Yucca Mountain News Clips
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 31, 2005
Yucca Mountain Fight: Sandoval recruits supporters
Nevada attorney general writes letters to colleagues in 10 states to oppose EPA radiation standards
By Sean Whaley
Review-Journal Capital Bureau
CARSON CITY -- Attorney General Brian Sandoval on Tuesday sent letters to the attorneys general in 10 states urging them to speak out about what he called unacceptable proposed radiation standards for the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
Letters sent to the attorneys general in Idaho, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio and New York ask them to oppose the standards during the 60-day public comment period that ends Oct. 21.
Nevada officials believe those 10 states will be most affected by the radiation standards proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency.
"I am writing to alert you to a disturbing proposed rule that, if promulgated, has the clear potential to destabilize the cleanup standards for all Department of Energy facilities, including the DOE facility in your state," Sandoval said.
The proposed standard for Yucca Mountain "threatens to undermine the negotiations and tri-party cleanup agreements that have taken years for states to develop for the protection of their citizens from DOE's nuclear contamination," he said.
Sandoval said the EPA previously determined that people should be exposed to no more than 15 millirems per year. The new standard would permit exposures of between 350 and 1,050 millirem per year, depending on whether median or mean exposures are considered.
"This amounts to the least stringent radiation protection standard in the world by far," he said.
A person living in the United States receives an average annual 300 millirem dose of radiation from natural and man-made sources. A millirem is a small amount of energy.
An EPA official has said the standards, rewritten to satisfy a federal court ruling, would offer health protection to Nevadans from buried canisters of decaying nuclear fuel for as long as 1 million years.
Jeffrey Holmstead, EPA assistant administrator for air and radiation, has said the agency was attempting to set limits that will affect 25,000 generations.
"It's a real scientific challenge, but we think we've done it in a way that is consistent with the best science," Holmstead said.
The Energy Department, which seeks to entomb 77,000 tons of nuclear waste inside the mountain 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, believes it can meet the proposed EPA standard.
"The new standard is based on EPA's unstudied view that it is appropriate to expose unconsenting local populations to high levels of radiation so long as they do not exceed the highest levels of natural background radiation tolerated in the most radiation-prone states, such as Colorado," Sandoval said in the letter to Colorado Attorney General John Suthers.
In addition to the letters, Sandoval sent some background information on the proposed EPA standard.
It says the EPA proposal:
• Abandons any long-term groundwater protection standard.
• Includes home radon exposure in calculations of natural background levels used to set thresholds, a practice never done in such calculations because home radon exposure is routinely mitigated.
• Assumes it is ethically permissible to expose future generations to radiation levels far higher than would be tolerated today.
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Las Vegas SUN
August 31, 2005
Sandoval seeks help in Yucca Mountain fight
By Cy Ryan
<cy@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Capital Bureau
CARSON CITY -- Attorney General Brian Sandoval is seeking help from attorneys general in 10 other states in the fight against the proposed nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain.
Sandoval on Tuesday sent letters urging them to oppose the new radiation standards proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency. He said the new standard would set a "dangerous precedent for the relaxation of all radiation protection standards for Department of Energy sites everywhere." He is asking the other attorneys general to write the EPA opposing the proposed standard before the deadline of Oct. 21.
The EPA earlier this month set a two-tier standard for radiation. One tier sets a standard of up to 10,000 years at 15 millirems, equivalent to a chest X-ray. Each year a person living near the site would not be subject to more than 15 millirems.
The agency set the standard at 350 millirems for 10,000 years to 1 million years.
"Despite the fact that EPA previously determined that citizens should be exposed to no more than 15 millirems per year, the new standard would permit exposures of between 350 and 1,050 millirems per year," Sandoval wrote.
"This amounts to the least stringent radiation protection standard in the world by far."
He said the DOE has sought to loosen its nuclear cleanup standards for sites in other states from exposure levels of 25 millirems per year to 100 millirems and some states are considering suit. "The new standard is based on EPA's unstudied view that it is appropriate to expose un-consenting local populations to high levels of radiation so long as they do not exceed the highest levels of natural background radiation tolerated in the most radiation-prone states, such as Colorado." The letter went to attorneys general in Idaho, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio and New York.
Sandoval said those attorneys general were singled out because each have a Department of Energy facility in their state.
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Las Vegas SUN
August 31, 2005
Letter: Nuke utilities pay for most of Yucca
This refers to your Aug. 17 editorial, "Yucca's cost is no object?"
The point made that there is likely to be cost growth for the repository project probably has some basis, as both regional and national construction cost trends suggest. I would agree that a more current cost estimate is needed, but also note that the 2001 estimate was made in "constant 2000" dollars, which is important to recognize for a project that is to extend over a very long construction and operational period.
You were in error when you wrote that the Energy Department should level with "the taxpayers of Southern Nevada and the whole country" who are "footing the bill." There is an agreed cost-sharing formula for the repository program expenses in which nuclear utilities pay 72.8 percent of the costs and the Defense Department budget pays for the balance. Nevada taxpayers are helping to pay for 27.2 percent of the repository costs and nuclear utilities and their customers in states using nuclear energy are paying the larger share.
Nuclear utilities have been paying fees to the Treasury for nuclear waste disposal since 1983 and still do today. Congress appropriates all repository funds, but the point is that it also collects revenue from utilities to pay the majority of those funds. The energy secretary is required by law to periodically assess the adequacy of the fee rates to see if they need to be adjusted.
BRIAN O'CONNELL Washington, D.C.
Editor's note: The writer is director of the Nuclear Waste Program Office of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.
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Pahrump Valley Times
August 31, 2005
Yucca Mountain Radiation standards explained
Special to The PVT
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced proposed radiation standards for the high-level nuclear waste facility planned at Yucca Mountain in Nye County. It is important that the public understands what these standards mean in relation to background radiation levels.
Background radiation is either measured directly or estimated from the best information available. Radiation units for effective dose equivalent are called "roentgen equivalent man," or rem. The amount of radiation a person receives is measured in thousandths of a rem (called the millirem) and is abbreviated or shortened to mrem. The mrem is used to measure how the body reacts to radiation exposure.
Typical background radiation is either natural or manmade. Natural radiation can come from cosmic or terrestrial sources or even the human body. Man-made radiation results from medical treatments, consumer products or fallout from historical international weapons testing.
Cosmic radiation is high-energy gamma radiation that originates in outer space and filters through our atmosphere. People are exposed to more cosmic radiation at higher altitudes than at lower ones. According to the Environmental Protection Agency Web site, at sea level, a cosmic radiation dose can be approximately 26 mrem per year; by contrast, the annual cosmic radiation dose in mile-high Denver is approximately 50 mrem per year.
No matter where you live, the soil on which you stand contains trace amounts of radioactive material. This terrestrial radiation originates from naturally occurring radionuclide in the soil. External exposure from terrestrial radiation can occur both indoors and outdoors. The background dose from terrestrial radiation depends on the materials of the earth's crust at a particular locality.
Some areas of the United States, like the Colorado Plateau, are rich in uranium and thorium. Other areas may be rich in granite, which produces radon. The U.S. average dose of radiation from radon is 200 mrem per year; the average dose from stone, concrete, or brick house construction is approximately 10 mrem per year.
Internal radiation originates within our own bodies from naturally occurring Potassium 40 and Carbon 14. Additional exposure comes from the foods we eat and how we live. The radiation dose from elements and minerals in the human body is approximately 25 mrem per year; the U.S. average exposure to radiation from food, air and water is 40 mrem per year. If you use salt substitute (potassium chloride) or eat potassium-rich foods, like bananas or Brazil nuts, the dose is 10mrem per year. Smoking one pack of cigarettes every day for a year results in a dose of 4,000 mrem per year.
Exposure to manmade radiation results from medical tests, such as X-rays and cancer therapies. It may also come from consumer products, such as microwaves, smoke detectors, dentures, color television or some cameras. Some examples of average doses of man-made radiation are medical x-rays (40 mrem each), nuclear medical procedures (14 mrem each), using a computer terminal (0.1 mrem per year), and weapons test fallout (1mrem per year).
The annual average background radiation dose from all sources for a person living in the U.S. is 360 mrem per year. The average dose for people living in Florida is 131 mrem per year, and for those living in South Dakota, the background is 963 mrem per year.
If you would like to determine your own yearly exposure to radiation, visit the EPA Web site at www.epa.gov/radiation/students/calculate.html
The U.S. Department of Energy has estimated that the average background dose to the people living near the Yucca Mountain repository is slightly below the U.S. average of 340 mrem/year. The new EPA proposed standard for Yucca Mountain might add 15 mrem per year to this figure for the first 10,000 years and 350 mrem per year for 10,000 to a million years
Health effects experts are divided on the "safe" level of radiation a person can be exposed to without ill effects. Some organizations suggest setting a lower limit of 5,000 to 10,000 mrem per year for long-term exposure. Both EPA and OSHA have stated that health effects are clearly noted when an individual receives doses above 50,000 mrem per year.
Nye County is concerned about how the performance confirmation is going to be implemented and managed. Nye County has historically requested to be an integral part of the performance program to ensure that the health and safety of its citizens are protected.
Nye County will continue to use whatever resources it has to become a part of this process.
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Pahrump Valley Times
August 31, 2005
Gibbons throws hat in the ring
Congressman to Announce Candidacy for Governor this Morning
By Phillip Gomez
PVT
U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., met with voters Friday at the Bob Ruud Community Center in Pahrump, answering questions from his constituency and leaking word of a long-awaited formal announcement about his political intentions to run for governor of the state.
Gibbons, through his press liaison Mike Henderson, said he would announce his intentions today at 10 a.m. at the East Las Vegas Community Center in Las Vegas and at the Sparks High School at 3 p.m. on the same day. Gibbons also plans announcements in Elko and Winnemucca on Sept. 1 and 2, respectively, according to his media advisory.
Gibbons has remained noncommittal on his candidacy in a crowded field for the governorship until now, although political insiders have expected him to run.
Friday's meeting saw a large number of veterans and seniors filling Room B of the community center. Questions that Gibbons took from his audience were numerous and varied, from terrorism to Yucca Mountain, but the ones that seemed to elicit the most passion had to do with illegal immigration from south of the border.
"Can you blame them for coming up here to live the American Dream?" Gibbons asked in sympathy. He defended his support for the Central American Free Trade Act, or CAFTA, recently passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush.
"We're trying to help those countries economically so they don't revert back to dictatorship, like Venezuela and Cuba," he said. CAFTA and NAFTA, the latter being the 1994 North American Free Trade Act, are designed "to breakdown import barriers," said Gibbons. "It has nothing to do with shipping jobs to South America."
Questions about illegal immigration bombarded Gibbons.
"Our system is broken," he said, agreeing with his questioners on the basic premise. "It's not just Mexicans, but Russians, Asians, Moroccans ... a million a year are coming across our southern border. Eleven million illegal aliens are a burden on our social system. They earn a good living here and send it back home."
Gibbons added, "I'm not for amnesty," referring to the Bush administration's plan to grant amnesty to illegal aliens already here.
"I'm all for building a fence across our southern borders," Gibbons said. He added he would like to see U.S. base closures internationally and the soldiers' reassigned to the southwest border country. "They can exercise their military strategy up and down the borders," he said.
Asked his position on mandating English as the national language, Gibbons said, "I think for us to be a single country, you need to speak English. I want Hispanic people to keep their culture and language, but ... we ought to all speak a single language."
Other questions related to gas prices going through the roof.
"There's an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with paying $3 a gallon for gas, even though we're paying less on an inflationary level than in 1980. We have got to start developing (known reserves of) shale oil," he said. There are 2 trillion barrels of oil shale in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming that can be retrieved at $15 a barrel in costs," he said. "Foreign markets are holding us hostage. With 2 trillion barrels locked up in oil shale, we could supply our own current usage at current rates for 300 years."
Gibbons also blamed the lack of refining capacity for the sharp spike in gas prices, saying plants "haven't been built in years."
Asked about Nye County school buses and what could be done to air-condition them for children having to ride long distances to school and back, Gibbons said it was not a federal issue.
"The federal government isn't and shouldn't be engaged in every aspect of your life. That's my philosophy." It's a school board and a county issue, he said.
Dennis Keating, clerk of the Nye County School District's board of trustees, said later the district's buses were second-hand vehicles purchased from Las Vegas, only some of which are air-conditioned.
But the question led someone in the audience back to illegal immigrants, demanding to know why their kids were riding the school buses on the taxpayers' ticket.
"Why can't we assess the value and send a bill to those countries?" Gibbons said to applause. "We want you to come legally," he said, "so you can become taxpayers like the rest of us."
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KLAS-TV
August 31, 2005
Ten States Asked to Join Yucca Mountain Fight
Nevada's attorney general is asking counterparts in 10 states to join the fight against a proposed national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
Attorney General Brian Sandoval says he sent the letters to the 10 attorneys general because each has an Energy Department facility in their state.
Sandoval says new radiation standards the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed for the Yucca site would set a precedent toward relaxing radiation protection standards for Energy Department in other states.
The E-P-A earlier is proposing a two-tier radiation standard for the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Sandoval says he sent the letters to Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
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Washington Times
August 31, 2005
Attorney General Sandoval seeks help
Nevada's attorney general sent letters to attorneys general in 10 states seeking help in the fight against the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear dump.
The letter from Attorney General Brain Sandoval urges them to oppose the new radiation standards proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Sandoval said the new standard would set a "dangerous precedent for the relaxation of all radiation protection standards for Department of Energy sites everywhere."
The EPA set a two-tier standard for radiation in the area. For the first 10,000 years the limit is 15 millirems of radiation. That is the equivalent to a chest X-ray each year, according to the Las Vegas Sun.
After 10,000 years, the limit would increase to 350 millirems a year for up to 1 million years.
"This amounts to the least stringent radiation protection standard in the world by far," Sandoval wrote in his letter to attorneys general in Idaho, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, and New York.
Sandoval said he chose those states because they each have a Department of Energy facility. He is asking them to write the EPA opposing the standard before the Oct. 21 deadline.
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White County News-Telegraph
August 31, 2005
Interstate 3 opponents ask why
By Carolyn Mathews
Members of the multi-state Stop I-3 organization want to know why an interstate is being planned for Southern Appalachians.
Elizabeth Wells, Chairperson of the Georgia division of the anti-interstate group formed this spring as a reaction to a proposed interstate from Savannah to Knoxville, said Tuesday that U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson has communicated by letter with the group, telling them a $1.3 million feasibility study being financed by the federal government will determine if an interstate is a good idea. "However, he didn't answer the most important question," Wells said, "which is who wants this interstate and why."
Community speakers speaking on the subject of I-3 urged more than 200 people attending an informational rally at White County High School to fight efforts to build the interstate. Money for a feasibility study for Interstate 3 and another interstate that would run from Augusta to Mississippi was included in the recent highway bill signed by President George W. Bush. The feasibility study is expected to take 12-18 months.
Isakson, Wells said, did better than U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Congressman Charlie Norwood. Empty chairs sitting on the high school auditorium stage represented the absence of the two elected officials.
John Clarke, president of the North Carolina chapter of Stop I-3 has written a "white paper" on a suggested link between the transportation of nuclear waste and the plan for the highway. Clarke said the current federal energy bill encourages increased nuclear production and most of it is happening at Oak Ridge and at the Savannah River Nuclear Site near Augusta. "I just don't think it's any accident that highway is planned right now," he said. Clarke said a nuclear waste disposal facility at Yucca Mountain probably won't happen and that nuclear waste may be disposed of at the Savannah River Nuclear Site instead. Clarke and Rabun County resident Lucy Ezzard Bartlett both cited twisting roads and foggy weather as potential causes for truck wrecks on an interstate placed through the mountains. Some of those trucks, they say, would carry hazardous wastes.
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LaCrosse Tribune
August 31, 2005
Genoa plant to remove reactor vessel
By Reid Magney
La Crosse Tribune
DE SOTO, Wis. — Dairyland Power Cooperative is stepping up plans to decommission its closed nuclear reactor in Genoa, Wis.
In the coming two years, Dairyland will remove the old reactor vessel and ship it to a low-level nuclear storage facility in South Carolina. That clears the way to remove high-level radioactive spent fuel rods, plant manager Roger Christians told about 30 people at a public information meeting Tuesday night at De Soto High School.
Where those fuel rods will ultimately go remains unclear, but Christians said they may remain on site in dry storage casks for several years until the federal government can open its own storage facility.
Chuck Sans Crainte, Dairyland vice president of generation, said the cooperative isn't fully committed to using a proposed temporary storage site in the Utah desert, known as Private Fuel Storage.
Dairyland officials also disclosed they'll spend $50 million over the next two years on new pollution control equipment at the adjacent coal-fired electric plant.
The federal government built Dairyland's nuclear plant, known as the La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor, in 1967. Dairyland shut down the reactor in 1987, and has been working to decommission it.
Anti-nuclear activists at the meeting said that even though they're concerned about storing the rods at the site, it's preferable to shipping them across the country to Utah or Nevada's proposed Yucca Mountain.
"I like the idea of dry casks," said Gail Vaughn of La Crosse, who maintains the Web site www.no-nukes.org.
Environmentalist Guy Wolf of Stoddard, Wis., questioned how long it might take to get federal approval for the dry cask storage, based on Xcel Energy's experience at Prairie Island, Minn. But he also praised Dairyland for taking steps to clean up particulate emissions from its Genoa coal plant, which he said ranks among the five highest in the state.
Christians explained how Dairyland has hired Duratek Inc. to help them remove the 200-ton reactor pressure vessel, which will be encased in concrete and steel and shipped by train to South Carolina. The entire shipment will weigh 400 tons, and require a special 20-axle rail car.
The train will go south from Genoa to the Quad Cities and then to Barnwell, S.C., not north through La Crosse, officials said.
Removing the low-level waste to South Carolina will cost Dairyland an estimated $18.5 million, he said.
The same special crane that will lift the vessel will also be used to remove the spent fuel rods and put them into the dry casks, Christians said.
Genoa nuclear plant timeline
2005: Fill reactor pressure vessel with concrete grout.
2006: Cut hole in shield wall, which vessel will be removed through.
2006-2007: Install crane, construct shipping container.
2007: Lift vessel and package in container.
Spring 2007: Ship container.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 29, 2005
Railroad to Yucca Mountain: DOE seeks public land
Agency wants to reserve land across rural Nevada for path to nuclear repository
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Department of Energy officials said Monday they want to continue reserving 308,600 acres of public land across rural Nevada as the department maps out a railroad to the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
DOE began accepting public comment for a land withdrawal along a corridor stretching 300 miles from Caliente to the repository site on the western edge of the Nevada Test Site.
The mile-wide corridor has been segregated since December 2003 at DOE's request. The department in a draft environmental study issued Monday said it was seeking a 10-year land withdrawal from the Bureau of Land Management to continue the rail project.
The designation would forbid new mining claims on the property and also prohibit the BLM from selling any parcels or allowing other federal agencies to make use of the land. Current mining claims, grazing permits, water rights and public access would not be affected, federal officials said.
DOE spokesman Allen Benson said it was possible the department would not require all the land for the entire 10 years. But he said DOE was anticipating lawsuits and could face other obstacles that could delay final designation of a rail route.
"This gives us sufficient time to do everything that needs to be done," Benson said.
The Energy Department projected minimal disruptions from the land withdrawal. Activities required to evaluate the land consist mainly of photographing land features and conducting field surveys of its topography, historical and biological resources, DOE said in a 37-page environmental assessment.
After examining the study, Robert Halstead, a nuclear waste transportation consultant to the state of Nevada, said the Energy Department may be underestimating what would be required to fully study the corridor.
To do a credible job, DOE may have to disturb the land through drilling and ditch-digging more than it suggested in its report, Halstead said.
Also, Halstead said, "I think the DOE is somewhat cavalier in its treatment of the potential adverse impacts of the land withdrawal on mineral exploration. I don't think they've done a fair job to establish that withdrawing this land for 10 years won't adversely impact some people."
Halstead also questioned why DOE did not seek to withdraw additional land for study that ranchers and miners have identified as possible alternative routes that would minimize local impacts.
The proposed land withdrawal affects Nye, Lincoln and Esmerelda counties, with public hearings scheduled for next month. DOE said it would accept public comments for 30 days, until Sept. 28.
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Las Vegas SUN
August 29, 2005
DOE takes step in plan to ship nuclear waste in Nevada by train
By Ken Ritter
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Energy Department took another step Monday toward building a rail line across Nevada to ship nuclear waste to a national repository at Yucca Mountain.
The department announced it wants to remove a mile-wide, 319-mile long right of way from public use for 10 years and asked for public comment on the plan. Previously DOE had planned to exclude the mostly federal Bureau of Land Management swath known as the Caliente Corridor for 20 years.
The Energy Department announced last month that it intends to use trains for some 3,500 shipments of the nation's most radioactive waste from around the nation to the planned repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Officials with the federal agency and the state's Nuclear Projects Office characterized the release of the project's draft environmental assessment as routine, but state officials called the rail proposal dangerously flawed.
"We think the selection was illegal and violated a number of federal statutes," said Bob Loux, chief of the state Nuclear Projects Office and Gov. Kenny Guinn's top anti-dump administrator.
Energy Department spokesman Allen Benson said notice published Monday in the Federal Register is a step toward protecting 308,600 acres in the corridor from encroachment and surface mining claims. The register notice referred to precluding new mining claims for 20 years on five rail alternatives, but the more detailed environmental document cut that to 10 years.
"We're not sure we need the full 20 years," Benson said of the Caliente route - the only one under study. "All we're getting out of it is the right of way to be able to build the rail line."
The document, part of an application to the BLM and federal Interior Department, refers to 915 existing mining claims and leases along the route, and four natural gas leases nearby.
It also cites the proximity of habitat for the threatened Mojave Desert tortoise and the endangered Southwestern willow flycatcher, and notes that a pair of yellow-billed cuckoos has been seen nesting near the route. The bird is a candidate for a federal endangered species designation.
The department said grazing, public access and other current uses of the land would not be affected.
The Energy Department plans to take public comments through Sept. 27, including at meetings Sept. 12 in Amargosa Valley, Sept. 13 in Goldfield and Sept. 15 in Caliente.
The Energy Department also said it was preparing an environmental study about the possible effects of construction, operation and maintenance of alternate rail alignments.
In addition to the train shipments, the Energy Department plans about 1,100 truck shipments to the repository.
The agency estimates it will cost $880 million to establish a rail head on the Union Pacific line at Caliente, a small town 150 miles northeast of Las Vegas, and build the rail line to the Yucca Mountain site.
Arguments are scheduled Oct. 18 in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on a state request to halt planning for the rail line until more studies are done.
Yucca Mountain is planned as a national repository for 77,000 tons of nuclear waste from sites in 39 states. Funding shortages and other problems - including a controversy over possible paperwork fraud on the project - have delayed the opening date, now estimated for 2012 or later.
On the Net:
Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov
Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management: http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov
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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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