the U.S. government was to take possession of all radioactive waste to be placed in a national repository by 1998. That did not happen, and several companies that operate nuclear power plants have sued for breach of contract.

Several sites in eight states were selected for study. That number was reduced to one in 1987 -- Yucca Mountain, Powell said.

Although President George Bush has approved Yucca Mountain to be developed, the site must still get a license to build and operate from the NRC. The license application is anticipated to be submitted in December. After that come years of public hearings on the public safety and environmental impacts the site might pose.

Critics have already voiced opposition to Environmental Impact Statements for the site that only went out 10,000 years into the future. The lifespan of the danger posed by radioactive material is much, much longer.

If the license is granted, DOE anticipates the first shipments of radioactive material to arrive in 2010.

If the license is not granted, the site will be abandoned, Powell said. The ball will be back in the court of Congress to decide what to do next.

The site currently consists of a huge 5-mile tunnel bored into Yucca Mountain at a depth of 1,000 feet. The tour stopped at the south end of the tunnel, called the south portal, to view the huge 25-foot diameter drilling machine used to bore the hole over a three-year period.

Bruce Reinert, an engineer with the Los Alamos Test Lab, who met the tour at the north portal into the mountain, said the north portal will be where rail and truck shipments will deposit the radioactive waste for storage.

Because the tunnel was undergoing maintenance, the tour was not allowed inside.

Reinert explained the scientific study that has gone into the site.

"Our main enemy in the mountain is water," Reinert said. The type of rock, coupled with the areas slight rainfall, and making the containers that hold the nuclear material out of material that is nearly impossible to corrode will ensure that the water table 1,000 feet below the repository doesn't get contaminated. T

The geology of the mountain is also stable with very few fault lines for water to flow into the water table, which is a slow moving, ancient body of water that is not used by the closest population centers. The area is not prone to earthquakes or vulcanism.

Another concern is the heat, Reinert said. When radioactive material breaks down, it creates heat as a by-product.

"We're really going to heat the mountain up," Reinert said.

For instance, inside the tunnels where the waste is to be kept, the temperature is expected to increase to 212 degrees Fahrenheit -- the boiling point of water -- and will stay that way for hundreds of years. Such heat will increase the surface temperature at the top of the mountain by 1 degree. A section of the tunnel has been fitted with heaters to simulate the effect of the heat on the rock. So far, so good, Reinert said.

Needless to say, people will not be able to enter the tunnels where the waste is stored after they are sealed, which will require robotic monitoring to ensure that no breaches of the containers occur, Reinert said.

After the tour, Donaldson said that the presentations about the testing affirms for him the quality of the work that has gone into the site, and he is satisfied Yucca Mountain appears to be, at this time, the best place to put the repository.

Cooper said she was impressed, and sometimes startled, by the frank explanations of the testing that has gone into the site. She expressed concern about the theories and the methodologies that spanned a 10,000-year period without mention of differing thoughts on alternative concepts to treat the waste -- like reprocessing it.

Kelty said she was impressed by the ingenuity of the science used to address the problem of what to do with the nuclear waste.

"But at the same time, I was disheartened by the path this ingenuity put us on," Kelty said.

She said she felt that during the tour the issue of controlling the use of energy through sustainable living was not addressed. Instead, the project, to her, appeared an effort to ensure unrelenting use of energy.

There are already plans in place for the repository to grow and stay open hundreds of years longer, according to DOE contractor staff on the tour. And at some point in the future, the issue of what to do with nuclear waste will have to be addressed again.

Reporter Larry Hendricks can be reached at lhendricks@azdailysun.com or 556-2262.

On the web at: www.ymp.gov

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Las Vegas SUN
October 27, 2004

Kerry makes late push in Nevada

By Kirsten Searer
<searer@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas SUN

Sen. John Kerry, in a late-in-the-game swing through Las Vegas, told a crowd of at least 8,000 at Jaycee Park on Tuesday that President Bush has lost allies, lost jobs and racked up a deficit.

"George Bush has not made America safer," Kerry said. "I will."

This was Kerry's seventh trip to the state since February, and he joked that he saw a guy holding up a sign that said, "You again?"

Most polls give Bush a small advantage in Nevada, though Kerry's visit -- and reports that President Clinton will come to town Friday -- show the campaign thinks the state is still in play.

Kerry implored his supporters to give their everything in the next week before Tuesday's election, even asking them to approach people in stores to ask who they're voting for and why.

"I need you to have my back the next seven days," he said. "I need you to have my back on Tuesday."

In return, he said, "I'll be able to look you in the eye and tell you everyday for the next four years, 'I've got your back.' "

The worst lie Bush has told to Nevadans, Kerry said, was that he would evaluate sound science before proceeding with the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, a project that Kerry has vowed to stop because of concerns it would not be safe.

"He promised you he wouldn't go ahead with Yucca Mountain unless it was safe," Kerry said. "I tell you, Nevada, not on my watch."

Kerry continued to hammer the Bush administration on reports that a huge cache of explosives were lost in Iraq and could play into the hands of terrorists.

Similar explosives were used to take down Pan Am Flight 103 and to attack the USS Cole, he said.

The Iraqi interim government had said this month that the explosives were lost to theft and looting because they weren't secured by U.S. troops. It's another example of how Bush didn't sent in enough troops to fight the war in Iraq while protecting the border and weapons there, Kerry said.

Bush officials fought back against those charges on Tuesday.

In the morning, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said at a Green Valley rally that the explosives that were in Iraq showed that the country had dangerous weapons that needed to be dealt with.

Shortly after Kerry started his speech, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., interrupted him to say that a high school classmate of his has decided to vote for Kerry even though he is a Republican.

The man has three grandchildren with juvenile diabetes, and he wants the federal government to support stem cell research, Reid said.

Later, Kerry called Bush's decision to not extensively fund stem cell research an "insult."

Actors Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, and Christopher Reeve, who recently passed away from complications of his quadriplegia, know that, Kerry said.

"We are going to do stem cell research and find the cures to diabetes, Parkinson's and other diseases," Kerry said.

After Kerry's speech, buses and vans transported supporters to early voting sites. America Coming Together, a third-party group opposed to Bush, recruited supporters outside to do last-minute grass-roots work for $10 an hour.

Supporters behind Kerry unfolded a sign that said, "Like father like son, one term you're done." Signs passed out in the crowd read, "Seven more days to a fresh start."

Before leaving Las Vegas, Kerry took time out on the tarmac to play a lengthy game of catch with personal aide Marvin Nicholson.

The men traded suit coats for baseball mitts and threw a baseball for some time as secret service agents, police officers, and a bank of photographers looked on.

Kerry then thanked the motorcycle officers who had led his motorcade. With a wave he boarded the campaign's Boeing 757.

The plane -- a large American flag painted on its side and "The Real Deal" slogan painted on its engines -- took off from McCarran International Airport at about 5 pm.

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Nevada Appeal
October 28, 2004

Carson High School students do video interview with Reid

Maggie O'Neill

In an exciting day Wednesday for Carson High School's video production class, senior David Barragan quickly checked sound and his camera one last time as Sen. Harry Reid entered the recording room to take questions from five Carson High School students.

"I'm stoked," Barragan said.

Seniors John Gradert, Kerri Hickenbottom, Charlie Macquarie, Samantha Boykin and Jaime Bourns proceeded to ask Reid, D-Nev., questions about the Iraq War, Yucca Mountain and Reid's endorsement of John Kerry.

Barragan focused his camera on Reid, while the other cameraman captured the interviews between the senator and each of the five students from the school's Advanced Placement American Government class.

"First of all, I'm a Democrat," Reid said. "That shouldn't be the reason I support John Kerry. How I see it, it's a situation where the president is trying to scare us. You have another candidate who is basing his campaign on hope. You have fear versus hope and you have to go with hope."

He said that President Bush misled the American people and that there were no terrorists in Iraq until after the war started.

"This is one of the most important elections in my lifetime," he said. "It's a question of what's best for our country."

Reid answered questions for about 25 minutes and then left the production room to take more questions from the rest of the American government class waiting in video production teacher Brian Reedy's room.

A third cameraman responsible for following Reid during the visit set up his camera in the classroom. Barragan leaned against a counter in the back of the classroom, his work done for now.

"Occasionally, the audio would go on and off," he said. "But it went off without a hitch."

The tape will be edited and shown at the school next week.

Contact reporter Maggie O'Neill at mo'neill@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.

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Reno Gazette-Journal

Silver, sunshine states share election priorities

Doug Abrahms

WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush and Democrat John Kerry are running close in a state with a surging population, a tourist-dependent economy and ballot measures to raise the minimum wage and cap medical malpractice damages.

Yes, that state is Nevada. But Florida fits that description, too.

Florida had the third-fastest-growing population last year, behind Nevada and Arizona, according to Census Bureau data.

“Like Nevada, the retired people in Florida tend to be healthier and wealthier than those in other states,’ said Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida.

Still, Florida´s economy took a hit after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks curtailed air travel, and Floridians say the economy is the most important issue in the presidential race, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Oct. 21.

Each of the dozen or so battleground states expected to decide who wins the presidential race has its own distinct issues, such as nuclear waste dumping in Nevada, milk prices in Wisconsin and oil drilling on public lands in New Mexico.

But polls and political experts agree that the big issues tend to be the same, to varying degrees: the Iraq war, the economy, terrorism and health care.

Nevada´s unique issue is the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. Bush supports it. Kerry opposes it.

Although most Nevada politicians of both parties are united in their opposition to becoming home to much of the nation´s nuclear waste, it isn´t known how much Yucca Mountain will sway Nevadans´ vote.

In the dairy state of Wisconsin, another state where Kerry and Bush are running close, keeping price supports for milk is an important local issue, said Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor. Wisconsin is the second-largest milk producer behind California.

But out of the 14,000 television ads that have run in the state in the first two weeks of October, none has mentioned milk prices, Franklin said.

Though the upper Midwest state lost 80,000 manufacturing jobs in the first half of the Bush administration, the employment picture has improved lately, he said.

“Wisconsin has actually recovered faster than other states,’ Franklin said. “So the (jobs) issue hasn´t had quite the bite in the state that it might have.’

But in Ohio, which has 20 electoral votes, the economy is expected to play a big role in voters´ choice for president, said Susan Kay, a political science professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

“Specifically, it seems to be the issues of jobs,’ she said. “That´s probably top on everyone´s minds.’

The war in Iraq and terrorism comes in a close second, followed by health care, according to a poll from the University of Cincinnati released Oct. 21. Ohio also has a ballot amendment to ban gay marriages, which should motivate conservative Christians, Kay said.

“And the flu vaccine issue is kicking in big time,’ she said.

Voters are starting to ask why the United States can import flu vaccines from Canada but not cheaper prescription drugs, she said.

In Pennsylvania, voters concerned about homeland security and the war on terror are leaning toward Bush, but Kerry leads on economic and health care issues as well as the situation in Iraq, said G. Terry Madonna, a political science professor at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa.

“The one thing we´re finding is that on war in Iraq, Kerry beats Bush decisively’ in Pennsylvania, he said.

New Mexico has a few environmental issues, including whether to open up some public lands to oil drilling, but those issues won´t be decisive in deciding the presidential vote, said Gilbert St. Clair, a University of New Mexico political science professor.

“The war, terrorism, state of the economy are the top three,’ he said.

New Mexicans have been deluged with ads; St. Clair said he saw five campaign ads run back to back on television this week.

A big unknown in the election remains the voters between 18 and 25 years old, he said. Many never have voted, and no one knows how many will turn out, he said.

They also rely on cell phones, which are not well sampled in most polls.

“We don´t know what their views are,’ St. Clair said.

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Reno Gazette-Journal
October 28, 2004

Gibbons has 3 opponents for congress

Anjeanette Damon

In his bid for a fifth term, U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Reno, is challenged by a politically unknown Democrat and two staunch third-party candidates who have decades-long careers as activists for their philosophies.

Running against Gibbons for Nevada's 2nd Congressional District are: Democrat Angie Cochran, a small-business owner from Pahrump; Independent American Party candidate Janine Hansen, of Reno; and Libertarian Brendan Trainor, of Reno.

The district includes nearly all of the state but parts of Clark County.

Cochran, 61, admits she hasn't done much campaigning. One week before the election, she said she was still trying to come up with a campaign slogan.

"We have kept very quiet," she said. "In the 3rd (congressional) District, they are going at each other like crazy. That just turns people off. You have to find a happy medium. My campaign is more word of mouth than anything. When you live in Nevada for 40 years, you know people."

Cochran was born in Mexico City and moved to the United States in the 1960s. She obtained her citizenship in 1978. But she's not campaigning as a Hispanic.

"I don't think we should label people in any category," she said. "Then they may dismiss you. They don't want to hear anything else about you."

Cochran narrowly won her primary against David Bennett, of Pahrump, by 460 votes.

She said she is running her campaign on middle-class values, saying elected politicians have created problems for working families, such as increasing health-care costs and an unfair tax code.

"All they do is squeeze the middle class," she said. "I am what (voters) want."

If he is reelected, Gibbons said he would continue to focus his attention on improving education, opposing the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository and strengthening national security. With a position on the House Intelligence Committee, Gibbons has been part of reforming the country's intelligence operations.

Gibbons also is working to reform how the No Child Left Behind Act is implemented. He said he would like to make it easier for students who don't speak English to be tested in their native language to better assess their strengths and progress.

"I also want to increase funding from the federal government to our schools," he said.

Gibbons launched a statewide ballot initiative that would force state lawmakers to fund the education budget before any other part of state government. Critics have said the initiative is a campaign ploy to increase Gibbons' name recognition for a purported run for governor in 2006.

Gibbons denies that.

"I did it because of the terrible mess that the prior Legislature put our education system in by holding our kids' education hostage," Gibbons said. "I have children. I have a child in public high school here, and I want the best education for him."

Gibbons, 59, is a combat pilot veteran of the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars and a former commercial airline pilot.

"I think I've done a good job and represented both the urban and rural areas of the state in a fashion I think accommodates the needs of the people that are in those area," he said. "I've been fair. I've worked hard, and I believe that I deserve a chance to represent them once again in Congress."

Hansen, 52, a lifelong anti-abortion and family values advocate, said the most important issue this year is closing American borders to illegal immigrants in an effort to protect the country from terrorism.

She proposes bringing "political pressures to bear" on Mexico to improve its economy and jobs situation, increasing funding for border patrols and prosecuting corporate executives whose companies employ illegal immigrants.

"We cannot protect Americans if we cannot protect our borders," Hansen said.

Hansen said she also supports tax-deductible Health Savings Accounts as way to make health care more affordable for Americans.

Although it is the state's largest third-party, the Independent American Party has not had a candidate elected to state office.

Hansen said that could change this year.

Since 2002, the Independent American Party has nearly doubled in size -- in Nevada growing from 15,776 registered voters two years ago to 31,517 this year. The party has grown at a faster rate than the state's overall voter registration, which increased only 23 percent during the same time period.

Her brother, Joel Hansen, a Las Vegas lawyer, is neck-and-neck in the polls in his race against Justice Michael Douglas for the Nevada Supreme Court.

"A lot of people are dissatisfied with the twin-party monopoly," she said. "We are working hard to build the party, now and for the future."

Trainor, 56, a Reno airline quality assurance manager, has consistently been on the ballot since the early 1990s, running for state Assembly and treasurer.

His perennial candidacy is "part of the reality of the movement," to keep the Libertarian Party on the ballot, he said.

But this year, beyond a fierce conviction in his party's doctrine, Trainor said that his opposition to the war in Iraq and the USA Patriot Act motivates him. And he doesn't believe Gibbons has done enough to hold the federal government to its Constitutional roots.

"He's supposed to be tax fighter, but he votes consistently for foreign aid," Trainor said. "And he was named porker of the month for sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Sparks swimming pool. He votes for omnibus tax bills all of the time, which create these large deficits.

"I'm a Libertarian for smaller government across the board, and I am socially very tolerant."

Trainor said he is a proven tax foe. He has voted against taxes on the Sparks Citizen Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations to the city council. He has helped defeat ballot measures that would have raised property taxes for a new fire station and courthouse.

Trainor said he is confident in his party's strategy for the four candidates running for federal office in Nevada.

"I'm on the same number of ballots as he is," Trainor said about his chances of beating Gibbons.

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QUESTIONS FOR THE CANDIDATES

1. What needs to happen in Iraq?

Cochran: In Iraq the things are escalating to forget about politics and oil. If we elect (President) Bush, it (escalates) into a holy war. The religion those people have is Islam. Islam is the personality, the government, the religion and the people. The way Bush is going about the business in Iraq, it´s like he´s using the name of God. We´re going to go there and use the name of God as the reason to be there. The reason we went over there was not terrorism. What Bush Jr., did, he just kept on the same track that his dad was on. So, who did we vote the son or the dad?

Gibbons: First of all, we need to increase Iraqi military capability for ensuring the security of Iraq from today and on. We need to have democracy established there. We need to ensure that elections take place and that they are fair elections. I believe once Iraq gets a hold of democracy, they will never let go. When you have a freedom-loving people they are a peace-loving people. I think the bottom line is, involving the Iraqi people in the security of their own country.

Hansen: Iraq is a disaster. We need to be sure that our troops that are there, that they have all the equipment that they need and we need to find an exit strategy. It is going to continue to degenerate into internal chaos and we can´t win under those circumstances when we don´t have the support of the native population. It is a breeding ground for anti-American terrorists. Our foreign policy has increased the risk to Americans, not decreased the risk of terror because of our intervention.

Trainor: I believe we should be pulling our troops out as soon as possible. The major concern should not be the political conditions in Iraq, it should be the logistical problems in getting our troops out safely in weeks, or a couple of months at the most. People say it might be chaos after that. There´s chaos now. Frankly, there doesn´t seem to be any real hope that there will be any viable elections in January. And that if there are real elections, then the Shiites, who form a majority, and the ayatollah will be the ones that actually take over there. That is not what the neocons envisioned when they said we´d be there and people would strew rose petals.

2. Should American consumers be able to import prescription drugs from Canada?

Cochran: If we vote for Bush, it will happen like what happened with the drugs. These people just line up with the big pockets, which is the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies. The lay person has no chance. I´m for the lay person. By electing people like Bush, we have problems that we shouldn´t.

Gibbons: Yes. They should be able to import drugs from anywhere, as long as the FDA can assure them that these drugs are safe. Once that takes place, I believe that importation of drugs should take place. Right now, we are seeing a lot of counterfeited drugs, and it´s difficult to get the FDA to know which drugs are counterfeited and which are safe. I think there´s a way to do that. They´re working on the process now, if it´s a known manufacturer of the drug, and it has proper security devices allowed on imported drugs, perhaps we may to do that. Right now it is in the realm and area the FDA is responsible for.

Hansen: The drug manufacturer monopoly is a disgrace. We believe in the free market. We can import everything else. We should be able to import drugs. Prohibiting the importation from Canada is just a protection for the drug companies and it hurts the American people.

Trainor: I think there´s a lot of reforms that we need with drugs and that is a matter of some debate even among Libertarians. We sell drugs at higher prices here to recoup the cost of research and development. A large part is the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA is a large bureaucracy that watches its rear end, and it delays the marketing of drugs far longer than in other countries. And it causes people to die in the meantime. What Libertarians would like to see is an end to the bureaucracy and the regulations surrounding the research and develop of drugs so they could be sold at a cheaper price in this country.

3. Do you support the proposed “temporary worker program’ for undocumented workers in the United States?

Cochran: I don´t think it is good for them or for us because for them they come and work, but they will never be citizens here. When they sign that contract they are saying, I´m coming to work but I will never be citizen of this country or even think about it.

Gibbons: We have a tremendous number of undocumented workers in this country right now. If we have the ability to know who they are, I think it is always better having unknown illegal immigrant here in this country. When you know who they are, then you have a better control over their entrance and exit. I do not support amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Hansen: Absolutely not. The proposal has increased the flow if illegal aliens by over 60 percent. We need to protect American jobs and protect the American taxpayer. We need to protect our borders and to use political means to discourage illegal aliens from coming here, not encourage them. That is what that does is encourage illegals to cross the border in hopes find amnesty.

Trainor: I don´t see how a Congress that can´t balance its budget is supposed to figure out how many people can come and work in this country. We´re very skeptical of laws that put a ceiling or floor on economic realities, and the labor market is an economic reality. It should be as easy as possible for people to come and work in this country. When you have free trade and people are able to produce goods and sell freely on our market, their economies will grow and they will stay home.

4. How should the federal budget deficit be addressed?

Cochran: Again, that deficit, I didn´t vote for (former President Bill) Clinton, but we didn´t have a deficit when Bush went in. All these things are byproduct of the people we put in office. How did Bush go to having a surplus to having a deficit? Then he keeps funneling money to rebuild a country, when some people go hungry here. In my mind, I just cannot believe anybody would vote for Bush.

Gibbons: The federal deficit is going to be addressed as soon as we have our military restructured and rebuilt to meet the needs of the 21st century threats. We are improving the economy in this country. As the economic conditions (improve), we will see great revenues coming into the federal government. Look at Nevada. Nevada has a tax surplus. That is because the economy is starting to boom. Once we get the needs of this country, the security of this country, in order, we will be on track to pay down the budget deficit. I do not believe in increasing taxes to adjust for that.

Hansen: We need to look at the limits placed on spending by our constitution, and we need to begin to follow those constitutional spending restraints. If we do that, there will be a lot of programs that we won´t be funding because they are unconstitutional. That´s the first thing we need to do.

Trainor: You have to cut spending. That is the main thing. We would like to see quite a bit of the federal bureaucracy disappear. We believe the market can replace it and do a better job. Federal bureaucracies are very often counterproductive. You might read about some good things they do, but you don´t read about the red tape and bureaucracy that cause delays and do a great deal of harm. We need to reduce the size of government. Most Libertarians say by at least 50 percent more — across the board, military and social spending.

5. Should the assault weapons ban be renewed?

Cochran: I don´t know that much to tell you about it, but I support the right to bare arms. Because if we don´t do it, the only ones who will have them will be the bad guys. They get them anyway.

Gibbons: No. I think the assault weapons ban is an enigma in the minds of people. When an illegal act takes place with firearms, these illegal acts are done by people who are not law-abiding citizens in the first place. They are able to access all kinds of weapons in this county. Those who say terrorists will have access to assault weapons and multi-round clips are just crying chicken little, the sky is falling. The assault weapon ban had a lot of unintended consequences. The biggest one is it violated the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Hansen: Absolutely not. I fully support the right to keep and bear arms of every law-abiding citizen for personal defense and as a right as an American citizen. The assault weapons ban was a fraud to begin with because they could bring in different parts of the gun separately and then put them together in the United States. Statistics show that where more guns are owned there is less crime. Where there´s more gun control there´s less crime. The assault weapons ban could cover things could be a deer rifle. I do not support it. It does not make us safer.

Trainor: No. We´re very strong supporters of the Second Amendment. The assault weapons ban was a feel-good ban. Basically, it banned semi-automatics that look like military rifles. John Kerry was holding one recently and not even noticing it. Very few crimes are committed with that gun. The Second Amendment is not about duck hunting or deer hunting. It´s about a weapon for home protection and making sure the government is not doing some thing really bad, like the Patriot Act, that encroaches on our liberties. It´s an insurance policy against the state.

6. Should the Bush tax cuts be extended, repealed or modified?

Cochran: My husband and I actually made money with that. But I am from the average person and if we keep on the way we are going, there only will be rich and poor and we´re not going to have a middle class.

Gibbons: Should be extended. They are working. We´ve had the shallowest recession in economic history because of the president´s tax cuts. The economy is becoming stronger. We´re putting more people back to work. We´re getting more companies to invest in jobs in this country and production and manufacturing. People are buying more because of the tax cuts. I believe the individual citizen in this country knows more about how to spend his dollar than does the federal government, 3,000 miles away.

Hansen: I believe in cutting taxes, but what I would do is abolish the IRS, which has become an abusive organization, which infringes on our constitutional rights of due process and right to trial by jury. The money the IRS collects goes almost entirely to pay the interest on the national debt. It doesn´t go to services all of us care about or constitutional government spending. We need to cut back the government to constitutional limits and cut wasteful government spending. Then we can cut taxes for all the American people, which would stimulate the American economy. We can´t do that unless we get out of the war in Iraq. America now has soldiers in 130 nations. If we plan to police the world at the expense of the American taxpayer, we will never be able to cut taxes or cut the deficit.

Trainor: I think those puny tax cuts need to be enlarged, but again you have to cut spending. Unfortunately, what we have now, is we have the tax-and-spend Democrats and the borrow-and-spend Republicans. We Libertarians, who are the low tax, liberals, don´t get much of a hearing.

7. Are the No Child Left Behind reforms working? Is that act adequately funded?

Cochran: I don´t think either one. I don´t think it is working. Education is such a tough thing, but so far, it hasn´t worked. I hope it does. Let's give it time.

Gibbons: Absolutely. No legislation is prefect when it comes out of Congress. Not even the legislation I write is perfect. Every little wrinkle in every legislative proposal has to be worked through. We´ve had problems with No Child Left Behind and I´ve been fortunate in getting the flexibility to deal with the problem of highly skilled teachers working in rural areas. One of the things we need to do is allow for a little more flexibility in testing students when they have a language deficiency. I do not want my kids to fall through a crack because we didn´t have accountability. I think Nevada parents are tired of school pushing children along and having low expectations of their kids. We need to be competitive in this world and only way is to have a strong education system and No Child Left Behind helps them. It is funded, we´re going to get more money from the federal government for Nevada this year to help teachers. I believe next year Nevada is going to get a little more than $400 million in federal aid for education, which is an enormous amount of money.

Hansen: Absolutely not. No Child Left Behind was the final federal takeover of our local schools. It is mired in bureaucracy and will not result in one child being able to read any better. It is an under-funded federal mandate and should have been rejected by the Nevada State Legislature. We should get the federal government out of education and return to local control of education, so that parents will have more influence on their child´s education. We should teach children to read with intensive systematic phonics so that children can learn to read in the first grade, instead of the failed systems that many of our schools use today. NCLB does not even expect children to be able to read until the third grade. The more federal mandates we have accepted in education the worse our schools have become. We don´t need the federal government telling how to educate our own children.

Trainor: I don´t think the federal government has a role in education. We can´t find in the constitution the authority for Congress to be involved in education. It should be strictly a state and local issue. We are generally in favor of school choice, parental choice in schools and alternatives to compulsory public education.

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Las Vegas Mercury
October 28, 2004

Backstory: Jonny-come-lately

By Michael Green

Recently, Jon Ralston suggested in the Las Vegas Sun that voters would be unwise if they voted early and didn't get the chance to watch Rep. Jon Porter debate challenger Tom Gallagher. Gallagher certainly would agree.

The debate was fascinating enough to divert our attention from a number of other political issues--a pro-Bush R-J poll that even Republicans discount; an Independent American judicial candidate doing well while his party spews racism and homophobia and claims judges and the 14th Amendment ruined the Constitution; George W. Bush's daily diet of lies and murder.

Oh, yeah, the debate. One cause for fascination--or consternation--was Porter answering Gallagher's charges that he marches in lockstep with other Republicans, who favor a waste dump. If my ears were working, he said--twice--he had stopped interim storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

First, Porter managed to pronounce the word correctly (new-clee-er) and as nucular, perhaps out of deference to fellow Republicans in the White House and governor's mansion who can't say it. Second, his success in stopping interim storage must have been news to the rest of Nevada's congressional delegation, whose members might think they had something to do with it, too. Even the press release that Porter's office issued on the subject mentioned the efforts of his House colleague, Jim Gibbons.

Another oddity was what seems to be a Porter campaign strategy that Gallagher handled well but really could have beaten to a bloody pulp. Several times, Porter mentioned living here for 26 years while Gallagher has lived in Nevada just seven years and rented a house in Henderson so he could run for Congress.

Porter changed districts in 2000 to run against Rep. Shelley Berkley, but that's beside the point. So are the ads referring to Porter as "our mayor." He was mayor of Boulder City, a wonderful community, but not exactly the entire valley. It almost makes him sound like he was Oscar Goodman's predecessor.

Understandably, Porter might prefer not to be specific about such topics. Besides, who would know? Probably those who have lived here a long time--like Porter.

That's why Porter asked Gallagher about the Santini-Burton Act, an important piece of public lands legislation from more than two decades ago. Gallagher handled the question well, saying he didn't know what it was, but it was more important to know about "the things that matter" to voters. Porter's goal was to show Gallagher as a Johnny-come-lately to Nevada.

It isn't the first time something like this has happened and won't be the last. In 1991, running for the Las Vegas City Council, Frank Hawkins asked opponent Nicole Stupak where City Hall was. She didn't know. That hurt her chances. Maybe Porter hoped Gallagher would say the Santini-Burton Act used to open for Siegfried & Roy.

One of the classic campaigns in Nevada history was the 1952 Democratic Senate primary. Alan Bible was the frontrunner, for good reason: He was a lifelong Nevadan, a former attorney general and the political protege of Sen. Pat McCarran, the state's most powerful man.

Tom Mechling challenged Bible. He had some Nevada connections: His father-in-law was a longtime Elko businessman and politico. But most Bible supporters saw him as a carpetbagger, a term coined after the Civil War to describe Northerners who moved to the South--some, as their critics claimed, to make money. But some came because they legitimately wanted to help a defeated region overcome its horrible legacy of slavery and ex-slaves to enjoy their basic rights.

Carpetbaggers enjoyed some success. So did Mechling: He beat Bible in the primary. He lost in the general election, because he kept attacking McCarran despite belonging to the same party, then tried to make peace with McCarran's supporters by offering to sell out to them. But even in 1952, many Nevadans were recent arrivals. Southern Nevada's population had tripled in the past decade. They resented the attitude that as newcomers--carpetbaggers--they had no business expressing their views.

Indeed, since the Santini-Burton bill passed, Nevada's population has just about tripled. That's why Gallagher should have responded to Porter with this answer, provided free of charge:

Jon, I admit I don't know about that legislation. But this is part of your effort to show I'm a newcomer to Nevada because I've only lived here seven years. In those seven years, our population has grown by several hundred thousand. You think someone has to live here a long time to have a say in what goes on here. Unlike you, I think if you live in Nevada, you have the right to have a voice in Nevada.

The irony is obvious. In 1926, the Las Vegas Review got a new editor, Al Cahlan, who once complained that a ruling elite ran his old stomping grounds in Reno. A quarter-century later, he was unhappy when a recent arrival, Hank Greenspun, challenged the R-J's primacy with the Sun. Maybe in 25 years, Gallagher will be lamenting these newcomers.

That reminds me. On Nov. 1, my family celebrates an anniversary. On that day in 1967, we moved here from California. I was 2 and had little say in the matter. But as a 37-year resident, I wish newcomers like Jon Porter would let the people who have lived here a while run the state.

Correction: Last week's column referred to Assemblywoman Kathy McClain's "exoneration" for double-dipping during the 2003 legislative session. While an arbitrator held that she should be reinstated, she was suspended without pay for four months.

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Modesto Bee

JIM HIGHTOWER: Victories for the people and against the powerful

(SH) - For those who sit around whining that the Powers That Be are just too powerful, so there's no use even bothering with battling - take note and take heart in not one, not two, but three big court victories by grassroots battlers.

First is a coalition of environmental and citizen groups in the West Virginia area that has been battling the coal industry giants. For years, these groups have been trying to stop the industry from using a devastating, disgusting, and just plain dumb mining practice called "mountaintop removal."

Instead of tunneling into the mountains to get at the coal, the corporations simply blow up the top third of the mountains, shove the rubble into valleys and streams below, then scoop out the coal. Not only is this unbelievably destructive, but, thanks to the coalition's determined push, a federal judge has now ruled that the permitting process that rubber stamps this abomination is illegal.

Next, a never-say-die coalition of environmental groups and Nevada officials have stunned the nuclear-power giants who had concocted a cockamamie scheme to bury all of America's high-level nuclear waste in Nevada's Yucca Mountain. The cockamamie part is that this is an earthquake zone, the standards for protecting the public from long-term radiation leaks are absurdly inadequate, and the hot stuff would be hauled for years on trucks and trains running right through our population centers. Now a federal appeals court has ruled in favor of the coalition, at least slowing this corporate rush to nuclear-powered insanity.

Third, a coalition of community radio broadcasters and citizen groups took on the media giants that had gotten lapdog regulators to let the giants grow ever larger, shrinking media competition, diversity, and our democracy. But now, a federal appeals court has ruled against the media Goliaths - in favor of the local Davids.

These battles are far from over, but grassroots forces are winning!

Jim Hightower is the author of "Thieves In High Places: They've Stolen Our Country And It's Time To Take It Back," (Viking Press).

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Tri-City Herald
October 28, 2004

K Basins fuel project overcomes hurdles

This story was published Thursday, October 28th, 2004

Even the most strident Pollyanna couldn't describe progress at Hanford's K Basins as an unqualified success.

Efforts to remove spent nuclear fuel from the leak-prone ponds has chronically trailed behind schedule and hundreds of millions over budget.

Fines associated with the project have cost Fluor Hanford more than $1.2 million. The company lost hundreds of thousands more in potential award fees because of problems.

And cleanup isn't complete. Dealing with contaminated equipment and removal of the deadly sludge that lines the bottom of the basins is expected to take until 2008.

Despite that imperfect record, it's doubtful anyone could have completed the task of fuel removal any better. Fluor, especially the workers who actually retrieved the highly radioactive fuel, deserve the community's gratitude.

Here's what they accomplished: The removal of 2,300 tons of irradiated fuel, containing 50 million curies of radioactivity, from the banks of the Columbia River.

The risk posed by the ponds wasn't just some scary prediction. About 15 million gallons of radioactively contaminated water had leaked from K Basin East into a patch of ground that sits just 400 yards from the river.

The fuel is destined for permanent disposal at the federal repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., if that facility ever opens. For now, it's now safely stored nine miles from the Columbia River.

Getting the fuel there meant not only overcoming complex technical challenges, but also the bureaucratic whiplash that seems ingrained in the Department of Energy's culture.

It's an atmosphere that's toxic to the concept of consistency. Presidential politics guarantee a re-evaluation of priorities at least every eight years and sometimes after four. The churn of contractors and contractor management occurs at a frequently dizzying pace.

We're in the fourth administration since President Reagan's White House originally negotiated environmental restoration plans for Hanford.

The turnover of contractors leading the K Basins job has almost kept pace with the changing politics. Planning for the effort started with Westinghouse Hanford and moved to DE&S Hanford, operating as a subcontractor to Fluor. Finally Fluor pushed DE&S out and took over the job.

Problems grew so troubling by the mid-1990s that the U.S. House of Representatives launched an investigation into the K Basins. They found the initial budget process unrealistic and the projections overly optimistic. No wonder the price tag of $1.4 billion was nearly twice the original estimate.

Testimony before the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House Commerce Committee revealed that the pressure from DOE to hold down cost estimates was so great that Westinghouse wasn't even allowed to include contingencies in its spending plan.

That's an absurd way to prepare a budget for a one-of-a-kind project in a potentially deadly environment.

Predictably, the unpredictable happened.

Among the unexpected obstacles was fuel corroded so badly that it fused to metal storage baskets, fuel so fragile that it fell apart at the touch of a retrieval tool and mystery fuel from an unknown source and of unknown content.

Certainly, Fluor is not above criticism for the debacle that the K Basins project temporarily became, but any fair assessment has to consider that many of the hurdles the company faced weren't of its own making.

And in the final analysis, Fluor got the fuel moved. An imminent threat to the environment and public safety is greatly reduced as a result.

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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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