Yucca Mountain News Clips
Saturday, September 10, 2005
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Senator Harry Reid
September 10, 2005

Reid statement on approval of UT nuclear waste facility

Reid Statement on NRC Licensing Utah Nuclear Waste Storage Site

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Harry Reid released the following statement today:

“Transporting high-level radioactive waste to Utah is as dangerous as it would be transporting it to Nevada. Thousands of tons of deadly nuclear material will pass homes, schools, businesses and churches in communities all across the country, and there is simply no way to safely do this. In Nevada, we will continue to fight as hard as we always have to stop the proposed Yucca Mountain site. The safest and smartest solution to solving the nation´s nuclear waste problem is to store waste at the facilities where it is already being produced, as Sen. Ensign and I have proposed.’

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 10, 2005

NRC clears way for nuclear waste storage at Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday approved a private company's plans to store nuclear waste on an Indian reservation in Utah, moving the proposal a step closer to reality and causing Nevadans to question how it might affect the repository planned for Yucca Mountain.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman immediately vowed to challenge the NRC's decision in the courts, and state officials promised to fight the facility using all possible options. The state contends the project on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation would be too dangerous.

The strong reaction by Utah officials mirrored that of their neighbors in Nevada who are waging an aggressive fight against Department of Energy plans to build a nuclear waste complex at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Nevada elected leaders had closely watched the proposal by Private Fuel Storage, a group of utilities that wants to store 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel at the Skull Valley site about 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

A handful of lawyers and consultants who helped Utah fight the nuclear waste initiative before the NRC also are on Nevada's payroll, including Joe Egan, the state's lead nuclear waste attorney.

Views were mixed as to what approval of the private nuclear waste site in Utah might portend for the Yucca Mountain Project. The Energy Department has yet to file an application for the NRC to consider.

"I don't think there is much in parallel between PFS and Yucca Mountain," said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.

"A couple of issues are similar but the issues at Yucca are far more complex, the time frames are much longer and the geology is complicated," Loux said.

At Yucca Mountain, nuclear waste arriving by truck or rail would be repackaged in an above-ground industrial complex and stored in an underground warren. To obtain a license, the Department of Energy must show it can meet standards to store 77,000 tons of waste safely for tens of thousands of years.

At Skull Valley, nuclear waste would be kept above ground in concrete and steel casks arrayed on concrete pads over 100 acres. Planners envision up to 4,000 casks, each containing 10 metric tons of spent fuel and licensed for storage up to 40 years.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said the NRC's approval was a bad omen for Nevadans who oppose nuclear waste storage within or near the state.

"This does not bode well for our fight," she said. "The NRC decision totally disregards the wishes of the people of Utah, and the people of Nevada have also spoken they do not want nuclear waste. Whatever happened to states rights?"

Berkley said the ruling also signaled federal regulators' acceptance of the concept that large volumes of nuclear waste can be transported safely over long distances, which Yucca Mountain critics and nuclear activists have disputed.

"Any decision that permits the storage of nuclear waste far from where it is produced is not a good idea for the state of Nevada," Berkley said.

Sue Martin, a spokeswoman for Private Fuel Storage, said the Utah facility would be a temporary dump pending the delayed opening of a national repository at Yucca Mountain. Original plans were for a Nevada repository to begin accepting spent fuel in 1998.

"First and foremost, this certainly is not an alternative to Yucca Mountain," Martin said. "If Yucca Mountain had been completed and opened on schedule this facility would not be needed at all."

Wenonah Hauter, energy director of Public Citizen, a watchdog group, questioned the temporary nature of the Skull Valley site.

"It is dependent on the opening of Yucca Mountain, which continues to have significant problems and may never open," Hauter said. Even if a Yucca repository were to open, waste could remain in Utah until schedules call for the specific utilities to shift their waste to Nevada.

"The two dumps are very much joined at the hip," said Kevin Kamps, a waste specialist with the Nuclear Information Resource Service. "If the waste is moved all the way to Skull Valley, it is just a hop, skip and jump to Nevada."

Kamps added utilities are expected to generate 105,000 metric tons of nuclear waste by 2046, enough to fill both Yucca Mountain and the Utah facility.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has proposed storing nuclear waste at the facilities where it is produced, an alternative to both the Private Fuel Storage site and Yucca Mountain.

On Friday, Reid said in a statement that he still believes that is the safest option.

"Thousands of tons of deadly nuclear material will pass homes, schools, businesses and churches in communities all across the country, and there is simply no way to safely do this," Reid said.

It took eight years for the NRC to judge the Private Fuel Storage application. By law, the agency has four years to weigh Yucca Mountain, although experts have said they expect it could take much longer considering Nevada's unremitting opposition.

Utah officials had argued the Skull Valley facility would be too close to a major population center and that the risk of a jet fighter from Hill Air Force Base crashing into the storage casks was too great.

But commissioners dismissed the argument, taking a two-pronged vote. First, they affirmed an earlier ruling that the waste containers wouldn't release an unacceptable amount of radiation if a jet crashed into them. Then they voted 3-1 to authorize the NRC staff to issue a license to construct and operate the storage site.

The license will be ready after paperwork is completed, said NRC spokesman Eliot Brenner.

The dissenting vote was cast by Gregory Jaczko, a former energy adviser to Reid. In a five page opinion, Jaczko said more study was needed of the consequences should an F-16 fighter jet were to crash at the site.

Huntsman said in a statement that he was "deeply disappointed" in the NRC decision and would continue fighting the storage facility. In addition to a court appeal, another option for the state could be to designate a wilderness area to block construction of a rail spur to the site.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in a statement that the plan was "dead on arrival."

"This is a reckless, dangerous proposal, and I am pulling out all the stops to make sure this waste never makes a home in Utah," Hatch said.

An impoverished tribe, the Goshutes had been looking for ways to make money and eventually teamed with Private Fuel Storage to propose the station.

The earliest the site is expected to be in operation is 2008.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Reno Gazette-Journal
September 09, 2005

Regulatory panel OKs nuclear waste dump

Doug Abrahms
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL

WASHINGTON — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday approved building a high-level nuclear waste repository at the Goshute Indian Reservation over the objection of Utah officials.

The decision paves the way for casks of spent nuclear fuel from atomic reactors around the country to be shipped to the site in Skull Valley, Utah. The Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Land Management still must approve the project before it can proceed.

Construction on the facility, which would house nuclear waste for 20 years, is expected to begin within the year, said Sue Martin, spokeswoman for Private Fuel Storage, the company that owns the facility.

“The earliest that we could start accepting fuel would be 2008,’ she said. “Ultimately, the utilities want to send their fuel to the federal repository (at Yucca Mountain) as soon as possible.’ Martin said.

Utah officials cited safety reasons in objecting to storage, even temporarily, of nuclear waste a mere 50 miles upwind from Salt Lake City, the state´s capital. But Utah has no jurisdiction, because the proposed construction site lies on tribal lands.

Bob Loux, who heads Nevada´s Agency for Nuclear Projects, said the Utah decision would have little impact on the Yucca Mountain project that his group opposes. The casks sent to Utah ultimately cannot be shipped to Yucca Mountain because they don´t comply with Energy Department standards, he said.

Utilities already store their nuclear waste safely in dry casks alongside their reactors that can remain there for decades, so why move it to Utah, he said.

Private Fuel Storage plans on transporting the casks by railroad and building a 32-mile rail spur through federal lands to its storage site, Martin said. From some reactors, casks may have to be moved by truck to the nearest rail line, she said.

The facility can accept up to 4,000 casks, which look like soda cans that are 19 feet tall and 11 feet in diameter.

The Nuclear Energy Institute said it was pleased with the nuclear commission´s decision, but spokesman Mitchell Singer noted it took eight years for the application to be approved. Utilities have been pressing the federal government for years to live up to its promise to take possession of spent nuclear fuel from their atomic reactors.

“(The facility) does not meet in any way shape or form the federal government´s obligation to take ownership of the nuclear fuel,’ he said. “It´s not a substitute for Yucca Mountain.’

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Friday he opposes shipping nuclear waste to Utah or Nevada.

“Thousands of tons of deadly nuclear material will pass homes, schools, businesses and churches in communities all across the country, and there is simply no way to safely do this,’ he said in a statement. “The safest and smartest solution to solving the nation´s nuclear waste problem is to store waste at the facilities where it is already being produced, as Sen. Ensign (R-Nev.) and I have proposed.’

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Deseret News
September 10, 2005

NRC ruling won't end fight over nuclear waste

By Jerry D. Spangler and Bob Bernick Jr.
Deseret Morning News

WASHINGTON — Utah officials say they are disappointed but not surprised that the Nuclear Regulation Commission ruled Friday to let a consortium of nuclear power utilities store nuclear waste on Goshute Tribal lands in Tooele County.

"I think we gave up on the NRC a long time ago," said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah. "We could see where they were headed."

The timing of the ruling was more surprising. The NRC was set to rule Friday on the last in a long line of appeals by the state, this one over the issue of military over-flights by fighters using the Utah Test and Training Range.

The NRC denied that appeal, as expected, but then, in a 3-1 vote, ordered its staff to go ahead and issue Private Fuel Storage a license to store up to 40,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel in above-ground casks.

"Our decision today concludes this protracted adjudication, which has generated more than 40 published board decisions and more than 30 published commission decisions," the commission wrote in its ruling. "The adjudicatory effort, plus our staff's separate safety and environmental reviews, gives us reasonable assurance that PFS's proposed (storage facility) can be constructed and operated safety."

The ruling does not necessarily open the door for PFS to begin construction. The state will appeal the ruling in federal court and will likely seek an injunction blocking the consortium from proceeding.

"Although this is certainly a setback," said Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., "it does not mean that spent nuclear fuel will be shipped to Utah any time soon. This is a battle that will take several years to fight to completion, but it is also a battle that I intend to win."

Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett agree. Hatch said there are "just too many administrative and legal hurdles to clear for this to ever become a reality," and he pledged to continue pursuing every avenue of opposition.

"It's no secret that the NRC had its own motivations for granting this license, and up until now the PFS plan has enjoyed the protection of the NRC process," Hatch said. "Today's decision opens the proposal up for legal challenges from the state and administrative challenges from the Department of Energy and the White House, and we are still pursuing legislative solutions."

Appeals to come

Not long after the NRC decision, Utah's congressional delegation fired off a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, urging her not to approve the lease agreement between PFS and the Goshutes before all the legal, economic, environmental and safety issues are resolved.

"You should know that the Utah congressional delegation will use every means at our disposal to block the construction of the proposed PFS site at Skull Valley," the delegation wrote.

Huntsman hinted that the state may file a lawsuit in federal court, where it has already lost once, in addition to the appeal. And the state still has several other avenues of opposition. The Bureau of Indian Affairs must also approve the lease between the company and the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes. And the Bureau of Land Management must approve a revision of its management plan for Skull Valley to permit PFS to construct and operate a rail line through BLM lands connecting the PFS site to Union Pacific rail heads.

"The simplest way to stop this rests with the Bush administration," said Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah. "As the trustee for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior Secretary Gale Norton could refuse to sign off on the BIA lease agreement negotiated by the Goshute tribe."

Officials have met repeatedly with Department of Interior officials, who oversee the BIA and BLM, to press their case. But, despite Friday's letter to Norton, having either agency block the proposed nuclear waste dump is considered a long shot.

The best remaining option could be legislation, sponsored by Bishop and now included in the Defense Reauthorization Act that would declare the BLM lands as wilderness, thereby blocking the construction of the rail line. That bill is now in the Senate.

Construction may begin

A spokesperson for the Goshute band could not be reached for comment. The Goshutes contracted with PFS to temporarily store radioactive spent fuel rods in some 4,000 steel-encased concrete casks on their land about 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Goshute leaders have characterized the $3 billion deal as a much needed economic development project for their impoverished people. But the project has become a divisive issue for the band, resulting in a protracted battle for leadership of the band.

Sue Martin, spokesperson for Private Fuel Storage, said Friday that while there is still preliminary work to be done, construction could begin within six months, with fuel rods transported and stored at the site by 2008.

PFS as a condition of the permit taking effect "must provide proof to the NRC that we have enough customers to make the project viable," Martin said. She believes that is the case, but a study must be provided.

That requirement could open up a new avenue of opposition to the state, Bishop admitted. There have been informal talks with partners in the PFS consortium about not participating, and if the state can persuade enough of them not to send their waste to Utah, the state could argue that PFS has not met the economic conditions of the project.

"We have been aware of that option for some time," Bishop said. "We have come to realize that PFS does not represent all of the industry, and it does not project the best image that the industry wants right now."

Martin said PFS should have no problem meeting the economic conditions. "A lot has changed in the industry over the last eight years," she said. "A lot more facilities are close to running out of space in their spent fuel pools and others have on-site storage. But doing a centralized facility is more economical than for each utility to do its own storage."

Concern and anger

The ruling prompted outrage and concern across the country.

"Transporting high-level radioactive waste to Utah is as dangerous as it would be transporting it to Nevada," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada. "Thousands of tons of deadly nuclear material will pass homes, schools, businesses and churches in communities all across the country, and there is simply no way to safely do this."

Reid has been fighting his own battles to keep nuclear waste out of Nevada, and he has been at loggerheads with Utah's two Republican senators, who support the Yucca Mountain permanent disposal site.

But Bishop said the time has come to join forces with Reid.

"He's right on this one," Bishop said. "Harry Reid has been talking about recycling and on-site storage (at nuclear power plants), and that is the real long-term solution for everybody. It solves Nevada's problem and it solves Utah's problem."

Bishop said he would work to persuade fellow House members to come around to Reid's proposed solution. "The time has come to help Harry Reid," he said.

Bishop has allies in Matheson, D-Utah, who has always supported Reid's proposal, and Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah.

"It is increasingly clear that a more prudent policy is to provide opportunities for reprocessing and secure on-site storage," Cannon said. "Our time and resources should be spent developing better ways to use or dispose of nuclear waste than outdated, risky plans such as storage in our western states."

Meanwhile, Jason Groenewold of HEAL Utah, an environmental group fighting PFS's plans, challenged Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch, both R-Utah, to become more active in supporting Bishop's wilderness amendments. "The wilderness amendments are in the House version that has gone to the Senate. But the language is not yet in the Senate version, which should be voted on this month. Why not?"

And while Huntsman has been talking about joining with Western states on a number of cooperative efforts recently, Bennett and Hatch have not joined with Nevada, Idaho and other states in fighting nuclear waste storage options in West, Groenewold said. It might be time for Bennett and Hatch to change their stands and work with Nevada to block a permanent storage facility.

Groenewold said while the NRC acknowledges that a military jet fighter flying over the bombing range in Utah's west desert could crash into the above-ground storage units, the NRC "is completely ignoring the risk."

"There won't be a federal emergency management plan if that happens, or there is some kind of sabotage or attack" against the facility, he said.

"No plan of response? In the wake of the Gulf Coast hurricane and that emergency response, Utahns should utterly be concerned about our health and safety if this happens," Groenewold said. "It could have a devastating effect impact on our state, not to mention the lives of those who live along the transportation corridor," along which the waste would be shipped.

Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Energy Program, based in Washington, D.C., called the NRC decision "a significant mistake made for all the wrong reasons. PFS is an unnecessary, irresponsible and unethical proposal that will do nothing to address the nuclear waste problem this country faces."

"Today's irresponsible and misguided approval of this proposal should illustrate how far the NRC has strayed from its mission of protecting public health and safety," she added.

PFS has had an agreement with Tooele County for several years to pay the county fees in lieu of property taxes. And that could be as much as $250 million over the life of the 40-year project, Martin said. There is no such agreement with the state of Utah "because the state has been fighting the project" instead of trying to work with PFS, Martin said.

E-mail: spang@desnews.com; bbjr@desnews.com

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Salt Lake Tribune
September 10, 2005

Utah vows to keep fighting the nuclear-waste storage

'I intend to win': Utah governor acknowledges the NRC decision is a major setback but refuses to give in

By Judy Fahys and Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune

The federal government Friday signed off on a new home for the nation's nuclear-plant waste - not at the proposed Yucca Mountain dump in Nevada, but in something resembling a parking lot in the Utah desert about an hour's drive from the state's population centers.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a license for Private Fuel Storage LLC to store used nuclear fuel on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation for up to 40 years. Under the license, the $3.1 billion site could hold more than 10 million depleted nuclear rods in 4,000 steel and concrete containers.

The commission's 3-1 decision was historic. The Utah site is the first new high-level nuclear facility licensed in the United States since 1973.

Still, no one expected the commission to reject the private storage proposal, which is billed as temporary storage until the federal government opens its own permanent repository, presumably at Yucca Mountain. Both PFS, a limited liability company formed by eight electric companies, and the storage site's opponents, led by the Utah government, anticipated the commission would approve the project after eight years of legal and technical review that included everything from customer contracts to earthquake worthiness.

"It's been a lot of years, a lot of hearings and a lot of explanation," said John Parkyn, PFS chairman and chief executive officer. "We're glad it turned out this way."

Skull Valley Goshute Chairman Leon Bear did not return a phone request for comment.

PFS says the earliest the site could open for operation is 2008. It first needs to line up paying customers and finalize some government paperwork.

Utah vowed to keep fighting in other forums, such as the federal agencies, the courts and in Congress. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. called the license approval a setback, but insisted keeping spent nuclear fuel out of Utah is "a battle I intend to win."

His chief counsel, Michael S. Lee, promised to appeal the NRC license immediately in federal court.

"The state is fighting tooth-and-nail to kill this thing, and we will kill this thing," he said. "We have to kill it. It's bad policy."

Utah's congressional delegation sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, urging her to use her authority over the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to stop the project. PFS needs a right-of-way grant from BLM for a 32-mile rail spur and the BIA's final approval of a lease with the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes before the project could be built, notes the rare, bipartisan plea.

"PFS has never provided any assurance that [spent nuclear fuel] stored on the reservation will ever be moved, leaving open the possibility that the Band could be permanently saddled with an environmental hazard of gigantic proportions," the lawmakers wrote.

The consortium plans to build 100 acres of soil-and-concrete pads on the 820 acres it has leased on the reservation, which is about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The massive casks would be stored on the pads untethered, surrounded by a chain-link fence just across the two-lane highway to the Skull Valley Goshute village, which is home to about three dozen tribal members.

The private storage could handle nearly all of the radioactive waste that has been generated so far in the nation's half-century of commercial nuclear power. But a U.S. Energy Department estimate maintains that by 2035 Yucca's 77,000-ton capacity will be filled and the nation will have an excess 40,000 tons to deal with.

The NRC made two key votes on the PFS-Goshute project Friday. They took less than two minutes.

First the commission rejected Utah's argument that a dangerous radiation release could result if the casks were struck by a bomb-laden jetfighter. The waste site is planned for a location a few miles from the largest test-bombing and pilot-training range in the mainland U.S.

The jet-crash scenario was the final one of more than 50 objections raised by the state to the PFS plan.

After that, the panel directed NRC staff to finish drafting the license. The dissenting commissioner said the aircraft ruling allowed too much uncertainty in engineering calculations and computer models, given the potential harm to the public.

"The adjudicatory effort, plus our staff's separate safety and environmental reviews, gives us reasonable assurance that PFS' proposed [storage facility] can be constructed and operated safely," the majority said.

Despite the new license, the consortium faces several obstacles before it can begin taking waste.

One is the dramatic change that has occurred in the marketplace for waste storage since the consortium was formed. Originally, 11 companies underwrote the project. Only eight remain, and six of those have developed their own "dry-cask" storage, usually adjacent to their reactors.

Plus, for the new license, PFS must address some questions about the project financing. According to company attorneys, who declined to discuss proprietary details, PFS must contract for enough waste to ensure there is enough to bankroll the project's construction, operation and decommissioning.

PFS also must secure final paperwork needed from the BLM and the BIA - all while beating back the state's legal, lobbying and congressional attacks.

Meanwhile, the 121-member Skull Valley Band continues to struggle with the complications that have come along with the prospect of the waste project. They have been promised hundreds of millions of dollars for leasing their land, but the community has been in disarray ever since the deal was inked in June 1997.

Their leader, who first volunteered Skull Valley land to PFS about a decade ago, recently pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges related to tribal funds. Bear agreed to serve three years probation, pay back taxes, pay IRS fines and reimburse his tribe for duplicate travel payments.

Meanwhile, three Bear critics now face criminal charges in connection with a disputed 2001 tribal election intended to unseat Bear.

The would-be vice chairman is set to be sentenced next week on theft charges. Two other disputed leaders, along with their attorney, face trial the following week on charges they illegally spent tribal funds.

Other members claim in federal court their civil rights are being violated by the allegedly corrupt tribal administration.

"The NRC can now be called the Nuclear Racism Commission," said Kevin Kamps of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a Washington, D.C-interest group opposed to the PFS site. The group attacked the license for dumping the nation's nuclear waste on an impoverished American Indian tribe.

"The Bush administration needs to put an end to this outrage by rejecting the rail line and the lease," he said.

fahys@sltrib.com
gehrke@sltrib.com

Why you should care:

* This is the first time federal regulators have licensed a site that would be used for nuclear power-plant waste independent of a reactor. Utah has no nuclear power plants.

* 67 percent of Utah's 2.2 million residents live within five miles of likely transportation routes for the waste.

* A typical shipment will carry 240 times the radiation of the Hiroshima bomb. The shipment containers have only been tested with computer modeling.

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Salt Lake Tribune
Saturday, September 10, 2005

Demand for facility unclear

Fuel fears: Some observers worry that the Utah facility could replace plans for one in Yucca Mountain, Nev.

By Patty Henetz and Steven Oberbeck
Salt Lake Tribune

Now that they finally have permission to proceed with development, most of the power plant operators who for years pushed to build a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Utah say they no longer need it.

Eight years was just too long to wait.

Since coming together in 1997 to form the Private Fuel Storage consortium to push for construction of a spent nuclear fuel storage site on the Skull Valley Goshute reservation, at least six of the eight original PFS members pursued their own storage options.

"The possibility is pretty remote for at least the foreseeable future that we'll end up sending anything to Utah," said Ray Golden, spokesman for Southern California Edison's San Onofre nuclear power plant. "At the time we joined PFS we didn't have licenses for on-site storage [of spent fuel] but now we do."

Five other members, including Xcel Energy of Minnesota, one of the driving forces behind the consortium, agreed.

"We'll have plenty of our own on-site storage," said Charles Bomberger, general manager of nuclear asset management at Xcel. He noted that since PFS was organized Xcel has expanded the storage capacity at one of its two nuclear power plants and now is in the process of expanding the other.

PFS chief John Parkyn, who hailed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Friday decision to issue PFS a license to build and operate, is unfazed by his members' plans to handle their spent fuel on-site rather than send it to Utah for storage.

Nuclear power plants were never envisioned or designed to be long-term storage sites, Parkyn said. "Now that we're licensed and will soon have the capacity to put [spent] fuel in one place, I suspect that every company in the country will seriously consider using our facility," he said.

American Electric Power may be the first consortium member in line. Spokesman Bill Schalk said the reactor has enough storage capacity at its Bridgeman, Mich., plant for at least the next six years. "But after 2011 we're going to need a place," he said. "At that time the Utah facility could be a viable option for us."

Whether it's feasible for anyone else is a question mark, said Mitch Singer, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade group. "I don't know on the economics, who it's going to be good for, who it's not," he said.

Attitudes about interim storage at nuclear reactors and reprocessing are evolving with more utilities willing to store the material themselves. Meanwhile, calls for federal interim storage continue, including a spending bill proposal from Ohio Rep. David Hobson, who wants DOE to take possession of spent waste and store it until reprocessing technologies mature.

The Senate, led by Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-New Mexico, has rejected that proposal. But Hobson will continue to push it in the House, said spokeswoman Sara Perkins.

Parkyn is manager for nuclear and special projects for Dairyland Power Cooperative in La Crosse, Wis., which owns the shuttered La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor just downstream from the Mississippi River village of Genoa. He would like to move the reactor's 41 tons of spent fuel to Utah.

Parkyn has had to plead his case before a host of public officials, including skeptical members of the Western Governors' Association, who oppose siting any nuclear facility without express consent of governors.

At a recent appearance before the California Energy Commission, Parkyn said waste from decommissioned plants could not be returned if a planned permanent repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., fails to open.

PFS projects the life of the Skull Valley facility at 40 years. However, Parkyn told the California Energy Commission, if the PFS license is not renewed, "the most likely scenario would be that it would be assigned to someone else."

That kind of talk worries some observers, who see PFS becoming a convenient substitute should Yucca collapse - a very real possibility.

"Fortunately or unfortunately for Utah, this has a lot to do with the future of Yucca Mountain," said Bob Halstead, a consultant to the state of Nevada in its fight to stop Yucca. "The future of Yucca Mountain does not look very bright right now. Will PFS somehow be able to capitalize on the delay or failure of Yucca Mountain?"

Even if Yucca opens by its new expected completion date of 2015 - a big if, considering the Energy Department hasn't even filed an application for a license amid multiplying political problems - the DOE has stated flatly it won't accept the welded-shut waste containers PFS will store.

David Zabransky of the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, speaking in May in Salt Lake City to representatives of the Western Governors' Association, said DOE rules on accepting waste from nuclear reactors have been known since the late 1980s. Those rules require that it be "bare fuel," that is, packed to DOE specifications directly from reactors' cooling pools.

DOE's position only adds to concerns that once the waste is here, it won't leave.

Jason Groenewold, director of the anti-nuclear citizens group Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, fears PFS could be a hazardous-waste business incubator, especially as spent fuel reprocessing becomes more economically and politically viable.

"You're hearing [Gov. Jon] Huntsman call for reprocessing, you hear [Sens. Bob] Bennett and [Orrin] Hatch call for reprocessing. That to me is the worst-case scenario," Groenewold said.

New enterprises could include expanded waste hauling business, expansion of Envirocare's low-level waste facility or even reprocessing at Dugway Proving Ground or Deseret Chemical Depot, which may be looking for new missions, he said. "If we're not careful, we're going to be the magnet for all nuclear waste and every harebrained idea related to it."

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Salt Lake Tribune
September 10, 2005

Opposition to N-waste appears greatest in SLC

By Christopher Smart and Heather May
The Salt Lake Tribune

While Salt Lake City residents objected fiercely Friday to a decision allowing high-level radioactive waste in Utah, folks in Tooele County - where spent fuel rods would be stored - were far less concerned.

Likewise, the Skull Valley Goshutes remain divided on the issue. Some members of the small band see nuclear waste storage as key to their economic future. Others say it would poison Mother Earth.

Debate over Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of utilities, temporarily storing 44,000 tons of radioactive waste 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City on the Goshute Reservation was reignited Friday when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the plan.

Some Salt Lakers fear it is asking for calamity to ship the highly radioactive material in steel and concrete casks by rail through the Wasatch Front and other Utah communities.

State Sen. Fred Fife lives near the 900 South Union Pacific line and believes the railroad tracks there would be a likely route for the nuclear waste.

"I'm saddened that extremely dangerous and problematic material would be shipped through our residential neighborhood," he said.

The West Side Sunday Anderson Senior Center sits next to the 900 South railroad line at 900 West.

A regular at the senior center, Harold Jones said the companies that produce the nuclear waste should store it where it's produced.

"You are shipping highly radioactive material through highly populated areas. There's always a very good possibility of an accident. A train wreck, a truck wreck. Let's face it, they happen every day."

The city will need to brush up its plan to deal with radiation, said Michael Stever, emergency program manager.

"It's a low probability of an accident, but the consequences are high," he said. "I don't suppose they are going to give us any more money for planning or response. It comes out of our hide."

But Brock Johnson who lives in Grantsville, not far from where a spur would switch rail cars into Skull Valley, says there is not much to worry about.

"If people knew how safe it was in those casks, I don't think there would be a problem," he said. "I think it will be safe enough out there."

Tooele County residents are used to having such things in their backyard, said Frank Liddiard, owner of Al & Lid's Furniture and Appliance in Tooele.

"I don't know much about it, but I could care less," he said. "We have been destroying chemical weapons out here for years."

The Tooele City Council has taken no position on the PFS proposal, according to Mayor Charlie Roberts.

"Personally, I don't like it," he said. "My concern is the constant negative headlines it brings to the community."

Tooele County Commissioner Dennis Rockwell, who signed a mitigation contract with PFS more than six years ago, said the depot could bring up to $300 million to county coffers.

"We would have been happy if it had gone on through to Yucca Mountain," he said, speaking of the proposed, but stalled, permanent underground nuclear-fuel depository in Nevada. "But if there is going to be a temporary site in Tooele, we have to be prepared to make the best of it."

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, though, called the decision horrendous, putting "the safety and security of people throughout this region at tremendous risk potentially for tens of thousands of years."

Despite the NRC's approval, some Goshutes continue to fight the agreement between PFS and tribal Chairman Leon Bear, who is under federal indictment on tax and fraud charges.

"It's far from over," said Margene Bullcreek. "Since Mr. Bear's indictment, a lot of people don't think he should be in that position to sign contracts."

She and other members of the Skull Valley band are pressing their case in court and are calling for new tribal elections.

"Mr. Bear is thinking only of his own greed," she said noting that most American Indians are opposed to storing such poisons on their land.

"We only have one air, one water and one Mother Earth," she said.

But Mary Allen, who along with Bear signed the contract with PFS, said that although new tribal elections should be held, the spent fuel rods eventually would be stored at the Skull Valley reservation.

"A majority [of Goshutes] still want it," she said. "We've had so much poverty. The people deserve to get this."

csmart@sltrib.com
hmay@sltrib.com

---------------------------

Salt Lake Tribune
September 10, 2005

State of irony: Waste storage plan still has problems

Skull Valley

Even with the approval given Friday by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, it is unlikely that the storage facility planned for Utah's Skull Valley will be receiving any nuclear waste before 2008.

Until then, Utah will merely radiate irony.

That's the irony of elected leaders who normally score points by decrying the interference of judges and federal bureaucrats now leaving no lawyer unturned in their search for a judge or a bureaucrat to interfere with the plans of the Skull Valley Goshute Indians and their business partners at Private Fuel Storage.

A deeper irony, perhaps, is the possibility that it may all have been for naught. The utilities that were supposed to be paying members of PFS, having grown accustomed to holding onto their own spent fuel rods, are now suggesting that they may just maintain the status quo.

NRC members Friday formally brushed aside state concerns about the possible crash of a Hill Air Force Base jet into the above-ground storage facility and granted their approval. Permission must also come from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which retains the paternal role of approving leases of tribal lands, and the Bureau of Land Management, which must sign off on the rail spur that would have to pass over federal land.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and other officials have reiterated their resolve to block the plan. And they have some serious objections.

Prime among them is the fact that, while Skull Valley is envisioned as a temporary lay-over for 44,000 tons of spent power plant fuel, the endless delays to the supposedly permanent repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain suggest that PFS may prove "temporary" only on a geologic time scale.

Also unclear is whether the devices and plans for transporting and storing the waste have been properly designed and whether any central storage facility is really better than keeping it all at the power plants that created it.

That storage-in-place option, together with hopes that we could learn to reprocess the waste so we don't have to keep it for thousands of dangerous years, is finally beginning to unite Utah's Skull Valley skeptics and Nevada's Yucca Mountain opponents.

Such an alliance is needed if better solutions to the nuclear waste problem are to be found. And, given the increasing need for energy that doesn't emit greenhouse gases and soot, solutions must be found.

---------------------------

Washington Post
September 10, 2005

Storage Plan Approved for Nuclear Waste

Government Gives Go-Ahead for Facility on Native American Land in Utah

By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer

The federal government yesterday approved a $3.1 billion plan by a private corporation to store tens of thousands of tons of highlyradioactive nuclear waste on a Native American reservation in Utah, potentially removing a major obstacle to the nuclear industry's ambitions for renewed growth.

The move paves the way for the industry to circumvent a lengthy political stalemate over a proposed public nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada and could rid dozens of overcrowded nuclear plants around the country of the need to store radioactive products that will remain dangerous for centuries.

Environmental groups and Utah officials said the decision raised the risk of an accident or a deliberate attack, and promised to challenge it in court. One faction of the deeply divided Skull Valley Band of Goshutes, which has agreed to host the facility, said the nuclear waste would debase sacred ground and destroy tribal culture.

The decision by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to grant a license for the facility cemented a pact made nearly a decade ago between strange bedfellows: utility behemoths that wanted to get tons of radioactive waste off their hands and an obscure Native American tribe that was willing to offer its land in exchange for a still-undisclosed sum of money.

While public waste storage plans such as Yucca Mountain have been plagued by political maneuvering and not-in-my-back yard fights in Congress, Private Fuel Storage, the company that will build the new facility, successfully argued that its agreement was between a private corporation and a sovereign tribe and therefore not subject to the same degree of public review. Environmental groups and the state of Utah have tried repeatedly to intervene but have failed.

"Are you better off having a single site that can be looked after or 72 individual sites, some of which may be on the banks of a great lake or a river or upstream of a major city?" asked Jay Silberg, a Washington lawyer for Private Fuel Storage.

The terms of the company's arrangement with the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians have not been disclosed. Silberg said that was proprietary business information.

"If I were storing canisters of rock for someone else, you would not necessarily have the right to get that information," he said. Storing nuclear waste is no different except when it comes to safety issues, he added, and those have involved lengthy public deliberations and thousands of pages of documents.

Silberg said the site eventually could hold as much as 40,000 tons of spent fuel, the radioactive byproduct of nuclear power plants. The waste would sit in powerfully built casks on concrete pads, similar to the way it currently is stored at many of the nation's 103 plants. The earliest the site could become operational would be 2007, Silberg said.

David McIntyre, an NRC spokesman, estimated that plants around the country have about 52,000 tons of spent fuel, with about 10,000 of those tons already sealed in casks.

Opponents immediately signaled that the fight was not over. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. (R) promised a court challenge. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said the plan would be "dead on arrival." Utah has no nuclear plants of its own and holds no nuclear waste.

Denise Chancellor, Utah's assistant attorney general, who has made the legal case against the facility, said there was a serious risk that an F-16 fighter from the nearby Hill Air Force Base could crash at the site, with catastrophic consequences. She questioned the objectivity of NRC commissioners in ordering that a license be granted.

---------------------------

Public Citizen
September 09, 2005

Approval of Private Fuel Storage Means Dangerous and Unnecessary Storage of Highly Radioactive Waste in Utah

Statement of Wenonah Hauter, Director, Public Citizen´s Energy Program

Today´s decision by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to approve a “temporary’ high-level radioactive waste storage site, Private Fuel Storage (PFS), on Native American land in Utah, is a significant mistake, made for all the wrong reasons. PFS is an unnecessary, irresponsible and unethical proposal that will do nothing to address the nuclear waste problem this country faces.

The primary motivation for PFS is the nuclear industry´s need for a publicly presentable waste solution that it can use in its push for a “nuclear renaissance.’ Despite what has been claimed, PFS will not consolidate waste in one “safe and secure’ place. As long as we continue to operate nuclear reactors, waste will always remain near cities and communities around the country, because irradiated fuel must be stored on-site for at least five years to allow it to cool before it can be transported.

In addition, PFS will mean the transportation of waste through densely populated urban and suburban areas across the country. The project will rush transportation forward and increase the number of times waste is moved. Even if all possible precautions are taken, and they have not been, the shipping of nuclear waste is a dangerous undertaking and should be absolutely minimized. Accidents of some nature are unavoidable.

PFS will also bring risks to Utah. The dump is not planned for permanent storage and will simply place the waste storage containers on concrete pads above ground. There will be no waste repacking facility on-site, as there are presently at reactors, to deal with accidents or problems. The “temporary’ nature of PFS is also questionable, as it is dependent on the opening of Yucca Mountain, which continues to have significant problems and may never open.

Today´s irresponsible and misguided approval of this proposal should illustrate how far the NRC has strayed from its mission of protecting public health and safety.

---------------------------

La Crosse Tribune
September 10, 2005

NRC clears way to send Dairyland's spent nuclear fuel to Skull Valley, Utah

By Steve Cahalan
La Crosse Tribune and The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Dairyland Power Cooperative officials were pleased by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's vote Friday to approve a private company's plan to build a nuclear waste storage site on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah, moving the proposal a crucial step closer to fruition.

But Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman immediately vowed to challenge the decision in the courts, and state officials promised to fight the facility using all possible options. The state contends the project would be too dangerous.

Private Fuel Storage, a group of utilities that includes La Crosse-based Dairyland, wants to store about 40,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel at the site 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. That includes about 40 tons of spent fuel from Dairyland's closed nuclear reactor in Genoa, Wis.

Until the spent fuel is removed, Dairyland cannot fully decommission the Genoa facility, which it shut down in 1987. The federal government built Dairyland's nuclear plant, known as the La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor, in 1967.

Dairyland officials say maintaining the closed facility until the spent fuel can be moved costs Dairyland more than $5.5 million annually.

The earliest the Utah facility is expected to be operational is 2008, said John Parkyn, chairman and CEO of Private Fuel Storage as well as Dairyland's manager of nuclear and special projects. It's too soon to predict whether Dairyland's spent nuclear fuel will be shipped there in 2008, he said.

Utah officials had argued the facility would be too close to a major population center and that the risk of a jet fighter from Hill Air Force Base crashing into the storage casks was too great.

But commissioners dismissed the argument, taking a two-pronged vote. First, they affirmed an earlier ruling that the waste containers wouldn't release an unacceptable amount of radiation if a jet crashed into them. Then they voted 3-1 to authorize the NRC staff to issue a license to construct and operate the site.

The license will be ready after paperwork is completed, said NRC spokesman Eliot Brenner.

Huntsman said in a statement that he was "deeply disappointed" in the NRC decision. In addition to a court appeal, another option for the state could be to designate a wilderness area to block construction of a rail spur to the site.

"This is a reckless, dangerous proposal, and I am pulling out all the stops to make sure this waste never makes a home in Utah," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in a statement.

Private Fuel Storage's facility would be a temporary dump pending the opening of a national nuclear waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the senate minority leader, has proposed storing nuclear waste at the facilities where it is produced — an alternative to both the Private Fuel Storage site and Yucca Mountain.

An impoverished tribe, the Goshutes had been looking for ways to make money and eventually teamed with Private Fuel Storage to propose the station.

Under their plan, the waste would be kept aboveground in 4,000 steel casks, which can hold up to 10 tons of spent fuel each. The casks would be shielded in an overpack of two steel shells encasing a wall of concrete more than 2 feet thick.

There are still more regulatory hurdles before construction can begin.

---------------------------

Las Vegas SUN
September 09, 2005

Nuclear industry exec picked to head Yucca Mountain project

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A nuclear industry executive from Pennsylvania has been picked to direct plans for a national nuclear waste repository in Nevada.

Edward "Ward" Sproat was named Thursday by President Bush to head the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, which oversees development of the Yucca Mountain project and a system to transport nuclear waste to the site from commercial power reactors and federal plants.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Sproat will be expected to reinvigorate a program where recent technical and legal setbacks have pushed back a projected opening from 2010 to 2012 or later.

The Yucca project has been headed by interim leaders since Margaret Chu resigned as director in February.

Sproat is managing partner of a consulting firm, McNeil, Sproat & Associates, in Berwyn, Pa. He has held executive posts at Exelon Corp., the nation's largest nuclear operator, and PECO Energy, the largest utility in Pennsylvania.

Industry officials said Sproat is well known as the lead negotiator in a nuclear waste settlement that Exelon completed with DOE in 2004. DOE agreed to pay Exelon for keeping used nuclear fuel at its power reactors until the Yucca repository could be opened about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

In turn, Exelon agreed to drop lawsuits charging DOE with breach of contract for failing to meet a 1998 deadline to have a repository ready to accept spent fuel.

The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry trade association, applauded the nomination, saying Sproat's "nuclear project managerial experience should serve him well in his new position."

"We expect the project will continue to move forward in the licensing process under Ward Sproat's leadership," NEI spokeswoman Trish Conrad said.

Nevada officials who monitor the Yucca project said they knew little of the nominee.

Bob Loux, who coordinates the state's official opposition, said it matters little who directs Yucca Mountain day by day because it has support from the nuclear industry and higher-ups in the Bush administration.

"I think the die is cast relative to Yucca Mountain," Loux said, adding, "You can't alter the fact they have a bad site, and that is not going to change.

"On the other hand," Loux continued, "if he is coming at it from the experience of negotiating with DOE, maybe that is an indicator he is going to move the department to the direction of settling with the utilities."

The nomination will be considered by the Energy Committee before going to the Senate itself.

"Any nominee will face tough questions moving through the hearing process," said Tessa Hafen, spokeswoman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a repository critic who closely watches the project.

Bush and Congress picked the Yucca site in 2002 as the site to bury 77,000 tons of the nation's most radioactive commercial, industrial and military waste now stored at sites in 39 states. Funding and problems including a controversy over possible paperwork fraud on the project have delayed the opening date.

Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com

---------------------------

Las Vegas SUN
September 09, 2005

Yucca chief choice: 'John Q. Public'

White House nominee says he doesn't know details of dump plan

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

WASHINGTON -- The White House pick to head the Yucca Mountain project admits he doesn't know many of the details about the Energy Department's plan to store nuclear waste in Nevada, but he knows the nuclear waste problem needs to be solved.

The White House on Thursday nominated Edward F. Sproat III of Berwyn, Pa., to head the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. The office oversees the Energy Department's plan to store 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste inside Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Margaret Chu, who headed the office for three years, resigned in February.

In an interview with the Sun on Thursday, Sproat, 53, called himself "John Q. Public" on his overall perception and knowledge of Yucca. He knows getting the license application through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is the next big step.

"I am hoping at some point I will get a briefing book to be better prepared for the details," Sproat said. "Hopefully, I can get educated quickly."

He said he knows the program faces a number of challenges, but he has not had the opportunity to talk with department officials at great length on specifics yet. He has not met with President Bush or Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.

"All my information is based on what I read on the Web or in the press right now," said Sproat, who added later that he set his Google News Alert e-mails to include Yucca-related headlines.

If confirmed by the Senate, Sproat would inherit a complicated program tainted with two decades of political, legal and scientific bickering.

Nevada officials and numerous environmental groups strongly oppose storing nuclear waste at Yucca, while the nuclear industry wants the government to take used fuel off its hands as it was promised.

Sproat said if he lived in Nevada, he would have a lot of concerns on how the waste was going to be stored in the state and moved there.

"I think the people of Nevada have every right to understand that and have this process be as transparent as it can be," Sproat said.

Yucca has been plagued by budgetary and legal problems. Congress has cut funding in recent years. Nevada has sued on several issues and is threatening to sue over a newly revised radiation standard recently released by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Other lawsuits are pending, including a suit filed by the state last week against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over a Yucca-related agency rule.

And the Energy Department is still investigating Yucca worker e-mails that suggest quality assurance documents were falsified.

"There are some pretty blatant DOE absurdities going on," said anti-Yucca activist Kevin Kamps, a nuclear waste specialist at Nuclear Information and Resource Service. "The whole program is pretty outrageous, and it will be hard for it to stand up in court."

Staffers for Nevada lawmakers were researching Sproat's background Thursday.

Sproat can be assured of tough questioning as he makes his way through the hearing process, said Tessa Hafen, spokeswoman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Being Yucca Mountain chief is not an enviable job, said Jack Finn, spokesman for Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.

"He's going to be looking after a program that has been fraught with delay, faulty science, mismanagement and misdirection," Finn said.

Sproat has a long background in the nuclear industry, and as he told former colleagues he was considering the job, he acknowledged that "several said 'are you nuts?' "

But overall, he said, "Everybody in the industry said this issue of spent fuel needs to be resolved."

He said the position was "something I really wanted to try and go after" because he believes the future of nuclear power is important to the country.

Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman Mitch Singer said Sproat is "well-respected" in the industry.

"We certainly believe his leadership will be good," said Singer, noting he would be joining the project "at an important time."

Sproat is now a managing partner with McNeill, Sproat and Associates, a consulting firm in Pennsylvania he started in 2003 with Corbin McNeill, the former co-chief executive officer of Exelon, the country's largest nuclear power generator.

They worked to get a new type of nuclear power plant built at a national laboratory in Idaho in a previous version of the energy bill that failed. Sproat said he would dissolve the firm if confirmed for the position.

Prior to starting the firm, Sproat spent 2002 in South Africa as chief operating officer of Pebble Bed Modular Reactor.

Exelon invested $7.5 million in a joint venture with three South African companies to develop the new type of nuclear reactor that would use billiard-ball sized spheres containing nuclear material versus the long fuel rod used today. The reactor design is supposed to be safer than the traditional reactor and the fuel is supposed to be insoluble in water. Exelon eventually withdrew from the project.

Sproat was also involved with the 2000 settlement between PECO and the Energy Department over the government's failure to take nuclear waste as promised in 1998.

The agreement allowed PECO, which is now Exelon, to reduce payments into the Nuclear Waste Fund for all costs associated with keeping spent fuel at its Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.

Nevada officials often cite what it has deemed "the PECO alternative" as an example of what the government should do with nuclear companies still storing waste as opposed to moving it to the state.

Sproat was Exelon's vice president of international projects from April 2001 to January 2003. He led Exelon's interest in developing the pebble bed reactors in the United States, but the company later withdrew the idea.

From 1994 to 2001, Sproat held various positions at PECO Nuclear, including director of maintenance, director of engineering and director of strategic programs. PECO merged with Exelon in October 2000.

It's no surprise the Bush administration chose a nominee from the nuclear industry, said Public Citizen analyst Michele Boyd. Boyd asked: Why can't the Bush administration choose someone for the job who has an open mind about the scientific work that has been conducted at Yucca?

"Exelon clearly has a stake in getting Yucca Mountain open," Boyd said. "Yucca is the key for them, and it's clearly a bad site."

Exelon has been an industry leader in advocating Yucca Mountain. Exelon officials have said that construction of new U.S. reactors relies in part on continued progress on Yucca.

"My company is committed to supporting the Yucca Mountain solution," Exelon chairman and CEO John Rowe told the Sun last December.

---------------------------

Las Vegas SUN
September 09, 2005

Porter is expecting more Yucca documents to use in e-mail probe

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

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., expects another set of documents from the Energy Department today to use in his investigation of government worker e-mails that insinuate poor management and possible falsified information at the Yucca Mountain project.

It's unclear what documents Porter's committee will receive. The Energy Department would only say it continues to work with the committee and Porter staff members say they may be getting documents to comply with the subpoena issued in July.

Porter, R-Nev., is chairman of the House Federal Workforce and Agency Organization subcommittee that is conducting an investigation into the alleged employee fraud and mismanagement of the Energy Department's plan to store nuclear waste inside Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Energy Department announced in March that it discovered e-mails written by U.S Geological Survey employees working on water flows studies, a key component in determining the site's safety. The messages depict the employees' frustration with the department and procedures they had to follow. The inspectors general of the Energy and Interior departments also are conducting investigations.

House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., subpoenaed a list of 10 sets of documents from the Energy Department in July for Porter's investigation.

The department turned over 1,652 pages to the committee by the July 22 deadline but left out the draft license application and several other documents listed in the subpoena, including the project's draft license application.

Davis also subpoenaed USGS scientist Joe Hevesi to appear before Porter's subcommittee. Hevesi insisted at a hearing in June that he did not falsify any scientific information.

---------------------------

Las Vegas SUN
September 09, 2005

DOE turns over more documents in Yucca probe

By Erica Werner
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Energy Department said it turned over more than 700 pages of additional documents Friday subpoenaed by a congressional panel investigating allegations of paperwork fraud on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump project in Nevada.

But a spokesman for Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., who is pursuing the investigation, said the department still has not handed over some key items the panel is seeking. Among them: a draft of the license application the department will submit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to get permission to open the dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"The stuff that we got today, it wasn't a whole lot. We know they have a lot more they haven't given us," said Chad Bungard, deputy staff director and chief counsel for the congressional panel Porter chairs.

Energy Department spokesman Craig Stevens said the department has sought to respond to the House Government Reform Committee subpoena.

"As more information is assembled that is responsive to the request, we will provide it," Stevens said.

Porter's panel, a subcommittee of the Government Reform Committee, is investigating e-mails written between 1998 and 2000 by government scientists suggesting they made up details of their work on Yucca and kept two sets of books, one for themselves and one to satisfy quality-assurance officials.

In July, when the Energy Department declined to turn over papers he requested, Porter had them subpoenaed.

The Energy Department turned over one large batch of papers later in July. Friday's batch was the second. Stevens said the new documents included glossaries and organizational charts.

Porter's probe has been quiet during the August congressional recess, but Bungard said another hearing would be scheduled soon.

---------------------------

Las Vegas SUN
September 09, 2005

Reid sets new partisan tone

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

WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid this week led an aggressive multi-pronged attack on Republicans, with the Bush administration bearing the brunt for its response to Hurricane Katrina.

As lawmakers swept back into Washington for their first week back after an August recess, the political mood was noticeably more partisan and bitter than it was following the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001.

Reid, D-Nev., on Thursday, as he had done earlier in the week, lashed out at the Federal Emergency Management Agency for failing the residents of the Gulf Coast. He again called for an independent investigation -- separate from probes being planned by the White House.

"The administration will not be investigating itself," Reid said.

At a press conference Reid questioned whether FEMA should even be managing the disaster relief, saying the additional $51.8 billion Congress approved Thursday -- most of it for FEMA -- might be better spent in the hands of a new entity modeled on the Tennessee Valley Authority.

"After everything that has happened with FEMA, is there anyone -- anyone -- who believes that we should continue to let the money go to FEMA and be distributed by them?" Reid asked.

Reid this week also fired off a letter to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, listing 13 issues her panel should investigate, including:

Bush administration "inaction" to flood warnings in New Orleans

Administration budget cuts that potentially could have prevented or alleviated damage

FEMA's rejection of assistance from states and the private sector

A Defense Department delay in sending soldiers from an Army base in Fort Polk, La.

Charges that the administration attempted to shift blame from federal agencies

Whether the vacations of Bush and key officials who were away from Washington may have affected the response time

Failure to implement the National Response Plan.

Failure to cut through red tape

Lack of interoperable emergency radio systems that would have allowed various emergency responders to immediately communicate and coordinate with each other, which is one of the problems that was highlighted during the response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, four years ago.

Republicans countered that Democratic leaders were playing politics with the disaster.

"While countless Americans are pulling together to lend a helping hand, (House Democratic Leader) Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are pointing fingers in a shameless effort to tear us apart," Republican Party chief Ken Mehlman said in a statement.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan bristled at Reid's "personal attacks," especially his suggestion that the president's vacation could have affected the response. The White House is "focused on bringing everybody together to help the people in the region. And the president continues to act to make sure that we're addressing the ongoing problems," McClellan said.

Conservative syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, writing today, said Congress also deserves some blame and is "playing holier-than-thou."

"Perhaps it might ask itself who created the Department of Homeland Security in the first place. The congressional response to all crisis is the same -- rearrange the bureaucratic boxes, but be sure to add one extra layer," he wrote.

But Reid did not stop with the letter. On Thursday he and other Senate Democrats introduced their version of a Katrina relief bill, saying Republican leaders in Washington had been dragging their feet. The bill seeks to cut red tape and speed health care, housing, educational and other benefits to hurricane victims. For example, the bill aims to provide victims with emergency housing vouchers and seeks to get Medicaid payments to victims wherever they are now. It offers victims a moratorium of 180 days on federal loans.

"Just throwing money isn't the answer," Reid said.

Earlier this week, Reid and other top Democrats also requested that GOP Senate and budget committee leaders reconsider this year's budget resolution, a framework that Reid said aims to cut taxes for the wealthy and cuts programs for the poor, including hurricane victims. It could translate to cuts in Medicaid, food stamps, and student loans that potentially could hurt Katrina survivors, the Democratic leaders said.

Nothing could be further from the truth, said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. He argued that tax cuts stimulate the economy. He said the budget framework calls for a 1 percent cut in Medicaid growth over five years and that federal savings will not come until year two -- so there will be no immediate impact.

---------------------------

Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 09, 2005

NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY: Bush picks Sproat for Yucca post

Nominee is nuclear industry veteran

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Edward "Ward" Sproat, a nuclear industry executive from Pennsylvania, was nominated Thursday by President Bush to lead the Yucca Mountain Project.

Sproat was named director of the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, which oversees development of an underground repository in Nevada and a system to transport nuclear waste to the site from commercial power reactors and federal plants.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Sproat will be charged with reinvigorating a program buffeted by technical and legal setbacks that have caused a projected repository opening to be delayed into the next decade.

The Yucca project has been headed by interim leaders since Margaret Chu resigned as director in February.

Sproat is managing partner of a consulting firm, McNeil, Sproat & Associates, based in Berwyn, Pa. He has held executive posts at Exelon Corp., the nation's largest nuclear operator, and PECO Energy, the largest utility in Pennsylvania.

Industry officials said Sproat is well known as the lead negotiator in a nuclear waste settlement that Exelon completed with DOE in 2004. DOE agreed to pay Exelon for keeping used nuclear fuel at its power reactors until a Yucca repository could be opened about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

In turn, Exelon agreed to drop lawsuits charging DOE with breach of contract for failing to meet a 1998 deadline to have a repository ready to accept spent fuel.

Sproat in 2002 also was chief operating officer of a venture in South Africa to develop an advanced Pebble Bed Modular Reactor.

The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry trade association, applauded the nomination, saying Sproat's "nuclear project managerial experience should serve him well in his new position."

"We expect the project will continue to move forward in the licensing process under Ward Sproat's leadership," NEI spokeswoman Trish Conrad said.

Nevada officials who monitor the Yucca project said they knew little of the nominee.

Bob Loux, who coordinates the state's official opposition, said it matters little who directs Yucca Mountain day by day because it has support from the nuclear industry and higher-ups in the Bush administration.

"I think the die is cast relative to Yucca Mountain," Loux said, adding, "You can't alter the fact they have a bad site, and that is not going to change.

"On the other hand," Loux continued, "if he is coming at it from the experience of negotiating with DOE, maybe that is an indicator he is going to move the department to the direction of settling with the utilities."

The nomination will be considered by the Energy Committee before going to the Senate itself.

"Any nominee will face tough questions moving through the hearing process," said Tessa Hafen, spokeswoman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a repository critic who closely watches the project.

Stephens Washington Bureau writer Elizabeth Piet contributed to this report.

---------------------------

North Lake Tahoe Bonanza
September 09, 2005

Unrest over Yucca Mountain

Bonanza News Service

Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval says a 1990 rule used to license nuclear power plants must be changed because it presumes Yucca Mountain will be licensed as a waste dump.

The state sued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week demanding the so-called "Waste Confidence Rule" be changed.

The rule states that the NRC can continue to license new nuclear power plants because a geologic repository to dispose of radioactive waste will be available by 2025.

"Today, the only way NRC can meet its requirement that a repository will be available by 2025 is to presume it will give Yucca a license," he said. "For an ostensibly impartial regulator to make that prejudgment is simply unlawful. Frankly, it's also appalling public policy."

The state petitioned NRC to change the rule in March but was rejected in August. Sandoval said that is the first time in NRC history a rulemaking petition was rejected without public comment.

"They're bending over backwards to ram this project forward and we're confident the court will see through it," he said.

Yucca Mountain, located 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the proposed site of a repository to hold the nation's nuclear waste.

The U.S. Department of Energy is currently trying to use the mountain to bury 77,000 tons of radioactive waste.

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Pahrump Valley Times
September 9, 2005

Science, tech park back on fast track

By Phillip Gomez
PVT

Last summer the Nye County Board of Commissioners appropriated $58,000 to layout streets and complete the infrastructure foundation for the Yucca Mountain-related Amargosa Valley Science and Technology Park at Lathrop Wells, near the intersection of Nevada Highway 373 and U.S. Highway 95.

The commission is speculating that the science park will attract technical contractors with the Department of Energy, wanting to be located near the entrance to the Yucca Mountain Repository. Last year the county had acquired federal grant money for economic development and budgeted $920,000 on the project; the $58,000 came out of Nye County's pocket for an estimated two weeks of work to drill a well, lay the roadbeds and provide a pump house and water tanks for fire protection.

Nye County has more than $1 million of county funds and in-kind services wrapped up in the science and technology park together with federal funding obtained through the U.S. Economic Development Administration. The 61-acre project is modeled on the business, science and technology park in Hanford, Wash., which houses the Department of Energy's contractors and their subs.

On Tuesday MaryEllen Giampaoli, a Nye County consultant, told the commissioners that the Amargosa Valley Science and Technology Project, after more than a year of inactivity, was stalled due to a lack of funding. Completing the land acquisition is the first of three job elements defined for the project. The estimated budget for just that element is pegged at $555,000.

Next comes the water well, the water's treatment and distribution. The county must demonstrate to the state that its potable water meets federal and state drinking standards. The estimated budget for this element is $390,000.

Finally, wastewater management and its treatment, including plans for industrial wastewater treatment facilities, must pass inspection of the state's environmental protection division. The estimated cost is $55,000.

Giampaoli said she was requesting that formal notice be provided to the Bureau of Land Management that Nye County wanted to acquire 350 acres of land for the facility.

Upon receipt of congressionally earmarked funding, Giampaoli also requested that the county go out to bid for a new water well, or fix the existing well, which apparently has not been functioning for more than a year.

Commission Chairwoman Candice Trummell said it was the third time a well had been drilled at the site, but Giampaoli said the well had never been re-drilled. The county holds title to 80 acre-feet of water rights, she said, and intends to complete the work when the funding arrives.

Giampaoli seemed to think that a new well would be needed, in which 100 gallons of water per minute would be produced. The old well should be plugged and abandoned if its condition so indicated, she said. Commissioner Gary Hollis said he would like to see a new well drilled to serve the site.

No electricity, sewer or water is yet available at the remote site, according to reports.

Later in the meeting, David Swanson, the acting director of the county's nuclear waste repository project office, and Cash Jaszczak, a county-hired assistant who does consulting work for the department, came forward to ask for approval of constructing 4,000 square feet of office space for up to six Energy Department officials in the Lathrop Wells area.

The capital costs of the project would be recoverable in a lease agreement over a five-year period, Jaszczak said, indicating that the building would be a modular, prefabricated one the county would purchase and set up within 120 days, as it plans for the district attorney's and other county offices. The Lathrop Wells building would contain two offices and cubicles, a reception area, a break room with kitchen facilities, two bathrooms, a reading room, a conference room with space for up to 50 people and parking space for up to 20 vehicles.

The purpose of the building is to demonstrate that Nye County, in hosting the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, "wants to be a partner" with the government in developing the site and its ancillary business needs.

Nye County is purportedly aiming to get the Department of Energy to locate research and development facilities within its boundaries, rather than contract with remote national laboratories or university complexes, as was done when the Nevada Test Site was active.

County officials working closely with the Department of Energy want to establish a consulting and cooperative relationship with DOE and its contractors through encouragement of more than just field operations. The goal is to obtain long-term commitments for radioactive waste managers to reside in Nye County and become involved in its communities' activities, thus sharing the safety concerns of other county residents for the repository's successful and safe operation.

The commissioners at first objected to the idea of putting the building up so quickly, most feeling it could not be done in that short a period.

"I don't want to see us slap something up that we're going to have to rebuild in a couple of years, perhaps," said Trummell. She suggested just telling the Energy officials "to go find some place to rent."

Jaszczak said the modular would not be unlike any residential subdivision office in Pahrump, where "the first building you ... see is a sales trailer. It would be the first step in moving toward a partnership with DOE and to demonstrate that we can do something if we are asked."

"We haven't been asked to do anything," responded Trummell. The effort would be unsolicited, she said.

"These are the parameters they are looking for," said Jaszczak, relaying from talks informally conducted with DOE officials that the modular should be equipped with telephone and broadband connectivity, potable water, waste disposal holding tanks and be wheelchair accessible. The project would "start a process" of cooperative outreach, Jaszczak said.

The expected cost of the modular project was not reported.

The request was finally tabled in order for Hollis, Trummell and Bob Jones, in charge of the county's buildings and grounds, to meet with Yucca Mountain Deputy Director W. John Arthur III to determine the next course of action.

In proposing a request for qualifications, Swanson and Jaszczak next sought an individual or firm to assist the department in preparing and printing brochures, educational materials, policy papers and other documents, which after some discussion the board unanimously approved. But a similar request for hiring another consultant to assist the department in gathering statistical information was turned down by the board.

The addition to the department's workforce would have aided in strengthening the county's position in negotiations with the DOE over upcoming PETT funding next spring, Jaszczak said.

PETT is the $10 million approximate annual Payments Equal To Taxes that DOE pays Nye County for its facility on county land.

"I think we're in violent disagreement as to what needs to be done here," said Jaszczak, as it appeared the position would not be funded. "You're not getting your fair share. The value of Yucca Mountain is reflected by the county's fiscal value."

The commissioners also agreed to join with Eureka and Lander counties, at a cost of $10,000, for a second year, $75,000 cooperative study of groundwater, to include the Monitor Valley in northern Nye County. The U.S. Geological Survey is again funding the study at a 50-percent match, or $75,000.

A Monday morning workshop was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. to work out the details of other issues related to Yucca Mountain and the county's concerns in its development.

---------------------------

Salt Lake Tribune
September 09, 2005

NRC clears way for nuclear fuel storage in Skull Valley

Jennifer Talhelm
The Associated Press
Salt Lake Tribune

WASHINGTON - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday authorized a license to build a private nuclear waste storage site on the Skull Valley Goshutes Indian Reservation.

Private Fuel Storage, a group of utilities, wants to store 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel at the site, 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

In a meeting that lasted about two minutes, commissioners took a two-pronged vote. First, they affirmed an earlier ruling that containers for the waste wouldn't release an unacceptable amount of radiation if a jet fighter crashed into them. Then they authorized the NRC staff to issue a license to construct and operate the storage site.

The license will be ready after paperwork is completed, said NRC spokesman Eliot Brenner. The timing was not immediately clear.

"I'm very happy," said Paul Gaukler, an attorney who has represented Private Fuel Storage in its eight-year quest to build the waste facility. "People can be assured it's a safe facility. The issue has been fully aired and resolved. Thank goodness - finally."

Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett were not immediately available for comment, nor was anyone from the Utah governor's office in Salt Lake City immediately available.

Utah politicians have made numerous attempts to block construction of the storage site, including a last-minute unsuccessful attempt in July to amend the national energy bill to require a terrorism threat study before the NRC could grant a license. The effort failed when Nevada Sen. Harry Reid objected.

State officials have said they would fight the license in court if necessary.

An impoverished tribe, the Goshutes had been looking for ways to make money and eventually teamed with Private Fuel Storage to propose the station.

Private Fuel Storage's facility would be a temporary dump pending the opening of a national repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

---------------------------

Las Vegas SUN
September 09, 2005

License for nuke storage site OK'd

Critics say plan will speed Yucca

By Benjamin Grove and Suzanne Struglinski
<grove@lasvegassun.com>, <suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Utah lost an important battle today in its effort to keep a temporary nuclear waste dump out of its borders, and that could be a blow to Nevada's fight against Yucca Mountain.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted 3-1 to authorize a license to Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of nuclear power plant utilities, for a temporary high-level waste storage site planned on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian reservation, 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

The proposed above-ground site would store up to 4,000 steel storage containers, each of which could hold up to 10 tons of spent nuclear fuel rods.

The commission's decision concluded an eight-year review of PFS's license application.

"The adjudicatory effort, plus our staff's separate safety and environmental reviews, gives us reasonable assurance that PFS's proposed storage facility can be constructed and operated safely," the commission said in its decision.

The state of Utah plans to appeal the decision within 60 days to the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, said Jim Soper, state assistant attorney general.

The nuclear industry views the Goshute site as complementary to the planned Yucca Mountain repository for nuclear waste storage, not a substitution for it.

Private Fuel Storage officials said today's announcement was the big victory they had been hoping for during an arduous licensing process.

"We have been waiting for this for eight years," Private Fuel Storage's spokeswoman Sue Martin said. "It has been a long drawn-out process, but very thorough, with all the safety concerns addressed appropriately."

The Utah site will be an important temporary storage point for nuclear utilities before and after Yucca Mountain opens because it will be a cheaper option than storing waste on-site at plants, Martin said.

"It absolutely is not an alternative to Yucca Mountain," Martin said. "But it could prove to be a very helpful kind of staging area because, of course, everything can't go to Yucca Mountain all at once."

Opinions vary on how today's action on the temporary site will affect the Energy Department's plan to construct a permanent government repository for 77,000 tons of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

But Yucca critics said the NRC decision bodes ill to those fighting Yucca because the temporary Utah site is considered a stepping stone for waste ultimately bound for permanent storage in Nevada.

The NRC action is bad for Nevada because it puts more pressure on officials to complete Yucca Mountain, several anti-Yucca activists said.

Nationwide, waste sits stored on-site at the nuclear power plants that produce it. Nevada lawmakers have argued that it is safe to leave it there at least another 100 years or so until a better waste solution is found.

It's cheaper and safer to leave waste at nuclear plants, Nevada Nuclear Waste Projects Agency director Bob Loux said.

Shipping waste out West and collecting it at a temporary site in neighboring Utah will put more pressure on Energy Department officials and politicians to open Yucca, activists said.

"The state of Utah is not happy anyway (about the Goshute site)," Public Citizen analyst Michele Boyd said. "They are going to exert more pressure to get the stuff to Yucca Mountain."

A victory for the Goshute project can be viewed as a victory for Yucca, anti-Yucca activist Kevin Kamps said.

"The two dumps are joined at the hip," said Kamps, nuclear waste specialist for the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.

Nuclear industry officials say it is safe to ship high-level waste. But activists and Nevada officials disagree. They say a significant argument against both sites is that it would be dangerous to ship so much high-level waste across the country. That argument will be muted once shipments start rolling to Utah, Kamps said.

"They will point to any successful shipment," Kamps said. "It won't erase the danger, but they'll say, 'We have a track record.' "

There are still lots of unanswered questions about the Goshute site, Kamps said. He said that site officials have inadequate plans to deal with nuclear fuel rods that have been damaged in transport other than to send it back to the nuclear plant.

"They plan to ship damaged waste containers back across the country," Kamps said.

Activists noted that there are still roadblocks to the Goshute site, including Bureau of Indian Affairs approval. Also, the Bureau of Land Management has not yet approved a revised land management plan that would allow PFS to construct a rail line that connects the site to Union Pacific's line.

"This is not the end of the road at all," Boyd said.

Utah officials and lawmakers have fought a long battle against the temporary waste site and are vowing to keep the battle going. The state has lost nearly 50 technical challenges in appeals to the NRC.

Today the NRC had its final say in what was a potentially significant obstacle: jet crashes at the site. The commission rejected the state of Utah's assertion that there is too high a probability that radiation would be released after a crash. There are 7,000 F-16 training flights over Skull Valley each year by jets from Hill Air Force Base.

The lone dissenter in the NRC vote was Greg Jaczko, a former top adviser to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Jaczko wrote that he believes an additional analysis of the consequences of the F-16 aircraft hazards should be done before a license could be issued for the PFS site.

In a five-page dissent, Jaczko wrote, "The standard for establishing whether or not an accident is credible must be respected and if it is reached, the Commission should require the additional analysis necessary to determine any potentially harmful consequences."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told the Salt Lake City Tribune, "Once the proposal leaves the NRC, it becomes vulnerable to lengthy examination by the courts, as well as administrative actions, which we will pursue relentlessly."

Nevada officials have opposed the Goshute site, arguing the same points they have against Yucca -- neither the project nor the transportation plan are safe.

"Transporting high-level radioactive waste to Utah is as dangerous as it would be transporting it to Nevada," Reid said.

A transportation plan was not part of the PFS license application. The Transportation Department regulates the shipment of nuclear waste. The NRC will regulate the casks that the waste is stored in.

Attorney Joe Egan, who represents Nevada on Yucca, said the eight-year time frame it took to get NRC approval speaks volumes about how long the Yucca process could take, if it reaches that point.

Yucca and the Goshute site are much different projects. Egan said the Goshute site is a concrete pad full of storage casks, a much "less ambitious" project than what the Energy Department has planned for the underground Yucca repository.

But the NRC will have less time to consider Yucca Mountain. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act limits the commission to a three-year window to review the Yucca license application, with an optional additional year if approved by Congress.

---------------------------

Las Vegas SUN
September 09, 2005

NRC clears way for nuclear fuel storage in Skull Valley

By Jennifer Talhelm
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday authorized a license to build a temporary private nuclear waste storage site on the Skull Valley Goshutes Indian Reservation in Utah.

Private Fuel Storage, a group of utilities, wants to store 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel at the site 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

In a meeting that lasted only about two minutes, commissioners took a two-pronged vote. First, they affirmed an earlier ruling concluding that if a jet fighter crashed into the containers, they wouldn't release an unacceptable amount of radiation. Then they authorized the NRC staff to issue a license to construct and operate the storage site.

The license will be ready after paperwork is completed, said NRC spokesman Eliot Brenner. The timing was not immediately clear.

"I'm very happy," said Paul Gaukler, an attorney who has represented Private Fuel Storage in its quest to build the waste facility for eight years. "People can be assured it's a safe facility. The issue has been fully aired and resolved. Thank goodness - finally."

Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett were not immediately available for comment.

Utah politicians have made numerous attempts to block construction of the storage site, including a last-minute unsuccessful attempt in July to amend the energy bill to require a terrorism threat study before the NRC could grant a license. The effort failed when Nevada Sen. Harry Reid objected.

State officials have said they would fight the license in court if necessary.

An impoverished tribe, the Goshutes had been looking for ways to make money and eventually teamed with Private Fuel Storage to propose the station.

Private Fuel Storage's facility would be a temporary dump pending the opening of a national repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

---------------------------

Las Vegas SUN
September 09, 2005

Feds OK Nuclear Waste Site for Utah

By Jennifer Talhelm
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday approved a private company's plan to build a nuclear waste storage site on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah, moving the proposal a crucial step closer to fruition.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman immediately vowed to challenge the decision in the courts, and state officials promised to fight the facility using all possible options. The state contends the project would be too dangerous.

Private Fuel Storage, a group of utilities, wants to store 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel at the site about 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

Utah officials had argued the facility would be too close to a major population center and that the risk of a jet fighter from Hill Air Force Base crashing into the storage casks was too great.

But commissioners dismissed the argument, taking a two-pronged vote. First, they affirmed an earlier ruling that the waste containers wouldn't release an unacceptable amount of radiation if a jet crashed into them. Then they voted 3-1 to authorize the NRC staff to issue a license to construct and operate the storage site.

The license will be ready after paperwork is completed, said NRC spokesman Eliot Brenner.

"I'm very happy," said Paul Gaukler, an attorney who for eight years has represented Private Fuel Storage in its quest to build the waste facility. "People can be assured it's a safe facility."

Huntsman said in a statement that he was "deeply disappointed" in the NRC decision and would continue fighting the storage facility. In addition to a court appeal, another option for the state could be to designate a wilderness area to block construction of a rail spur to the site.

"This is a battle that will take several years to fight to completion, but it is also a battle that I intend to win," Huntsman said.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in a statement that the plan was "dead on arrival."

"This is a reckless, dangerous proposal, and I am pulling out all the stops to make sure this waste never makes a home in Utah," Hatch said.

Private Fuel Storage's facility would be a temporary dump pending the opening of a national nuclear waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has proposed storing nuclear waste at the facilities where it is produced - an alternative to both the Private Fuel Storage site and Yucca Mountain.

On Friday, Reid, the Senate minority leader, said in a statement that he still believes that is the safest option.

"Thousands of tons of deadly nuclear material will pass homes, schools, businesses and churches in communities all across the country, and there is simply no way to safely do this," Reid said.

An impoverished tribe, the Goshutes had been looking for ways to make money and eventually teamed with Private Fuel Storage to propose the station.

Under their plan, the waste would be kept aboveground in 4,000 steel casks, which can hold up to 10 tons of spent fuel each. The casks would be shielded in an overpack of two steel shells encasing a wall of concrete more than 2 feet thick.

There are still more regulatory hurdles before construction can begin. The earliest the site is expected to be in operation is 2008.

On the Net:

Skull Valley Goshutes: http://www.skullvalleygoshutes.org

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov

---------------------------

NRC
September 9, 2005

CENNRC Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste to Hold a Meeting in Las Vegas, Nev., Sept. 20-22

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission´s Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste will meet Sept. 20-22 in Las Vegas, Nev., to be briefed on recent developments related to the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. Committee members will also be briefed on the NRC´s plans for reviewing the Department of Energy license application for Yucca Mountain and will hear the views of experts on such issues as the evolution of climate around the proposed site.

In addition to the briefings – all of which are open to the public – the ACNW has set aside the evening of Sept. 21 to hear from those interested in the issue.

On Sept. 22, the committee will conduct a planning meeting to discuss future agenda items that would form the basis for ACNW briefings over the next year. Those portions of the planning meeting addressing personnel matters will be closed to the public.

The committee reports to and advises the Commission on all aspects of nuclear waste management.

The briefings will be held at the Pacific Enterprise Plaza Building One, 3250 Pepper Lane, Las Vegas. They will run on Tuesday from 9:45 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. and on Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The portion for public input will run on Wednesday from 6 p.m to 8 p.m. The open portion of the planning meeting on Thursday will run from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Attendees will be subject to security screening before entering the meeting facility.

Oral or written views may be presented by members of the public. Those wanting to make oral statements should notify Sharon Steele, at 301-415-8065. Videoconferencing may be available. Those interested in using this service should contact Theron Brown at 301-415-8066.

---------------------------

[Federal Register: September 9, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 174)]
[Notices]
[Page 53693-53694]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr09se05-118]

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste; Meeting Notice

In accordance with the purposes of Sections 29 and 182b. of the Atomic Energy Act (42 U.S.C. 2039, 2232b), the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste (ACNW) will hold a meeting on September 20-21, 2005, Pacific Enterprise Plaza Building One, 3250 Pepper Lane, Las Vegas, Nevada 89120.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005, Pacific Enterprise Plaza Building One, 3250 Pepper Lane, Las Vegas, Nevada 89120

9:45 a.m.-10 a.m.: Opening Remarks by the ACNW Chairman (Open)--The ACNW Chairman will make opening remarks regarding the conduct of the meeting.

10 a.m.-11:45 a.m.: Discussion of Prepared Letters/Reports (Open)--The Committee will discuss proposed ACNW reports on matters considered during this meeting.

1 p.m.-2 p.m.: Overview on Status of Yucca Mountain Project (Open)--The Committee will be briefed by a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) representative on recent developments affecting the geologic repository program at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

2 p.m.-3 p.m.: NRC Project Plan for the Yucca Mountain License Application Review (Open)--The Committee will be briefed by an NRC representative on staff plans for the review of a DOE license application to construct a proposed geologic repository at Yucca Mountain.

3:15 p.m.-4:45 p.m.: 2005 Update to the DOE Performance Confirmation Program Plan (Open)--The Committee will be briefed by a DOE representative on the Performance Confirmation Plan to be included in any DOE license application requesting authorization to construct a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain.

4:45 p.m.-5:15 p.m.: ACNW Low-Level Radioactive (LLW) White Paper: Status Report (Open)--The Committee will discuss progress in development of a proposed White Paper on LLW management issues.

5:15 p.m.-5:45 p.m.: ACNW Subcommittee Report on DOE Probabilistic Volcanic Hazards Analysis (PVHA) Workshop (Open)--The Committee will hear a report from those Members who observed the August 2005 DOE PVHA expert elicitation update.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005, Pacific Enterprise Plaza Building One, 3250 Pepper Lane, Las Vegas, Nevada 89120

8:30 a.m.-8:40 a.m.: Opening Remarks by the ACNW Chairman (Open)--The ACNW Chairman will make opening remarks regarding the conduct of the meeting.

8:40 a.m.-10:40 a.m.: 1995 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Recommendations for Yucca Mountain Standards and the 2000 Court Remand (Open)--Two Members of the NAS Committee that developed recommendations for site-specific radiation standards will discuss their individual views regarding the 2005 Court decision vacating the 10,000-year time period of regulatory compliance in 40 CFR part 197, as well as the NAS earlier one million year time frame recommendation.

11 a.m.-12 Noon: Evolution of Climate in the Yucca Mountain Area over the Next Million Years (Open)--An invited expert will brief the Committee on projected climate trends in the Yucca Mountain region and discuss possible implications for the regional ground-water flow system.

1:15 p.m.-2:15 p.m.: An Approach to the Modeling of Magma/Repository Interactions (Open) An ACNW consultant will discuss his views on how this potentially disruptive event might be modeled for the purposes of a Yucca Mountain performance assessment.

2:15 p.m.-3:15 p.m.: ACNW Summer Intern Project: Modeling a Volcanic Ash Plume (Open) The Committee will receive a briefing on how the HYSPLIT (Hyprid-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) atmospheric dispersion model, developed by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, was used to develop an alternative ash plume dispersion analysis for the Yucca Mountain site.

3:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m.: ACNW Subcommittee Report on August 2005 Savannah River and Barnwell LLW Disposal Site Visit (Open)--The Committee will hear a report from those Members who participated in the aforementioned visits.

4:30 p.m.-5 p.m.: Continuation of Discussion of Possible Letter/Reports (Open)--The Committee will continue its discussion of proposed ACNW reports.

5 p.m.-5:30 p.m.: Miscellaneous (Open)--The Committee will discuss matters related to the conduct of Committee activities and matters and specific issues that were not completed during previous meetings, as time and availability of information permit.

6 p.m.-8 p.m.: ACNW Public Outreach Meeting (Open)--The purpose of meeting is to develop information to advise the Commission on concerns of Yucca Mountain stakeholders, and to advise the NRC Commission on opportunities to provide better involvement of the stakeholders in NRC's prelicensing process.

Procedures for the conduct of and participation in ACNW meetings were published in the Federal Register on October 5, 2004 (69 FR 59620). In accordance with those procedures, oral or written views may be presented by members of the public, including representatives of the nuclear industry. Electronic recordings will be permitted only during the open portions of the meeting. Persons desiring to make oral statements should notify the Cognizant ACNW staff named below five days before the meeting, if possible, so that appropriate arrangements can be made to allow necessary time during the meeting for such statements. Use of still, motion picture, and television cameras during the meeting may be limited to selected portions of the meeting as determined by the Chairman. Information regarding the time to be set aside for this purpose may be obtained by contacting the Cognizant ACNW staff prior to the meeting. In view of the possibility that the schedule for ACNW meetings may be adjusted by the Chairman as necessary to facilitate the conduct of the meeting, persons planning to attend should check with the Cognizant ACNW staff if such rescheduling would result in major inconvenience.

Further information regarding topics to be discussed, whether the meeting has been canceled or rescheduled, as well as the Chairman's ruling on requests for the opportunity to present oral statements and the time allotted therefor can be obtained by contacting Ms. Sharon Steele, ACNW Senior Staff Engineer (301-415-8065), between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., ET.

ACNW meeting agenda, meeting transcripts, and letter reports are available through the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) at pdr@nrc.gov, or by calling the PDR at 1-800-397-4209, or from the Publicly Available Records System (PARS) component of NRC's document system (ADAMS) which is accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html or http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/ (ACRS & oc-collections/ (ACRS & ACNW Meeting schedules/agendas).

Videoteleconferencing service is available for observing open sessions of ACNW meetings. Those wishing to use this service for observing ACNW meetings should contact Mr. Theron Brown, ACNW Audio Visual Technician (301-415-8066), between 7:30 a.m. and 3:45 p.m., ET, at least 10 days before the meeting to ensure the availability of this service. Individuals or organizations requesting this service will be responsible for telephone line charges and for providing the equipment and facilities that they use to establish the videoteleconferencing link. The availability of videoteleconferencing services is not guaranteed.

Notes:

Presentation time should not exceed 50 percent of the total time allocated for a specific item. The remaining 50 percent of the time is reserved for discussion.

Fifty (50) hard copies and one (1) electronic copy of the presentation materials should be provided to the ACNW.

ACNW meeting schedules are subject to change. Presentations may be canceled or rescheduled to another day. If such a change would result in significant inconvenience or hardship, be sure to verify the schedule with Ms. Sharon Steele at 301-415-6805 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. prior to the meeting.

Special instructions concerning the meeting facility:

--Attendees at this meeting will be subject to security screening prior to entering the meeting facility.

--Attendees should plan to arrive approximately 45 minutes prior to the meeting.

--No food or drink other than bottled water will be allowed in the meeting facility.

--Access to the parking lot in front of the meeting facility is restricted to participants to the meeting and not available to the general public. Ample street parking for the public is available nearby on Pepper Lane and Sagebrush Lane.

Dated: September 2, 2005.
Annette Vietti-Cook,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. E5-4901 Filed 9-8-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

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[Federal Register: September 9, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 174)]
[Notices]
[Page 53694-53695]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr09se05-119]

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste Meeting on Planning and Procedures; Notice of Meeting

The Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste (ACNW) will hold Planning and Procedures meetings on September 20 and 22, 2005, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The meetings will be open to public attendance, with the exception of portions that will be closed pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552b (c) (2) and (6) to discuss organizational and personnel matters that relate solely to internal personnel rules and practices of ACNW, and information the release of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. The agenda for the subject meetings shall be as follows:

Tuesday, September 20, 2005, 8 a.m.-9:30 a.m. (Open)

The Committee will discuss proposed ACNW activities and related matters. The purpose of this meeting is to gather information, analyze relevant issues and facts, and formulate proposed positions and actions, as appropriate, for deliberation by the full Committee.

Thursday, September 22, 2005, 8:30 a.m.-12 Noon (Closed)

The Committee will discuss current and future challenges, and future needs (e.g., staffing, qualification).

Thursday, September 22, 2005, 1:30 p.m.-5 p.m. (Open)

The Committee will (1) evaluate ACNW's progress against the 2005-2006 Action Plan, (2) determine a path forward and action items to keep the Committee on track to successfully accomplish Action Plan items not yet completed, and (3) determine whether changes are needed to the Action Plan.

Members of the public desiring to provide oral statements and/or written comments should notify the Designated Federal Official, Ms. Sharon A. Steele (Telephone: 301/415-6805) between 8a.m. and 5:15 p.m. (ET) five days prior to the meeting, if possible, so that appropriate arrangements can be made. Electronic recordings will be permitted only during those portions of the meeting that are open to the public.

Further information regarding this meeting can be obtained by contacting the Designated Federal Official between 8:30 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. (e.t.). Persons planning to attend this meeting are urged to contact the above named individual at least two working days prior to the meeting to be advised of any potential changes in the agenda.

Dated: September 1, 2005.
Sharon A. Steele,
Acting Branch Chief, ACRS/ACNW.
[FR Doc. E5-4902 Filed 9-8-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

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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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