Yucca Mountain News Clips - Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Yucca Mountain News Clips
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
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Reno Gazette-Journal
November 22, 2004

Yucca Mountain will solve a national concern

Ed Rugg

Nevadans should consider the storage facility at Yucca Mountain to be of national concern and an opportunity to help solve a conflict which can be an economic asset via the state´s labor pool. This installation would alleviate the need for hundreds of small repositories now located near operating nuclear plants in the eastern United States, each of which is a potential target for terrorists. The need for protecting only one storage site should simplify security requirements.

The population density in the Great Basin is minuscule compared to that in the eastern states where more than half of the country´s residents live within 70-75 miles of operating nuclear plants and their attendant spent fuel storage. These people are constantly in harm´s way under Nevada politicians´ criteria for radiation risk. The power generated there is part of the national grid and contributes to the electrical needs of hundreds of factories and other industrial activities which produce goods for the entire country.

Great Basin residents should appreciate the advantages of extensive “wasteland’ and the absence of large perennial streams. These features are providing elbow room and low density human recreational activity. Acceptance of the spent fuel would be a small sacrifice in return for a lifestyle blessed with little factory pollution and no nuclear plants. The spent fuel is not waste and at some future time could be recycled and used. Only two or three percent of the latent energy in the fuel rods has been exhausted.

Of valid concern is the stability of the shipping canisters. This is a tangible problem that can be solved with proper engineering techniques. Solutions to canister design and their manufacture locally could be of economic value to the state. The emphasis on the hazards of transporting radioactive material has affected negative reactions in several states. The few recorded incidents involving spent fuel have reported no fatalities. Hazards in transporting and storing radioactive material have been equated with active reactors and exploding bombs, but it is a misleading concept. Risks pale in comparison with the thousands of deaths annually from highway accidents, social conflicts, and health-related illnesses nationwide. It is illogical to consider hypothetical accidents or contamination during the next 10,000 or 100,000 years hence being more serious than those already existent in the same general area as a result of hundreds of previous atom bomb tests.

After the expenditure of billions of dollars, it seems improbable that additional scientific studies would be productive. The state refused to accept millions in federal funds with which to conduct its own technical appraisal of the area at a time when it would have been economically expedient. A separate State-sponsored study might have opposed the feds conclusions, but probably have had no effect on their decision.

Spreading fear and panic by continuing with a 50-year old political football game is no solution. There are other problems within the state, such as overdevelopment and the currently active diminution of the groundwater resource, which deserve more immediate attention than an impalpable radiation hazard.

Ed Rugg is a 28-year Reno resident, mining engineer and consultant, and concerned citizen.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
November 24, 2004

Guessing begins on Sandoval successor

Guinn looking for someone who plans to run for election

By Erin Neff
Review-Journal

Gov. Kenny Guinn said the state's fight against the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain is too important to place a "caretaker" at the helm of Nevada's legal efforts.

Thus, Guinn said Tuesday he intends to appoint an attorney general next spring who will stand for election in 2006.

"We need consistency," Guinn said in an interview. "Having someone come in just for one year wouldn't work."

Guinn probably will get to appoint an attorney general next spring, when first-term Republican Brian Sandoval is expected to win a federal judgeship.

Sandoval has been nominated by Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev. Sandoval has the support of President Bush and has been cleared through Homeland Security investigations.

Guinn, who with Sandoval co-chaired Bush's campaign in Nevada, said he intends to appoint a fellow Republican to the post.

"The people voted a Republican in the last time," Guinn said of Sandoval's 2002 election. "This time around I'll appoint a Republican. Certainly, I'm a Republican, and it's my obligation to my party."

Guinn said he is not in a hurry to consider potential appointees, because he does not expect Sandoval will leave office until April or later.

The governor said one person has already called his office to inquire about the position. He wouldn't name that person.

The list of potential replacements for Sandoval dwindled with Guinn's assertion he will nominate a Republican. Democrats had suggested Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, would have served well in the role had Guinn opened the appointments to those of other parties.

Joe Brown, Nevada's Republican National Committeeman, said one logical candidate that springs to mind is Gaming Control Board member Scott Scherer.

A former chief of staff to Guinn, Scherer made an unsuccessful bid for the office in 1998, losing to Democrat Frankie Sue Del Papa. He has close ties to the state's gaming industry and probably could mount a successful fund-raising drive, Brown said.

"It's something I would consider," Scherer said. "After '98, I sort of moved on and got the politics out of my blood. So to meet the governor's criteria of running for the position, I'd have to talk to my family about it."

One person who has expressed interest to party leaders about the position is Las Vegas attorney Stan Parry. He is a partner in Curran & Parry and is a former legal adviser to the Clark County Commission.

Others being touted for the job are state Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, and former state Assemblyman Greg Brower. Amodei is an attorney with Kummer Kaempfer Bonner and Renshaw in Carson City, and Brower is now the inspector general for U.S. Printer Bruce James, a Nevada Republican appointed by President Bush.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger, a Republican, also is being touted in Southern Nevada as a potential appointee.

"I think the governor's going to get a lot of names," Brown said. "But I also think Brian might recommend some of his talented deputies for the position."

Another attorney with ties to Guinn, his general counsel Keith Munro, probably would not be interested in running for office, the governor said.

"We need Keith here," Guinn added.

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Elko Daily Free Press
November 24, 2004

Trails center gets $1.5 million

By ADELLA HARDING
Free Press

ELKO - The final funding package Congress passed late last week contains $1.5 million for the California Trail center planned for Elko, U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., announced.

Gibbons said he was pleased the bill contained significant funding for Nevada programs, but he had voted against it because the bill "continues to fund the misguided Yucca Mountain Project."

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., had earlier announced that the Senate had approved the funding, but the trails money later became part of the omnibus appropriations bill.

The $1.5 million is part of an allocation of up to $12 million that Congress approved for the $15 California National Historic Interpretive Center, which will be built at the Hunter exit off Interstate 80.

The center also is receiving $6 million in state and local contributions for the project, including $3 million from the Nevada Legislature, $2 million from the city of Elko and $1 million from Elko County.

The county is constructing the road to the site as an in-kind contribution, and the work had been scheduled to start last month while U.S. Bureau of Land Management Director Kathleen Clarke was in Elko for a trail center ceremony.

But the work has been delayed, David Jamiel, the assistant California Trail center manager for the BLM's Elko office, said today. BLM is managing construction of the project and will operate the center.

"They hope to do it in the spring," Jamiel said.

He said plans are still on track for letting construction bids for the facility in August 2005, with work to begin shortly after a contractor is chosen.

"The opening date will be late spring or early summer of 2007," Jamiel said.

He also said he and Dale Porter would be updating the Elko City Council on the trail center project this evening. Porter is one of the local residents who spearheaded the effort to build a trail center in this area.

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Las Vegas SUN
November 23, 2004

DOE's schedule change could benefit Nevada

By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Nevada feels a little less pressure now that it is clear the Yucca Mountain project's license application is still a few months off.

There is still a lot of work ahead in the fight against storing 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste in the state, but based on the Energy Department's announcements Monday, the state's attorneys have more time to work.

"Our scope of work has gone down dramatically," said Joe Egan, an attorney hired by the state to handle Yucca issues. "It's no longer an emergency in terms of timing."

The department said Monday it would not submit its license application for the proposed nuclear repository at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, next month as planned. The department also will not finish loading documents into the project's database until sometime next year.

The nuclear industry is "disappointed" said Steve Kraft, director of waste management at the Nuclear Energy Institute, but agrees that the department should not submit an incomplete application.

"If it is going to take them some extra time, then by all means let them take it," Kraft said. "We understand why and certainly would want them to get it right."

Margaret Chu, the director of the civilian radioactive waste program, told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the department would let it know about a new schedule for the license application sometime in February or early 2005.

She said she did not want to arbitrarily name a new date and run the risk of missing it too because that would undermine the department's credibility.

Chu said the delay was caused by a combination of an internal review of the draft application, the federal court decision throwing out the radiation protection standard and questions surrounding the project's documents.

Nevada has been waiting for the department to recertify its documents ever since a commission panel said the initial certification did not satisfy commission rules earlier this year. Once the department gets all it documents onto the network, Nevada has 90 days to go through it and get its own documents online.

The network is supposed to contain all documents related to work on the application, from lengthy technical documents to e-mails between department employees. Nevada can add any documents it feels the department did not include or that might help the state's challenges.

Egan and the state's other attorney can also fine tune those challenges and finish more technical work between now and whenever the department files the application.

Congress approved $2 million for the state's work on the project and $8 million for local governments, an increase from the state's $1 million and local government's $4 million received for fiscal year 2004.

Meanwhile observers on Monday were mulling how two new members of the five-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission might affect the Yucca project.

A deal that grew out of negotiations involving Reid, White House officials and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., would allow a top Reid aide, Greg Jaczko, to take one of the open seats on the commission as early as January. But Jaczko likely would be limited to a two-year stint unless Reid could somehow convince Bush to renominate him. And Jaczko would recuse himself from Yucca matters during his first year, under the agreement.

That means Jaczko also likely would be limited on Yucca topics in his official interactions with Nuclear Regulator Commission staffers, commission spokesman Scott Burnell said. Still, it likely would not necessarily bar him from having a private conversation with another commissioner, Burnell said.

Reid's compromise on Jaczko may be an early indication of how he plans to make good on a pledge to work toward compromises with the Bush administration, one observer said.

"It's consistent with what I understand to be Harry Reid's style," UNLV political science professor Ted Jelen said. "And that is that he is not one to provoke confrontation for its own sake."

Reid had been holding up 172 other nominations to federal posts, irking Republicans but ultimately earning Jaczko a seat, albeit with limits.

"I don't think he sold out," Jelen said. "It was probably the best he could do."

Reid believes the deal was a good one because the commission won't take much action on Yucca anyway in the next year, and because in two years Reid can fight to keep him on the commission, spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said.

Two anti-Yucca activists were reluctant to criticize the deal struck regarding Jaczko's nomination. But two others said they were disappointed.

The public suffers under the compromise, said Navin Nayak, environmental advocate at U.S. Public Interest Research Group, who tracks Yucca issues. The nuclear industry traditionally has had no trouble winning Senate approval for commissioners who likely support Yucca, but someone seen as possibly critical of the project now has to recuse himself from Yucca matters for a year, Nayak said.

"It's a pretty bad deal," Nayak said.

Pro-Yucca lawmakers have notably lessened the impact Jaczko could have on the commission, especially if he only serves two years, said Kevin Kamps, nuclear waste specialist with Nuclear Information and Resource Service. Pro-Yucca nuclear power industry leaders saw Jaczko as a real threat, he said.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
November 23, 2004

DOE revises Yucca schedule

Application won't be submitted by Dec. 31

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Still working out segments of an elaborate licensing plan, the Energy Department said Monday it will not meet its schedule to apply by the end of the year for approval to build a Nevada nuclear waste repository.

"We are revising our original goals," said Margaret Chu, director of DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.

Chu did not specify when the department would complete a 5,800-page license application to be judged by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the Yucca Mountain Project. But she and other DOE executives indicated at a meeting with NRC officials it could be mid-2005 or later.

The NRC might begin a multi-year review late in 2005, but that could change as well depending on government progress to set new radiation safety standards for the nuclear waste burial complex.

John Arthur, Yucca Mountain deputy director, said he could not say whether the licensing delay will cause DOE to push back its 2010 goal ultimately to have a repository operating and accepting nuclear waste.

"We do not anticipate significant delays," Chu said. "We remain focused on implementing the nation's policy for nuclear waste management."

DOE's announcement had been anticipated for weeks by industry and state officials and members of Congress. Officials had been reassessing the schedule since legal and administrative rulings this summer set back the program.

"We're disappointed but at the same time we understand why they made the decision," said Mitch Singer, a Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman. "They want to file the best license application they can and they want to take a little more time to do that."

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., believes the delay illustrates DOE disorganization, spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said. "It comes as no surprise to anyone the project is fraught with mistakes," Hafen said.

The schedule change carries ramifications for Bechtel-SAIC, the project's managing contractor that employs 1,444 workers, mostly in Southern Nevada. It throws into question a $15.2 million DOE payment to Bechtel tied to finalizing a license application by Nov. 30, and a $22 million award the company would receive if NRC docketed an application by March 2005.

Arthur said the Bechtel-SAIC contract was being reviewed.

"With the changes that have happened and other factors, some of them external, we are having to sit down and look at the fee structure," Arthur said. Bechtel "will get paid, it is just how much and in what time frame."

Bob Loux, executive director of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, said it would be wrong if Bechtel-SAIC were to profit from Yucca Mountain slippage. "It doesn't make any difference if there were external factors to DOE or not," Loux said.

DOE officials also are weighing 2005 spending for Yucca Mountain that Congress passed over the weekend. The $577 million budget is $303 million less than what DOE requested for repository designs, to ramp up work on transportation segments and to begin preparing power plants to move spent fuel by the end of the decade.

Arthur said an undetermined number of workers will face layoffs as managers look to rebalance resources to focus on repository licensing and design issues.

Explaining the schedule change, Arthur said a September review of the 5,800 page license draft written by Bechtel-SAIC turned up areas that project managers want to strengthen before handing over to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"To be blunt, we saw some things that we did that should have been done differently," said Joseph Ziegler, the project licensing director.

Arthur said uncertainty over radiation safety rules contributed to the delay. The Environmental Protection Agency is setting out to reformulate a radiation standard that was voided by a federal appeals court in July, but has not said when a new one would be proposed.

Michele Boyd, energy legislative director for the Public Citizen watchdog group, said "it is quite astonishing that DOE considers itself close to a high quality license application when the fundamental health regulations remain in flux."

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Nevada Appeal
November 23, 2004

Reid's aide to be on agency deciding Yucca license

H. Josef Hebert

WASHINGTON - In a deal to let 175 of President Bush's nominees take office, an adviser to new Democratic leader Harry Reid, the Senate's staunchest opponent of a nuclear waste dump in Nevada, will be named to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

For months Senate Republicans had refused to take up, or even hold a hearing, on the nomination of Gregory Jaczko, Reid's adviser on nuclear issues.

In turn, Reid, who has pledged to try to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, had blocked the Bush nominations.

In negotiations just before Congress recessed during the weekend, an agreement was worked out: The White House promised Jaczko would be appointed to a limited two-year term while Congress was in recess, and Reid lifted his hold on the package of Bush nominations, which zipped through the Senate.

Also, it was agreed that a Republican nominee to the NRC, retired Navy Vice Adm. Albert H. Konetzni, would be put on the commission and probably become its chairman late next year.

The White House already had sent Konetzni's nomination to the Senate this month, hoping to resolve an impasse that had kept the president's nominations in congressional limbo. Among them were senior positions across the executive branch and at such entities as Amtrak, the Social Security Administration and the judiciary.

Some Republicans and executives in the nuclear industry had opposed Jaczko's nomination bitterly, fearing that he would work to further Reid's desire to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project.

The NRC is expected to begin considering a license for the facility next year. Under the compromise reached on the NRC nominations, Jaczko agreed not to participate in any Yucca Mountain related matters for the first year of his two-year term.

The licensing process is expected to take at least three years once an application is received from the Energy Department next year. Margaret Chu, director of the DOE office that heads the Yucca program, recently informed regulators the department would not meet a Dec. 31 target to submit a license application, officials said Monday. It had been widely believed the target would be missed because of financing problems and adverse court decisions involving radiation standards.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who opposed Jaczko's nomination, said he was comfortable with the arrangement after, he said, the White House assured him Jaczko would not be renominated by the president after his two years.

A Reid spokeswoman, Tessa Hafen, said that the agreement "in no way prohibits (Jaczko) from being renominated."

By law three of the five commissioners at the NRC must be of the same party as the president. The commission currently has two Republican and one Democratic member.

Jaczko, a physicist who joined Reid's staff in 2001 as a nuclear adviser, did not return telephone calls to his office Monday.

"Greg is eminently qualified to serve as a commissioner. He is a scientist first and has the background and experience necessary to evaluate information objectively," Reid said in a statement.

Domenici and 15 other Republican senators informed Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist that it would be impossible to confirm Jaczko without senators first having the opportunity to question him at a formal hearing.

"A nominee as controversial as Greg Jaczko will not be confirmed ... for the sake of political expedience," said Domenici. An appointment to a post while Congress is in recess does not require Senate confirmation but is good for only the length of the congressional session, which is two years. A normal NRC appointment is for five years.

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On the Net:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov

Yucca Mountain Project: http://www.ymp.gov

Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste

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Reno Gazette-Journal
November 22, 2004

Yucca license request behind schedule

Doug Abrahms

WASHINGTON — The Energy Department admitted Monday what many critics had been saying — its application to the Nuclear Energy Commission to build the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump is running behind schedule.

Agency officials said the application isn´t ready and won´t be filed this year as originally expected.

“We want to make sure that we have a document that stands up to the necessary rigor’ of the license process, said Allen Benson, an agency spokesman. “This was a target (date) that we had imposed on ourselves.’

The Energy Department was handed a setback this summer when a federal appeals court ruled it must change the radiation standard for the project to better follow guidelines set by the National Academies of Science.

The NRC is expected to take at least three years to review Yucca Mountain´s license application. The Energy Department has said the repository would start accepting spent nuclear fuel from reactors around the country by 2010.

“It comes as no surprise to anyone that they can´t meet the deadline. The whole project is fraught with problems,’ said Tessa Hafen, a spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

In another development related to Yucca Mountain, the White House and Senate Republicans agreed Sunday to name Gregory Jaczko, a Reid staff member, to serve on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will determine whether to grant Yucca Mountain´s operating license.

Reid had held about 175 nominations for federal positions until the Bush administration agreed to appoint Jaczko.

Jaczko, who has doctorate in particle physics, must recuse himself on all Yucca Mountain matters for one year and his term will run out in two years under a compromise worked out by Senate leaders and the Bush administration.

“Essentially the main responsibility of the NRC is to look out for the public´s safety for commercial nuclear projects,’ Hafen said. “Senator Reid wants to make sure there´s an objective person on the commission to look at the facts.’

Retired Navy Vice Adm. Albert Konetzni also was appointed to the five-member commission.

Senate Republicans had refused to approve Jaczko´s appointment without a hearing.

The Nuclear Energy Institute, which represents electric companies that own atomic reactors, also opposed Jaczko.

“In light of his work on behalf of Sen. Reid opposing the Yucca Mountain project, Mr. Jaczko´s ability to serve on the commission in an impartial manner on general nuclear issues and Yucca Mountain in particular is an open question,’ said John Kane, a senior vice president for the trade group.

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MSNBC
November 23, 2004

A New General For Senate Dems

They may be in better shape for battle with Minority Leader Harry Reid in charge

When Republicans introduced a series of bills to ban betting on college sports, Nevada Democrat Harry Reid used his clout as Senate Minority Whip to counter with a blizzard of amendments, including one bill to ban such gambling in every state but Nevada. The GOP's anti-gambling effort fizzled amid the confusion. When the Bush Administration refused this year to appoint to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a Reid ally -- who also opposes a nuclear waste dump in Nevada's Yucca Mountain -- Reid blocked more than three dozen Administration appointments in retaliation.

When it comes to watching out for his home state, Harry Reid is a master at wielding his intimate knowledge of Senate procedures to thwart the majority Republicans. "In the art of legislative jujitsu, Reid is a black belt," says Rutgers University political scientist Ross K. Baker. But now Reid has to go beyond local concerns and tactical skills to set his party's strategy on Capitol Hill -- and its image for the nation. Elected Senate Minority Leader on Nov. 16, Reid and his shrunken Democratic caucus face a GOP emboldened by President George W. Bush's reelection and Republican gains in Congress.

For now that will mostly mean blocking Republican initiatives. With 44 Democrats and one allied independent in the Senate, Reid has one major weapon: the threat to delay and filibuster Bush nominees and legislation. "The Democrats will be in a reactive mode for now," says Norman J. Ornstein, an expert on Congress at the American Enterprise Institute. "What they need is not a great public spokesman, but someone just like Reid who is tough without appearing abrasive and who knows how the Senate operates and can use leverage."

The low-key 64-year-old will take a quieter approach to leading the Democrats than did his smooth and telegenic predecessor, Tom Daschle, who lost his South Dakota seat on Nov. 2. Senate Republican leaders broke an unwritten rule about campaigning directly against an opposition leader and targeted Daschle for defeat, charging that he was an obstructionist liberal in a moderate's clothing. Wary Democrats are now hoping that Reid's Western roots and values will protect him from the same charges. "The Republicans won't be able to claim he's out of touch with the public just because he resists extremist judicial appointments," says Jennifer Backus, a Democratic consultant and former Reid staffer.

FIRST TEST

In fact, Reid can draw on moderate and even conservative political credentials -- far more so than Daschle. Reid voted for the ban on partial-birth abortion, co-sponsored a constitutional amendment banning flag-burning, and voted for the 2001 USA Patriot Act, the 1990 Gulf War Resolution, and the 2003 authorization to invade Iraq. He has opposed a federal ban on assault-style weapons. And Reid, the son of a hard-rock miner, has resisted calls by environmentalists for restrictions on mining.

But when he's leading Democrats into battle, Reid promises to stick with strongly held Democratic positions. "I would rather dance than fight, but I know how to fight," said Reid, a former amateur boxer, on accepting the post on Nov. 16. His first test is likely to involve Bush's judicial appointments. Chafing at Senate Democrats' refusal to approve 10 nominees to seats on federal appeals courts, Bush probably will quickly reappoint several of the conservative candidates. Even more controversial will be any nominations to replace some of the aging Supreme Court justices -- with ailing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist likely to be the first to retire.

Democrats fear most the appointment of an anti-abortion conservative who will tip the delicate balance of the court to overturn Roe v. Wade. Reid, though a foe of abortion himself, will resist -- with filibusters if necessary -- any such attempt to reverse the 31-year-old abortion ruling. Meanwhile, any efforts by Republicans to change the rules of the Senate to outlaw such delaying tactics -- under consideration by the GOP leadership -- would be "a huge mistake," Reid warned.

THE DUST SETTLES

Bush's top economic priorities could come under fire as well. Current and former staff members insist Reid will strongly resist any efforts by the Bush Administration to overhaul Social Security with private savings accounts. He'll also fight efforts to pass additional tax cuts or any tax simplification that boosts the budget deficit. "We have a huge debt in this country created during the last four years, and even Republicans are beginning to complain about that," said Reid. On the other hand, Reid joins other Democrats who charge that the Administration's No Child Left Behind education reforms are "underfunded."

Democrats admit they can't block everything, so some compromise is likely. Reid, a former trial lawyer, acknowledges that high insurance premiums for doctors are a growing problem. One answer: a Democratic bill to give doctors a tax credit for "exorbitant premiums." Reid also signaled that he wants a higher minimum wage, an oft-used sweetener for Democrats voting for GOP-backed bills.

But as the dust settles from a fractious election, the political rhetoric remains rancorous. Referring to his two new deputies, Reid said on Nov. 16: "We're not three patsies. We believe in certain things, and we will fight for them." Given his knowledge of the legislative battlefield, he should prove a dangerous opponent.

By Paul Magnusson in Washington

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NewStandard
November 23, 2004

Nuclear Waste Ruling Stands, For Now, Despite Activists´ Fears

by Jeff Shaw

As a rumored piece of legislation that would have lowered standards on the Yucca Mountain dumping facility fails to materialize in Congress, environmentalists breath a sigh of relief and begin preparing for the next fight.

A court decision requiring a planned nuclear waste repository to meet strict environmental standards will remain in place, despite what some say was a White House-sponsored backdoor effort to overturn science-based guidelines.

Until the last minute, rumors swirled among activists and government professionals about a rider to be attached to the routine appropriations bill before the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. If adopted, it would have paved the way for a controversial national nuclear waste repository to be built at Yucca Mountain, an extinct volcano on Native American land in Nye County, Nevada.

But the planned rider never emerged, leading both environmental activists and Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) to claim victory. And on Monday, officials from the United States Department of Energy (DoE) announced another delay to the embattled project, underscoring the major setback that the court decision represents for the Yucca Mountain site.

This summer, the US District Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit found that the Environmental Protection Agency´s radiation standards were overly lax and ordered the federal agency to comply with tougher standards endorsed by a group of scientists. In its decision, the court admonished the EPA for "unabashedly reject[ing]" scientists´ views on the issue.

If the DoE is unable to prove that the Yucca facility´s design will meet legal standards, then the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will not grant it a license. An emerging consensus among experts in the field holds that it will be nearly impossible to license Yucca Mountain with the current court decision in place.

Unless the decision is legislatively overturned, "it´s highly unlikely Yucca Mountain could ever be licensed," said Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Research Service, a national networking center for citizens and environmental activists concerned about nuclear power and other energy issues. "We don´t see how they possibly could design Yucca to meet the tougher standards."

In part because of nuclear waste's potentially catastrophic health and environmental consequences, the Yucca Mountain project has long been a lightning rod for criticism. Opponents charge that moving spent nuclear fuel along railways to the remote site risks transportation accidents or terrorism-related theft, that the mountain would not sufficiently protect surrounding lands from radiation leakage, and that storing nuclear material here risks spreading unintended contamination through degradation of waste storage containers or events like earthquakes. Additionally, the site rests on the sacred land of the Western Shoshone people -- land that tribal representatives still claim under the Treaty of Ruby Valley.

The most recent battle began when the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), a non-profit organization of scholars, produced a report advising long-term safety measures, contending that protections must be implemented that would guard against massive radiation doses for hundreds of thousands of years.

Though the EPA is required by law to incorporate the NAS´s Yucca Mountain recommendations, the Agency ignored the scholars´ advisory. Instead, the EPA proposed a 10,000-year standard -- a number that, Mariotte said, appeared "out of a hat." If the DoE can meet that standard, he adds, "they consider it good enough for government work."

The courts, however, did not, and told the federal environmental agency to come back with a more protective radiation standard that incorporated scientific insights.

The more stringent standards, say environmentalists, are critical to preserving public health over the long term, and Yucca Mountain can´t meet the scientists´ criteria because of inherent problems with the plan.

"The site is inadequate," said Brendan Hoffman, an organizer on nuclear energy and nuclear waste issues with Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization and one of the groups that successfully sued the EPA over the agency´s 10,000-year standard.

While some might question the tracking of effects so far into the future, Hoffman says that the timeframe issue pales in comparison to the potential impact on those living downstream from a nuclear repository in coming years.

"There´s no reason to set an expiration date on the safety of this repository," he said. "If the site were suitable, we wouldn´t be having this discussion."

Though sources within the office of Senator Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico) insist that support for the rider came from on high, the White House has denied pushing the amendment, and Tessa Hafen, press secretary for Senator Reid, said Reid and Domenici reached an agreement last week that such language would not be in the bill.

President Bush promised Nevadans during the last campaign that he would not challenge the court decision, and his administration has repeated that pledge.

Asked if Senator Reid, now the Democrats´ floor leader, believes the president, Hafen paused and said, "Senator Reid hopes President Bush sticks to his word."

Activists are less circumspect. "I wouldn´t put anything past the Bush administration," offers Hoffman.

Even if the White House´s denial is strictly true, observers say, there is no shortage of surrogates with an interest in overturning the ruling.

"It´s a priority for the nuclear industry to get this court decision overturned," said Michelle Boyd, legislative director for Public Citizen. And with numerous members of Congress accepting money from energy companies, many legislators seem set to back that policy as well.

Since US nuclear facilities do not currently have adequate on-site storage for waste, moving quickly toward a national repository would mean that energy companies don´t have to take on added expense of additional on-site storage. Plus, a policy that purported to solve the nation´s nuclear waste problem could be a significant public relations boost. This, environmentalists say, is part of the rush toward finding a catch-all site for nuclear waste.

Anti-nuclear activists say that while the industry views the creation of a national nuclear repository as essential, such a site will not fix the overarching mess created by nuclear waste. "Yucca Mountain won't solve any future waste problems -- at best, it will attempt to address problems we already have," said Hoffman.

The rush to certify Yucca Mountain hit another bump in the road on November 22 when, at a meeting with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Energy Department announced that it would not seek a license application in December as previously planned.

While this is "largely due" to the court decision, said Boyd, it also stems from numerous technical and design issues that remain unresolved. DoE and the nuclear regulators have yet to agree on such hot-button topics as corrosion of waste storage casks and volcanic activity in the surrounding areas. Energy Department officials hope to announce a revised timetable at their next meeting with the regulatory authority in three months.

To Mariotte, the difficulty faced by the Yucca facility´s proponents of meeting the court-enforced standards all but guarantees another legislative attempt to overrule the court is almost a given.

"We fully expect to have to fight this again next year," he said.

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Nuclear Engineering
November 23, 2004

Yucca licence delayed

Margaret Chu, director of the US Department of Energy's (DoE's) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, has admitted that a licence application for the Yucca Mountain repository will not be submitted as planned in December.

Chu said a short delay was necessary for a DoE review of a revised draft repository application submitted by contractor Bechtel. DoE spokesman Joe Davis said that the 31 December date was one that the DoE "had hoped to make, but will not." He added: "We don't believe it will be an extended delay."

Currently the project faces problems with its Licensing Support Network (LSN), an information system meant to hold the millions of pages of documents that accompany the licence application. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) licensing board revoked the DoE's own certification of the system and it now appears that official certification will not come until spring 2005. The LSN must be certified at least six months before the NRC will accept the full Yucca Mountain licence application, which it will take the NRC at least three years to review.

In July the US Federal Appeals Court found that the 10,000 year compliance standard upon which the Yucca Mountain licence will be based, violates recommendations by the US National Academy of Sciences and declared it invalid. The project is also having trouble gaining the funding required for its push towards licence application: funds of $577 million for fiscal year 2005 were recently earmarked in an energy water appropriations bill that is due to be passed before the legislative houses adjourn for the year. The amount falls well below the $880 million officials say is required.

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Nuclear Engineering
November 23, 2004

Konetzni and Jaczko for the NRC

Albert Henry Konetzni and Gregory Jaczko will serve on the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) after a deal was struck between the White House and opposition leaders.

Republican nominee Konetzni will serve for the remainder of a five-year term expiring on 30 June 2009, while controversial choice Jaczko, science advisor to Democratic senator and Yucca Mountain opponent Harry Reid, will hold a two-year term. It has been agreed that Jaczko will not vote on matters concerning Yucca during his first year.

A deal was necessary to break the impasse caused by senators´ insistence on questioning nominees before they are approved for their posts. The roadblock was holding up some 172 personnel changes the White House wanted to make following George Bush's reelection. Even after the deal, 15 Republican senators have made public their strong wish to question Jaczko.

US law limits Jaczko´s term to two years as his nomination has come during Congress´ recess period. Law also dictates that three of the five NRC members must be from the same political party as the president.

Retired vice admiral Konetzni has been tipped to become the commission´s chair next year when the position´s current holder, Nils Diaz steps down.

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Waste News
November 23, 2004

Congress OKs spending $500 million to continue Yucca Mt. project

Congress agreed to a $338 billion spending bill for the federal government in 2005 that would include more than $500 million to further development of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility in Nevada.

However, the bill also slashes more than $250 million from funds that would allow local governments to improve water quality by upgrading their sewage treatment systems.

The measure cleared Congress on Nov. 20, and members of Congress expect to forward it to President Bush for his signature after removing some controversial language apparently placed into the bill unbeknownst to most congressmen. The inserted language would make it easier for some members of Congress and their aides to review individuals´ income tax returns.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, expressed confidence the offending language would be dropped and the bill forwarded to the president.

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Tri-City Herald
November 23, 2004

Spending bill includes state projects

Annette Cary and Les Blumenthal
Herald staff writers

Tucked into the $388 billion spending bill approved by Congress are hundreds of millions of dollars for Washington projects and programs ranging from $2 billion for Hanford Nuclear Reservation cleanup to developing a Hanford Reach Visitor Center in Richland.

The bill approved Saturday includes $235 million earmarked for roads, highways and mass transit on top of $600 million the state will receive in formula funding from the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration.

"By investing in our transportation infrastructure, we are creating good-paying construction jobs today and paving the way for future economic growth," said Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee.

The omnibus measure, approved by wide margins in both the House and the Senate, wraps nine appropriations bills into one and, overall, keeps a tight lid on domestic spending.

In Central Washington, the bill provides $2.25 million for widening Highway 12 to four lanes from Wallula Junction to Walla Walla and $1 million to construct a sound barrier wall and relocate an irrigation main along the Richland bypass highway.

The proposed Hanford Reach Visitor Center would receive $750,000. The $32 million center will be dedicated to telling the history of the Reach and informing visitors of recreational opportunities.

An additional $1 million was provided to improve automobile access to the visitors center site and Columbia Point South Road.

At Hanford, the roughly $2 billion will be spent to keep environmental cleanup on track. Department of Energy officials were analyzing the bill Monday to determine specifically how much individual cleanup projects would receive.

The budget proposed for Hanford in February did not include $64.1 million set aside to be spent on Hanford only when the issue of reclassifying high-level waste is resolved to the administration's satisfaction. The final bill included half that amount, $32.05 million.

"The final bill does send a message on the need for Washington state and the Department of Energy to reach an accord on the situation created by the federal court ruling on high-level waste," said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., in a prepared statement. He had pushed for the full amount to be restored.

The federal court ruling overturned a lower court's ruling barring DOE from reclassifying high-level waste left in underground tanks at Hanford from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program.

Waste may be reclassified in South Carolina and Idaho, which did not have similar money withheld from budgets for cleanup in those states. But Washington state officials opposed a similar change, and its congressional leaders, including Hastings, blocked legislation allowing waste reclassification at Hanford.

The overall environmental management budget for DOE sites was set at $7.32 billion. That's a $429 million increase over fiscal year 2004. Hastings said a record level of funding was maintained in the final Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, but all nonmilitary programs are subject to an 0.8 percent across-the-board reduction.

Completion of the fiscal year 2005 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill was not announced until Saturday, as wrangling continued over the future of the Yucca Mountain Project, where some of Hanford's worst waste and waste from nuclear power production is set to go.

The bill set funding for the project at $577 million. That equals last year's appropriation, rather than including $303 million more that the president had requested.

The bill also provides $8 million for the HAMMER training center, which is a $2 million increase. HAMMER will use the extra money as its role in homeland security is increased, Hastings said.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland will receive $10 million for its transition to new facilities for about 1,000 workers who currently work in the 300 Area at Hanford. The money will be used for design of new office and laboratory space and will keep the national laboratory on track to leave the 300 Area in 2009, said PNNL spokeswoman Andrea Turner.

Also included in the spending bill was $790,000 to allow the University of Washington to continue the Hanford Production Workers Medical Screening Program and to initiate medical screening of current workers at the Hanford tank farms.

Efforts to preserve Hanford's B Reactor also received a boost. Language written by Hastings was incorporated into the bill, directing the National Park Service to spend a portion of its budget for the next year on the study.

In October, a bill calling for a study to preserve Hanford's B Reactor and other Manhattan Project facilities was signed by the president, although it did not provide any money. No dollar amount was included in the spending bill that passed, but Hastings' office said total cost of the study is expected to be less than $1 million.

The B Reactor was the world's first full-scale plutonium production reactor and produced plutonium for the bomb that dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, helping end World War II.

The wine industry will benefit from $280,000 to develop and build the Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center in Prosser to boost wine tourism. The bill also includes $325,000 for virus-free grape plants developed at Prosser's Agriculture Research Service Center.

Water project funding includes $1.5 million for Black Rock and $250,000 for the Odessa Subaquifer.

The $1.5 million will be used to continue a 2-year-old study of the potential for increasing water storage in the Yakima River Basin, possibly with a new Black Rock Reservoir. About $2.5 million has already been spent on the study.

The $250,000 will be used to begin studying the Odessa Subaquifer depletion and possible solutions. Part of the irrigation acreage in the Columbia Basin Project uses water pumped from the subaquifer rather than the Columbia River.

Also included was $9 million for Columbia River dredging to maintain barge travel and to enhance or create more than 2,000 acres of fish and wildlife habitat. Oregon and Washington have agreed to provide $55.4 million and a contract is to be awarded in 2005.

The Columbia Groundwater Management Area will receive $500,000 in its sixth year of consecutive funding. The project addresses nitrate contamination.

Several bus systems will receive money. Ben Franklin Transit will receive $1.05 million to help build a new maintenance and operations facility. Grant Transit in Grant County will receive $800,000, Valley Transit in Walla Walla will receive $500,000 and Columbia County Transit will receive $50,000.

Kennewick will get $500,000 for improvements to its water system. The Port of Walla Walla will receive $750,000 toward a $5 million public water system near Burbank. It will allow development of a light-industrial park and provide potable water for Burbank residents.

In Walla Walla, $250,000 will be spent toward a plan for surplus buildings and other property at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center. The plan would provide the local community with a historically significant economic development opportunity, according to Murray's office.

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Rutland Herald
November 22, 2004

Historic Yankee hearing ordered

By Susan Smallheer
Herald Staff

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will hold its first-ever hearing on a requested power boost at a U.S. nuclear reactor — Vermont Yankee in Vernon.

"It's unique," said David O'Brien, commissioner of the state's Department of Public Service.

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, an arm of the NRC, found merit in safety concerns raised by the Douglas administration and an anti-nuclear group about the proposed 20 percent power increase at Vermont Yankee.

In a decision issued late Monday afternoon, the quasi-judicial board said it found grounds in two issues raised by the DPS and in two issues raised by the anti-nuclear group New England Coalition.

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will hold a hearing on the concerns related to the so-called uprate — for the first time in the NRC's history.

The state, whose attorneys argued last month in preliminary hearings in Brattleboro that such a review was needed, had raised seven areas of concern about Entergy Nuclear's plans to boost Yankee's power. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board accepted two, O'Brien said.

"The NRC says we are asking valuable questions," he said. "They would not grant a hearing otherwise."

The state had argued that Entergy's redesign of its Vernon reactor would make it less reliable in case of an accident because it eliminated one level of safety — in this case, the emergency core cooling pumps.

The state's other contention that was accepted for further review dealt with Entergy's calculations about the pressure in the reactor's containment in the event of an accident.

"We're just generally very pleased; this is unique," O'Brien said, noting that the state had hired an outside attorney whose specialty was the NRC.

O'Brien said that, while his department was concerned that the uprate could make the plant unsafe in certain emergency conditions, the goal of his agency was not to shut the plant down.

"There's a bright line of distinction between the department's approach and that of NEC's approach and goals," O'Brien said. "We're not here to shut down Vermont Yankee. Our goal is to make sure that it's safe. What we want to accomplish in these hearing is that the public health and safety is being conserved," he said.

Sarah Hofmann, senior staff counsel for the Department of Public Service, said the next hurdle was to determine the type of hearing the federal board would grant the state.

A little-known provision of the Atomic Energy Act gives a state certain rights to "interrogate" witnesses, and Hofmann said the state hoped for the more traditional hearing, which would include open cross-examination of Entergy's witnesses.

"We're pleased that we're in the door," Hofmann said. "We've asked that all the hearings be held in Vermont."

The other type of hearing would be largely on paper — with the three judges on the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board submitting questions to a group of experts assembled by Entergy, the state and the New England Coalition.

Raymond Shadis of the New England Coalition said late Monday afternoon he was unaware of the decision and he declined comment until he had a chance to study it.

NEC's concerns that warrant a closer look include safety concerns about the seismic integrity of the plant's wooden cooling towers. The coalition also argued that the plant should be tested for large power transients as part of the uprate process.

Entergy spokesman Laurence Smith said the company's attorneys were studying the decision and would have no comment at this time.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the upcoming hearing was the first of its kind.

"Up until now, no one has pursued a hearing on a power uprate," he said.

The NRC has granted every power boost that has been submitted for approval, but the majority of the increases have been in single digits.

Vermont Yankee, which has been generating power for 30 years, is one of the smallest and oldest plants to seek the largest percent power increase — 20 percent, or 110 megawatts. Entergy hopes to push the plant to produce 650 megawatts, up from 540 megawatts.

Vermont Yankee, which is the state's only nuclear power plant, sells about half of its production to Green Mountain Power and Central Vermont Public Service Corp. It represents about one-third of all the electricity used in Vermont.

Entergy, which had opposed both the state's and the coalition's requests for a full hearing, has 10 days to appeal the decision.

Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com.

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National Review
November 23, 2004

The Disappearing Environment

Jonathan H. Adler

Green groups failed to inject the environment into the election.

Green activists sought to make environmental protection a central issue in the 2004 presidential campaign. They spent millions on the effort, but have little to show for it. Environmental issues were scarcely discussed on the campaign trail, and President Bush was reelected. While marginally important in some local races, "the environment" did not even register as a national issue this year.

Environmentalist attacks on the president began early and were repeated often. The Natural Resources Defense Council compiled a list of several hundred alleged "major rollbacks" of environmental protection. The League of Conservation Voters endorsed Senator Kerry early in the year while giving the president's environmental policies a failing grade. The activist-friendly Environmental Media Services launched Bush GreenWatch to disseminate "information on the Bush Administration's assault on our environment and public health" to the press. Meanwhile, the Sierra Club's Carl Pope and the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. began speaking tours promoting their respective books assailing caricatures of President Bush's environmental record. The lion's share of these attacks were misleading and exaggerated — just the sort of thing one might expect in a partisan political campaign — and they had little effect.

One of the larger efforts was the creation of Environment 2004, a new organization "dedicated to highlighting the environmental stakes in the next election and, by shining a spotlight on the anti-environmental record of President George W. Bush and his allies, to assuring their defeat in 2004." Spearheaded by several former Clinton-administration environmental officials — including Carol Browner, Bruce Babbitt, and George Frampton — Environment 2004 sponsored ad campaigns and public events in battleground states, including billboards in Florida linking Bush's global-warming policies to hurricanes. "People there need to know that Bush is doing practically nothing to prevent hurricanes from getting worse in the future from global warming," explained Environment 2004 executive director Aimee Christensen. Floridians didn't buy it, and Bush won the state handily.

Despite their best efforts, green groups were unable to make environmental protection a major issue. Environmental concerns were rarely debated in most states, as voters focused on national security, the economy, and various social issues. Shrill warnings that the environment was "under siege" garnered little public attention. After decades of apocalyptic predictions and scare stories, the public has learned to discount environmentalist hype. Few doubt that George W. Bush is a less zealous advocate of environmental regulations than John Kerry or Al Gore. But they won't swallow over-the-top charges alleging Bush has declared "war" on the environment or is placing American families at risk. Environmentalists have cried wolf so many times that their direst warnings now ring hollow.

Although most pundits assume environmental issues always work to Democrats' advantage, the Kerry campaign understood otherwise. Indeed, Senator Kerry shied away from making the environment a centerpiece of his campaign. While he often talked about energy, Kerry's proposals emphasized oil independence, alternative fuels, and the economic aspects of energy policy, rather than the environmental aspects of energy policy. Kerry rarely mentioned global warming, air pollution, or new source review.

In many battleground states, Senator Kerry's image as the "greener" candidate was less an asset than a liability. Michigan autoworkers did not want to hear that Kerry called for higher automobile fuel-economy standards, and support for a U.N. global-warming treaty would not sit well with coal workers in West Virginia. It is no wonder Democrats removed their platform's endorsement of the Kyoto Protocol. Only where Kerry and his surrogates could tie Bush-administration policy to a specific local concern, such as planned nuclear-waste disposal in Nevada's Yucca Mountain, did they make environmental protection a central talking point of the campaign.

Of course the Bush campaign rarely discussed environmental issues either, instead emphasizing security, the war on terror, recent economic growth and the president's plans for a second term. Environmental matters have never been a high priority in this administration. Yet it is simply false to allege that the nation's basic environmental regulatory framework has been gutted under President Bush. In the end, such charges failed to resonate because they are not true.

Green activist groups not only failed to elevate the salience of environmental issues, they may have also hurt their standing in Washington. By aligning themselves so closely with partisan, anti-Bush efforts, D.C.-based environmentalist groups further cemented the perception that they are an arm of the Democratic party — at least when it comes to elections.

If their efforts had been successful, perhaps environmentalists would have been rewarded with administration posts and a seat at the table to propose desired policy reforms. But they weren't successful, and now they'll reap the consequences. As President Bush and the Republican Congress consider further reforms to the nation's environmental laws, environmentalist groups may well find themselves on the outside looking in. And they will have only themselves to blame.

— NRO contributing editor Jonathan H. Adler is an associate professor and associate director of the Center for Business Law and Regulation at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

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Fuel Cell Works
November 23, 2004

Senate OKs funds for nuclear, coal, hydrogen projects

WASHINGTON --A massive spending bill passed by Congresss leaves unchangedfunding levels for the development of the hotly disputed Yucca Mountain waste site for fiscal year 2005.

The Bush administration and nuclear energy industry warmly support storing the nation's radioactive waste at the Nevada site, a government proposal that has been studied for more than 20 years at a cost of billions of dollars.

The legislation, part of an expedited omnibus appropriations bill approved this weekend, provides $577 million for the Yucca Mountain waste site, the same level doled out for fiscal year 2004 and $303 million less than President Bush requested, the Senate Appropriations Committee said.

The bill now heads to President Bush's desk where it is subject to a 0.8 percent across-the-board reduction.

Proponents of the nuclear waste project argue that reductions in funding will hamper efforts to move the project forward.

"Important program elements that include planning for the transport of used nuclear fuel containers likely will continue to be pushed into the future because of additional funding needs," said John Kane, the Nuclear Energy Institute's senior vice president of governmental affairs, in a statement.

Newly minted Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has vowed to fight federal government plans of creating a repository for nuclear power plants' spent fuel beneath Yucca Mountain in his home state of Nevada.

The government signed a contract with utilities promising to remove radioactive fuel stored at commercial power plants by 1998 but political wrangling over the Yucca Mountain site has hobbled those efforts.

The federal Nuclear Waste Fund, which receives roughly $750 million annually from surcharges on monthly bills paid by users of nuclear-generated electricity, will continue to provide money for some of the programs under-funded by the appropriations bill, Kane said.

The nuclear power industry was far more pleased with the $50 million in funding tucked into the bill for new reactors. The funding is earmarked for the Energy Department's Nuclear Power 2010 program which aims to bring on-line by the end of the decade the nation's first new nuclear power plant in more than 20 years.

"The industry is extremely pleased that, in austere budgetary times, Congress approved a five-fold increase from the administration's funding request for the Department of Energy's Nuclear Power 2010 initiative," Kane said.

Coal, fuel cell, home heating funding

The appropriations bill also provides $500 million for fossil energy research, including $50 million for the Energy Department's Clean Coal Power Initiative and $18 million to continue an initiative called FutureGen.

The Clean Coal Power Initiative is a government-industry partnership that funds new coal-based power generation technologies. The goal of the FutureGen project is to produce electricity and hydrogen from coal without any harmful emissions.

Additionally, Congress appropriated $649 million for energy conservation projects, including $158 million for the president's FreedomCAR initiative.

The FreedomCAR program focuses on developing fuel cell technology for automobiles that can convert hydrogen into electric power while consuming only one-third the energy of vehicles that run on gasoline and producing zero emissions.

The appropriations bill also provides an additional $300 million to help families pay their heating bills this winter.

The Energy Department anticipates heating oil expenses for a typical Northeastern household to be 37 percent higher than prices last winter. Propane-heated households will see prices increase roughly 26 percent while natural gas-heated homes are expected to pay an additional 15 percent this winter.

Congress approved $2.2 million for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, $1.9 million in regular funding and $300 million in emergency assistance that the president can release as needed.

More than half of the recipients of LIHEAP funds use the money to pay natural gas bills, the American Gas Association said in a statement.

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GovExec
November 22, 2004

White House reaches agreement to free up nominations

By Darren Goode
CongressDaily

The White House has struck a deal to free up dozens of federal nominations and allow incoming Senate Minority Leader Reid's nominee to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to move forward.

The deal, reached Saturday, will pave the way for Reid's top science adviser, Greg Jaczko, to take a two-year recess term on the NRC in January. The dispute over Jaczko's nomination had threatened to hold up 172 of President Bush's nominees, as Reid had placed holds on nominees until Jaczko's nomination was vetted. Supporters of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site protested Jaczko's appointment because he, like Reid, opposes the nuclear dump in Nevada.

Sixteen senators, 15 Republicans and Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., had signed a letter Saturday to Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., saying they would prevent the Senate from reaching a unanimous consent agreement on Jaczko and Republican NRC nominee Albert Konetzni.

"We cannot agree to allow Mr. Jaczko or Mr. Konetzni, the Republican nominee to the Commission, to be confirmed without so much as a hearing and the opportunity for senators to ask him questions on the record," the letter stated.

Jaczko would fill one of two vacant spots on the five-member commission. Saturday's deal also paves the way for Konetzni to fill the other vacant slot. Commissions normally are appointed by the president for five-year terms, but under Saturday's deal Jaczko cannot be renominated after his two-year recess term and must recuse himself from matters involving Yucca Mountain for the first year.

Reid said, "I am extremely pleased that we were able to reach a deal that places a strong, independent voice on the NRC, while ensuring that nearly 200 other federal posts will be promptly filled."

Meanwhile, in other key nominations as the Senate wrapped up this past week, Deborah Majoras won confirmation to serve as Federal Trade Commission chairwoman until 2008, after Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., dropped his hold. In August, Bush had given Majoras a recess appointment -- good through the end of next year -- to get around Wyden's move.

Wyden had cited concern about the effect of oil mergers approved by the FTC over the past decade in blocking the nomination. In a statement dropping his objection, Wyden said Majoras had assured him she would "get to the bottom of why consumers in my part of the country are paying such high gasoline prices."

Also confirmed Saturday was Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, who will now remain a Democratic member of that panel until the middle of 2008. Adelstein, formerly an aide to departing Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., first was appointed in 2002 to fill the unexpired term of then-FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani. If Bush had not reappointed him, Adelstein would have had to leave the FCC when Congress adjourned for the year.

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Seattle Post Intelligencer
November 22, 2004

Yucca foe's aide gets nuclear panel post

By H. Josef Hebert
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON -- In a deal to let 175 of President Bush's nominees take office, an adviser to new Democratic leader Harry Reid, the Senate's staunchest opponent of a nuclear waste dump in Nevada, will be named to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

For months Senate Republicans had refused to take up, or even hold a hearing, on the nomination of Gregory Jaczko, Reid's adviser on nuclear issues.

In turn, Reid, who has pledged to try to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, had blocked the Bush nominations.

In negotiations just before Congress recessed during the weekend, an agreement was worked out: the White House promised Jaczko would be appointed to a limited two-year term while Congress was in recess, and Reid lifted his hold on the package of Bush nominations, which zipped through the Senate.

Also, it was agreed that a Republican nominee to the NRC, retired Navy Vice Admiral Albert H. Konetzni, would be put on the commission and probably would become its chairman late next year.

The White House already had sent Konetzni's nomination to the Senate this month hoping to resolve an impasse that had kept the president's nominations in congressional limbo. Among them were senior positions across the executive branch and at such entities as Amtrak, the Social Security Administration and the judiciary.

Some Republicans and executives in the nuclear industry had opposed Jaczko's nomination bitterly, fearing that he would work to further Reid's desire to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project.

A Reid spokeswoman, Tessa Hafen, said that the agreement "in no way prohibits (Jaczko) from being renominated."

By law three of the five commissioners at the NRC must be of the same party as the president. The commission currently has two Republican and one Democratic member.

Jaczko, a physicist who joined Reid's staff in 2001 as a nuclear adviser, did not return telephone calls to his office Monday.

"Greg is eminently qualified to serve as a commissioner. He is a scientist first and has the background and experience necessary to evaluate information objectively," Reid said in a statement.

---

On the Net:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov

Yucca Mountain Project: http://www.ymp.gov

Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste

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Provo Daily Herald
November 22, 2004

In Our View
Nuclear waste casks should be tested

The Daily Herald

The latest news from the NuclearRegulatory Commission isn't reassuring for the people who live along potential routes over which nuclear waste will be shipped to Yucca Mountain. The NRC lacks the funds to test the casks that will be used, either for transportation or for casks that Private Fuel Storage plans to use at its proposed depository in Skull Valley, west of Tooele. The NRC test consists of a 30-foot freefall onto a hard surface, a 40-inch drop onto a 6-inch wide steel rod, placement into a 1,475-degree Fahrenheit fire for a half hour, and submerging it in three feet of water for eight hours. The goal of the test is to simulate a train or truck accident.

While that may not be exactly comparable to a real-life accident -- a 2001 rail tunnel fire in Baltimore, for example, reached temperatures of 1,500 degrees during a 24-hour period -- the NRC won't be conducting such tests anyway. Instead, to save money, the NRC will rely on computer analysis and scale modeling to determine if cask designs will survive real-world accidents.

With nine out of 10 shipments to Yucca Mountain expected to pass through Utah -- many of them passing within five miles of the vast majority of residents -- one may be forgiven for some nail biting.

The transportation element of the nuclear waste storage plan is its weakest link. Spent fuel rods are relatively safe in their storage pools at nuclear power plants, or even inside Yucca Mountain, but they pose a risk while they are in transit between those places.

The nuclear energy industry assures us that transportation is safe. We've been doing it for years and there hasn't been an accident that has released radiation. That may be sufficient for trusting souls, but for others it doesn't carry much weight. Consider, for instance, the odd case in the 1980s in which radioactive waste containers arrived at their destination with more external radiation than they had when they were sent out.

Let's not kid ourselves. Something got out.

The industry experts also leave out a simple word: yet. Do anything enough times and something will go wrong eventually. And what will go wrong with a nuclear waste shipment is no small thing. It's potentially catastrophic. Before 1986, one could say that American space shuttle missions were perfectly safe because nobody had been killed riding a shuttle into space.

With 90,000 shipments planned to go to Yucca Mountain, the accidental release of radioactive material is not an "if" but a "when." We simply need to know for sure that the transportation method is the safest one available. And that requires real-world testing. Computer models can be useful in predicting what could happen in some scenarios, but they should not be the sole basis for evaluating the strength of the containers that will be used to ship and store some of the most toxic material on earth.

Even if tests were to be undertaken, the criteria would need to change. The current standards don't reflect the realities of today's world. While a train or truck accident is foreseen, the tests don't take into account the possibility of a terrorist attack.

The casks have a 6- to-11-inch-thick metal skin, But anti-tank weapons, such as rocket-propelled grenades, can punch a hole through 20 inches of steel. Such a blast would turn the canister into a dirty bomb, leaking radiation, endangering emergency response crews and bystanders, and creating general panic. If it were to happen at Salt Lake City or Las Vegas, it could throw the local economy into a tailspin, just as the destruction of the World Trade Center temporarily disabled NewYork's financial district.

The safest course of action is to leave high-level radioactive waste where it is, decentralized and under close watch. But if the government insists it must be shipped to Yucca Mountain, then it must stringently test transportation casks in the most demanding manner.

When people's lives are on the line, we shouldn't be looking for the cheap way out.

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Los Alamos Monitor
November 22, 2004

Bill will benefit LANL

CAROL A. CLARK
lanews@lamonitor.com
Monitor Staff Writer

A key appropriations bill that will both sustain weapons and scientific work at Los Alamos National Laboratories and provide $10 million for a fund to settle homesteaders' claims from the acquisition of land for the Manhattan Project should finalize this weekend.

Domenici gained the $10 million appropriation for the homesteaders fund following the successful effort by him and Sen. Jeff Bingaman to have the fund authorized in the FY2005 Defense Authorization Act.

"The Pajarito Plateau homesteaders have asked for fair and just compensation for land that was taken by the government for the Manhattan Project more than 50 years ago," Domenici said. "This bill creates a substantial fund to settle those claims and end years of litigation that are still pending in the legal system."

Nancy Bartlitt, Los Alamos Historical Society president, said the Romero Cabin to the north of the Los Alamos Historical Museum in the Fuller Lodge complex was moved from the plateau some 10 to 20 years ago.

"Gov. Bill Richardson has promised to provide us with $30, 000 to restore the cabin, which is a significant part of that history," Bartlitt said. "The Historical Society is in the process of compiling historical data for Richardson to present to the legislature."

Domenici chairs the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee that finally reached an agreement with House counterparts to finalize the FY2005 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill.

The $28.79 billion measure funds the DOE and the national laboratory complex, and Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation water projects.

"Putting this bill together has been particularly difficult and trying," Domenici said in a news release. "In the end, we have produced a spending bill that is fairly crafted and well balanced given our very tight resources. We have worked to give priority treatment to the work that will ensure our national security, invest in greater energy production, and continue the important water projects supported by the federal government."

The Energy and Water Bill is among nine bills being rolled into a massive $388 billion omnibus appropriations package that Congress is expected to pass this weekend.

The omnibus package will complete the FY2005 appropriations process.

For New Mexico, Domenici used this spending measure to provide funding for a wide variety of projects, including LANL and the Sandia National Laboratory, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps of Engineers water projects throughout the state.

Domenici gained a $10 million appropriation for the homesteaders' fund, following the successful effort by him and Bingaman to have the fund authorized in the FY2005 Defense Authorization Act.

About 70 percent of the land that was taken from the homesteaders was used to construct what is now LANL.

Those living on that land were paid between $7-$15 for land and personal property, far below the appraised value.

Many of the homesteaders did not speak English and were unaware of what was happening to them.

The final agreement bill provides $23.3 billion overall for DOE in FY2005, $150 million above the budget request and $1.34 million more than FY2004. The measure has $964 million for the Bureau of Reclamation in FY2005 ($21 million over FY2004) and $4.7 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers ($125 million more than FY2004).

The bill has $9.11 billion, a $62.2 million increase over the budget request, for DOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), including weapons and stockpile-stewardship activities.

Within this amount, $1.42 billion, a $71.7 million increase, is allowed for NNSA nonproliferation activities.

Both LANL and Sandia in New Mexico are key participants in this work, Domenici said.

The bill provides level funding, $577 million, for the Yucca Mountain project in Nevada, but drew back on the National Ignition Facility, earmarking $46 million for the project and requiring an independent review of the program.

Domenici said he is pleased with funding increases provided for energy research and development, particularly added resources to develop better renewable energy technologies.

The bill also provides $513.2 million, a $100 million increase, for the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy to support advanced permitting, new licensing procedures, and advanced reactor and fuel research and development.

"We are looking to the national labs to give us a clearer path to greater energy diversification," Domenici said. "The increases we've provided for energy R&D is an investment that could alleviate some of the pressure caused by a growing reliance on foreign oil and natural gas."

The following are highlights of the northern New Mexico-related spending included by Domenici in the FY2005 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill:

Los Alamos National Laboratory:

$37.3 million to continue construction of the new National Security Sciences Building (new lab headquarters). Domenici gained $12 million in FY2003 and $50 million in FY2004 for this project

$40 million to continue work on replacing the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Facility, $16 million over the budget request in order to try to complete the project by 2010. Domenici secured $10 million for the project in FY2004

$8 million for the Los Alamos County Schools.

$10 million for a Pajarito Plateau homesteaders claims settlement fund.

$50 million for LANL facility upgrades, including $20 million for perimeter security, $10 million for power grid infrastructure upgrades and $20 million for RED computer safeguards and reduce need for CREM. Within overall funding increases within the DOE Facilities Infrastructure Recapitalization Program (FIRP), LANL is expected to address more than 300 trailer offices.

$7.2 million for the additional Environmental Clean-up of lab property and encourage economic development. Domenici secured $4 million for this in FY2003 and $4 million in FY2004.

$7 million as part of the Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles initiative for the material test station at the LANCE facility at LANL. This account was provided $68 million in FY2003, and traditional Environmental Management has been shifted from this office to free an additional $18 million within the program.

$1.2 million for a Centers for Disease Control/Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval Project to locate, review, catalog and copy records that contribute to historical off-site radiological and chemical releases.

DOE New Mexico Water Supply Technologies include $12.5 million overall, which includes funding for DOE laboratory involvement in arsenic removal technology (involves Sandia), desalination and water purification (Sandia involvement in cooperation with Bureau of Reclamation project in Otero County, and a Water for Energy Technology Roadmap project).

NNSA Stockpile Stewardship Program includes $6.52 billion for nuclear weapons Stockpile Stewardship activities, $290 million over FY2004. This program is carried out at LANL, Sandia, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Nevada Test Site, and at plants in Texas, Missouri, Tennessee and South Carolina.

Facilities and Infrastructure Recapitalization Program include a Domenici priority, $273.5 million to continue rebuilding the facilities and infrastructure of the weapons complex and labs.

Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation and Counter-Terrorism Activities include $1.42 billion, an increase of $72 million over the budget request and $101 million over FY2004, for programs to address the danger should hostile nations or terrorist groups acquire weapons of mass destruction or weapon-usable material, technology or expertise.

Defense Environmental Management includes $7.32 billion, an $81 million increase over the budget request and $492 million over FY2004.

Science Research includes $3.63 billion in basic scientific research, which is $197 million over the budget request and $195 million over FY2004. This includes $10 million, a $5 million increase over the budget, for genome research.

Nuclear Energy includes $513.2 million for nuclear energy initiatives, a $100 million increase over FY2004. With $50 million for Nuclear Power 2010; $40 million for the Generation IV Nuclear Energy Initiative; and $88 million for the advanced fuel cell initiative (includes a $7 million for the LANCE program at LANL).

Renewable Energy Technologies includes $389 million overall for renewable energy technologies, with $353.4 million for research and development, including $82.1 million for biomass; $25.8 million for geothermal; $95.3 million for hydrogen; $5.0 million for hydropower; $41.8 million for solar; and $17.0 million for wind.

High Temperature Superconductivity R&D includes $55.0 million, a $10 million increase over the budget request, for this research. LANL plays a big role in this superconductivity research.

Editor's Note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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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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