Yucca Mountain News Clips - Friday, July 1, 2005

Yucca Mountain News Clips
Friday, July 1, 2005
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Las Vegas SUN
July 01, 2005

Yucca funds fall short of president's '05 request

Measure doesn't include money for research on temporary waste storage

Sun Staff and Wire Reports

WASHINGTON -- The Senate approved $577 million for the Energy Department's Yucca Mountain project in a bill passed this morning and did not include additional money to begin research into temporary waste storage.

The House approved $661 million for the project in May, with $10 million specifically set aside for the department to produce a plan for above ground storage as a backup for the delayed underground geologic repository at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Some lawmakers worry that temporary storage could become permanent and the House plan alarmed lawmakers representing sites such as the Hanford complex in Washington state that were mentioned in a report accompanying the House bill.

Yucca Mountain, approved by Bush in 2002, is planned as a national repository for 77,000 tons of defense and commercial nuclear waste. The government was supposed to take waste in 1998, but a series of setbacks have pushed the opening date to 2012 or 2015.

The White House requested $651 million for the Yucca Mountain project.

Research into the feasibility of a bunker-busting nuclear weapon would also be kept alive under the $31.2 billion energy and water spending bill passed around 1 a.m. Friday.

The bill passed 92-3 after a debate over whether to spend $4 million for research into the bunker buster nuclear warhead, which would be aimed at penetrating underground enemy bunkers.

The House measure contains no funds for the bunker buster, officially called the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator. Critics say the weapon is unworkable and that the development of a new nuclear weapon would be the wrong signal for the United States to send to countries such as North Korea while trying to persuade them to shelve their weapons programs.

"A bunker buster cannot penetrate into the Earth deeply enough to avoid massive casualties and the spewing of millions of cubic feet of radioactive materials into the atmosphere," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said.

Supporters of the weapon won a 53-43 vote. They said its funding was only for a feasibility study to see whether a new, sufficiently hardened casing can be developed for existing warheads to see whether it could penetrate the earth sufficiently to destroy reinforced underground bunkers.

The underlying Senate measure provides $1.5 billion more than both Bush's request and a version that passed the House last month. Even so, the chamber declined to fully fund Bush's $651 million request for the troubled Yucca Mountain facility, freezing spending for it at $577 million. The Senate also repelled a House effort to establish temporary storage sites as a backup to Yucca Mountain.

Instead, the Senate would funnel $5.3 billion into the Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for waterways and flood control projects, providing almost $1 billion more than Bush asked for.

And Energy Department nuclear research labs located in the home state of Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., would get an impressive boost as well.

The Senate did meet Bush's request for $339 million for a new plant at the federal Savannah River complex in South Carolina to produce mixed-oxide fuel. The new facility is a key part of the Bush administration's effort to safeguard the tons of excess weapons-grade plutonium held by both the United States and Russia and reduce the risks of the material being obtained by terrorists or a rogue state.

The House bill provided just $35 million for the mixed-oxide plant.

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Las Vegas SUN
July 01, 2005

Editorial: Yucca probe moves ahead

Las Vegas Sun

One of the central figures under scrutiny in a congressional investigation, which is looking into whether scientists fabricated scientific work on the Yucca Mountain project, testified before Congress on Wednesday. Joe Hevesi, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist, told a House subcommittee that he didn't falsify any information in the scientific inquiry to determine whether Yucca Mountain could safely store 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste.

Hevesi contended that e-mails he wrote used "poor wording" and nothing more. One of those e-mails with "poor wording" contained the following sentence: "I don't have a clue when these programs were installed. So I've made up the dates and names. ... This is as good as it's going to get. If they need more proof, I will be happy to make up stuff." Hevesi told the subcommittee, according to an Associated Press account of the hearing, that the e-mail reflected his surprise that some nonessential programs had to go through quality assurance. Rep. Jon Porter, chairman of the House subcommittee investigating the issue, said that while Hevesi denied falsifying data, that doesn't mean the probe is over. "As I've stated before, we will get to the bottom of this mess," Porter said.

Porter expressed his frustration that the Energy Department continues to be uncooperative with the probe. The congressman still is waiting for documents related to e-mails written by Hevesi and other scientists. Porter is weighing the possibility of issuing a subpoena to get action. "Is (the Energy Department) unable to provide information due to poor management, or are they hiding something?" Porter asked. We don't believe, as Porter suggests, that it is necessarily an either-or proposition. In light of the Energy Department's abysmal track record on the Yucca Mountain Project, the department is quite capable of being poorly run and hiding something simultaneously. Porter has demonstrated diligence so far in this investigation, and we hope his doggedness continues with support from the rest of the subcommittee.

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Guardian
July 1, 2005

Senate OKs Continued Study of Nuclear Arms

Andrew Taylor
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Research into the feasibility of a bunker-busting nuclear weapon would be kept alive under legislation the Senate passed early Friday.

The research was approved as part of a $31.2 billion spending bill for energy and water projects. The bill also includes funds for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, though not as much as President Bush requested.

The bill passed 92-3 after a debate over whether to spend $4 million for research into the bunker buster nuclear warhead, which would be aimed at penetrating underground enemy bunkers.

``A bunker buster cannot penetrate into the Earth deeply enough to avoid massive casualties and the spewing of millions of cubic feet of radioactive materials into the atmosphere,'' said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Supporters of the weapon won a 53-43 vote. They said its funding was only for a feasibility study to see whether a new, sufficiently-hardened casing can be developed for existing warheads to see whether it could penetrate the earth sufficiently to destroy reinforced underground bunkers.

Instead, the Senate would funnel $5.3 billion into the Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for waterways and flood control projects, providing almost $1 billion more than Bush asked for.

And Energy Department nuclear research labs located in the home state of Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., would get an impressive boost as well.

The House bill provided just $35 million for the mixed-oxide plant.

The Senate also rebuffed a House effort to establish temporary storage sites as a backup to Yucca Mountain.

The House called on the Energy Department to produce a plan for aboveground storage for spent reactor fuel from commercial nuclear power plants within four months at one or more federal sites. It also set October 2006 as the date to begin accepting waste and provided $10 million for the program.

Yucca Mountain, approved by Bush in 2002, is planned as a national repository for 77,000 tons of defense and commercial nuclear waste, to be buried for 10,000 years and beyond in the desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A string of recent setbacks has put the program in doubt.

The Yucca Mountain facility is now projected not to be finished until 2012 and could be delayed further.

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Chief Engineer
July 01, 2005

Utilities Show Interest In New Nuclear Power Plant

WASHINGTON (AP) - For two months, Ray Ganthner took to the road, visiting a dozen power companies to find out if his bosses should take a $100 million gamble.

Asking executives ``eyeball-to-eyeball´´ about their future needs for generating capacity, he wanted to know how serious utilities were about building a nuclear power plant in the U.S. for the first time in three decades.

``I was surprised at the consistency of the answers,´´ said Ganthner, a Lynchburg, Va.-based senior executive for the French reactor manufacturer, Framatome, in an interview.

Based on what he found, AREVA, Framatome´s parent company, is investing $100 million on U.S. marketing and to get a design certificate from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for its newest reactor. This type already is being built in Finland.

It may be a long shot.

Two other manufacturers, Westinghouse and General Electric, have a head start. But the French company´s decision to make it a three-way race demonstrates the renewed interest in nuclear power. Not since 1973 has an order been placed for a new reactor.

Two events helped end, for a time, any U.S. interest in reactors beyond those already under construction: In 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania had a partial meltdown; in 1986, there was an explosion at the Chernobyl plant in the Ukraine.

Recently a consortium of eight U.S. utilities, under the banner of NuStart, announced potential sites where one or more of its members might put a new reactor. Two other American utilities are pursuing separate licensing efforts.

While no one has yet committed to construction, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman recently told an industry group, ``If all goes well, we could see new plants on line by 2014.´´

Westinghouse Electric Co., a subsidiary of the British company BNFL, has approval from the NRC for its new 1,000 megawatt AP1000 reactor design. General Electric will submit an application this year for its 1,500 megawatt ESBWR reactor.

Both companies are working hard to line up customers, convinced that electricity demand a decade from now will require more large power plants, including nuclear ones.

``We think everything is heading in absolutely the right direction,´´ says Vaughn Gilbert, a Westinghouse spokesman. ``Nuclear has to be part of the energy picture. We expect the U.S. market will come back and eventually be robust.´´

The new reactors are described as ``evolutionary´´ advancements over the 103 now in operation in 31 states.

The new reactors basically use the same technology, but with fewer valves, pipes and pumps. In the case of Westinghouse and GE, these reactors also have passive safety systems that, if needed, can shut the reactor down automatically and pour in cooling water. Other modifications such as setting the radioactive fuel lower into the ground were added in response to post-Sept. 11 worries about terrorism.

President Bush has promoted nuclear power as a way to take the pressure off fossil fuels - oil, natural gas and coal. While the U.S. gets 20 percent of its electricity from nuclear reactors, France meets 78 percent of its electricity needs with nuclear power.

``The world needs to share technologies on nuclear power. ... So we need to work together on developing technologies that will not only ensure people that nuclear power will be safe, but that we can dispose of it in a safe way,´´ said Bush at a news conference last week with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Even some environmentalists have abandoned their opposition to nuclear power, arguing it is needed to address climate change because reactors do not produce ``greenhouse´´ gases as do fossil fuels. Other environmentalists are not convinced, citing worries about reactor waste and safety.

A University of Chicago study concluded that a new fleet of reactors can be expected to produce power as cheaply as coal and natural gas, given´s today´s prices.

``People are getting comfortable with nuclear,´´ Paul Dabber, a vice president for mergers and acquisitions at J.P. Morgan, told a conference on new reactor technology in February. One reason is that existing nuclear power plants have been making a profit, he said.

Wall Street long has been skeptical about committing $2 billion or more to a new nuclear reactor. Investors still consider such a venture risky unless the government provides tax breaks or other incentives to get the first group of reactors started.

Without some government help, no new reactors are likely to be built before 2025, according to the Energy Information Agency, the government´s energy statistical agency.

Congress is considering loan guarantees for new-design reactors, and lawmakers are expected to come up with other tax breaks. But a Bush proposal to provide ``risk insurance´´ to protect the industry against licensing or legal delays has attracted little interest on Capitol Hill.

No one has yet committed to building a new reactor. Despite the optimistic rhetoric, utilities are moving toward that decision cautiously.

A premature pronouncement about a new reactor could rattle investors and depress a utility´s stock, industry experts say.

Utilities and investors still remember the pitfalls of long licensing delays that doubled and tripled the cost of many reactors in the 1980s.

In one of the biggest cost overruns, the proposed twin-reactor Seabrook plant in New Hampshire was projected to cost $850 million in 1976 and be finished in six years. It ended up costing $7 billion when it was completed in 1990. The second reactor was canceled.

``My company lost $5 billion to $10 billion on the last round of nuclear construction,´´ Exelon chairman John Rowe said in a recent speech, explaining why he is approaching new reactor investments with caution.

Rowe´s Chicago-based utility company owns 17 nuclear reactors, more than any other utility.

He says his company will not invest in a new plant until there is more progress in dealing with reactor waste. A proposed waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada has had a string of setbacks. The date for its completion is optimistically put at 2012.

Still, Exelon and two other utilities, Dominion and Entergy, have separately applied to the NRC for early site permits for reactors with the idea of shortening the licensing process if a decision is made to go ahead with one.

``There is a growing recognition that if we are going to meet our future need for electric energy and also reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases ... we simply must build the next generation of advanced nuclear energy plants,´´ said Marilyn Kray, an Exelon vice president and head of the NuStart consortium.

In an interview, she said the goal is to preserve the nuclear option by testing the NRC´s streamlined licensing process.

Duke Energy, based in Charlotte, N.C., is talking about possibly having a new reactor operating by 2014. Dominion, based in Virginia, is making plans to seek an NRC reactor construction permit. Neither company has made a final decision.

The Energy Department is paying half the cost of the various initial licensing efforts, including an expected $46 million next year.

``Adding nuclear capacity ... makes a lot of sense,´´ says Henry Barron, in charge of nuclear operations at Duke Power, a subsidiary of Duke Energy that serves 2 million customers in the Carolinas.

By 2014, Duke will need at least one more large power plant to meet demand in one of the country´s fastest growing regions. Many other utilities around the country are facing similar electricity demands.

Once the logjam is broken with the first orders, the U.S. reactor market could become the world´s second largest, after China, given expected growth in U.S. electricity demand and environmental and cost concerns about fossil fuels, says Andy White, president of GE Energy´s nuclear business.

``We´ve probably never had a better situation,´´ White said in an interview, predicting that 60 or more new reactors may be built in the United States over the next 20 to 30 years with several designs finding customers.

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Los Alamos Monitor
July 1, 2005

Senate OKs bill to fund lab projects

Carol A. Clark
lanews@lamonitor.com
Monitor Staff Writer

The Senate's passage of the FY2006 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill moves millions in federal dollars forward to fund critical scientific and nuclear weapons security programs, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. said today.

The bill provides $25.04 billion for DOE in FY2006, $1.12 billion more than the budget request and $778 million more than FY2005.

The Senate approved the $31.2 billion total funding measure, 92-3, early this morning to fund DOE and water programs administered by the Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation.

In a news release from Domenici's Washington, D.C., office he stated, "This bill has been carefully crafted to strike the right balance between maintaining our nuclear arsenal and advancing basic scientific research in this country. I believe the strong Senate support shown today reflects the careful consideration we took in making sure that America's immediate water needs are balanced without long-term need for scientific advances."

As chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, Domenici will lead the conference committee negotiations to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions of this bill.

Domenici said he looks forward to a productive conference to reconcile two very different Senate and House bills.

"It will be a challenge, but it is important that we reach an accord that suits our security and scientific priorities," he said.

"I know that Sens. Domenici and (Jeff) Bingaman have both worked very hard to take care of Los Alamos and protect and promote the science being done here," Rep. Jeannette Wallace, R-Los Alamos, said in an interview this morning. "I know they feel confident that this bill has what it should."

Domenici provides $1.7 billion for nonproliferation activities, which is $91.8 million above the request and $236 million over FY2005. The bill provides level funding, $577 million, for the Yucca Mountain project in Nevada.

Domenici included a provision for Lab Directed Research and Development (LDRD) that will allow up to 8 percent - up from 6 percent-of a lab budget to be used for laboratory-initiated scientific R&D.

"These funds for LDRD support a central program that contributes to the revolutionary technologies researched at the laboratories. The innovations explored here have a profound impact on our national security strategy," Domenici said.

For New Mexico, Domenici added $4.6 million to complete construction of the Center for Integrated Nanotechnology (CINT), a joint Sandia and Los Alamos venture at Kirtland Air Force Base. The bill also has $30 million to establish a National Nanotechnology Enterprise Development Center at CINT to support the transfer of technology from four nanotechnology centers into the commercial market.

The bill provides $25.04 billion for DOE in FY2006, $1.12 billion above the budget request and $778 million more than FY2005. The bill has $1.08 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation ($130 million more than the budget request and $63.5 million more than FY2005) and $5.3 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers ($258 million more than FY2005 and $966 million over the budget request).

For DOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) nuclear weapons activities, the bill has $6.55 billion. This is $76 million less than the budget request largely due to the $222 million transfer of cleanup operations from the NNSA to the Office of Environmental Management and a reduction in construction funds for the National Ignition Facility (NIF).

The bill also includes $230.6 million for WIPP, including $18 million for a variety of related projects in the Carlsbad area and $24.5 million to the state of New Mexico for transportation funding.

Highlights of the New Mexico-related spending included by Domenici in the FY2006 Energy & Water Development Appropriations Bill include:

Environmental Cleanup-$142.2 million for cleanup of lab property. The bill rejects the Administration's proposal to require NNSA to perform cleanup and requires the Office of Environmental Management to maintain this responsibility.

Environmental Cleanup / Los Alamos County - $5.2 million to Los Alamos County to support the cleanup and stabilization of the LANL landfill at the Los Alamos Airport, an increase of $3.3 million more than the budget request.

Advance Simulation Computing (NNSA)-$75 million earmarked to purchase a 150 teraflop machine at Los Alamos to reduce the time it takes to perform a weapons calculations. Currently, LANL has the most responsibility under the Life Extension Program (LEP), but the slowest computer (20 teraflop). LANL has been running a calculation on the existing computer for the past 19 months.

The new computer will only take three months to develop a solution for the same calculation. (LANL share of the $735 million in Advanced Simulation and Computing, including the $75 million earmark is $269.8 million.)

Science Campaigns-Additional $46 million to the Science campaign to support increased R&D efforts at LANL. Within the increases, LANL will receive: $5 million to initiate preliminary engineering and design work on upgrades to the LANSCE facility; and, $15 million from the Dynamic Materials Properties program to support experimentation on the Atlas Machine to validate thermodynamic properties.

Stockpile Systems/R&D Certification-$10 million to support additional hydrodynamics test at LANL.

Red Network Expansion-$20 million increase to complete the expansion of classified network at LANL, the same level as FY2005.

TA-18 Cat III/IV-$2 million increase to begin design effort for a new facility to accommodate Cat III/IV material that is in the process of moving out of TA-18

Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Facility (CMR)-$65 million, a $10 million increase, to keep construction on track and reduce costs because of schedule delays. Domenici secured $39.6 million for the project in FY2005.

Advanced Fuel Cycle-$7 million earmark for Material Test Station at LANSCE to support material science research. This is the second year request for the material test station at LANL. This account is provided $85 million in FY2006.

For Joint Lab Funding:

National Nanotechnology Enterprise Development Center-$30 million to establish the National Nanotechnology Enterprise Development Center at CINT, a joint Los Alamos and Sandia facility. This fund will support the transfer of technology out of the four nanotechnology centers into the commercial market.

Chemical/Biological Detection R&D-$30 million is added to the Nuclear Detection R&D effort within the Office of Nuclear Nonproliferation to support long-term R&D efforts.

ICF Stockpile Support (Inertial Confinement Fusion Campaign)-$41.1 million has been provided to support stockpile stewardship activities on Z Machine, which will be distributed in the following manner: $12.9 million to Sandia National Labs; $16.5 million to LANL; $11.6 million to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The budget request proposed to eliminate these activities in an effort to support NIF construction.

Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW)-$25 million, an increase of $15 million, to support a design competition between Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore to design replacement components on existing weapons. The goal will be to reduce overall lifecycle cost, improve safety and reliability of our nuclear deterrent.

Lab Directed Research and Development-Bill and report language have been included supporting an increase in the LDRD program to spend up to 8 percent (up from 6 percent) of the lab budget for laboratory-initiated scientific R&D. This will provide additional resources to support cutting-edge science that contribute to the mission, but may not be directly relevant to today's challenges.

WASTE ISOLATION PILOT PLANT-$230.6 million for the DOE Carlsbad Area Office and WIPP, an $18 million increase over the budget request. The bill has $24.5 million in transportation funding to be provided directly to the state of New Mexico. This overall funding level includes the following earmarks added by Domenici:

Accelerated Cleanup: $6 million added by Domenici the purchase of TRUPACT-III containers.

Community Impact: $3.5 million for infrastructure improvements, and acceleration impact funding for the Carlsbad community.

Center of Excellence: $2 million for continued development of the Center of Excellence for Hazardous Materials Management.

Neutrino Research: $1.5 million to support ongoing research at WIPP.

MIND Institute: Domenici secured $12 million, a $1.0 million increase over FY2005, to continue federal support for the Mental Illness and Neuroscience Discovery Institute (MIND Institute). The institute funds three national centers of excellence in functional brain imaging in Albuquerque, Minneapolis, and Boston. The New Mexico center of excellence involves the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories.

Global Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention - $50 million for IPP program to cost-share with industry to engage Russian Scientists in commercial and non-weapons related activities. There is strong New Mexico support for this Domenici-created initiative.

Yucca Mountain: $577 million, the same level as FY2005 and $64 million below the budget request. The bill does not address the interim storage issue.

NNSA Stockpile Stewardship Program: $6.57 billion for nuclear weapons Stockpile Stewardship activities, $224 million over FY2005. This program is carried out at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Nevada Test Site, and at plants in Texas, Missouri, Tennessee and South Carolina. This funding includes:

$2.09 billion - Science-based Stockpile Stewardship ($17 million over request).

$25 million - Reliable Replacement Warhead program ($15 million over request).

$314 million - National Ignition Facility, but no funds to continue construction.

Defense Environmental Management: $7.2 billion, a $324 million above the request.

Directed Stockpile Stewardship-$1.45 billion, up $37 million above the request (+2.5%). This includes:

Reliable Replacement Warhead-$25 million, an increase of $15 million, to initiate a design competition between the weapons laboratories to improve the existing stockpile to reduce design tolerance to reduce maintenance cost and ensure the lab directors ability to certify the stockpile.

Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator-$4 million to complete the testing of this concept by FY2007. There are no plans or funding to develop this weapon.

Science Campaign-$307.9 million, up $46 million above the request, to support research and experiments that are critical to certification of the stockpile.

Engineering Campaign-$272.7 million, up $52 million, to support R&D efforts in weapons security to prevent terrorist from ever using U.S. weapons.

Inertial Confinement Fusion-$314 million to support critical R&D funding to support high yield experiments on Z machine, the Omega Laser and NIF. The budget virtually eliminated all experimental work in order to support NIF construction.

National Ignition Facility (NIF)-No construction funding is provided. Instead the NNSA is directed to use the existing laser, the most powerful in the world to focus on supporting the Science Campaign and stockpile stewardship activities.

Advanced Simulation Computing-$735 million, $75 million over the budget request, which will support the purchase of new computers to support the stewardship program. This will improve the Life Extension Program (LEP) at LANL, which has the smallest computer but largest LEP responsibility.

Pit Manufacturing and Certification-$248.7 million, equal to the budget request and including $7.68 to support a Modern Pit Facility.

NNSA Infrastructure-$1.66 billion, up $64 million, for construction and O&M of NNSA facilities (RTBF Account), including $65 million (up $10 million) for LANL CMR Replacement, and $65.5 million for construction and $12 million for operation of Sandia's MESA facility.

Nuclear Nonproliferation - $1.73 billion, an increase of $91.8 million above the request and $236 million above FY2005 levels.

Nonproliferation Detection R&D-$297 million, up $30 million, to support long-term research into chemical and biological detection.

International Materials Control-$343 million, a $24 million increase over FY2005, to support nuclear materials control activities in Russia.

Global Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention- $50.9 million, up $13 million, to engage Russian weapons scientist in commercial efforts. Additional funding is provided to expand the scope of cooperation to other countries that may pose a proliferation threat.

Plutonium Disposition (MOX)-$362 million for construction of a MOX fabrication facility. This program is fully funded as a result of positive U.S.-Russia negotiations.

Global Threat Reduction Initiative-$108.9 million, an increase of $11 million, to increase the collection of civilian radiation sources in the United States, and $7 million to convert up to four U.S. university research reactors from highly enriched uranium fuel to low enriched uranium fuel.

DOE Office of Science Research-$3.7 billion in basic scientific research, which is $240 million over the budget request and $97 million over FY2005. This includes:

Genomes for Life -$40 million to accelerate the deployment of four research facilities

DOE Science Facilities-$100 million to support 100 percent utilization of all DOE facilities.

Nanotechnology Transfer Fund-$30 million to establish this fund to help commercialize. nanotechnology discoveries at the four nanoscience research centers. These collaborative facilities will provide access to world-class DOE and NNSA facilities.

Spallation Neutron Source-$41.7 million to fully fund this Oakridge National Lab program.

Domestic Fusion Research-$290 million to restore funding for this work.

DOE Office of Science-$3.72 billion, $240 million above the request and $102 million above FY2005, which includes:

$100 million to guarantee 100 percent runtime capacity for all DOE science facilities, some of which may only run 12 weeks this year.

$40 million for the Genome to Life program, as well as language instructing DOE to use the nanotechnology centers as a model and build four proposed genome facilities.

$30 million is provided to establish a technology development fund.

Fossil Energy R&D-$646.6 million, $79 million over FY2005, including:

Clean Coal Power - $50 million

Future Gen - $18 million

Carbon Sequestration - $74 million, up $7 million

Fuel Cells - $69 million

Natural Gas Technologies R&D - $27 million, up $17 million

Oil Technology R&D - $32 million, up $22 million

Nuclear Energy: $449.9 million for nuclear energy initiatives, a $64.3 million over FY2005 and $60 million over the request. This includes $76 million for Nuclear Power 2010 (up $20 million); $60 million for the Generation IV Nuclear Energy Initiative (up $15 million), including language requiring DOE to focus on two reactor designs; $40 million for the Next Generation Nuclear Reactor project in Idaho; and $85 million for the Advanced Fuel Cell Initiative (up $10 million, in addition to including $7 million for the LANCE program at LANL).

Renewable Energy Technologies-$1.24 billion, $53 million over the budget and $13 million over FY2005, for renewable energy R&D. All Congressional earmarks are paid for and will not undercut DOE research. This funding includes:

$182 million for hydrogen, $13 million over FY2005

$92 million for biomass research, $20 million above the request

$187 million for vehicle technology R&D, a $20 million over FY2005

$240 million for weatherization assistance, up $15 million

High Temperature Superconductivity R&D: $55.5 million, a $5.5 million increase over the budget request, for this research. LANL plays a big role in this superconductivity research.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
June 30, 2005

Scientist denies falsifying Yucca Mountain data

Remarks in e-mails just `water cooler talk,' hydrologist tells Congress

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- A government scientist who wrote e-mails that ignited controversy over possible document falsification at Yucca Mountain told Congress on Wednesday that he did not alter reports or data.

Joseph Hevesi, a hydrologist who wrote computer models and gathered field data on water flow at the possible nuclear waste site, said provocative comments he sent to colleagues about research and quality controls on the site were "water cooler talk" that did not affect science he conducted.

Explaining one message, Hevesi said he was joking. Other e-mails, he said, were "raw emotional responses" that reflected work frustration but not malice.

"I have never falsified any documents regarding Yucca Mountain or any other project," Hevesi told a House subcommittee investigating electronic messages that rocked the repository program when they were revealed in March.

Hevesi's testimony failed to hand Nevada officials a smoking gun they hoped would reveal management lapses and flaws in science that they could use to sink the nuclear waste program.

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., who organized the session as subcommittee chairman, said his panel's work was not done yet. He said some of Hevesi's answers were vague, and he planned for subcommittee staff to question the scientist further.

"The fact that Mr. Hevesi denied falsifying any data does not close the door on the investigation," said Porter, whose staff has interviewed other scientists about the e-mails.

Porter said he would refocus the subcommittee on the Department of Energy, which he alleged has refused, despite repeated requests, to provide him with documents concerning the e-mails and management's responses to them.

John Arthur, Energy Department deputy director for Yucca Mountain, testified Wednesday and told Porter the department did not want to interfere with a separate inspector general investigation.

Arthur could not say whether the department would respond to Porter's latest demand.

"I think all avenues lead to the DOE," Porter said after the hearing. He said he would subpoena DOE documents if the department did not comply in the next two weeks.

Hevesi's appearance and testimony under oath marked a turn in the e-mail controversy that has contributed to delays in the Yucca Mountain project.

Arthur on Wednesday said again that DOE will not file a repository license until questions surrounding the messages are put to rest.

Hevesi, a United States Geological Survey scientist in his mid-40s who is based in Sacramento, Calif., was subpoenaed to appear.

He was questioned for about 90 minutes by Porter and a half-dozen members of the federal work force and agency organization subcommittee. He was accompanied by an attorney, Scott Treadway of Indianapolis.

The witness said he had provided documents to the subcommittee through USGS but had been reluctant to appear because of a separate investigation being conducted by federal inspectors general.

"I was trying to focus on one situation at a time," he said.

Porter led Hevesi on a dissection of a dozen e-mail messages, part of a group written between 1998 and 2000 when the hydrologist was a USGS worker at Yucca Mountain.

Other subcommittee members asked broader, and in some cases friendlier, questions.

"I can only imagine what it is like being here to discuss a few e-mails out of 10 million e-mails and then be told these must be the epicenter of all that is important," Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told Hevesi.

"Do you think it is fair, considering the seriousness of the storage facility, or do you think, candidly, that we are looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack even if it is the shortest needle you ever saw?" Issa asked.

Hevesi offered explanations of e-mails containing passages in which he wrote of using "fudge factors" and of keeping two sets of files: one for himself and one for quality assurance auditors.

Hevesi said "fudge factor" was jargon referring to a simplified solution that served as a model placeholder until more detailed data could be inserted in its place.

"Scientists use fudge factors in their work all the time," he said.

On the dual files, he said one computer program he worked with could not use header information, and he had one set with identifying headers and one set without headers.

Despite the difference in the header information, the data was identical on both files, he said.

Hevesi said he was frustrated by quality assurance procedures, which he said in some cases were evolving as scientists were conducting their work.

In one message Hevesi wrote, "Wait till they figure out that nothing I've provided them is QA. If they really want the stuff they'll have to pay to do it right."

On Wednesday, he said that meant he had completed an engineering calculation before others decided it needed to be checked for quality assurance.

"It was very poor wording on my part in the e-mail," Hevesi said. He said he "had a reputation for being flippant in my e-mail."

Quizzed by Porter, Hevesi said he had only a vague recollection of deficiency reports concerning his work.

Arthur testified later that a January 2000 audit identified deficiencies with Hevesi's adherence to quality assurance requirements, including problems with software controls and the lack of a scientific notebook.

Although a DOE investigation has concluded that the e-mails do not suggest that science was falsified, Arthur said Hevesi's modeling "cannot be trusted today without reverification or replication of the specific work."

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Pahrump Valley Times
June 29, 2005

Congress moving to limit DOE controls on repository funding

By Steve Tetreault
PVT Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Congress is moving to limit the Energy Department's controls on millions of dollars the government sends to Nevada counties each year to monitor Yucca Mountain.

County officials no longer would be required to submit work plans for DOE review and approval before receiving their annual funding, under a Senate bill set for a vote his summer.

The work plan reviews have irked some local government managers who say the counties should be given more independence. They chafe over delays in receiving grant money and over work plan corrections directed by DOE reviewers.

"It is not the best use of everyone's time to go through an exercise of working and reworking a document that is pretty detailed," said Irene Navis, Clark County nuclear waste planning director.

The process is not as troubling to some others. Nye County Commission Chairwoman Candice Trummell said the reviews could be useful to steer county leaders clear of inadvertent misspending and safeguard against audits.

The money involved is shared by Nye County, eight other Nevada counties and Inyo County in California that are contiguous to Nye, where the Yucca repository is being planned. This year the counties are getting $8 million, while next year's budget calls for $8.5 million.

As the host county, Nye County's portion is close to $3 million, while the other jurisdictions receive smaller sums. Clark County gets about $1.6 million for Yucca Mountain oversight.

With the Energy Department now preparing to seek a license for a nuclear waste repository at the Yucca site, key senators concluded the DOE-county relationship poses potential conflicts and needs to change.

The DOE work plan reviews are "inconsistent with its role as a license applicant" because the counties will probably oppose DOE at repository hearings before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to the Senate legislation.

The measure calls for DOE to adopt a more informal "advise and consent" role in working with the local governments on their spending.

The directive was requested by Nevada county leaders and was inserted by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., into a report that accompanies the Senate's fiscal 2006 spending bill for the Energy Department.

"The whole point of oversight is to maintain an independent review," Reid said in a statement. "Additionally, DOE and most likely all of the county governments will be legal adversaries on the Yucca Mountain project."

As the Yucca project evolved over the years, it fell to the Energy Department to distribute the county funding appropriated by Congress, and to ensure that it was being spent according to rules set by the 1982 nuclear waste law and annual budget bills.

Energy Department spokesman Allen Benson would not comment on the Senate bill. Benson said DOE officials "try to be as cooperative as they can be" in working with the local governments.

"They need the money to do their job and our job is to make sure they spend it in accordance with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act," Benson said. "You try to work things out amicably."

Nevada counties will not be given free rein if the legislation becomes law. Their spending still would be subject to audits by the Energy Department and the department's inspector general.

A 2003 audit challenged $2.08 million in Nye County spending for 2001 and 2002, and $1.13 million spent by Lincoln County. The audit also questioned $132,296 spent by Clark County.

Federal law allows the county governments to use federal money to hire consultants to evaluate the repository's local impacts, to monitor DOE science work and to communicate with residents about the project.

The counties cannot spend federal money on lobbying, lawsuits or to seek allies against the project but they can use the money to participate in upcoming license hearings.

Trummell said the audits have been more troublesome than the work plan reviews. Inspectors have adopted "overly strict" interpretations of the spending rules, she said.

"Nobody wants waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars," Trummell said. "The basic consensus of the (counties) is that we need to have more independence with our oversight, but I am personally more concerned with what that means in terms of auditing."

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Pahrump Valley Times
June 29, 2005

Nye approves radio link-up

Commission to Spend $6.8 Million for Law Enforcement

By Phillip Gomez
PVT

Nye County commissioners last week approved spending measures of $6.8 million for a law enforcement radio network link-up, enabling Pahrump's sheriff's office, with two substations in Tonopah and Beatty, to communicate instantly with each other and with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

The two purchase agreements, with Motorola and Harris corporations, has been under consideration by the commissioners for some time. The lease agreement with Motorola will allow Nye County to interface with the Southern Nevada Area Communications Council (SNACC), linking Pahrump, Beatty and Tonopah into the microwave system by line-of-sight repeaters on mountain elevations.

Motorola granted the county an extension of its earlier offer in November for a discounted rate. The package includes a combination of hardware, software and services, including two simulcast sites in Pahrump, six Intellirepeater sites at Sawtooth, Potosi, Gold Point, Amargosa Valley, Warm Springs and Brock.

Tonopah, Beatty and Pahrump will receive upgrades of their current dispatch systems and be integrated into the SNACC "SmartZone" system.

Nye County is financing $3.4 million in the $4.5 million contract with Motorola with annual lease payments to begin in a year. The $2.2 million contract with Harris Microwave Communications Division covers the trunking system layout and installation of the microwave repeater towers.

The appropriation passed unanimously. The county commissioners plan to pay for the system with future PETT funds, the Payments Equal To Taxes received annually from the federal government for the Yucca Mountain project.

Motorola touts the microwave trunking system for its reliability, security and redundancy. "Currently, Nye County Sheriff's Office operates a VHF conventional radio system with coverage provided by unconnected sites throughout the county," its literature reads. In developing the "Mission Critical Solution," the county will be able to use existing analog-trunked radio equipment, gaining reliable coverage from the southern end of the Pahrump Valley through the Highway 95 corridor to Tonopah.

Repeater sites "will allow coverage into the critical and marginally served areas within the county," according to Motorola.

"We have a lot of dead spots even in Pahrump," said Sheriff Tony DeMeo. All the county's telephone traffic, including its video-conferencing of county commission meetings between Tonopah and Pahrump, can be run on the new system, he said. The county could also lease out use of the system to commercial concerns, he said.

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GovExec
June 29, 2005

Yucca Mountain e-mail author denies allegations

By Beth Dickey
bdickey@govexec.com

An author of e-mails that raised suspicions about the validity of scientific support for the nation's first nuclear waste dump said under oath Wednesday that the research is sound.

Testifying under a subpoena from Congress, Joseph Hevesi denied falsifying documentation for computer models used in the late 1990s to predict water flow through Yucca Mountain, the Nevada ridge where Energy Department wants to bury 77,000 tons of spent fuel rods and other radioactive materials.

The U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist said messages he wrote about Energy's quality assurance process for the research have been misinterpreted to suggest that data were faked.

"The work was sound," Hevesi told members the House Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce and Agency Organization. He was ordered to appear in Washington after refusing to discuss the matter privately with subcommittee staff.

The controversy focuses on e-mails sent by Hevesi and two other federal employees between 1998 and 2000. The messages were uncovered by contractors preparing a license application for the dump late last year and were made public in March.

In a two-hour hearing Wednesday, subcommittee chairman Jon Porter, R-Nev., read excerpts from several e-mails and asked Hevesi to provide context.

One message, dated March 20, 2000, discussed the installation of software being used in the Yucca evaluation. "I've made up the dates and names," Hevesi wrote. "This is as good as it's going to get. If they need more proof, I will be happy to make up more stuff."

It was an "off the cuff" response to a request for quality assurance documents on software that was not essential to the modeling process, Hevesi said Thursday, apologizing for his poor choice of words. "I had a reputation for being flippant in my e-mails," he said.

All the messages portray a worker who was frustrated about tight schedules, limited resources and evolving quality assurance procedures and who tended to vent his frustrations in writing. Hevesi said the controversy has taught him a lesson. "I have completely rethought how I use the whole e-mail system and how I communicate."

In separate testimony, an Energy Department official noted that the e-mails in question amount to a handful among millions. W. John Arthur, deputy director of the agency's Nevada-based Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said most quality assurance issues discussed in the e-mails were documented and corrected in mid-2000.

Arthur said that although the e-mails did not suggest that any scientific measurement was falsified, the Energy Department is re-examining the data for accuracy. "Because our quality assurance requirements were not met," he said, "no matter how good Mr. Hevesi's work products and modeling may be, these products cannot be trusted today."

The congressional inquiry continues in parallel with criminal investigations by the FBI and inspectors general of the Energy and Interior departments.

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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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