Yucca Mountain News Clips
Friday, August 19, 2005
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Las Vegas SUN
August 19, 2005
Reid, Ensign question plans for nuke trains
By Benjamin Grove
<grove@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Nevada's senators are demanding that the Energy Department more fully explain its plan to use nuclear waste-only freight trains to haul the radioactive material to Yucca Mountain.
In a letter to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., slam the department for "gaps and inconsistencies" in its newly announced plan to use what are often called "dedicated" trains -- trains that contain only one kind of cargo: highly radioactive waste.
"Like all things Yucca, the conclusions in this policy statement are seemingly pulled from thin air," the senators said in a joint statement released Thursday.
The Energy Department has not yet received the letter, a spokesman said Thursday. He declined to answer questions posed in the letter.
"We remain committed to opening Yucca Mountain using the best science and technology available to ensure the safety and health of all citizens," spokesman Craig Stevens said.
The Energy Department for years has said it would rely mainly on trains, as opposed to trucks, to haul 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel from the nation's nuclear power reactors to a proposed underground nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
On July 18, the department further refined the plan, announcing it would use dedicated trains, as opposed to trains hauling waste along with other types of cargo.
Nevada officials have long advocated dedicated trains. But Reid and Ensign said the announcement raised troubling questions about the department's shipping plan. They asked for answers by Sept. 1.
The senators asked the department to explain:
What prompted the department after 20 years to last month announce it would use dedicated trains.
How dedicated trains could be used at 24 reactor sites that are not accessible by train.
Policy language that states that the department will use dedicated trains for its "usual" waste shipments to Yucca. They ask the department to define "usual."
How waste would be shipped to "marshaling yards." Before waste at about 50 Eastern reactor sites can be loaded at the yards onto dedicated trains for shipment to Yucca, it must first make the trip from the reactors to the yards. Would those be "dedicated" shipments?
How long waste would sit in rail yards.
How the department evaluated the radiation risk of dedicated trains to the public.
How dedicated train shipments would affect radiation exposure by yard workers, train crews, inspectors and escorts.
Whether the policy contradicts other department policy language that states, "DOE shipments have been and will continue to be made secure using both (dedicated train shipments) and general freight service."
When the department would release a comprehensive shipping plan and cost assessment.
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Las Vegas SUN
August 19, 2005
Nevada senators want details about nuclear shipments by rail
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada's senators are demanding the Energy Department more fully explain its plan to use dedicated freight trains to haul spent nuclear fuel to a national radioactive waste dump at Yucca Mountain.
In a letter this week to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., complain of "gaps and inconsistencies" in a recently announced plan to have trains haul just one kind of cargo: highly radioactive waste.
"Like all things Yucca, the conclusions in this policy statement are seemingly pulled from thin air," the senators said in a joint statement released Thursday. Reid and Ensign oppose the Yucca Mountain project.
The Energy Department had not received the letter, and spokesman Craig Stevens declined to answer questions it raised.
"We remain committed to opening Yucca Mountain using the best science and technology available to ensure the safety and health of all citizens," he said.
The Energy Department has said it would rely more on trains than trucks to haul 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel from sites in 39 states to a proposed underground nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The department announced July 18 it would use dedicated trains instead of linking cars carrying nuclear waste with cars containing other freight.
Nevada officials have long advocated dedicated trains. But Reid and Ensign said the plan was incomplete.
Among other questions, they asked how the department plans to move waste from 24 reactor sites that have no train tracks; how long waste would sit in rail yards and whether rail employees would be exposed to radiation; how the public risk of radiation was evaluated; and when the department would release a comprehensive shipping plan and cost assessment.
They sought answers by Sept. 1.
In another development, the nuclear power industry's chief lobbyist said in Washington, D.C., that reprocessing technology could make retrieval of spent fuel from the Yucca Mountain project more likely.
"A lot of people have the image that the idea is to put this stuff in, close the door, walk away, and that's the end of it," said Frank L. "Skip" Bowman, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute. "Not true. That would be irresponsible, and it never has been the plan."
The Energy Department requires the DOE to be able to retrieve highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel from Yucca Mountain for at least 100 years and possibly for as long as 300 years, Bowman said.
Bowman acknowledged that the United States has not reprocessed spent nuclear fuel since 1977.
Bob Loux, chief of Nevada's Nuclear Projects Agency, called it unlikely that radioactive material could safely be retrieved from tunnels where internal temperatures will be above the boiling point of water.
The Energy Department plans to submit a license application for the Yucca repository to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission next year. Recent setbacks have pushed back the target date for receiving waste from 2010 to 2012 or later.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 19, 2005
YUCCA MOUNTAIN PROJECT: Lobbyist focuses on reprocessing option
Nuclear industry emphasizes possible retrieval of spent fuel
By Tony Batt
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Nuclear waste may be retrieved from Yucca Mountain for up to 300 years after it is stored, the nuclear power industry's chief lobbyist said Thursday, adding that the development of reprocessing technology could make retrieval more likely.
Frank L. "Skip" Bowman, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, said it is important for the Department of Energy to maintain the option of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel even though the United States hasn't done it since 1977.
"A lot of people have the image that the idea is to put this stuff in, close the door, walk away, and that's the end of it," said Bowman, a retired Navy admiral.
"Not true. That would be irresponsible, and it never has been the plan."
An environmental impact statement prepared by the Energy Department requires the DOE to maintain the ability to retrieve highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel from Yucca Mountain for at least 100 years and possibly for as long as 300 years, Bowman said.
Reprocessing allows spent nuclear fuel rods to be recycled through a chemical operation that separates useful fuel remaining in the rods from the waste.
Although reprocessing would not eliminate the need for a repository at Yucca Mountain, it could reduce the amount of waste stored there. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 calls for the mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas to store 77,000 tons of nuclear waste.
Bowman acknowledged that it would not be easy to revive reprocessing in the United States.
"Frankly, we've been out of (reprocessing) in this country for a long time, and we don't have the infrastructure now to step up to the plate and start doing it," Bowman said.
Bowman also acknowledged that plans to begin storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain by 2010 have slipped.
"For sure, there's not a drop-dead date, but we do have to see progress," Bowman said.
Bowman made his remarks at a news conference including six other energy lobbyists who discussed the energy bill signed by President Bush on Aug. 8 in Albuquerque, N.M.
The bill includes language supporting reprocessing but does not allocate money to develop the technology, according to an NEI spokesman.
Bob Loux, chief of Nevada's Nuclear Projects Agency, expressed skepticism about Bowman's remarks on reprocessing.
"I don't think anyone believes we can go into Yucca Mountain even 50 years after storage and retrieve this stuff," Loux said. "We're talking about internal temperatures above the boiling point of water with 100 percent humidity. It would be difficult for any robotic equipment to operate in that environment."
Loux criticized Bowman's call for legislation that would require Congress to direct all money from the federal nuclear waste fund to the Yucca Mountain repository.
"If the past is any indication, that is not going to happen," Loux said, referring to previous unsuccessful efforts to take the nuclear waste fund "off budget."
"Congress is not going to turn loose of the purse strings and oversight for this project, which needs more oversight than ever."
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 19, 2005
Nevada's senators challenge latest nuclear waste transportation policy
By Keith Rogers
Review-Journal
Nevada's senators sent a letter Wednesday to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman criticizing his latest policy that calls for using dedicated trains to haul highly radioactive waste to the planned Yucca Mountain repository.
The policy "is another example of piecemeal decision-making on DOE's part," states the letter from Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.
The senators noted that it's been more than 20 years since passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and "DOE still has not prepared a comprehensive transportation plan."
Bodman on July 18 announced the policy to use "dedicated train service," meaning train service for one commodity.
Until then, transportation planners for the Energy Department had anticipated using general freight service for rail shipments that would bring much of the 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel and highly radioactive defense wastes to Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Reid and Ensign questioned the new policy's reference to security benefits, which says, "DOE shipments have been and will continue to be made securely using both DTS (dedicated train service) and general freight service."
The senators asked Bodman to explain the circumstances under which the Department of Energy would use general freight service instead of dedicated train service.
They also want to know how radiological risks to train crews, the general public and workers at marshalling yards were evaluated.
Their letter says one-third of the reactor sites where spent fuel is stored have no rail access. That means heavy haul trucks and even barges will have to be used.
"Will dedicated train service be used at these 24 sites? If so, please provide DOE's plans and timeline for providing the necessary infrastructure."
Bodman's press secretary, Craig Stevens, said Thursday that Bodman's office had not received the letter but once it arrives "we will review it and answer the senators.
"We remain committed to opening Yucca Mountain using the best science and technology available to ensure the safety and health of all citizens," Stevens said.
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Pahrump Valley Times
August 19, 2005
Yucca Mountain exposure
'Small' Percentage of Nuke Waste Canisters Will Leak
By The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS - A small percentage of nuclear waste containers is expected to arrive at Yucca Mountain with undetected leaks and cracks, potentially exposing workers at the proposed repository to high levels of radioactive contamination, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Saturday.
Without special precautions, spent nuclear fuel contained in these damaged tubes could trigger chemical reactions when extracted from protective canisters in preparation for long-term storage, according to an Energy Department study obtained by the newspaper under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
Completed in March by the Energy Department and outside engineers, the study concluded the department had not fully evaluated the hazards associated with handling damaged fuel at the site, nor designed a process for effectively managing it.
"It is rather late in the day for these people to be thinking about this stuff," said Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear engineer and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. "It is truly astonishing that they have not thought about this issue thoroughly a quarter of a century after serious work on repositories began.'"
Earlier this year, DOE officials abandoned a 2010 opening date for the repository, saying it could be 2012 or later before Yucca Mountain could begin accepting nuclear waste. The government plans to bury 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste at the Yucca Mountain site, located in Nye County roughly 50 miles northeast of Pahrump, with a population of roughly 34,000 and growing, and 20 miles north and east, respectively, from Amargosa Valley and Beatty.
"There have been a lot of meetings on this,'' a DOE official wrote in an e-mail to the Review-Journal on condition of anonymity. "You are talking about design, and you can't have a license application without a design."
The tubes carrying the spent fuel are expected to arrive at Yucca Mountain at a rate of about 9,000 per year for 25 years. About 4 percent are expected to have varying degrees of damage, according to the study.
Most are expected to be identified through reactor records, but a small percentage, about 0.4 percent, are expected to have unknown or undetected damage that could allow the fuel to oxidize and possibly trigger a chemical reaction during the storage process.
Although machinery and robots would handle the tasks, workers would be present.
The study identified areas to research, including the rates at which fuel might degrade, the potential exposure risk for workers and the chances of a chemical reaction.
"The process for handling failed fuel in damaged fuel cans is not yet detailed in current design documents, and the related hazards have not yet been evaluated," the study said.
Among the options considered by DOE is the addition of pools at the repository to handle damaged fuel rods underwater, a process currently used at nuclear power plants, according to the Review-Journal.
Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said it appears DOE has overlooked an important safety issue.
DOE "has not thought through the issues of the surface operations, from what we've seen," said Loux, who coordinates Nevada's opposition to the repository. If DOE decides to install such pools, it would create questions about earthquake vulnerability, Loux said.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a Yucca Mountain opponent, said the study proves the project is flawed and should not move forward.
"At no point while moving waste off site, to transportation to proposed storage, can DOE protect workers and communities from being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation," Reid said.
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Indian Country Today
August 19, 2005
Western Shoshone appeal for United Nations intervention
by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today
GENEVA - In an urgent appeal to halt the assault on ancestral lands, the Western Shoshone Nation filed an urgent action request before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in August.
The request challenges the U.S. government's assertion of federal ownership of nearly 90 percent of Western Shoshone lands.
Joe Kennedy, Western Shoshone, was among those urging immediate action to halt the United States and gold and energy corporations.
''Our traditional laws tell us we were placed here as caretakers of the land,'' Kennedy said. ''As part of the Western Shoshone Nation, we will not stand idly by and allow the U.S. federal government to cement its hold on our ancestral land base.''
The Western Shoshone land base covers approximately 60 million acres, stretching across what is now referred to as the states of Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California. The lands include the proposed Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste facility and lands targeted for expanded gold extraction.
''Western Shoshone rights to the land - which they continue to use, care for and occupy today - are recognized by a ratified treaty with the United States,'' said the Western Shoshone delegation in Geneva, Aug. 8 - 19.
In its 2005 CERD written request, the Western Shoshone seek a halt to all further U.S. actions against Western Shoshone and the expansion of any extractive or other activities permitted by the United States.
Western Shoshone said the United States has conducted numerous military-style seizures of Western Shoshone livestock, has transferred alleged Western Shoshone trespass fines to the Internal Revenue Service and private collection agencies, and has reinvigorated federal efforts to open a nationwide nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
''In 2003, the U.S. Congress passed legislation allowing for distribution of a highly controversial Indian Claims Commission award for [the] alleged extinguishment of Western Shoshone land.
''Since that legislation was passed, efforts to privatize Western Shoshone lands for transfer to multinational extractive industries and energy developers have been intensified,'' the delegation said.
Western Shoshone asserted that these actions, justified by racially discriminatory legal doctrines enshrined in the domestic law of the United States, demonstrate a serious, massive and persistent pattern of racial discrimination against the Western Shoshone Nation and its people in accordance with CERD urgent action and early warning procedures.
The U.N. committee established the early warning/urgent action procedures in 1993 in order to act quickly in preventing the further escalation of human rights abuses.
Western Shoshone have also raised concerns before the U.N. Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.
''The role of non-state actors, or multinational corporations, in the ongoing human rights violations against indigenous peoples is also being addressed by the delegation in response to the influential posture of the gold companies and the energy industry under the current administration,'' Western Shoshone said.
Previously, CERD expressed concern about the ongoing struggle of the Western Shoshone people and the continued violation of indigenous human rights in the United States.
In 2001, the committee questioned the United States' continued application of the ''doctrine of discovery,'' a racially based legal fiction that was used to justify the genocide of Indian peoples and the taking of their lands due to their ''inferior'' status as non-Christians.
The committee also questioned the U.S. delegation about why domestic law allowed the U.S. government to unilaterally abrogate Indian treaties, to which the United States never provided an answer.
Western Shoshone said the situation has become even graver.
CERD is slated to meet with U.S. government representatives in August to hear the government's response.
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Indian Country Today
August 19, 2005
Federal energy bill, economic opportunity or Bush's fire sale?
by: Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today
EPA radiation standards called 'deceptive'
Part three
WASHINGTON - The the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's pledge to protect the people for one million years near the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility is self-congratulatory and a public relations campaign, said a nuclear specialist in the nation's capital who supports Western Shoshone land rights.
Kevin Kamps, nuclear waste specialist with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, said the EPA's information has a ''deceptive, self-congratulatory spin.''
''The EPA's new regulations are actually quite outrageous and dangerous. The EPA would allow for a doubling of the radiation dose that persons living near Yucca Mountain currently receive from 'background radiation.'
''The EPA would deem it legal and permissible for 1 in 30 women, and 1 in 40 men, to receive radiation doses high enough to cause cancer. Half of those contracting cancer from the leaking dump would die of it,'' Kamps told Indian Country Today.
''In addition, the EPA refuses to examine the Western Shoshone Indian traditional lifestyle, which have lived at and near Yucca Mountain since time immemorial and could very well return. Over the many thousands of years, the atomic wastes will remain deadly.
''Unfortunately, living so close to the Earth means that traditional Native Americans would receive even higher radiation doses from the contaminated groundwater and wildlife than the 'dose receptors' - as the federal agencies call people downwind and downstream - living today's modern lifestyle of bottled water and processed food.
''In complete violation of the seventh-generation philosophy, the EPA's regulations would doom future generations to extremely high rates of cancer death.''
The federal energy bill, signed into law by President Bush in August, created incentives to revive the nuclear energy industry, which opponents say will create more high-level nuclear waste targeted for Indian lands. With no safe way to dispose of it, cancer and disease await those living nearby and the transport of nuclear waste by truck or rail would endanger citizens in their homes across the nation, say those opposing such a revival.
Kamps said, ''EPA's Yucca regulations set a dangerous precedent that must be opposed before the nuclear establishment tries to apply it on Native American and other lands elsewhere across the United States.''
Further, he said the nuclear establishment is behind the weak regulations.
''The reason EPA has released such outrageously weak regulations is - under pressure from the nuclear establishment in industry and government - to keep the Yucca dump project alive. Regulations have been weakened or entirely eliminated time and time again because Yucca's geology is so bad the dump will leak massively.''
Meanwhile, opposing the federal energy bill and nuclear waste dumping on Skull Valley Goshute land in Utah, Margene Bullcreek took her message to Washington.
Bullcreek is a member of the Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia Awareness, a grassroots group opposing the proposed nuclear waste dump of Private Fuel Storage Limited Liability Consortium. PFS plans to store more than half of the nation's high-level nuclear waste on 17,444 acres of Goshute land, located 45 miles upwind and west from Salt Lake City.
''Our treaty protects our sovereignty as caretakers of our land,'' Bullcreek said in Washington, joined by Anishinabe activist Winona LaDuke and the musical group, Indigo Girls.
''We have been brought up - taught from the stories passed down from generations that tell us why we became the people we are - to protect nature; to protect our air, water and land; and not to disturb our sacred harmony.
''PFS will not bring economic development to our traditional indigenous land, but will bring devastation to our people and to others along the transportation routes. There is no gain to our prosperity when there is poison spilled. The radioactive waste would bring harm to our medicine wheel in four areas: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
''The real issue has never been money or power for indigenous people, although this country's backbone is built on indigenous peoples' lands and resources.''
Bullcreek said the Goshute now live in a serene atmosphere.
''We don't want to be forgotten behind the scenes; to suffer from nuclear threats, potential terrorist attack or political abuse,'' Bullcreek said, adding that the less privileged in the nation should not be forced to suffer for the common good because of the bias that exists against them.
''Indigenous people within this nation have always been victimized to provide national security,'' Bullcreek said during her appeal in Washington. ''Help us and stop this destruction, this genocide to our indigenous people of this great nation that was founded on our indigenous land.''
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Magic City Morning Star
August 19, 2005
Lacking Energy
By Ed Feulner
It sometimes seems the longer a bill hangs around Washington, the worse it gets. That's certainly the case with the recently signed energy bill.
President Bush had been trying for years to convince lawmakers to pass an energy bill. But when they finally did, all the ... well, energy had been sucked out of it. In the end, it was typical Washington pork. There's plenty of new spending - an estimated $12.3 billion over 10 years, twice as much as the original proposal - but few real solutions.
Start with oil. When most people think of energy, they think of gasoline. Any sensible bill would take steps to increase the domestic production of oil. It's critical we start reducing our dependence on foreign providers, especially since so many of them are in bad neighborhoods.
We happen to have large oil reserves waiting to be tapped beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. But the bill Congress passed specifically ignores ANWR. "If we put it in, we wouldn't be here," Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, explained to reporters.
It's true that previous energy bills had failed because liberals wouldn't agree to pass a measure that allowed drilling in ANWR. But no bill is better than a bad bill. If we're not going to take the most reasonable step available to boost energy production, there's really no point in passing an energy bill at all. (ANWR, fortunately, isn't dead; it's likely to pass when lawmakers try to reconcile the budget in September.)
Not only does this bill ignore potential solutions, it actually recycles the failed policies of the past. The bill provides tax breaks for homeowners who install solar panels - a "reform" measure first drafted by the Carter administration.
President Reagan removed those tax breaks when it became clear they wouldn't work, just as a future administration is certain to remove them again. In the meantime, another generation of homeowners will learn to their chagrin that the upfront cost of solar panels is larger than the amount they're likely to save by installing them.
Lawmakers deserve credit for at least attempting to take a step forward on nuclear power. Nuclear plants are efficient and produce zero emissions, and we need to build more of them to fill our growing need for electricity. The bill provides billions of dollars in tax credits for utilities, which could translate into as many as six new nuclear plants.
But the energy bill leaves the big question unanswered. Until utilities are assured they will have a permanent place to store their nuclear waste, they're not likely to break ground on new plants, regardless of tax breaks. At one existing plant in Illinois there are 24 silos, each packed with 13 tons of nuclear waste. No utility wants to assume that sort of headache. A useful energy bill would do something to fix the problem.
Having the waste stored in a secure, central location would be far safer than storing it on-site at scores of plants around the country. Plenty of studies have shown Yucca Mountain is the best place to put our nuclear waste. But again, lawmakers ducked that issue in the energy bill.
Washington insiders, even conservative officials, seem resigned to the big spending status quo. "It's the best energy bill that can be passed," Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell said.
Respectfully, sir, it isn't. It must be possible to "solve" a problem without throwing tens of billion of dollars at it. And it must be possible for lawmakers to target bills narrowly - so the new law will solve problems rather than merely providing tax breaks to the energy industry.
Something good can still come out of this bill, if it energizes conservatives in Congress to finally take charge and crack down on wasteful spending. Otherwise, the bill's merely another waste of time, money and power.
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Las Vegas SUN
August 18, 2005
Nuclear institute chief says industry needs help on Yucca
By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Even though a national energy bill has been signed, the nuclear industry still needs help from Congress on the question of what to do with nuclear waste, the head of the Nuclear Energy Institute said today.
The industry wants Congress to make it easier to fund the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and may be looking for additional help in other areas.
Skip Bowman, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, said more legislation might help "unravel some of the sticking points" regarding Yucca Mountain, such as funding, land claims for the proposed rail line and other regulations, although he did not get into specifics.
He also wants the industry to do a better job describing what is really going on at Yucca Mountain.
He said too many people believe that the plan is to move the waste to Nevada, put it in the mountain, seal it and say, "Here you go, grandkids."
But Bowman said the Energy Department is likely to leave the mountain open for up to 300 years so it could pull the waste out for other purposes, such as reprocessing. Additionally, there will be monitoring at the site, he said at a press briefing today.
The industry supports re-examining the potential for reprocessing, a method to treat nuclear waste to be used again as fuel. It has not been done in the United States for years. Bowman said it is an option to complement, not replace Yucca.
Laws regarding nuclear waste allow the department to exercise that option and do not specify how long the mountain must remain open while holding the waste. The department said 300 years in the Final Environmental Impact statement issued in 2002, but Congress could choose to extend that plan, Bowman said.
Joe Egan, a lawyer handling Nevada's court fight against the planned dump, said the state's research does not support the prospect of the department keeping Yucca Mountain open for 300 years. Also, no equipment exists that could take out the waste and the department has not planned for that. He said the state is preparing to oppose the points NEI is raising during the licensing hearing from Yucca Mountain.
President Bush signed a massive energy bill 10 days ago. The plan contains several incentives and programs aimed at developing new nuclear power plants. Nuclear power generates 20 percent of the country's electricity through 103 reactors across the country, but a new plant has not been built in years.
Bowman said it would be "irresponsible" to work on developing new power plants without a plan for disposal of the nuclear waste that a new plant would create.
Bowman said he "feels certain" with the growing support behind the industry in the United States and throughout the world, that the nuclear waste problem will be solved.
The Energy Department was supposed to take the waste from the nuclear power plants in 1998 but that schedule came and went. Bowman said the 2010 proposed opening has also "slipped," but he has not lost confidence in the effort.
"For sure there is not a drop dead date, but we do need to see progress," Bowman said.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, who leads the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in July that he is looking to introduce a comprehensive Yucca-related bill once the energy bill passed.
Bowman said he has not spoken to Barton about the bill.
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Science Magazine
August 18, 2005
SitNews
Fish Or Cut Bait
Ultimate Job Security
by Bob Ciminel
In case you've never heard of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, it is the proposed location of a national repository for spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants and high level waste from government production facilities.
Construction of a national waste repository was mandated by Congress after the Three Mile Island Accident in March 1979. Along with the creation of the repository, Congress also tasked the Department of Energy to take possession of the spent nuclear fuel stored at the various power plant sites throughout the United States.
The DOE did not keep its end of the bargain; consequently, nuclear utilities had to "re-rack" their spent fuel storage pools to increase their capacity and build interim storage facilities, called dry cask storage, until such time when the fuel can be shipped to a Federal repository. This issue of "what do we do with spent fuel" arose because former President Jimmy Carter issued an executive order banning the reprocessing of commercial spent fuel in the United States.
The Yucca Mountain Repository has been tied up by political activists for the past 25 years because the words "nuclear" and "safe" are used in the same sentence. By definition, anything related to nuclear power is unsafe and can never be safe. How anyone can rationalize that it is safer to store spent nuclear fuel stored at over 125 different sites around the country instead of burying it beneath a mountain in the Nevada desert has to be the epitome of shortsightedness, a common ailment afflicting politicians.
Shortsightedness may be endemic among politicians, but Washington's bureaucrats are immune to it, as evidenced by the most recent impediment to approving the Yucca Mountain Repository. The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing that the repository has to be regulated by the Nuclear Regulator Commission for one million years. Yep, that's correct, 1,000,000 years, the equivalent of 25,000 generations. I'm not a biologist, but I suspect that 1,000,000 years from now our progeny will not resemble us, nor will they be the same physiologically. Evolution, or intelligent design if you wish, has a way of changing living organisms. Our bodies, for example, are slowly adapting to toxic materials that did not exist before the Industrial Age, one of which is radiation produced by nuclear reactions, such as splitting the atom.
Think about it. After one million years of exposure to the plethora of pollutants mankind generates every day, why should we worry about someone being exposed to what is equivalent to the background radiation a resident of Denver, Colorado receives every year.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission isn't sure how to develop regulations to cover the one-million-year monitoring period for the Yucca Mountain Repository. No government agency has ever regulated anything for that long. However, you can be sure the bureaucrats in Washington will rise to the challenge. We should be worried that other government agencies may try to outdo the NRC. Listen! You can hear the conversation going on at the IRS right now. "Hey, if the NRC can do it, so can we. Let's propose taxation ad infinitum!"
Bob Ciminel's articles may include satire and parody, and mix fact with fiction.
He assumes informed readers will be able to tell the difference.
Bob Ciminel lives in Roswell, Georgia, and works for the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. Bob is also a conductor on the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway.
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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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