Yucca Mountain News Clips
Sunday, July 17, 2005
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Kansas City Star
July 17, 2005
Energy Policy
Congress´ diversion of funds is reason for delays at Yucca Mountain
By William H. Miller
Special to The Star
In the debate over a national repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, many critics — even in Congress — complain that the project is way behind schedule. They say the Department of Energy is at fault. But the project is many years behind schedule because Congress has been diverting money held in trust for the nuclear waste program and not spending it for its intended purpose.
According to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the repository was supposed to open by 1998. That date has been pushed back to 2012 because Congress has not allowed the Department of Energy to spend the money it needs to stay on schedule. This delay has come despite the fact that the government has been receiving much larger amounts of money from nuclear power generation that, by law, is earmarked specifically for used fuel management.
Since 1983, consumers of nuclear-generated electricity from the Callaway plant have paid more than $250 million into a federal trust fund that was dedicated to the Yucca Mountain project. Nationally, over $25 billion has gone into the trust fund, but only $7 billion has been spent on the project. The rest has simply been absorbed into the general treasury.
That was not the intent when the trust fund was established. All of the money was to be set aside for the nuclear waste program, particularly construction of the repository. However, in 1987, Congress amended the law so as to make spending for construction dependent on year-to-year appropriations. For example, for fiscal year 2005, Congress appropriated $572 million for the Yucca Mountain project, which was far less than the $750 million that users of nuclear-generated electricity paid into the fund. The Department of Energy is expected to receive even less money for the project in fiscal 2006, despite mounting surpluses in the fund.
Congress is keeping all of this funding bottled up for two reasons. One is economic — it is diverting these funds into general revenues, to reduce the size of the federal budget deficit and the amount of money that the government must borrow every year to cover it. This is extremely shortsighted — delaying an important national program that by law it has to fund.
The other reason is politics. Critics have convinced many in Congress that Yucca Mountain is a “dump’ for “nuclear waste.’ Both are misconceptions.
Far from being a “dump,’ the underground repository will in effect be a high-tech laboratory, at which scientists over the next 300 years will be able to monitor the highly radioactive used fuel. This monitoring will help the government determine whether the underground chambers of volcanic rock are a safe medium for even longer-term storage. If not, the spent fuel casks could be retrieved for storage elsewhere. But the overwhelming consensus among the thousands of hydrologists, geologists and other scientists who have studied the Yucca Mountain site is that it can function safely for 10,000 years or longer.
Nor is the material being stored simply “waste.’ In fact, it contains very valuable fuel that could well serve as an energy source for tomorrow´s nuclear power plants. It may become economical to recycle the used fuel through chemical reprocessing, in which plutonium and uranium are recovered from the used fuel rods and made available for use in other reactors. This process also reduces the volume, radiotoxicity and lifetime of nuclear waste, shortening storage time and greatly extending nuclear fuel supplies.
One day, the Yucca Mountain repository will open, with storage space for 70,000 metric tons of used fuel rods from nuclear power plants and highly radioactive wastes from nuclear weapons production. Consumers of nuclear-generated electricity have paid for it. At the same time, they have also had to pay for continuing storage of the used fuel at nuclear plant sites. Because many fuel pools have reached capacity, utilities that operate 21 of the 103 U.S. nuclear power plants have built concrete-and-steel casks to store some of the used fuel. Additional dry casks are planned at other plant sites. This cost is borne by electricity consumers — in effect, making them pay twice for the same function because Congress is refusing to use their money for its intended purpose.
Congress needs to correct this problem and should move spending for the nuclear waste program out of the federal budget process, so that funding once again will be predictable and thereby enable licensing and construction of the repository to proceed according to a realistic timetable. The country needs more energy and more nuclear power — and we need the government to show that it is meeting its legal responsibility to manage the used fuel.
William H. Miller is a professor at the Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
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Reno Gazette Journal
July 17, 2005
Titus plans to target rural voters in today´s announcement
Anjeanette Damon
State Sen. Dina Titus hasn´t been exactly coy about her intentions to seek the state´s highest office next year.
But today she´ll venture into what could be considered enemy territory to formally launch her gubernatorial campaign — 13 months before the first ballots will be cast.
Saying she wants to send the message she´ll be running a statewide race, the Las Vegas Democrat is traveling to Minden today to make her first official announcement in a rural hamlet where Republicans outnumber Democrats 2 to 1.
The move confronts one of the biggest criticisms of Titus´s campaign — that her Las Vegas, liberal Democrat persona won´t win her any votes in the rural areas of Nevada.
“We are going to go to every county, every back road, every community that we can,’ Titus said. “I´m going to go out, and I´m going to talk straight to them.’
Reactions are mixed as to whether the strategy will work.
“It indicates she recognizes the need to make an appearance in the rural counties, because this is where the action will probably be to decide the vote,’ said JoEtta Brown, a Gardnerville retiree and part of a corps of Douglas County women supporting Titus. “She´s aware of those challenges, but she has a platform and she has a message. This is her beginning to really say, ‘I´m running for governor.´’
But Wes Rice, a Douglas County Republican, said he´s surprised Titus would choose Minden.
“There´s no doubt in my mind that a Republican candidate will carry Douglas County,’ Rice said of his home turf where Republicans have 14,268 voters compared to 6,730 Democrats.
“I can´t speak for all of the rural counties, but living in Douglas County, she´s known, but her politics are a little bit too liberal for many of the rural counties.’
Eric Herzik, a political analyst and professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, said he doesn´t know what Titus will earn from her rural kickoff.
“First and foremost you pay attention to your base,’ he said. “And her base is not in Douglas County.’
Titus´ Minden announcement will be followed by an event at Wingfield Park in Reno on Monday morning and in Las Vegas on Monday afternoon.
Titus, who has been open about her intention to run for governor, is the first Democrat to make an official announcement.
Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, is widely expected to enter the race as well and has been busy raising money and putting together a campaign team.
On the Republican side, state Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, and Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt have announced their candidacy. U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Reno, who is widely considered to be the frontrunner for the nomination, has not announced.
Relating to the rurals
Titus said those who assume she can´t win votes in rural Nevada are falling victim to a stereotype.
“I grew up in rural Georgia. I can relate to the rurals,’ she said.
The 55-year-old University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor has lived in the Silver State since 1977, but still carries an unshakable Southern accent.
Her strategy for the rurals: “I won´t be pissin´ on their boots and telling them that it is raining.’
Titus and her team are trying to establish her as a “straight-talker.’ A candidate you can walk up to on the street and chat with.
It´s a way to mitigate her propensity for her spontaneous — and sometimes undiplomatic— statements.
“Dina is smart, and she´s glib,’ Herzik said. “And I´m sure reporters love her for that. But some of that comes back to haunt you.’
Titus and her campaign likely will spend much of their time countering quotes pulled by her opponents from newspapers throughout her tenure in the Legislature. As a Las Vegas lawmaker, she often had pointed remarks against Northern Nevada in the classic north-south battle that plays out every session.
For example in the 1991 tug-of-war over how to distribute the state´s taxes, Titus referred to Washoe County as a “sponge just soaking up the income that´s been earned by the blood and sweat of miners, gamblers, ranchers throughout the whole rest of the state.’
When Northern Nevada was hit by devastating floods in 1997, she said she was out to protect the state´s disaster relief funds from “rascals’ who might be looking to take advantage of state money.
That quote, Titus said, was referring to politicians, not flood victims.
But she said her comments indicate how fiercely she fights for her constituents — a fierceness she said she would use on the state´s behalf if elected governor.
“I believe the people want a governor who will fight just as hard for them,’ she said. “As governor you have to fight the federal government against Yucca Mountain, fight other states for more water, fight Congress for our share of tax dollars.
“I take a position and I fight for it until the end.’
Tenacious fighter
Indeed, Titus is known for her tenacious nature at the Legislature, where she has served since 1989. She´s been minority leader since 1993.
This year, she fought to the death for a measure to freeze property taxes in the face of soaring property values in Clark County and other parts of the state. The measure eventually failed in a narrow vote on the Senate floor.
But her Republican colleagues credited her effort on the freeze with ratcheting down a proposed 6 percent cap on most residential tax bills to 3 percent.
In 2003, she pushed through a measure to protect the pristine Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas from encroachment. She also was instrumental in legislation that would have put a “ring around the (Las Vegas) valley,’ curbing urban sprawl.
Her bill never passed, but it set the stage for other legislation and local government policies on controlling growth.
She names her top priorities as education, health care and growth. But when asked to name a single specific accomplishment she would carry out as governor, she falters.
“I´ll talk more about my platform on Monday,’ she said after several seconds of silence.
Titus´ potential opponents imply that her time in the rurals is a disingenuous attempt to ask for votes now that she´s running a statewide campaign.
“I think she´ll find out quickly when she makes her first trip through the rurals that the people who live out there respect folks who have always been there when they needed them,’ said Sean Sinclair, Perkins´ political adviser. “It´s about time she focus on the rest of the state.’
Jim Denton, a political consultant to Gibbons, said Titus will quickly find it is difficult for a Democrat to make headway in rural Nevada.
“It would be especially difficult against Congressman Gibbons,’ Denton said. “He has represented all those rural areas in Congress for almost 10 years. They´ve voted for him five times. They know him well, and they like him.’
Titus said she will outwork both Gibbons and Perkins, her former student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“I like to think I taught him everything he knows, just not everything that I know,’ she said.
Outside consultants
Titus is building her candidacy outside of Nevada´s political establishment— a network of entrenched fund-raisers and political consultants who are often seen as “annointing’ a candidate and making it impossible for anyone else to run.
She´s gone outside of the state to assemble most of her campaign team. Her manager is Dave Barnhart, a Virginia native, who has worked on Iowa campaigns, including U.S. Sen. John Kerry´s bid in the Iowa Caucuses in 2003.
Her pollster is from Oregon and her media consultant is from Washington D.C.
Her Nevada consultants include Anne Sheridan, who ran Kerry´s Nevada campaign and Marlene Lockard, who was former Gov. Richard Bryan´s chief of staff.
“I didn´t go outside of the state because I had to,’ she said. “I went outside of the state to get the best.’
Polls show and political analysts agree that she has strong support among grassroots Democratic voters and is seen as a formidable opponent in the primary election.
But analysts question her ability to raise money and whether she would be competitive in a general election.
Titus began fund-raising the minute the ban expired that prevents legislators from soliciting money during the session. But she refused to disclose how much her campaign has raised so far.
“I´m going to have enough to run this race and win,’ she said. “I´ve got enough to open an office and hire a top-notch team. I have enough to give people confidence in my candidacy.’
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Sunday Times
July 17, 2005
American Account: Irwin Stelzer: The proof's in the pudding — flexibility reigns
It Is important not to become so absorbed in studying the blips in interest rates, exchange rates, inflation rates and other economic indicators that we forget these are merely thermometers. They can tell us something about the temperature of an economy, but, taken alone, not much about the big changes that underlie these familiar figures.
Start with the energy sector. We know demand for crude oil has outstripped supply, driving the price of crude past $60 per barrel. We do not know whether that price will persist in the face of slowing growth in China, and the increase in supplies that will result from the 13% rise in oil companies´ exploration outlays, compared with about 4% last year.
But we can reasonably assume that the era of low-priced oil is over, and that recent run-ups will change the way businesses and homeowners use fuel, just as past price spurts have done.
Throw in the cost of the increasingly expensive pollution permits soon to be needed to burn fossil fuels, and you have fresh interest in nuclear power, especially if the industry can persuade governments such as those in the UK and the US that energy security requirements make it reasonable to provide subsidies and price guarantees.
Whether a worldwide nuclear revival will extend to the United States remains to be seen. No sane utility board will approve construction of a new nuclear plant until the politicians agree on a means for disposing of the nuclear waste, a process now stalled by Harry Reid, leader of the Senate Democrats.
Reid, who represents the state of Nevada, has sworn to prevent the activation of Yucca Mountain, the nation´s best available storage site, in the powerful politician´s home state.
Another sector changing so fast that only the experts can understand what is going on is the media/entertainment group.
The travails of newspapers are well chronicled, not least by the newspapers themselves, as they see advertising revenue siphoned off to the internet and the attention of younger people focused on more immediate ways of getting news.
Some doubt that all today´s print players will survive, others say they will but in the much-changed role of “viewspapers’ rather than newspapers — purveyors of opinion rather than printers of news that is stale by the time it hits the presses. Change is the only certainty.
Print is not the only media form under siege.
Moviegoing is way down, as audiences find the combination of big flat-screen television sets that beautifully display the thousands of DVDs being released, or movies on demand from cable and satellite providers (and, soon, telcos) cheaper alternatives to a family night out at the cinema.
The music segment is being revolutionised by downloading onto iPods (Apple sold 6.2m iPods in the last quarter against 860,00 a year earlier) and similar delivery devices by a generation brought up with little regard for copyright protection.
Television is being transformed as do-it-yourself channel creators use Sky+ boxes and similar gadgets to gain control of scheduling and act on their distaste for adverts. That threatens the revenue stream on which programme creators have historically relied, and suggests that pay-per-view and other forms of subscription are a precursor of a future that might not include several existing broadcasters.
The retail sector is another that will be unrecognisable a relatively few years hence. The new $30 billion, 1,000-store Federated-May department-store combine faces multiple problems. Consumers are shifting from department to speciality stores. The increased emphasis on value-for-money and up-to-the-second fashion has propelled the growth of fleet-of-foot chains such as Zara. Wal-Mart´s ever-lower prices for just about everything include its well-received George clothing line. Popular brands such as Martha Stewart are willing to make products available to cheaper outlets such as Kmart. Internet shopping has increased.
It is not inconceivable that the traditional department store will prove to be an economic dinosaur, with its properties worth more than its business — Marks & Spencer take note.
This revolution in retailing extends to the malls, once preferred for their weather-proof, closed environment. Many in the US are now being rebuilt, open to street-level window-shoppers, and without the ubiquitous department-store “anchor’.
Unless the owners of malls update their properties they may find the property put to better uses by a new wave of entrepreneurs.
Then we have the car industry. Historic leaders are now saddled with “legacy costs’: pensions, healthcare insurance for the retired, union contracts that make closing plants almost as uneconomic in America as it is legally difficult in Europe.
These troubled American companies are struggling to meet the competition of mostly-made-in-the-USA vehicles rolling off the assembly lines of Toyota, BMW and other companies that are becoming more foreign in marque than in manufacture.
Don´t conclude that all this is a pudding without a theme. These examples, a few among many, show that one reason the American economy is growing at a relatively rapid rate, and creating millions of new jobs in the face of intense global competition, is that it is flexible.
Rising oil prices encourage new supplies and fuel shifting. Resources move from one kind of retailing to another, and from inefficient to more efficient car manufacturers. Technologically “with- it’ media moguls and workers replace those who once dominated their industry — all in response to consumer demand.
That´s the creative part of economist Joseph Schumpeter´s “creative destruction’ — the ability of resources no longer needed in one part of the American economy to move to another rather than to the dole queue.
- Irwin Stelzer is a business adviser and director of economic policy studies at the Hudson Institute
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Florida Ledger
July 16, 2005
An Unfulfilled Nuclear Promise
Last month, President Bush visited the Calvert Cliffs nuclear-powered generating facility in Lusby, Md., to announce: "It is time for this country to start building nuclear power plants again," he said.
As a historical note, Bush was the first president to visit a nuclear power plant in 26 years. The last chief executive to do so was Jimmy Carter -- who went to Three Mile Island in 1979, five days after the now-infamous contamination leak at that Pennsylvania facility
"The memories people have are Jimmy Carter intervening in a moment of crisis," Nuclear Regulatory Chair Nils J. Diaz, told reporters recently. In contrast, Bush was intervening in something he believes is very important to the country.
In fact, the Bush administration is pushing very hard to jump-start a new generation of nuclear power plants. Proponents say advances in technology and plant design make the prospect of Three Mile Island-style accidents unlikely.
And nukes are being touted as a low-polluting, more efficient way to meet domestic energy demands that are expected to increase by 50 percent over the next two decades.
To help encourage investment in new nuclear plants, Bush wants Congress to enact "risk insurance" legislation to guarantee investors that they won't get caught up in endless lawsuits or interminable regulatory delays.
"You don't want to go out and build a plant, spend all the money and have the license jerked at the last minute," Bush said during his visit.
There's just one thing wrong with a U.S. government guarantee of a green light on nuclear plants: The feds have yet to keep the last promise they made to the industry.
During the Eisenhower administration, Washington promoted construction of the first generation of plants by promising to accept responsibility for the safe storage of the highly radioactive wastes they would generate.
As a result of that spectacular default, the nation's existing 103 commercial nuclear generators have for decades been amassing, on-site, thousands of tons of spent, contaminated fuel rods.
Initially stored in 50-foot deep pools of water, the accumulation of rods has become so enormous that many plants have begun to construct large concrete silos to dry-store the rods in thick casks.
As a recent story in the Los Angeles Times put it, nuclear plants "were never designed to store waste long-term and are now forced to deal with large quantities of spent uranium fuel rods that produce high levels of radiation. The problem reflects decades of miscalculations and missteps by the federal government, which promised at the dawn of the nuclear age to accept ownership."
Because of legal, political and environmental problems, a federal proposal to build a storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nev., is nearly 15 years behind schedule.
The earliest that facility can expect to open is 2012. By that time, there will be an estimated 60,000 tons of waste scattered around the U.S. And by one estimate, it would require 50 years just to transfer and process the backlog.
Not surprisingly, the industry has sued Uncle Sam for what amounts to breach of promise. Actually, 56 lawsuits have been filed, and one company, Exelon, has already settled for $600 million.
The Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade group, estimates that legal damages could ultimately run as high as $56 billion.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Bob Alvarez, a former Energy Department official called the existing piles of stored rods "the ultimate dirty bombs," adding, "Let's not pretend the way we are storing this waste is safe and secure in an age of terrorism."
The experts may be right when they say that technological advancements will guarantee cleaner, safer nuclear plants. But we wonder about the wisdom of making new promises to help dramatically expand the nuclear power industry when Washington's first promise has yet to be kept.
Before Washington makes any new promises, it needs to keep the first one.
Before authorizing a new wave of nuclear plant constructions, the federal government must establish a safe and environmentally secure repository for these "ultimate dirty bombs."
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
July 15, 2005
YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Lawmaker vows action on e-mails
House panel chief threatens subpoena
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- A dispute over Yucca Mountain worker e-mails escalated Thursday when a House committee chairman said he will issue a subpoena if the Energy Department does not turn over documents.
Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., said he will not hesitate to challenge the Bush administration over its refusal to comply with the demands of a House panel looking into possible document falsification on the nuclear waste repository project.
Subpoenas are "a more in-your-face to the administration, but these are documents that Congress ought to be entitled to," said Davis, chairman of the Government Reform Committee.
"I don't see any rational argument that Congress shouldn't be able to see these, and that's what it boils down to," Davis said. "We have an institutional responsibility under separation of powers no matter who the president is, and in a case like that, we should be able to see them. They should not be kept secret."
Davis' comments amounted to a vote of support for Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., who has been involved in a dispute with the Energy Department over Yucca Mountain documents.
Porter, who opposes the Yucca Mountain project, is chairman of a Government Reform subcommittee that has been investigating e-mails written by a handful of scientists from 1998 to 2000. The e-mails suggested quality assurance documents might have been falsified.
A hydrologist identified as the principal e-mail author has denied falsifying documents in testimony to Congress.
DOE officials have said an internal investigation has concluded repository science was not compromised by suggestions raised in the e-mails.
But Porter contends the department has been improperly withholding material he requested to advance the subcommittee's inquiry.
A DOE attorney has indicated the department is concerned that Porter will release documents that might be legally shielded for privacy or other privileges.
The Energy Department has suggested House investigators review documents at DOE headquarters, an offer that Porter has rejected.
Critics of the project hope Porter's investigation uncovers science or management flaws that can be exploited in upcoming license hearings.
The document dispute also highlights fights taking place over access to Yucca Mountain research and program documents before the Energy Department files a repository license application.
The Energy Department and attorneys for the state have been sparring before an administrative law panel over access to licensing documents including a 5,800-page draft application. Porter has requested a copy of the same draft.
"I believe this is the first time the Department of Energy has ever really been asked tough questions," Porter said Thursday. "If they were not hiding anything, they would say, 'Here, help yourself.' "
The documents could be obtained "in a more civilized manner," Davis said. "The subpoena raises the profile."
As to DOE's concern about documents being made public, Davis said "a subpoena doesn't mean they will be made public."
But, he said, the committee reserves the right to publicize information that is "in the national interest" unless DOE can show "a national defense justification."
The Energy Department had no immediate reaction to Davis' remarks.
On April 7, the Federal Workforce and Agency Organization Subcommittee, headed by Porter, requested the department provide personnel records of the three scientists identified as primary e-mail authors and their supervisors.
On April 27, the panel requested organizational charts for the Yucca program dating to 1995 and details of what research conducted by the e-mail authors was used by the Energy Department in repository decision-making.
Porter has extended the deadline until Monday and said he then would seek a subpoena through Davis.
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Las Vegas SUN
July 15, 2005
Porter prepared to turn up heat on e-mails
By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jon Porter may add another layer to the fight for the Yucca Mountain project's draft license application if he subpoenas the Energy Department for documents related to his investigation into employee e-mails.
Porter, R-Nev., requested a copy of the draft during the April 5 subcommittee hearing on the e-mails, but the department has still not turned it over. Porter includes the draft among the pile of documents the department must willingly turn over by 4 p.m. Monday or Porter will get subpoenas for them.
Nevada officials want the draft license application, completed last July, to see what decisions the department had made for the proposed nuclear waste repository. The application was supposed to have been turned in last December, but it ran into more delays.
Porter wants the draft to see how potentially compromised science may have worked its way into final research.
He heads the House Government Reform subcommittee on the federal workforce and agency organization, which is investigating e-mails sent by government employees that suggest employees tampered with scientific research on the repository.
Porter has already subpoenaed U.S. Geological Survey scientist Joseph Hevesi for the investigation. Hevesi testified at a June 29 hearing, where he emphasized that he did not falsify any Yucca Mountain project documents.
House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., who has the power to issue the subpoenas, supports Porter's efforts and said the subpoena would be "more in your face to the administration."
"There is no reason they should be able to keep these secret," Davis said. "These should be made available to Congress."
Davis said getting the document will help members of the committee and Congress as a whole have a better understanding of what is going on at the project.
Beyond the draft application, Porter wants organizational charts, correspondence on employment status and other documents. The department did turn over redacted copies of e-mails sent by Hevesi and other employees, but then sent a letter to Porter saying he could view more documents at the department headquarters.
"That is an insult to Congress and the American people," Porter said.
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Las Vegas SUN
July 15, 2005
State building named in honor of Richard Bryan
By Cy Ryan
<cy@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Capital Bureau
CARSON CITY -- Richard Bryan was praised Thursday as the first governor to oppose Yucca Mountain and later for his efforts in the Senate on the Southern Nevada Lands Act.
Gov. Kenny Guinn said Bryan was "right at the front" and "left us a template to follow" in the battle over the nuclear dump.
Guinn's remarks were made at the naming of the $19 million state Conservation and Natural Resources building in Carson City in honor of Bryan, who served in the Assembly and state Senate, was state attorney general, then governor and finally served in the U.S. Senate.
About 250 people including former members of Bryan's administration and former colleagues in the Legislature attended the hourlong ceremony.
Bryan, now in private law practice, said he was "profoundly grateful" to Guinn for this honor. He quipped that he is the first Democratic governor to have a building named after him in Carson City. Other buildings are named after Republican Govs. Henry Blasdel and John Kinkead.
Bryan said he hoped future historians would find some merit in the battles today to preserve and conserve Nevada's lands.
On the Southern Nevada Lands Purchase Act, Guinn said Bryan and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., worked on the measure and the latest sale yielded nearly $800 million, some of which will be set aside to buy and preserve other lands in Nevada.
The governor called Bryan a "champion for Lake Tahoe," and Guinn also cited Bryan's help in preserving the Black Rock Desert and Mount Rose in Northern Nevada.
The governor noted that the Conservation and Natural Resources Department is scattered around Carson City in private buildings at 40 to 50 locations. In the 27 years over the duration of the lease-purchase agreement with which the building was constructed, the state will save $78 million in rent.
The 120,000 square foot building, with financing costs, will cost the taxpayers about $44 million.
Among those attending Thursday's event were former Assembly Speakers Joe Dini of Yerington, Lawrence Jacobsen of Minden and Bob Barengo of Reno and former and current Assembly members Roger Bremner of Las Vegas, Dawn Gibbons of Reno, Bob Price of North Las Vegas, Angelo Petrini of Storey County and Gary Sheerin of Carson City, who also served in the Senate.
Others attending were Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson; Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio of Reno; Sen. Mark Amodei of Carson City; Assemblyman Tom Brady of Yerington; former Republican Attorney General Brian McKay, who succeeded Bryan, and former state Sen. Thomas "Spike' Wilson of Reno.
Some of the members of Bryan's administration while he was governor also showed up, including his chief of staff, Marlene Lockard; legal assistant Tim Hay; commerce director Larry Struve and Labor and Employment Security Director Stan Jones.
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Nevada Appeal
July 15, 2005
Bryan honored for public service with building dedication
Protection of heritage important for future generations
Geoff dornan
Appeal Capitol Bureau
gdornan@nevadaappeal.com
Citing Richard Bryan's efforts to protect Nevada's natural heritage, Gov. Kenny Guinn said Thursday the state's new Conservation and Natural Resources building is the perfect structure to name in the former governor's honor
More than 250 people - including many former officials from his tenure as governor - turned out for the dedication honoring Bryan, who served as U.S. Senator, governor, attorney general, assemblyman and state senator during a 34-year career in public service.
Bryan said he was "profoundly grateful" for the honor, and pointed out to Guinn this is the first state structure in Carson City named after a Democratic governor.
"And I'm not unmindful that the banner on the front of this building is a temporary banner," he said.
Bryan, who retired from the U.S. Senate in 2001, said he was raised in a tradition honoring public service. From Las Vegas High, where he was student body president, to the University of Nevada, where again he was student body president, through the U.S. Senate, he ran in 19 elections.
"All of you made it possible for me to live my dream," he said. "From the time I was a little boy, I always wanted to be governor."
"But it is my wife, Bonnie, who has sacrificed the most," he said. "Without her, none of this would have been possible."
"There has been a hand of Richard Bryan in so many things," said Guinn, who ordered the building named in Bryan's honor.
He said Bryan helped author the Southern Nevada Lands Management Act, which has freed thousands of acres for development in the Las Vegas area while pumping money into conservation across the state - especially in the Lake Tahoe Basin. He said Bryan headed efforts to protect the Galena Creek watershed and Mount Rose from development and created the Black Rock National Conservation Area.
"He has always been a champion of Lake Tahoe and helped bring President Bill Clinton to the forum there in 1997," he said.
In his initial opposition to the Yucca Mountain waste dump plan, Bryan "left a template for us to follow as the first governor to speak out against the Yucca Mountain Project," Guinn said.
The Bryan Building is the state's first built under a lease-purchase contract with the contractor. Instead of bonding for the structure or paying in cash, the state will effectively purchase the building from the developer much the same way a family buys a home - making payments.
Agencies began moving in more than a week ago, even though walls on the top floor were still being textured and painted, high-tech filing systems for legal deeds and maps haven't arrived and landscaping work was just beginning.
Over the past few days, crews performed minor miracles getting the bushes, trees and other plants in the ground, decorative rock in place and generally cleaning up construction debris.
Department officials said it will be sometime in August before everyone is moved in.
-- Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.
Bryan Building Fast Facts
• Address: 901 S. Stewart St.
• home to: More than 400 Conservation and Natural Resources Department employees from a half-dozen divisions, the Public Employee Benefits Program staff and two agencies from Business and Industry
• Size: Five floors, 130,000 square feet
• Cost to Build: $20 million
• Mortgage/Lease payment: Starts at just under $1 million a year and rises gradually to $2.5 million in 2030 - $83,333 a month
• term: 27-year mortgage
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Pahrump Valley Times
July 15, 2005
County Commission Preview
Commission doubles up on meeting dates
Litany of Important Issues, Many Dealing with Development, Discussed Next Week
By Phillip Gomez
PVT
What looks to be a highly informative Nye County Commission meeting Tuesday, and Wednesday, including an unusually large number of important timed agenda items, will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Bob Ruud Community Center in Pahrump.
Some of the more interesting items slated for action are the following:
Tuesday
• At 10 a.m. a presentation is scheduled by The Mercer Group on the previously presented preview of the county's classification and compensation study of salaried positions.
• At 10:30 a.m. a presentation is scheduled by Pooled Resources on the findings of the consultant's final report regarding its investigation of the feasibility of establishing a sanitary sewer district for the Pahrump Valley.
• At 11 a.m. a public hearing is scheduled to approve authorizing a medium-term obligation bond (lease or purchase).
• At 11:30 a.m. a presentation is scheduled on the results of a geotechnical investigation of earth fissuring in the Pahrump Valley. Discussion will follow pursuant to developing a subsidence ordinance for the valley.
• At 1:30 p.m. discussion and possible action to request input on congressional language for a pending energy and appropriations bill pursuant to achieving the goals of the county's community protection plan.
• At 2:30 p.m. a presentation is scheduled by the executive director of the Quad State County Government Coalition. Subsequent discussion will follow on Nye County's possible membership and participation with other states in a joint powers authority.
• Approval is scheduled for the Nye County comptroller to conduct unannounced audits to maintain effective accuracy and control of financial records.
• Discussion and possible decision to begin formal interactions with the Bureau of Land Management to acquire lands, rights-of-way, temporary use permits and other land-use mechanism for the emergency management of floodwater.
• A presentation and update on the status of the proposed Pahrump Community College campus is scheduled (un-timed).
• Discussion and action to implement districting through zoning in the Pahrump Valley, pursuant to last year's authorization by voters' of zoning regulation for the Pahrump Regional Planning District.
• Discussion and a possible decision are scheduled to appoint an elector of the county to fill the vacated position of Beatty's Justice of the Peace. The position would either be temporary, until a permanent appointment can be made or a special election scheduled; or, an elector of the county would be appointed to fill the un-expired term until the next biennial election. Longtime Beatty Justice of the Peace Bill Sullivan died Sunday following lengthy battle with cancer.
• Discussion and a possible decision are scheduled to purchase five four-wheel drive, quad-cab pickup trucks for the sheriff's office. The total cost not to exceed $130,000, is not budgeted for this year, but was determined to be a possible expenditure during budgeting workshops utilizing Payment Equal To Taxes (PETT) funding.
• Discussion and a possible decision are scheduled to purchase video conferencing equipment for the county justice courts and jails. The cost of the equipment comes to $67,056 and is not budgeted. Again, it was determined in a budget workshop as a possible expenditure utilizing PETT funding.
• Discussion and a possible decision are scheduled to distribute $74,841 from the sheriff's drug-bust forfeiture fund to the school district in accordance with recommendations in the county's FY2004 audit report.
• Discussion and possible decision are scheduled for approval of a second contract amendment with SRS Technologies to provide professional services in support of the Yucca Mountain project. If approved, the amendment would increase the not-to-exceed amount of the contract by an unspecified amount from $75,000 to $212,000. The amount is budgeted.
• A presentation by Earth Knowledge LLC is scheduled summarizing the results of the county's efforts to build a water resources alliance among rural Nevada counties and other stakeholders and the issues encountered. Discussion and possible decision will follow to approve extending the term of the consultant's contract.
Wednesday
A minimal second-day meeting devoted to planning has lately become standard operating procedure for the overloaded Nye County commissioners. Wednesday's session on the commissioners' agenda dealing with planning items runs to eight pages. The following are the main items:
• A master plan amendment and nonconforming zone change application is scheduled for property on East Dandelion Street, between Oakridge Avenue and Homestead Road. The development, on the location of the infamous sinking house on Dandelion, is intended as multi-family apartments. David Moore is the applicant.
• A multi-faceted application for conforming zone changes in the vicinity of Homestead Road, between Banyon Street and Elderberry Street. Three parcels of 1.3 acres each are involved. The owner wishes to convert the zoning to the Mixed-Use District. If approved, it would allow for a variety of commercial, single-family and multi-family residential uses.
• A conforming zone change application is scheduled for 89.5 acres fronting Highway 160 on Irene Street. If approved, it would allow for the development of a variety of general commercial uses.
• Keith Moler and Pharona Sary, property owners, want a conforming zone change for the southeast corner of Homestead Road and Dandelion Street. The development would be a three-story apartment building and liquor store. The proposal was earlier rejected by the Pahrump Regional Planning Committee.
• A conforming zone change and tentative map for development of 71 acres at 4351 E. Manse Road, at the Manse and Malibou Avenue intersection, is scheduled for conversion to Village Residential, 8,000-square-foot minimum lot size. If approved, it would allow for development of a 252-unit single-family residential subdivision called Golden Valley Estates.
• A conforming zone change for 88 acres situated a half-mile east of the Blagg Road and Wilson Road intersection is scheduled. If approved, it would allow for a variety of development possibilities, including commercial and single-family residential. The creation of two lots is requested in the application.
• A conforming zone change and tentative map application is proposed for 158 acres situated at the southeast corner of Mesquite Avenue and Blagg Road on Adkisson Street. If the conversion to Village Residential, 10,000 square-foot minimum lot size, is permitted, it would allow for a 400-unit single-family residential subdivision and commercial center.
• A conforming zone change application for conversion to General Commercial is requested for 3 acres on Highway 160 and Basin Avenue. If approved, it would permit the development of a bar/casino and shopping center. The proposal was earlier rejected by the Pahrump Regional Planning Committee due to the location - within 1.500 feet of a public park.
• A master plan amendment and non-conforming zone change application is scheduled for property on Homestead Road owned by The Resort at Sheri's Ranch brothel. If approved, it would allow for development of an array of commercial, office and residential uses. The controversial proposal has been before the commission before.
• A master plan amendment and non-conforming zone change is scheduled for 66 acres situated north of Bell Vista Avenue, between Stephanie and Joanita streets. If approved, it would allow for a zone change to Village Residential, with minimum lot sizes of 10,000 square feet and development of commercial and single-family residential lots.
• A master plan amendment is scheduled to change 20 acres situated along the south side of Bell Vista Avenue, between Barney Street and Woodchips Road, to Mixed Use. The Nye County Board of Commissioners is the applicant.
• Discussion and possible decision is scheduled related to acquisition of 30 parcels of land located west of the old Nye County complex, rodeo grounds, park, Pahrump town offices and county road department yard.
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Salt Lake Tribune
July 15, 2005
Transportation Dept. prepares for nuke hauls
Role in overseeing: But Hatch, Bennett ready to block funding for the department positions
By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune
WASHINGTON - The Transportation Department is making preparations for its role in overseeing shipments of spent nuclear fuel to Private Fuel Storage's proposed nuclear waste dump in Utah.
The department asked Congress to approve four new staff positions at a cost of about $100,000 each, who would review transit plans for the waste and ensure they comply with existing regulations governing hazardous materials shipments.
The department's request indicates steps are already being taken to prepare for shipments to the waste dump, even though the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not yet granted a license to the facility. A license application filed by Private Fuel Storage, a group of electric utilities, is in its final stages of review and a decision is expected by the end of the summer.
Private Fuel Storage plans to store 44,000 tons of high-level waste in steel and concrete casks on the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes Indian reservation until the Energy Department opens a permanent dump, presumably at Yucca Mountain, Nev.
Somehow, the language that ended up accompanying the House transportation bill when it passed June 30 was an approval for the Transportation Department to hire two staffers to handle legal challenges over shipments to the waste site.
A Transportation Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that is not what the department was seeking and he was not sure how the request morphed into the language that ended up accompanying the House bill.
The single paragraph in a 252-page report caught Utah's congressional delegation by surprise, with House members and the state's new lobbyist unaware it had been tucked into the report when the House passed the bill.
As it is written, the House passage gives the Transportation Department permission to hire two employees to handle anticipated legal challenges stemming from the shipment of the nuclear waste to the Skull Valley site.
The state has made clear that it will go to court to try to block the waste dump, but no lawsuits have been filed, which made the language in the House bill puzzling, said Dianne Nielson, director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.
As it is written now, the provision in the House bill makes no sense, said Sen. Orrin Hatch.
“If the government were to defend itself in a lawsuit - a lawsuit which doesn't exist, by the way - the Department of Justice would handle it, not Transportation. It needs to come out,’ he said. “This should not be in the Senate bill, and it should not survive a conference with the House.’
The Transportation official said the department anticipates going back and helping to rework the language before it passes the Senate.
Sen. Bob Bennett's spokeswoman, Mary Jane Collipriest, said that because of ambiguity in what came out of the House, Bennett will make sure the provision does not make it into the Senate bill when the committee considers it next week.
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Sustain Online
July 15, 2005
Nuclear rebirth
National Post, 14 July 2005 - After two decades in which nuclear power was hopelessly out of fashion, businesses in the sector are readying themselves for its revival. The cold war-era technology, which once dazzled with the promise of unlimited cheap energy, fell into disfavour after the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl. Low oil prices and the often pitiable economics of state-run nuclear facilities removed much of the remaining rationale.
Now all that has changed. Soaring oil prices and fears about the developed world's dependence on Middle Eastern oil have combined with concerns over global warming to spur a resurgence in interest in nuclear energy. Companies are counting the future contracts and jostling for position.
"In order to simply maintain 440 nuclear units operating around the globe, we believe that roughly 80 reactors would have to be planned, built and powered up within the next ten years," said Richard Gill, president of Shaw Stone & Webster Nuclear AServices, the U.S.-based engineer. But with global electricity demand set to grow rapidly, there could be an "incredible" demand for additional capacity, he said.
The International Energy Agency expects global electricity consumption to double by 2030, but reserves of easily accessible oil and gas are running out. Consuming nations are having to compete for a diminishing pool of resources that are heavily concentrated in politically unstable parts of the world. By contrast, the uranium needed to fuel nuclear reactors is found in stable countries like Canada and Australia.
Most reactor building is in countries that are new to nuclear power. There are 25 reactors under construction in 10 countries, according to the World Nuclear Association, an industry group, and another 112 are planned or proposed.
Interest is keenest among expanding Asian economies. Of the last 30 nuclear reactors to have connected to the power grid, 20 have been in Asia. India, where nuclear power accounts for 2.8% of electricity production, has nine reactors under construction. It wants to boost the amount of electricity generated by nuclear plants by 100 times by the middle of the century.
China has opened six reactors since 2002 and has two under construction. International companies are vying to build four more Chinese reactors. China aims to increase its nuclear capacity fivefold by 2020, which could mean building up to 40 reactors in the next 15 years. Reactor makers like Westinghouse, which is being sold by British Nuclear Fuels, and Framatome ANP, the Franco-German joint venture, are competing for the future business.
In Europe, too, there is evidence of renewed activity, albeit at a less frenzied pace. Finland is due to start building a large nuclear power station this year and France is set to start another in 2007. Countries such as Sweden, Belgium and Germany are dropping pledges to pull out of nuclear power or seem likely to do so in the near future.
In the United States, the Bush Administration has also put the nuclear option back on the table. The country is already extending the lives of most of its reactors from 40 years to 60 years and has an experimental "next generation" reactor on the drawing board. Washington has made no secret of its desire for companies to begin building a new generation of nuclear plants. "A revival of nuclear energy is inevitable," said SG Cowen, the investment bank, in a report on the sector published this year, in which it forecast a global resurgence in nuclear construction by the end of the decade.
An important reason for the resurgence in interest in nuclear power is concern for the environment -- the very issue that most counted against it in decades past. Some leaders of the green movement, long implacable foes of nuclear power, now say that the risks posed by global warming far outweigh those posed by radioactive waste.
Nuclear plants emit a tiny fraction of the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels such oil, coal or gas and so are crucial if countries are to meet the emissions targets set out in the Kyoto protocol. However, many European countries are due to close their existing nuclear plants either, like Germany, because of a policy decision or, like Britain, because its facilities are becoming obsolete.
Germany, which has signed up to Kyoto and pledged to exit nuclear power, is reaching the point where one of their commitments will have to be dropped. Caroline Slama, an analyst at SG Cowen, calculates that, in order for Germany to abide by both commitments, it would have to close a third of its industry. "[The impact] is also quite significant for all the other countries who want to respect Kyoto," she said.
Berlin is expected to reverse its decision to close all of its nuclear plants if the centre-right CDU forms the next government, as many expect. But, because of the age of its nuclear installations, Britain would have to go further, actively encouraging the construction of new reactors. Of Britain's 14 nuclear power stations, 13 are slated for closure by 2023. And yet the UK government has estimated that, without nuclear generation, emissions of carbon dioxide would have been up to 14% higher in 1999.
The World Energy Council believes that the only way the world will reach the targets set out under the Kyoto protocol is to triple nuclear capacity by 2050. Others in the green movement - still the great majority - remain staunchly opposed to nuclear power. Greenpeace said any attempt to expand the nuclear industry is likely to prove an "expensive, dangerous and inefficient method of addressing the climate crisis" and that governments should focus on renewable energy sources.
In recent years, European governments have looked to the ability of new technology to harness the power of the wind, waves or sun, providing subsidies. But SG Cowen calculates that, to replace a single nuclear power station in France, you would need to install one wind turbine every 100 metres along the French coast. France has 59 nuclear plants in total.
"It is futile to pit renewable energies against nuclear power, as they are complementary and much smaller-scale," the SG Cowen report argues. "No credible alternative [to nuclear] currently exists."
Maybe so. But the issues that have dogged the nuclear power industry from birth have not gone away. Before the world embarks on any new round of nuclear construction, many countries have to work out how to deal with the costly and dangerous legacy of their existing nuclear installations.
Countries like the United States and Britain are wrestling with the gargantuan task of decommissioning their existing civil nuclear facilities. In Britain -- a small job compared to that of the United States -- this is expected to cost nearly (ps)50-billion ($106-billion) and take 100 years to complete.
The U.K. is holding its radioactive waste in temporary storage after a proposal to bury it deep underground was shelved in the early 1990s amid public opposition. An independent panel is to recommend next year what should be done with it.
The United States went through that process in the 1980s and settled on a plan to bury its radioactive waste under Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert. Following years of challenges, George Bush pushed it through Congress in 2002, despite furious local objections. But a series of legal setbacks has placed the program's fate in doubt.
Backers of nuclear power are pinning their hopes on technology. Sir David King, the U.K. government's top scientific adviser and head of its Office of Science and Technology, said this year that any new plants would increase the current volume of waste by no more than a tenth over a 60-year period.
"The issue of nuclear waste from modern reactors might therefore be seen as a smaller barrier to positive decisions on new power stations than currently perceived," reported the OST.
Proponents of nuclear energy also face another pressing problem: how to pay for any new construction. "The key issue is financibility," said Dipesh Shah, chief executive of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. "The City will have a very major role to play."
Governments took the lead during the first burst of enthusiasm for building nuclear power stations in the 1960s. But in most cases, private industry would be today be expected to undertake the construction.
In Britain, the precedents are not good. In the late 1980s, Margaret Thatcher's government was forced to remove the nuclear plants from its privatization plans after it became clear that they were far more expensive to run than plants burning fossil fuels.
This was partly due to the open-ended cost of decommissioning old plants as well as uncertainties over how much it would cost to build a planned new fleet of power stations.
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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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