Yucca Mountain News Clips
Friday, June 24, 2005
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Las Vegas SUN
June 24, 2005

Hatch preparing bill on Yucca alternatives

By Benjamin Grove
<grove@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is preparing legislation that would direct the government to oversee study of two alternatives to Yucca Mountain: leaving high-level nuclear waste stored where it is at power plants or temporarily storing it at government sites.

The legislation would also ban shipments of nuclear waste to a private, interim waste site on Goshute Indian reservation land in Utah. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could license the site for nuclear waste storage as soon as this year. Utah lawmakers strongly oppose the site, which many see as a stepping-stone for nuclear waste that eventually would be bound for the proposed permanent high-level nuclear waste dump planned for Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Utah site is being developed by a coalition of nuclear utilities called Private Fuel Storage. Nuclear utilities have been frustrated with years of delays at Yucca.

Hatch is equally frustrated that plans for the Utah site are progressing. Hatch said the plan is dangerous, in part because it is in a training flight pattern for Air Force jets.

Hatch and Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, agreed to vote for Yucca in 2002 after receiving White House assurances that the nation's waste policy would be Yucca, not private sites.

"I understand why our colleagues from Nevada oppose the Yucca Mountain site," Hatch said in a Senate speech Thursday. "I am getting more and more understanding of that as I go along. But if they are concerned about waste at Yucca Mountain, they should be exponentially more concerned over the PFS site which is so flawed as to be inherently dangerous, extremely dangerous."

Hatch believes Private Fuel Storage is attempting an end-run around the federal government's high-level nuclear waste policy, which is to bury waste in Yucca Mountain.

Hatch still supports Yucca, but he wants a more comprehensive nuclear waste policy, which seems to be "broken," Hatch said.

"Sen. Hatch wants to look at the whole package and see what the options are," Hatch spokesman Adam Elggren said of Hatch's bill.

Hatch plans to pursue the legislation "vigorously" this year, Elggren said.

Nevada lawmakers generally favor leaving nuclear waste where it is temporarily stored in pools and outdoor casks at the nation's 103 active nuclear reactors. Nuclear power industry leaders strongly oppose that, saying it is not a long-term solution. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., advocates legislation that would allow the government to take title, or ownership, of waste at the plant sites.

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Las Vegas SUN
June 24, 2005

Federal government gives Nevada $13 million to cover lost property taxes

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

WASHINGTON -- The Interior Department will send Nevada a $13 million check today, to help make up for property taxes the state cannot collect on land owned by the federal government.

Clark County will receive just over $1.9 million, or about $40,000 more than last year. Nevada's counties will split $13,732,723 in "payment in lieu of taxes." That's a $237,000 increase over last year. County governments can use the money for police and fire departments, road maintenance or other public programs it would usually pay for with local tax money.

"These dollars are critical for the economic survival of our state since Nevada is almost 85 percent owned and managed by the federal government," Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. said in a statement. "While I am glad to see that each year we continue to increase funding, the increases are small and do not fully meet Nevada's need resulting from the federal ownership of so much of our state's land."

Gibbons, and other members of Nevada's congressional delegation complain that the Bush administration does not allocate enough money for payment in lieu of taxes, or PILT.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., called this year's payment "paltry."

"Because Clark County and other local governments cannot tax federal property, we lose out on dollars that would be used to pay for education, transportation and homeland security needs," Berkley said in a statement."Rather than honor this obligation under the law to compensate Clark County and other municipalities for their lost revenue, the Republican Congress has once again shortchanged Nevadans by failing to provide adequate PILT payments."

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
June 24, 2005

Utah senator wants new look at nuclear waste policy

Republican upset over storage site nearing OK for home state

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Saying he was growing "madder and madder" that a nuclear waste site is close to final approval in Utah, Sen. Orrin Hatch on Thursday proposed taking another look at the government's policies for disposing of radioactive spent fuel.

Hatch, R-Utah, said he has prepared legislation calling for the Energy Department to study keeping the material near utilities' nuclear reactors or to store it at government-owned sites.

Both ideas have been floated as possible alternatives to Yucca Mountain as the government faces continued delays in licensing a Nevada underground repository. DOE officials have said a repository opening, already seven years late, might slip to 2012 or 2015.

Hatch voted for a Nevada repository in a 2002 Senate vote. After a Senate speech Thursday, he said he still supported Yucca Mountain but was "rethinking" his position because of Utah's failure to avoid being targeted for nuclear waste.

"I am coming to believe that we will have to reprocess in place," at reactors, Hatch said. "That's the only feasible way of doing it."

The Utah Republican said his legislation would order DOE to direct more resources to nuclear waste reprocessing technology.

Scientists have said reprocessing could reduce nuclear waste volumes and toxicity, but the science would not be practical for decades.

The amendment also would tell DOE to study nuclear waste storage alternatives.

Hatch said he prepared the amendment to be debated as part of a major energy bill this week but withdrew it after Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., "agreed to work with me."

The amendment, co-sponsored by Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, would prohibit nuclear waste shipments to the Private Fuel Storage waste site that is being developed on the Goshute Indian Reservation in Skull Valley, Utah.

Utah officials expect the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to grant final approval by the end of the year to the 100-acre Goshute site.

Private Fuel Storage is a group of eight utility companies that proposes to store 40,000 tons of nuclear waste in up to 4,000 temporary above-ground casks on reinforced concrete pads.

Hatch said allowing private storage in Utah would "hijack our nation's nuclear waste strategy," which has been focused on Yucca Mountain.

"There is no reason in God's good world why they should stick this stuff in open air above ground," Hatch said. "It is just idiotic. I am getting madder and madder about it."

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Deseret News
June 24, 2005

Hatch blasts N-waste project

By Jerry Spangler
Deseret Morning News

WASHINGTON — The powerful chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee said Thursday the nation's strategy for dealing with nuclear waste should be focused on developing a federal repository at Yucca Mountain.

But Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., stopped short of saying he outright opposed a temporary nuclear waste storage facility like the one proposed by the Private Fuel Storage consortium of nuclear power companies for Goshute tribal lands in Tooele County.

"I don't know whether the Skull Valley site will receive the regulatory approval it needs, that's not my decision," he said during debate on the energy bill. "However, in my view, our focus should remain on a solution that puts this waste directly in the hands of the federal government."

Domenici's comments came in response to questioning on the Senate floor from Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who with Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, have proposed an amendment to the energy bill that specifies that all spent nuclear fuel would have to go to a facility owned by the federal government.

Since the PFS project is private, it would be barred from accepting waste under the Hatch-Bennett amendment, which also calls for a study into recycling nuclear waste. Hatch and Bennett agreed not to pursue a Senate vote on their amendment at this time.

But Hatch used Thursday's debate on the Senate floor to launch a blistering attack on PFS and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"A few nuclear power utilities are attempting to hijack our nation's nuclear waste strategy by joining forces to build an away-from-reactor, above-ground storage site for one-half of our nation's high level nuclear waste on a tiny Indian reservation in Tooele, Utah," Hatch said.

"Even more unfortunate, the only tribe they could con into taking this waste was the Skull Valley Band of the Goshutes, whose small reservation just happens to sit on one of the most dangerous sites you could imagine for storing high level nuclear waste."

Hatch said it is "baffling" that the environmental impact study for the PFS project does not even require PFS to have on-site means to handle damaged or breached casks.

"Rather, the NRC staff concluded the risk of a cask breach is so minimal that they did not have to consider such a scenario in their EIS. I find this conclusion dubious and dangerous," he said.

He also said the nation learned from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks of the risk of suicide air attacks — something that has not even been considered by the NRC for the PFS project, which could receive its NRC license later this summer.

"It would seem inconceivable that a government entity would consider giving their endorsement of the PFS plan without thoroughly taking into account the added terrorist threat our nation now faces," Hatch said.

Hatch pointed out that post 9-11 9/11 terrorism analyses have been conducted at all federal facilities licensed by the NRC, but the agency has refused to reopen the regulatory process to even consider it in the PFS project.

Hatch added that he supports the Yucca Mountain repository as a "safe, remote location where spent fuel could be buried deep beneath the desert." But a national strategy to deal with the waste is of critical importance.

"The president is calling for a robust nuclear power strategy, and his reasons are clear: nuclear power is clean and safe, and there is an abundant supply of cheap uranium in North America," Hatch said. "But my question is, what are we going to do with all the waste? We cannot have a nuclear power strategy until we know what to do with all the spent nuclear fuel."

E-mail: spang@desnews.com

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Salt Lake Tribune
June 24, 2005

Hatch pitches toughest assault to date on PFS

On Senate floor: He insists that nuclear waste should be kept in the hands of the government

By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune

WASHINGTON - Sen. Orrin Hatch took to the Senate floor Thursday, condemning a plan by private utilities to store high-level nuclear waste on a Utah Indian reservation and floating a legislative proposal that would put a stake in the heart of the proposed dump.

Hatch proposed - and promptly withdrew - an amendment to the Energy Bill being debated in the Senate that would have prohibited storage or shipments of nuclear waste in a private facility away from the reactors that generated it.

Hatch's plan put forward the most direct legislative assault to date on the proposal by Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of electric companies, to store 44,000 tons of high-level waste on the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes Indian reservation in western Utah.

"A few nuclear power companies should not hijack our nation's nuclear waste strategy by building an off-site, above-ground storage site in Skull Valley," Hatch said on the floor of the Senate. "Is our nuclear waste policy going to be established by the federal government, or should that policy-making rest with a couple of private companies driven by profit?"

In a prepared response to Hatch's question, Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said it is his belief that "our focus should remain on a solution that puts this waste directly in the hands of the federal government."

Domenici's statement does not change current policy, but Hatch's office hailed it as an endorsement by the Senate's undisputed leader on energy policy of keeping nuclear waste in government control.

"Chairman Domenici has committed to Senator Hatch to work toward a more aggressive federal oversight of spent nuclear fuel than he thinks might be possible in the current PFS proposal," said Energy Committee spokeswoman Marnie Funk. "He remains committed to federal controls as seen in Yucca Mountain or a federal interim storage site. He has pledged to work with Senator Hatch toward that goal."

She would not elaborate on what additional federal oversight or control might be envisioned.

The Hatch amendment, cosponsored by Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, would prohibit depositing any spent nuclear fuel in a facility not owned by the federal government, or shipping it to such a site.

It also would bar the government from studying any such plans.

Hatch withdrew the amendment, which likely would have been voted down, but it could be turned into a separate bill or added to future legislation.

"It seems like something that would not only affect our project but would really potentially tie the hands of all the utilities," said PFS spokeswoman Sue Martin. "Clearly the intent is to stop our project - to stop something that is legal and has been going through an approved regulatory process for the last eight years."

The Hatch proposal also directs the Energy Department to study interim storage of nuclear waste at DOE facilities or the nuclear reactors, and mandates a study of reprocessing the waste for re-use in reactors.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is in the final stages of considering PFS' license application. A final decision is expected later this summer. Preliminary decisions by the NRC and Atomic Safety and Licensing Board have gone against the state, and NRC staff has argued in favor of the license.

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Idaho Mountain Express
June 24, 2005

Our View:
Energy smokescreen

President Bush's latest campaign is to ballyhoo the need for new nuclear power plants as a way of providing clean energy.

Without skipping a beat and with a straight face while speaking at a Maryland nuclear generating plant, the president lumped nuclear power and oil consumption together in the same sentence in a remarkable mixing of metaphors to suggest an energy solution.

The president is trying to fool the public into believing more nuclear power would somehow compensate for the gluttonous consumption of oil by automobiles and trucks, the principal villains in America's energy needs. He also knows capital costs make nuclear power overall more expensive and not as cheap as he suggests.

Nor has long-term storage of dangerous and long-lived nuclear waste been adequately solved. The planned Yucca Mountain waste storage site still is snared in controversy, as are plans to ship thousands of tons of radioactive waste to the Nevada site from 43 states through 703 counties populated by 123 million people.

Bush's burst of enthusiasm for nuclear energy—he hasn't visited a nuclear plant in 26 years—is similar to his earlier proposals for hydrogen-powered cars, now a laboratory experiment whose mass production is years and years away.

His energy smokescreen avoids the real issue: new, tougher mileage requirements for autos that would drastically shrink America's energy dependence on oil and begin to solve the political crisis that goes on because of indifference and the president's deference to political friends in the auto industry.

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Baltimore Sun
June 23, 2005

Bush visits Md., praises its nuclear power plant

President says it's time for Congress to provide incentives to build more

By Gwyneth K. Shaw
Sun National Staff

LUSBY - Calling nuclear power a safe, environmentally friendly solution, President Bush called yesterday for the industry to build more reactors to help meet the nation's growing demand for electricity.

The nation's 103 reactors now provide one-fifth of its electricity, but the United States hasn't licensed a new nuclear plant in more than a quarter-century. The nuclear industry is pushing hard for incentives to kick-start the process - and Congress is poised to approve them - but even with financial help, a new reactor is not expected to be built for a decade or more.

In a speech at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant - a potential site for new construction - Bush said the government needs to facilitate new reactors, by simplifying the licensing process and offering financial help to reduce the risk to investors, especially at first.

"It is time for this country to start building nuclear power plants again," he said.

Opponents, however, say new reactors shouldn't be built until there's a good solution for the main problems of the existing ones: the threat of an accident and the difficult issue of what to do with the radioactive waste they produce.

Industry officials say a new reactor would cost about $2 billion, although the current generation of nuclear plants tended to end up over budget and took many years to complete. Industry officials say that with financial help from the government, new plants could be competitive with other types of electric plants that cost less to build and run.

Bush has promoted nuclear energy since he took office in 2001, and yesterday, he spoke to about 400 people after a tour of the 30-year-old facility. With top leaders from Constellation Energy Group of Baltimore, the plant's owner, looking on, he praised its capability - the two reactors produce 20 percent of Maryland's power - and held it up as an example to prod Congress to finish a major package of energy legislation.

That bill could gain Senate approval as early as today.

"Energy is vital to the future of this country. Everybody who works here knows that. Everybody who turns on their light switch should know that," Bush said. "It's obvious that we can't expand our economy if businesses don't have enough energy."

Appetite for energy

With American consumption rising four times as fast as production, more aggressive steps need to be taken, he said. Bush touched on the need to conserve energy and look for new, renewable fuel sources - such as biodiesel made from soybeans - but he saved his most lavish praise for the energy produced at Calvert Cliffs.

He called nuclear power "the one energy source that is completely domestic, plentiful in quantity, environmentally friendly, and able to generate massive amounts of electricity."

"Across this state, Maryland has looked to Calvert Cliffs to keep their lights on and to keep their land, air and water clean," Bush said. "In other words, you're generating electricity and helping the environment at the same time."

But most environmental advocacy groups strongly oppose expansion. Nuclear power might be cleaner than other forms of electric generation, they say, but building a safe plant is extremely costly and the question of how to safely dispose of radioactive waste remains highly contentious. There is the risk of an accident, critics note, and reactors - many of which are situated on bodies of water, like Calvert Cliffs - present a potential target for terrorists.

"It's a fair subject for debate, whether nuclear power has a future in light of issues like global warming, but there seems to be kind of a rush to conclusion," said Eric V. Schaeffer, a former Environmental Protection Agency enforcement official who is now director of the Environmental Integrity Project.

"People are forgetting about all the problems we had with the technology over the years, and we still are fighting with the waste issue," he said.

Proposed incentives

Still, nuclear proponents in Congress are ready to deliver financial incentives in the energy bill to enable the nuclear industry to build new plants. Those include additional risk insurance for the first four new reactors, loan guarantees for new plants and tax credits for producing power that does not create air pollution.

Nuclear power is prevalent in Europe and other parts of the world; France, for example, gets 78 percent of its power from nuclear plants, and the figure is 72 percent in Lithuania. But the United States hasn't issued a new license since before Three Mile Island, in 1979.

Bush acknowledged that earlier problems at nuclear power plants had frightened people. But again using Calvert Cliffs as an example, he said today's operations are safer and more reliable. New designs, industry advocates say, should make the process better and less costly.

"Slowly but surely, people are beginning to look at the facts," Bush said. "One of the reasons I've come to this plant is to help people understand the difference between fact and fiction."

Five years ago, Calvert Cliffs became the first plant in the country to win a 20-year extension of its operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The plant, perched above the Chesapeake Bay shoreline in Calvert County, Southern Maryland, is one of six sites the consortium of power companies, which includes Constellation, is considering for construction of new reactors.

Plant officials saw today's visit - with dignitaries who included the head of the NRC and Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman - as a chance to sell Calvert Cliffs as a prime spot for a new reactor. Along with banners welcoming Bush were signs declaring the plant "The Future of Nuclear Power."

Better alternatives

Brad Heavner, director of the Maryland Public Interest Research Group, also known as MaryPIRG, said in a statement that Bush is promoting a high-risk path when other, cheaper, methods are available:

"The nuclear age has passed, and nuclear energy has created more problems than solutions. Now is the time to develop a safer, cleaner and cheaper energy infrastructure, not be misled by a dying industry."

Bush's speech focused on energy, but he also addressed a number of other issues, from Social Security to education. He praised Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. for the progress made in Maryland's education system, crediting the federal No Child Left Behind Act with improved math and reading scores in all 24 of the state's school districts.

Bush noted that since 2003, reading scores for Hispanic third-graders jumped from 39 percent proficiency to 63 percent proficiency on the annual Maryland School Assessment, a new test that was brought in after the federal law took effect:

"It's working here in Maryland. How do you know? Because we measure; we're not guessing. We used to guess, now we measure - so we know."

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Deseret News
June 23, 2005

Reid isn't backing plan to block Utah N-waste

He is still fighting to keep material at power plants

By Jerry Spangler
Deseret Morning News

WASHINGTON — Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada insists he is working to keep nuclear waste out of Nevada and Utah.

But don't look for the powerful Senate minority leader to help the Utah delegation with wilderness language inserted in the Defense Authorization Act that would block temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel on Goshute tribal lands west of Salt Lake City.

He is opposed to legislating the wilderness area on the defense bill," said spokeswoman Tessa Hafen.

The wilderness language, sponsored by Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, is regarded as Utah's last, best chance to block the storage of 44,000 tons of nuclear waste in above-ground canisters.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is poised to rule later this summer on a recommendation by the quasi-judicial Atomic Safety and Licensing Board that Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of nuclear power utilities, be granted a license to store spent nuclear fuel in Utah for up to 40 years.

The Utah delegation is largely resigned to the idea that the NRC is going to grant the license. Earlier this week the NRC rejected yet another state contention that the storage would become permanent because the waste canisters were not suitable for permanent storage at Yucca Mountain. Only one appeal remains, that being whether the risk of an aircraft crash into the site had been properly considered.

With the NRC signaling its willingness to grant the license, the delegation has focused much of its efforts on trying to persuade the Department of Interior to reject the PFS lease with the Skull Valley band of Goshutes and to deny approval for PFS to build a rail spur needed to transport the waste to the storage site.

Bishop's language would declare those same federal lands needed for the rail spur to be wilderness and therefore off-limits to a new rail line.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is more confident the wilderness language will pass this year, pointing out there are two important differences between this year's attempt and the one that failed to make it out of conference committee last year. First, the Bishop language is part of the House version of the bill, whereas last year the Utah delegation was trying to get it added during the conference committee.

That means the issue is part of the debate and it becomes much more difficult for the Senate to take it out.

The other difference is that the Bishop language has the support of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which carries a lot of weight with key members of the conference committee. Last year, there were members of the conference committee opposed to the Bishop language simply because there was a perception that SUWA was opposed.

Reid and his Republican counterpart in Nevada, Sen. John Ensign, are taking a different approach: If they can persuade their colleagues to leave the waste at nuclear power plants around the country, there will be no need for Yucca Mountain or Skull Valley.

They continue to muster bipartisan Senate support for a bill that calls for spent nuclear fuel to be stored at nuclear power plants instead of at Yucca Mountain.

But the Reid-Ensign legislation is considered a long-shot, at best, and it would certainly not deter the White House from pursuing a permanent storage solution at Yucca Mountain. On Wednesday, President Bush, speaking at a Maryland nuclear power plant, again called for a revitalization of the nation's nuclear energy industry.

Bush said the United States has not ordered a new nuclear power plant since the 1970s. During that same time, France built 58, and China has eight under construction with plans for at least 40 more.

There is a growing consensus that more nuclear power will lead to a cleaner, safer nation," Bush said. "In the 21st century, our nation will need more electricity, more safe, clean, reliable electricity. It is time for this country to start building nuclear power plants again."

But what Bush did not address is the nation's stalemate over what to do with the nuclear waste generated by existing plants, not to mention a fleet of new power plants. Even if Yucca Mountain is built — and it is years behind schedule and embroiled in scandal — the facility deep inside a Nevada mountain would be full with just the waste that exists today.

And that has critics speculating that the industry needs both Yucca Mountain and PFS to accommodate all the nuclear waste.

The Department of Energy is expected to submit a license application to the NRC for Yucca Mountain by the end of the year.

But with Yucca Mountain delayed until at least 2012, if not longer, PFS is pushing forward with an interim storage site in Utah. If the NRC grants PFS a license and the state challenges the decision in federal court, the PFS project would still be years ahead of Yucca Mountain.

Utah officials had hoped they had found a silver bullet to kill the project when Gary Lanthrum, director of the DOE's transportation program, said the welded canisters to be used at Skull Valley would not be acceptable at Yucca Mountain and were outside the current contract between the utilities and DOE.

The state jumped on that statement, arguing that the Utah-bound canisters would remain permanently in Utah if they were not accepted at Yucca Mountain — an issue that federal licensing hearings had not considered.

But the NRC was unconvinced. "Utah's thinly supported new contention does not justify reopening the adjudicatory record and restarting our hearing process this late in a protracted, 8-year-old proceeding," the commission wrote in its unanimous ruling earlier this week.

Industry and DOE officials have long maintained that the packaging issue is a technical problem that can be easily corrected.

E-mail: spang@desnews.com

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Rutland Herald
June 23, 2005

Nuclear storage request made

Entergy asks state for waste facility

By Susan Smallheer
Herald Staff

Entergy Nuclear moved quickly Wednesday to apply for a controversial high-level radioactive waste facility, the day after Gov. James Douglas signed legislation allowing the company to proceed.

The company, citing the importance of the storage facility to its continued operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, asked the Public Service Board for a decision by April 1, 2006, or sooner.

The company said it hoped to start construction on that date.

Susan Hudson, clerk for the Public Service Board, said Entergy filed a massive application Wednesday afternoon. "It is huge, it is inches and inches thick," she said.

It will be some time before the board schedules a hearing, she said, so the staff will have time to review the application.

Entergy spokesman Robert Williams said the concrete pad planned for the site north of the plant could hold up to 36 storage casks. But the company has agreed to only keep six casks, he said, and return to the Vermont Legislature if it wants to store more than that.

Those six casks will solve the plant's immediate fuel storage crisis and avoid a potential shutdown before Yankee's federal license expires in 2012. The plant will run out of space in 2008, Entergy claims, or 2007 if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission allows Entergy to increase power production by 20 percent.

Each of the six casks will hold 68 fuel assemblies, which are currently being cooled in the plant's deep-water pool on the fifth floor of the reactor building. Entergy wants to transfer the oldest and coolest fuel into the concrete and steel canisters, which will be cooled by air as they sit on a concrete pad within the safety zone surrounding the Vernon plant.

"The Legislature put a limit on the number of casks, and they can't hold any fuel beyond 2012," Williams said.

Entergy is expected to seek a license renewal to operate beyond that date, but it hasn't made that decision yet.

Once the governor signed the legislation allowing Entergy to seek PSB approval for on-site storage of nuclear waste, Public Service Commissioner David O'Brien signed a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, between the state and Entergy Nuclear.

He said the agreement did not include an endorsement of the project. The Douglas administration merely supported Entergy's right to apply to the PSB to create the storage facility, he said.

"The MOU does not in any way implicitly support dry cask storage," O'Brien said. "It stipulates to certain things that area residents and legislators wanted that we would not be able to raise (in the PSB permit process)."

The agreement also calls for Entergy to pay $2.5 million a year into a new Clean Energy Fund for six years starting in 2006. The money will be used to encourage development of renewable energy in the state, O'Brien said.

"We have to come up with a plan to administer the fund," he said. "That's not going to be an easy task."

The payments are contingent on the company getting approval from the NRC to increase power production.

Entergy asked the PSB to convene a pre-hearing conference to establish a schedule for the hearings and to hold technical and public hearings as necessary "to hear the issues raised by this petition."

Raymond Shadis, senior technical adviser for the New England Coalition, a Brattleboro-based anti-nuclear group, couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said that if Entergy used one of the already-approved cask designs, it wouldn't need to apply to the NRC for an amendment to its operating license.

But he said that the facility would need to meet certain requirements. "We need to make sure the location is appropriate," he said.

He said that NRC staff would be on hand to supervise any practice runs of the transfer of the spent nuclear fuel into the casks. The transfer takes place within the reactor building.

Williams said dry storage was the best plan. "This is not new; 34 plants already have it," he said.

And, he said, by transferring the fuel into the concrete containers, it will be much more ready to transfer to a federal radioactive waste facility, like the one proposed for Yucca Mountain in Nevada, 100 miles north of Las Vegas.

Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com

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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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