Yucca Mountain News Clips
Friday, November 4, 2005
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Pahrump Valley Times
November 4, 2005

Who really owns Yucca Mountain?

Tribe Says It Owns Repository Land; Wants to be Recognized

By Robin Flinchum
Special to The PVT

TECOPA - A small number of concerned citizens turned out for a meeting with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Tecopa last week, expressing their concerns about the looming specter of the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain some 50 miles away.

The Commission's team of representatives nearly outnumbered the citizens on hand, but Janet Phelan Kotra, senior project manager for the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, said she was gratified by the turnout nonetheless.

For Kotra and her team, meeting with an anxious and sometimes angry public can be a perilous process, "but part of our job is to make visible what we do," Kotra said. So the small cadre of scientists, lawyers, and one charismatic meeting facilitator named Chip Cameron, journeyed out of Washington and into the quiet desert where the Amargosa River flows practically under their feet, carrying with it water from Yucca Mountain.

It wasn't the first time they visited the area, and the team members greeted local residents at the door with information packets and friendly, if perhaps guarded smiles. Kotra's team has weathered plenty of unpleasantness in its effort to bridge the gap between the affected public and the federal government when it comes to the issue of nuclear waste.

But in the end, as team members pointed out repeatedly, the Commission's only job is to regulate what the Department of Energy does. They did not create the need for the repository, nor do they have the power to eradicate it.

"We are an independent oversight agency," Kotra said. In other words, they don't name the game or even the players; they are simply the referees.

The Commission had little news to impart to residents, with still no firm idea as to when the Department of Energy might submit a licensing application to begin the process of constructing the repository at Yucca Mountain. But Kotra did speculate that it could happen as early as January of 2007, after which the Commission would have three to four years to evaluate the application and decide whether to license the facility.

Although law limits the timeframe for the evaluation, Kotra said, "We will take as long as it takes to do the job right."

For those on hand who expressed the belief that the Yucca Mountain Repository was unofficially a "done deal," Bill Reamer, director of the Division of High-Level Waste Repository Safety said, "There is no secret decision-making happening. This is an independent agency. I have to be concerned with that because we can not do the job if we can not do it independently."

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is governed by a board of five presidential appointees, but Reamer declared that this did not affect is ability to function independent of partisan interests.

Reamer outlined the license application and evaluation process in a slide presentation and Bill Ruland, deputy director of the Spent Fuel Project Office, discussed methods of transportation and the construction of casks designed to transport nuclear waste.

The information was similar to that presented during the Commission's last visit two and a half years ago, but the primary purpose of the meeting, said Kotra, "is to make people aware of the process and how to contact us."

The other reason, she said, was to collect public comment. Community meetings are recorded and transcribed, Kotra said, so that all public comment could be added into the official record and taken into account in the decision-making process.

Comments included concerns expressed by Western Shoshone elder Corbin Harney, who has campaigned against the Yucca Mountain repository and the production of nuclear waste for years. To date, a dispute over the ownership of the land on which Yucca Mountain is situated has not yet been resolved, since the Western Shoshone have alleged the federal government does not have a proper claim.

Kotra said this is one of many issues that will have to be cleared up before a license could be granted.

"Everyone of us knows that radiation is killing us," Harney said. "We know that and we see it. What you're bringing today, it sounds good on a piece of paper. But you're getting paid to say these things and when you get paid, you cannot go against it."

Barbara Durham of the Timbisha Shoshone in Death Valley and Bishop expressed frustration that the tribe's attempt to gain status as a unit of affected government in relation to the proposed repository had been met with little or no response from the Department of Interior.

"The federal government needs to respect our tribal government more," she said, "and deal with us government to government." Durham said the Timbisha needed to achieve affected unit of government status in order to apply for funding to train first responders and, more immediately, "to hire people to represent us who talk your language."

As in most issues of major concern to local residents, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's team has no authority in matters such as granting status to local governments. However, Kotra said she had helped the Timbisha investigate what was happening to their application in the past and could possibly do so again. "We as a federal agency had an interest in seeing (the Department of the Interior) answer their request."

Transportation was also an issue of concern, though both Bill Reamer and Bill Ruland stated that California Highway 127 was presently not on the list of proposed designated transportation routes, and that some 90 percent of shipments would be made by rail.

However, said Reamer, the final decision about transportation would not be made unless the repository was successful in its license application so it would be at least five years before Inyo County officials would have a clear answer to that question.

In fact, the Commission's team offered no clear answers at last week's meeting, but rather their best efforts to inform and be informed about the future decision-making process within the narrow limits of their job descriptions.

Public participation is crucial, Kotra said, and has affected decisions made by the Commission in the past. For instance, the final licensing application will undergo a formal hearing process before a decision could be made. At one point the commission considered doing away with that formal process, Kotra said, "but the people affected wanted to retain that process and it was retained." Public comment was an "overwhelming factor" in that decision, Kotra said.

Kotra added that while the Southeast Inyo area was sparsely populated and the amount of public comment was numerically small, she very much appreciates comment by residents like Jennifer Viereck of Healing Ourselves and Mother Earth, a non-governmental organization dedicated to dealing with nuclear waste issues.

Viereck asked detailed questions about the science of some studies submitted by the Department of Energy at the public meeting.

"Jennifer is a very unusual person, very thoughtful and I have a high regard for her comments," Kotra said.

Soliciting public comment is an ongoing process, Kotra said, and she urged residents of affected communities anywhere in the region of Yucca Mountain to read the public documents available on the Commission's Web site at: www.nrc.gov/waste/hlw-disposal.html, or to go to the Environmental Protection Agency's Web site at: www.epa.gov/radiation/yucca/index.html. Many of these documents are still open for public comment, Kotra said.

"The strength of our ultimate decisions will be better, the more we interact with a variety of views," she said.

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Pahrump Valley Times
November 4, 2005

Bechtel: Audit flawed

By The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS - The managing contractor on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump project said recently that a critical audit report from the Energy Department's inspector general was flawed.

Bechtel SAIC issued a statement in response to the audit report, that had said the company was paid incentives even though it turned in late and low-quality work.

The report released a day earlier "contains a number of factual errors and inaccuracies," Bechtel said, though it did not specify them.

"All work was performed, and all fee awards were earned, in accordance with requirements documented in our contract," the company said.

The inspector general questioned $4 million in incentives paid to Bechtel for work on the planned Nevada dump from 2001-2004 - nearly 10 percent of the total $43.4 million in incentives Bechtel received during that period.

Paul Golan, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management that issued the payments, said in a letter to the inspector general that he agreed with the report's findings and would take corrective action.

The criticism comes as Yucca Mountain, approved by Congress in 2002 as the nation's repository for nuclear waste, has suffered a series of setbacks. The government was forced by an appeals court to rewrite its radiation safety standards and internal emails surfaced last spring suggesting government workers had falsified data on the project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The dump's opening date has been repeatedly delayed and is now expected in 2012 or later.

Yucca Mountain is meant to hold 77,000 tons of nuclear waste for 10,000 years and beyond.

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Pahrump Valley Times
November 4, 2005

Nevada attorney general acts

Witkoski Name Advocate

By Brendan Riley
The Associated Press

CARSON CITY - Nevada Attorney General George Chanos signed his oath of office on Tuesday - and promptly named a replacement for his wife, state Consumer Advocate Adriana Escobar Chanos, whose agency is within his new office.

Chanos, 47, taking over from fellow Republican Brian Sandoval who was sworn in Monday as a new U.S. District Court judge, named Senior Deputy Attorney General Eric Witkoski as the new consumer advocate.

Chanos signed his oath in Las Vegas and faxed a copy to Gov. Kenny Guinn. A formal swearing-in ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday, also in Las Vegas.

Chanos also plans to be in Reno and Carson City on Friday, to meet with staffers there.

In replacing his wife as consumer advocate, Chanos thanked her for doing a good job in her 10 months on the job. He added Witkoski "has some big shoes to fill, but I'm confident he's up for the challenge."

When he was picked in September by Guinn to replace Sandoval, Chanos said his wife would resign from her post, which is within the attorney general's office but has a separate budget and is a four-year term appointment.

At the time, Chanos said there wasn't any conflict, but she'd leave the post "to avoid the appearance of one."

While he serves the remaining 14 months of Sandoval's state term, Chanos also will launch his bid for a full four-year term. In the 2006 elections, he'll face Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, who has the support of many top Democrats including U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, former Sen. Richard Bryan, former Gov. Bob Miller and former Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa.

Chanos grew up in Las Vegas, graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and later worked for former U.S. Sen. Paul Laxalt in Washington, D.C. He graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1985 and practiced law in San Diego until opening a law office with his wife in Las Vegas in 1995.

In his law practice, Chanos has focused on business litigation and also has represented the Clark County Republican Party as well as the state GOP.

He said his first priority is to complete a "needs assessment" to determine how various state agencies feel about the legal representation they're getting from the attorney general's office, and what improvements are needed.

Chanos also has said he'd "absolutely" enforce the state's open meeting laws, and continue the state's long-running legal battle against federal efforts to operate a high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada.

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Reno Gazette Journal
November 04, 2005

Rail trench is leaking, but officials not worried

Susan Voyles
Reno Gazette-Journal

Before Reno's downtown railroad trench project was approved, city officials often described it as a "watertight bathtub."

As it turns out, the trench is allowed to leak up to 2,500 gallons a day of ground water, under special provisions included in the contract between Granite Construction Co. and the city of Reno in 2002, said Steve Varela, Reno public works director.

Varela describes the leaks as insignificant.

"It will always leak. It's almost impossible to make it 100 percent leakproof," he said.

And if leakage should become a problem, Varela said that would come in the first five years, when Granite would be obliged to fix it under a five-year warranty provided in its $171 million contract. After that, it's up to city taxpayers to maintain the trench.

Of the 2.3-mile-long trench, about three-quarters of a mile is below the ground water table, from Ralston Street to just east of Evans Avenue, Granite spokesman Dante Pistone said.

If the 2,500 gallons of seepage were poured evenly over the bottom of the trench, Pistone said the 2.3-mile-long puddle would be 1/13,000th of an inch deep. But with Reno's dry climate, he said, most of the seepage would evaporate.

Mike Robinson, whose campaigns were based on his anti-trench stance, said he is surprised by the amount of leakage allowed. Before the project was approved in 2002, he repeatedly questioned whether significant maintenance costs should have been added to contend with ground water problems over the decades.

"Once the heavy trains start rumbling through there, the leaks and cracks are going to get bigger," Robinson said. "What it tells me is there's going to be some maintenance on this."

Varela said a maintenance manual for the trench is being finalized, and will include cost estimates for maintaining the integrity of the trench, bridge inspections and maintenance for the pump station. The city will maintain everything but the tracks, ballast, ties and signal system.

City and Granite Construction officials say the trench is sound, that cracks on the trench floor are not a structural problem. The trench floor contains two slabs of concrete anchored into the ground, creating a shield averaging 3 to 5 feet thick. It's more than 10 feet thick near a pump station, the lowest point of the trench.

Storm drains along both sides of the trench catch ground water, rain and snowmelt and drain to a pump station east of Lake Street. Holes in the trench walls allow excess ground water to enter the trench and storm drains rather than build up pressure against the walls.

The pump station can remove 14,000 gallons per minute. The first flush of water goes into the city sewer lines for treatment and the rest into storm sewers and the Truckee River.

During the last public tours of the construction Sept. 29, bus riders could see large puddles in the trench over at least a two-block section in the heart of downtown, where the trench is 33 feet deep and dips several feet below the groundwater table.

Since then, Pistone said, the company has sealed the joints and cracks, not required in the contract. Since that work was completed in mid-October, he said leakage has stopped and provided pictures as proof.

He said small puddles along the trench wall near the Golden Phoenix hotel-casino must have come from trucks spraying water for dust. Union Pacific is dumping gravel along the tracks, the last major work before the trench can open in December.

After the water trucks are gone, Pistone said the pump station will be able to measure the seepage. No figures before the sealant was added are available.

"As long as the city maintains the drainage and the pump station, that 2,500 gallons should not be a problem," said Mark Davis, Union Pacific Railroad spokesman.

James Taranik, director of the Mackay School of Earth Science and Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno, agreed the leakage is no big deal. He said every underground facility that broaches the ground water level has water in it, including the tunnels dug for the Yucca Mountain nuclear dump site.

"When below the groundwater table, a hydrostatic head (of pressure) pushes against the concrete joists," he said. "And all concrete poured has some cracks in it."

While Mayor Bob Cashell was surprised to learn the trench is expected to leak, former Mayor Jeff Griffin said he knew all along seepage would occur in the trench.

"We've engineered for it. It's overengineered," Griffin said.

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Petoskey News-Review
November 04, 2005

Down comes the dome: Big Rock sphere dismantled

By Jeremy Mcbain
News-Review Staff Writer

A longtime sight on Lake Michigan will soon be gone now that the green containment sphere at Big Rock Point is being brought down.

Workers at the decommissioned nuclear power plant began tearing down the well-known landscape icon on Oct. 14. The sphere is expected to be completely torn down by the first week of December said Consumer's Energy spokesperson Tim Petrosky.

Petrosky said for people who have worked at the facility over the years, the sight of the sphere coming down is surreal and a sign that the end of Big Rock is near.

He said it is weird to walk into what is left of the sphere, look up and see sky.

The sphere, which served as containment surrounding the concrete monolith inside that housed the reactor vessel, is located off of U.S. 31, just north of Charlevoix. Workers are using oxy-propane torches to cut through the three-quarters of an inch thick steel making up the over 130-foot high sphere into 86 total pieces, which will then be shipped out to a Waste Management facility in Waters.

The total weight of the steel used in the sphere is 2.5 million pounds.
The largest piece the workers will cut weighs a little less than 20,000 tons. Workers are cutting five to seven pieces off of the sphere a day. Crews will be cutting 4,000 linear feet of steel to bring the sphere down.

However, Petrosky said this is very weather dependent, as crews can only work in winds of 25 mph or less, because of the use of a 300-foot crane being used to move the pieces of the sphere.

After the sphere is taken down, all that will be left is a the concrete monolith that housed the reactor vessel and a 27-foot deep hole.

Petrosky said work will begin on tearing down the concrete monolith in December. For this, crews will use explosives to soften the concrete enough to allow it to be removed with backhoes.

There is 23 million pounds of concrete in this, of which 18 million will be taken with a very low level of radioactivity to a facility in Tennessee. The rest will be taken as low level radioactive waste to a facility in Utah.

Petrosky said the project is moving along well toward its plan of having the area restored to a “greenfield’ by fall 2006.

This will mean the only portion of Big Rock left on the site will be the spent nuclear fuel containment casks, which are expected to be shipped out to the government storage facility by 2012 at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Jeremy McBain can be contacted at 439-9316, or jmcbain@petoskeynews.com.

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Chemical & Engineering News
NewsNovember 3, 2005

Spent Nuclear Fuel Recycling Studied

Argonne project to develop cycle for reusing spent nuclear fuel and minimizing by-products

Glenn Hess

A project to examine new approaches to reducing the nation´s growing inventory of stored spent nuclear fuel is under way at the University of Wisconsin and the Department of Energy´s Argonne National Laboratory.

The project will be based at the Center for Advanced Nuclear Fuel-Cycles, an initiative funded by the University of Chicago and housed at Argonne.

Most spent nuclear fuel is now stored temporarily in secure pools at commercial reactors around the country or in leak-tight steel casks housed in aboveground concrete vaults. The fuel could end up at a planned commercial temporary storage facility in Utah or at the proposed Yucca Mountain high-level waste repository.

But these storage options are short-term approaches to dealing with the backend of the nuclear fuel cycle, says Michael L. Corradini, a UW Madison professor of engineering physics and the center´s codirector.

“We hope to develop a ‘sustainable´ fuel cycle—that is, an efficient, cost-effective way to reuse current spent nuclear fuel and minimize its by-products,’ he says. “Advanced nuclear fuel cycles can be recycled as a source of available energy as demand for uranium increases.’

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Nevada Observer
November 02, 2005

Changes Being Planned For Yucca Mountain, Designed To Increase Safety At The Site

Spent Nuclear Fuel Casks Shipped And Stored; Must Be Approved By NRC And Others

Changes in the handling of high level nuclear waste were announced by the Department of Energy (DOE) recently. The changes must still be approved by various agencies such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Interestingly, the new plan is one of the reasons that so many feel the Yucca Mountain Repository is already out of date. The new plan, touted as an "improvement in safety and reliability of operations at Yucca" calls for the spent fuel to be stored in the same casks that will be used for transportation from nuclear energy production plants across the country.

In previous plans the waste would have been transferred from the transportation cask to a storage cask. According to a DOE fact sheet "This design will be simpler and more straightforward, reduce programmatic risk, and take complexity out of the NRC licensing process."

In a speech to Congress recently Utah Senator Bennett, (D) said that if the casks that have been designed are safe enough for shipment and storage, why bother moving them? In the same discussion Bennett pointed out that there is already more high level nuclear waste available for storage than the Yucca Mountain Repository has space for.

The new plan was offered by DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) and is called a "Clean" program for waste storage. According to Paul Golan, OCRWM's Acting Director, "Our new path forward will provide clear direction to improve safety and reliability as well as reduce programmatic risk."

Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D) scoffs at the image of "clean." "Calling plans to dump radioactive garbage in Nevada 'clean' is an insult to the intelligence of families in the Silver State." Berkley goes on to say, the plan "ignores the fact that nuclear waste is one of the deadliest substances on earth."

The change in design letter was sent to Bechtel SAIC, the Yucca Mountain Prime Contractor. According to a DOE press release the new plan will be submitted to the Secretary of Energy's Acquisition Advisory Board for review.

Nuclear energy plants are located throughout the country and the high level nuclear waste that comes from the generation of energy at the plants is scheduled to be sent to Yucca Mountain north of Las Vegas. Berkley says that right now, "The DOE is desperate to show that Yucca Mountain is moving ahead, despite the fact that it's already years behind schedule and poses an enormous threat to public safety and the environment."

All types of plans for the transportation of the waste have been discussed over the years. One plan includes building a new railroad from Battle Mountain south to Yucca. That plan according to the latest information available seems to have been abandoned. However, a railroad is planned to run from Caliente along the southern Nevada border with Utah, around the Southern Nevada Test Site to Yucca. That rail line would be slightly more than 300 miles in length. Other transportation methods include regular rail and truck routes.

Since the nuclear energy plants are located where the most energy is needed, the transportation routes look like they will travel through very high-density population centers. Congresswoman Berkley says, "Regardless of how they repackage this waste, at the end of the day, it's still going to be dumped in Nevada, and it's still going to threaten the lives of million of Americans living along the transportation routes."

Many are confused by this change in plans, including Berkley. "The fact they are still changing the design and have abandoned any timetable for submitting a license for the dump only proves how desperate they've become and how many obstacles remain." Berkley echoes the words of Senator Bennett by declaring, "The only safe solution is to keep nuclear waste at the plants where it was produced and where it can be safely stored."

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Reno Gazette-Journal
November 02, 2005

Editorial

Find a Yucca alternative

Reno Gazette-Journal

Yucca Mountain opponents have done a good job of warding off the feds' plan to store the nation's nuclear waste in Nevada. Instead of thinking that the Energy Department's problems will forever deter the repository's construction, adherents of the anti-Yucca movement should think in terms of a good defense being a strong offense. Their campaign would gain strength if they could discover a way to dispose of the waste in the states where it is produced.

It is finally becoming clear to everyone, even Energy Department officials, that the Yucca Mountain plan is not as tight as it could be. The proof lies in the most recent changes regarding canisters and transportation. Given the track record of error and fabrication, no entity besides ones dedicated to the safety of Nevadans should be trusted with the responsibility of packaging and transporting the waste. And since Nevadans don't want the repository at all, it follows that an alternative to Yucca Mountain must be discovered.

It is becoming increasingly more difficult for Energy officials to justify the project in the courts and to the administration itself. It's not so much that progress is being made to derail the project as that the plan was ill-conceived and unsound from the beginning. A federal court agreed that the safety precautions were substandard. Now the plan is falling apart, possibly because of haphazard efforts to force it into acceptability and compliance and hasty efforts to meet deadlines.

For the states that want to remove the material from their own population centers, the question of how to dispose of it remains. The answer is a scientific and engineering one that ultimately must turn into a policy matter for government officials and their advisers. It would involve a research and development expense for one more initiative. This one -- the safety of Nevada citizens -- is worth the expense.

Unless the states find a realistic and safe way to dispose of their nuclear waste, they will continue to look to the vast spaces in the West for burial grounds.

The "simpler, safer and cleaner" way of handling radioactive waste is to leave it where it is. Anti-Yucca forces must take proactive steps to help develop a technology that can make that happen. It would only add weight to efforts to keep the repository at bay.

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Nevada Appeal
October 30, 2005

Surrender at Jarbidge is bad news for feds

Guy W. Farmer
For the Appeal

The federal government lost a battle with the Sagebrush Rebellion forces of Northeastern Nevada the other day when the U.S. Forest Service caved-in and surrendered to the so-called Elko County Shovel Brigade, which had been in a running dispute over an isolated creek and the allegedly endangered bull trout. That's bad news for the Feds and good news for Nevada in its fight against the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump.

What the Elko County case proves is that a relatively small but determined band of citizens (and voters, I might add) can defeat an arrogant federal bureaucracy. And the way a group of Nevada hunters and ranchers fought the Forest Service to a standstill over their traditional access to remote South Canyon Road in northern Elko County should inspire the large majority of Nevadans who oppose the troubled Yucca Mountain project.

In more bad news for the Feds, a Utah senator and the Mormon Church have joined the fight against nuclear waste storage in western deserts. Although his Sept. 20 announcement didn't attract much media attention in Nevada, Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) withdrew his support from Yucca Mountain, telling the press that he had changed his mind due to new scientific evidence against the proposed site. "It is now clear that we are not going to have a single repository for nuclear waste," Bennett declared. "Yucca Mountain has been challenged on scientific grounds ... (and) in the courts on legal grounds. ... We need to start thinking about new strategies and new places to deal with this (waste).

"However much the idea of a single repository may have made sense decades ago," he continued, "it's now clear that it does not make sense (today)."

Well said, senator, and thanks for your support. It's also becoming virtually certain that Yucca Mountain will never happen as long as Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) retains his key leadership position in the Senate. Reid has long been an effective foe of the highly radioactive project, and he's recruiting more influential allies as time goes on.

Bennett's announcement came in the wake of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approval of a waste dump on tribal land in remote Skull Valley, Utah. Moreover, his decision has put increasing political pressure on Utah's senior senator, Republican Orrin Hatch, a devout Mormon. I mention his religion because the powerful (especially in Utah) Mormon Church recently joined the chorus of opposition to the storage of nuclear waste on tribal lands in Utah.

"We regret the decision ... to authorize the issuance of a license that would allow storage of radioactive waste in Skull Valley," the LDS Church said in a statement issued last month. "Storage of nuclear waste in Utah is a matter of significant public interest that requires thorough scrutiny."

Utah had long been considered a Nevada ally on Yucca Mountain until senators Bennett and Hatch switched positions a couple of years ago and voted in favor of President Bush's surprise decision to bury 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste in the Nevada desert just 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the nation's fastest-growing city. I say "surprise" because when he ran for president, Bush promised to base his decision on "sound science," and it's quite apparent that this flawed project encompasses just about everything but sound science.

Cynical politicians and nuclear energy industry lobbyists perpetrated an outrage on the Silver State in 1987 when Congress passed the so-called "Screw Nevada" Bill, which designated Yucca Mountain as the only nuclear waste burial site to be studied on the "NIMBY" (Not In My Back Yard) theory that "Nevada is a desert and no one lives there." But times have changed since then and Nevada is a now an important swing state in national elections, which is why potential 2008 presidential candidates and other influential politicians are re-thinking Yucca Mountain, as well they should.

Although the Energy Department and a few Nevada turncoats, headed by former Gov. Bob List, a highly paid lobbyist for the Nuclear Energy Institute, are still trying to convince us that radioactive waste is good for us, our children and grandchildren, few Nevadans are buying what they're selling. Opposition is vocal and solidly bipartisan, led by Gov. Kenny Guinn and our entire five-person congressional delegation.

So it was no surprise when the U.S. House of Representatives voted 416-13 last May to approve "temporary" nuclear waste storage at "interim" facilities scattered around the country.

As we already know, however, nothing is ever temporary when it involves the federal government and, as Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) said when the House measure passed, "Interim, in geologic time, could mean several lifetimes." Obviously, these lawmakers recognize that the much-delayed Yucca Mountain project is in serious jeopardy. With luck, it will never happen.

I thought Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency, proposed a valid alternative to the nuclear waste dump during a speech to the Northern Nevada Development Authority earlier this year by suggesting that the giant hole in the ground at Yucca Mountain would make an excellent mega-wine cellar. Of course Gov. Guinn's good friend Larry Ruvo would have exclusive distribution rights for the wine.

In the same speech, Loux commented on the Feds' definition of sound science by quoting from embarrassing e-mails between Energy Department officials and Yucca Mountain contractors. "I don't have a clue when these programs were installed," one contractor admitted, "so I've made up the dates and names. If they need more proof, I'll be happy to make up more stuff." So much for sound science. I rest my case. Happy Nevada Day!

- Guy W. Farmer, a semi-retired journalist and former U.S. diplomat, resides in Carson City.

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Deseret News
November 2, 2005

No spur, no nuclear dump?

BLM official says he can't sign accord Goshutes need

By Joe Bauman
Deseret Morning News

A Bureau of Land Management official is refusing to sign an agreement that is needed if Private Fuel Storage is to build a railroad spur to its proposed repository site in Skull Valley.

Glenn A. Carpenter, manager of the BLM's Salt Lake field office, said he cannot sign the agreement until a moratorium on land-use planning is lifted. And that can't happen unless Congress removes the moratorium or the Air Force completes a resource study — a review the military seems in no hurry to finish.

Carpenter's letter was among three that Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, released Tuesday in a multipronged attack on plans for the high-level nuclear waste repository.

PFS is reconsidering its plans "because of our meeting with them," Hatch added in a Deseret Morning News telephone interview, "but I won't go beyond that for now."

Carpenter's letter says the BLM can't analyze the route of a railroad spur needed for the repository until a moratorium is lifted on land-use planning in the Skull Valley area. The moratorium, part of the Military Appropriations Act of 2000, was inserted into the bill by former Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah.

"So Jim is still working for Utah," Hatch commented.

The moratorium forbids BLM land-use planning in that part of Tooele County until the Air Force completes a study of resources in Skull Valley under the flight route to the Utah Test and Training Range. So far, the study has not been finished, according to the BLM.

Judging by the years that have passed since the moratorium began, the Air Force is in no rush to finish it. The storage of 44,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear fuel rods below the F-16 flight route could be an inconvenience to the Air Force.

In a press release, Hatch said he appreciates the BLM decision to follow the law. BLM's action has "jammed the NRC" and "sent a clear signal of more obstacles to come," he said.

The combination of the BLM objections and a letter from the Department of Energy secretary make it "clear the (Bush) administration is on our side," Hatch added in the release. "Let's face it, if the administration really wanted PFS to be built, there would be bulldozers out there right now.

"I am grateful the BLM and the administration are working with me to make sure that nuclear waste never makes a home in Utah."

Carpenter said the agreement could be construed as planning for the project, and land-use planning is blocked by the moratorium. However, he wrote in a letter to the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards that there could be language in the agreement allowing the BLM to later complete its action regarding land-use planning.

"BLM will not make a decision to authorize the construction of the railroad until after the moratorium is lifted," Carpenter wrote.

In an interview, Carpenter said action on the agency's land can only occur within the framework of its land-use plan. The proposed 33-mile railroad spur from Skunk Ridge to the proposed PFS site on Goshute Indian property was not part of the plan when it was written, he said.

Because of the moratorium against land-use planning contained in the military spending act, he said, the plan can't be modified, at least for now.

"Obviously, there's a lot of BLM public land beneath the overflight area," Carpenter said. "That moratorium effectively suspended our action on the (land-use) plan amendment."

The other letters were from:

• Samuel W. Bodman, secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, to Hatch, emphasizing that if the DOE's Yucca Mountain repository is built, it "will reduce, if not eliminate, the need for high-level radioactive waste to go to a private temporary storage facility in Utah."

The letter adds that DOE can't provide funding or financial assistance for the privately constructed PFS.

"As such, the Private Fuel Storage facility initiative is not part of the department's overall strategy for the management of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste," Bodman wrote.

• Hatch, to Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman Nils J. Diaz, warning the NRC not to issue a license for the facility before all affected federal agencies, including the BLM, have signed a memorandum of agreement. The agreement would assert that the project complies with cultural resource protection rules.

"However, it is my understanding that a number of these agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, have determined that they cannot sign the MOA because their concerns have not been met," Hatch wrote.

Hatch's letter, dated Tuesday, told Diaz that it would be "entirely inappropriate" for the NRC to license the plant before the relevant agencies have satisfied their legal and regulatory requirements under the National Historic Preservation Act.

Hatch told the Deseret Morning News that the Bodman letter is very important because it tells PFS, "This is never going to happen." And the BLM memo indicates to PFS, also, "You're a long way from this happening," he said.

During the interview, Hatch emphasized that these actions are just the beginning, "just some of the things I've done to not leave any stones unturned."

E-mail: bau@desnews.com

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Provo Daily Herald
November 02, 2005

Sen. Hatch says nuke site not possible without BLM approval

N.S. Nokkentved
Daily Herald

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, says the federal government can't issue a license for a controversial proposed nuclear waste storage project in Utah until land management officials sign off on it.

Under the National Historic Preservation Act, all relevant agencies must sign a memorandum of agreement on a proposed project before a license is granted, Hatch said.

The Bureau of Land Management still has not signed the agreement.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in September approved a license to Minnesota-based Private Fuel Storage LLC for the proposed Skull Valley project to store 44,000 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel from commercial power reactors near Dugway.

"This has jammed the NRC, and the BLM has sent a clear signal of more obstacles to come," Hatch said. He contends the NRC can't issue a license until the BLM signs off on the agreement.

"It would be entirely inappropriate for the NRC to issue a license to PFS before relevant agencies have satisfied their legal and regulatory requirements," Hatch said in a Nov. 1 letter to NRC Chairman Nils Diaz.

But the NRC is not so sure.

"We're looking at that question to see whether there's a way we can move forward," NRC spokesman David McIntyre said.

The memorandum of agreement covers only the railroad spur that would lead from the Union Pacific Railroad mainline to the storage site in Skull Valley. It remains unclear whether that would prohibit the NRC from issuing a license for the project, McIntyre said.

But the unsigned agreement is one of the reasons for the delay in issuing the license that was approved Sept. 10, he said. PFS applied for the license in 1997.

And the main reason BLM officials haven't signed the agreement is a provision in the 2000 National Defense Appropriations Act that prohibits the agency from amending its land use plan until the Pentagon studies how a wilderness designation on the Utah Test and Training Range would affect Air Force training readiness.

That provision was inserted into the act by then-Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, in 1999. The study has not been completed, and the BLM would have to amend its land use plan to allow PFS to build the railroad spur.

PFS head John Parkyn said the company plans to get around the problem either by getting the Pentagon to do the study or, if necessary, shipping the waste by truck.

"Our plan is to implement our license, which allows the safest possible storage of spent fuel in the country," Parkyn told The Associated Press in September.

Private Fuel Storage wants to build a storage site on the Goshute Indian Reservation in Skull Valley. The company has leased 820 acres from the tribe for the 100 acre site that would hold the spent fuel in up to 4,000 concrete and steel casks. The lease is for up to 40 years.

The company plans to build a railroad spur to bring the waste to the storage site. But first the BLM and an interagency team had to compile a "treatment plan" that would protect cultural, archeological and historic sites along the alignment, as well as plans to mitigate any effects on those resources.

The BLM's Salt Lake City field office manager Glenn Carpenter, however, was reluctant to sign off on the plan because it placed an unnecessarily heavy load on PFS.

"I'm reluctant to make it a requirement because it places a disproportionate burden on PFS," Carpenter said. But if PFS is willing to take on the burden of everything required in the plan, Carpenter would not have any trouble approving it.

N.S. Nokkentved can be reached at 344-2930 or at nnokkentved@heraldextra.com.

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Science Daily
November 02, 2005

Utah nuclear waste site a hot issue

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- A proposed nuclear waste storage site in Utah has hit another roadblock as the state's senior U.S. senator weighs in on the issue.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Republican, said an agreement between the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a Minnesota-based company is not binding because of federal law, The Provo Daily Herald reports.

The National Historic Preservation Act calls for every affected agency to sign off on the project, which would send 44,000 tons of radioactive material by rail into an area leased from the Goshute Indian Reservation in Skull Valley.

The Bureau of Land Management would have to amend its land use plan to allow a railroad track.

A 1999 provision of the Act is preventing that from happening. It calls for a study by the Pentagon before the land use plan can be changed.

That study has not taken place yet.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Utah's congressional delegation wants a wilderness designation for the area in question to be put in an upcoming defense bill, effectively blocking that railroad.

Private Fuel Storage LLC, said in that case it may use trucks to bring the nuclear waste to Utah.

Copyright 2005 by United Press

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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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