Yucca Mountain News Clips - Monday, November 14, 2005

Yucca Mountain News Clips
Monday, November 14, 2005
---------------------------

Guardian
November 14, 2005

Senate Cuts Spending for Nev. Nuclear Dump

By Andrew Taylor
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate voted Monday to cut significantly the budget for the troubled Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump as negotiators tried to finalize several other spending bills before stopgap funding expires.

The $450 million Yucca Mountain budget - down $127 million from each of the last two years - is included in a final bill funding energy and water programs for fiscal 2006, which cleared the Senate by an 84-4 vote. Senate negotiators immediately headed to a House meeting room for talks on two other bills.

The urgency comes as lawmakers try to wrap up work on the 11 spending bills comprising the approximately one-third of the federal budget that Congress passes each year. After years of consistent increases, the overall budget for domestic agencies - with the exception of the Homeland Security Department - is essentially frozen or even slightly below last year's levels.

The Senate vote clears the sixth of 11 spending bills for President Bush's signature. Lawmakers hope to complete action on remaining domestic bills by Friday, when a bill funding agency budgets on a stopgap basis expires. The temporary funding bill has been in place since the budget year began Oct. 1.

The advances on the appropriations bills contrasts with the difficulties House leaders have had in passing $50 billion-plus in cuts over five years to so-called mandatory spending - the approximately 55 percent of the budget for programs like Medicare and Medicaid that goes up automatically each year. GOP leaders scrapped plans for a vote last week.

Meanwhile, a $453 billion defense measure, though nearly complete, is being held in reserve despite protests from the Pentagon. GOP leaders may use the politically unstoppable bill to carry other legislative freight.

The Yucca nuclear waste repository in Nevada would be funded at $450 million for the 2006 budget year. Bill negotiators also ditched a controversial House plan to supplement Yucca with interim storage sites for nuclear waste.

The final figure was also less than the House and the Senate passed during earlier debates. More delays in the oft-delayed project caused lawmakers to curb Yucca Mountain's budget.

Those cuts helped free up funds for the Corps of Engineers, which received $5.6 billion, $1 billion above Bush's request. That includes $8 million requested by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., for the Corps to design a plan to bring south Louisiana up to Category Five hurricane protection.

The bill also kills off a program to study and develop a ``bunker buster'' nuclear warhead, ending a three-year battle between the Pentagon and lawmakers opposed to the project. Opponents have argued it would send the wrong nuclear nonproliferation message to the world. Instead the administration plans to pursue a conventional weapon that can penetrate hardened underground targets.

But the White House is showing much less flexibility on numerous other battles playing out on the other spending bills.

The White House, working in concert with House GOP leaders, has forced the Senate to give up on a series of budget tricks it used to add funding for programs favored by lawmakers. The Senate has had to relent on plans to transfer $7 billion from defense to domestic programs.

Senators also abandoned more than $3 billion made available through an accounting gimmick for programs including health research, medical training and heating subsidies for the poor. That move came as House-Senate negotiators worked on a sweeping measure providing $143 billion in discretionary funding for labor, health and education programs.

Without the extra cash, however, lawmakers were unable to fulfill funding promises made under Bush's landmark No Child Left Behind education bill. And research funding for the National Institutes of Health would be virtually frozen.

Programs funded by the education and health bill faced a $1.1 billion cut over last year's levels once $800 million in extra costs to implement to new prescription drug benefit are factored in.

The energy bill also would:

-Provide $220 million, about a third what the administration had sought, to build a plant at the DOE's Savannah River complex in South Carolina to convert excess weapons-grade plutonium to a mix-oxide fuel for use in a commercial reactor.

-Provide $130 million for various Energy Department programs for research into the nuclear fuel cycle for commercial power plants, including money to look into the feasibility of fuel reprocessing, which was abandoned by the United States in the 1970s because of nuclear proliferation risks.

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

U.S. Newswire
November 14, 2005

Congress Takes Step Backwards on Nuclear Fuel Cycle; Reverting to Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Would Heighten Terrorism Threat, Says UCS

To: National Desk, Energy and Environment reporters

Contact: Ed Lyman, 202-331-5445, 202-841-0181 (cell), elyman@ucsusa.org or Stephen Kent, 845-758-0097, 914-589-5988 (cell), skent@kentcom.com - both for UCS

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Union of Concerned Scientists today condemned a provision approved by Congress that provides $50 million to the Department of Energy for "reprocessing" the spent fuel discharged from nuclear power reactors. Reprocessing separates plutonium in spent fuel from the remaining radioactive waste. Because separated plutonium can be used in nuclear weapons and is highly vulnerable to theft, this plan will greatly increase the risk that terrorists or hostile states will acquire nuclear weapon materials.

This funding, included in the FY 06 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, is being provided to DOE for building an engineering-scale demonstration reprocessing plant, selecting sites for full-scale reprocessing plants by FY 2007, and beginning construction of one or more facilities by FY 2010. These funds are in addition to $80 million DOE will receive for research and development on reprocessing technologies.

"The United States needs to take a giant step back from this brink," said Dr. Lisbeth Gronlund, co-director and senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists' Global Security Program. "Separating plutonium from spent fuel is not a solution to the nuclear waste problem and would increase the risk that terrorists could acquire plutonium and use it to make a nuclear weapon."

Congressional appropriators claim that reprocessing is needed because of "uncertainties" in the current plan to develop a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain for the direct disposal of spent fuel. However, separating plutonium will not avoid the need for geologic repositories to store the remaining radioactive wastes that result from reprocessing spent fuel.

"Reprocessing only amplifies the safety, security, economic and proliferation risks of nuclear waste disposal," said Dr. Edwin Lyman, senior staff scientist at UCS. "A much better approach is to continue to store spent fuel on site in hardened casks with improved security against terrorist attack. This would give the United States plenty of time to seek a truly workable and safe solution to its nuclear waste problems."

If the U.S. were to reprocess the roughly 50,000 metric tons of spent fuel that it has generated to date, it would produce about 500 metric tons of separated plutonium, enough for tens of thousands of nuclear weapons and an attractive target for terrorists. Although reprocessing supporters claim that the U.S. would be able to promptly use all the separated plutonium in new reactor fuel, this is not supported by the experience of other countries that have reprocessed spent fuel, where well over 200 metric tons of separated plutonium have accumulated. Also, DOE estimated in1999 that it would cost taxpayers $280 billion to reprocess all U.S. spent fuel and reuse the plutonium in fresh fuel.

Formed in 1969, UCS is a nonprofit partnership of scientists and citizens combining rigorous scientific analysis, innovative policy development and effective citizen advocacy to achieve practical environmental solutions. Web: http://www.ucsusa.org

http://www.usnewswire.com/

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

Reno Gazette Journal
November 14, 2005

Time magazine names Nevada's Guinn as one of America's five best governors

Associated Press

Gov. Kenny Guinn has been named one of the nation's five best governors by Time magazine.

The magazine praised Guinn on its Web site Sunday for fighting his own Republican party and outliving a legal battle and a brief recall effort to win an $833 million dollar tax increase -- the largest in Nevada history-- in 2003.

Time called that a "still controversial but realistic step to shore up the overstretched budget of the nation's fastest-growing state."

Guinn justified his decision as something that needed to be done at the time. This year, at Guinn's insistence, the state refunded $300 million to vehicle owners.

"I believe we stood tall and did what we had to do and put the money in the right places," he said.

Along with the thriving economy in Nevada, the site noted the Millennium Scholarship program Guinn pushed to help the state's high school graduates pay for a college education in Nevada.

"Guinn managed to put Nevada's long-term fiscal health above his own or his party's considerations. That's a risky gamble for any politician," Time said of the governor, who is completing the last of his two terms permitted by the state Constitution.

It added, however, that funding for the program is uncertain and his health care goals remain vague.

"It hasn't been perfect, but I truly can tell you I believe we have made progress," Guinn said.

Time cited Guinn for his fight against a nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain and his work to diversify Nevada's gambling-oriented economy.

He and Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee are the Republicans in Time's best five. Democrats are Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and Mike Warner of Virginia.

"When it comes to raw political talent, there's not a Bill Clinton in this group," the Web site said. " But these are the rainy days. And charisma doesn't keep you dry. A roof does. Meet the hardest-working carpenters."

Time's worst governors were Democrat Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana and Republicans Bob Taft of Ohio and Mark Sanford of South Carolina.

The magazine said editors consulted academics, political analysts and former governors in compiling the lists.

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

TIME
November 14, 2005

Kenny Guinn | Nevada

A Gambling Governor Makes a Smart Bet

By Daniel Eisenberg

More often than not, incurring the wrath of your own party is a recipe for failure in politics. But in 2003, when Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn fought for the largest tax increase in state history, he not only infuriated his core Republican supporters but also sparked a bitter legal battle and a short-lived recall campaign against him. So it is a testament to Guinn's savvy and leadership that instead of being wounded in the civil war, he actually came out stronger, eventually broadening his public support and raising his standing among good-government watchdogs. "The state will be better off for years to come," says Alan Ehrenhalt, executive editor of Governing magazine.

As Guinn enters the final year of his busy two terms in office, his signature achievement remains the $830 million tax hike, a still controversial but realistic step to shore up the overstretched budget of the nation's fastest-growing state. "People say, 'Well, growth ought to pay for growth,' but I'm here to tell you, it doesn't," says Guinn, 69. When he was elected in 1998, little about Guinn's low-key personality or career background indicated he would try to be such a radical reformer or turn out to be such a polarizing figure. Having spent most of his career as an education administrator and corporate executive in banking and energy, he was widely viewed as the handpicked candidate of the state's casinos, a proven consensus builder and skilled manager who could smoothly shepherd Nevada's pro-business agenda.

While the economy has continued to thrive on his watch, Guinn has tried to leave Nevada with a broader and more solid foundation for the long-term future. Most notably, he established a Millennium Scholarship program to help high school graduates pay for college, and privatized the state's underfunded workers' compensation program--a move that took the $2 billion shortfall off Nevada's books and helped lower the insurance rates companies pay into the system. Along the way, Guinn helped fight the Federal Government's plan for a nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain; moved to diversify Nevada's gambling-dependent economy; and worked to address its many social ills, which include some of the nation's highest rates for suicide, teen pregnancy, youth violence and high school dropouts.

Guinn's critics say he has failed to fulfill many of his goals--especially to improve health care--and that he has been inconsistent in his plans to finance them. Long-term funding for the scholarships, for instance, is still up in the air. And during his seven years in the Governor's mansion, Guinn initially ruled out raising taxes, then embraced the idea, and most recently has, of all things, pushed through a one-time $300 million tax rebate. Still, no matter how he went about it, Guinn managed to put Nevada's long-term fiscal health above his own or his party's political considerations. That's a risky gamble for any politician. But with his approval numbers back near 60%, Guinn has gone a long way in showing that it can pay off in the end.

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

Daily Cardinal
November 14, 2005

UW fueling nuclear energy recycling

Robert Beets
The Daily Cardinal

Across the United States, radioactive uranium rods wait in storage containers at nuclear power plants, mounting into a large waste issue for the national government and utility companies. As waste builds, many Midwestern universities, including UW-Madison, are looking to improve nuclear fuel reprocessing techniques and streamline the nuclear fuel cycle, which would reduce the overall volume of toxic waste.

“There is a lot of interest in Washington in nuclear fuel reprocessing,’ said Paul Wilson, associate professor of engineering at UW-Madison. “Specific technologies are still in question, but the fundamental idea of recycling spent nuclear fuel rods than simply burying it in the ground is one that is gaining a lot of interest right now because of the long-term consequences.’

“Spent nuclear rods’ removed from reactors contain un-decayed uranium, plutonium and other radioactive byproducts which may cause cancer and other diseases. These waste products need to be stored indefinitely in metal and concrete casks to prevent catastrophe, but reprocessing the used rods would reduce waste volume and ease storage problems.

Without reprocessing nuclear fuel stored in the United States, the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear repository would be immediately near capacity with the backlog of nuclear waste. This would create a need for a second repository, a task increasingly difficult with political opposition to nuclear technology and waste. Deep geologic repositories are currently the best method for nuclear waste disposal, but their durability over thousands of years while fuel degrades is yet to be determined.

Recycling nuclear fuel involves removing unused uranium elements from “spent’ nuclear fuel and recasting rods to be again placed inside a nuclear reactor. Current reprocessing technology can perform this task, but it is inefficient and not cost-effective for the nuclear industry.

“We want to look at the pretty gritty processing, chemical engineering, nuclear engineering and all these associated technologies to make it more efficient,’ said Michael Corradini, UW-Madison engineering physics professor. “And as you make it more efficient, meaning that you can do the task for less money or less materials, it becomes more interesting for the industry to use. And the benefit is we recycle a whole lot of stuff and we only get rid of a small fraction [of waste].’

As plants continue to produce electricity, recycling uranium resources is a great option to reduce the flow of waste to repositories. Many nuclear power plants are scheduled for renewal in coming years, ensuring the flow of radioactive waste for decades.

“When we do start [building nuclear power plants] again in five years or so, it´s not clear that they need to be a lot better than they are right now for producing electricity; they´re pretty good at it, in terms of making money for utilities and economically producing electricity. So what is going to drive that necessity is the issue of waste and sustainability,’ Wilson said.

Instituting reprocessing and making the fuel cycle more efficient would require less uranium to be extracted from the ground, possibly the largest environmental impact in the entire nuclear industry, said Richard Shaten, UW-Madison faculty associate and instructor of Environmental Studies.

Nuclear power makes up approximately 20 percent of consumed electricity—mechanisms that make the industry more sustainable and efficient would benefit all consumers. Research at UW-Madison could improve reprocessing techniques, make recycling uranium resources viable for the nuclear industry and in turn reduce stress on national toxic waste repositories.

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

TIME
November 13, 2005

America's 5 Best Governors

When it comes to raw political talent, there's not a Bill Clinton in this group. But these are the rainy days. And charisma doesn't keep you dry. A roof does. Meet the hardest-working carpenters

By Amanda Ripley and Karen Tumulty/Washington

Kenny Guinn/Nevada

A Gambling Governor Makes a Smart Bet

While the economy has continued to thrive on his watch, Guinn has tried to leave Nevada with a broader and more solid foundation for the long-term future. Most notably, he established a Millennium Scholarship program to help high school graduates pay for college, and privatized the state's underfunded workers' compensation program—a move that took the $2 billion shortfall off Nevada's books and helped lower the insurance rates companies pay into the system. Along the way, Guinn helped fight the Federal Government's plan for a nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain; moved to diversify Nevada's gambling-dependent economy; and worked to address its many social ills, which include some of the nation's highest rates for suicide, teen pregnancy, youth violence and high school dropouts.

Guinn's critics say he has failed to fulfill many of his goals—especially to improve health care—and that he has been inconsistent in his plans to finance them. Long-term funding for the scholarships, for instance, is still up in the air. And during his seven years in the Governor's mansion, Guinn initially ruled out raising taxes, then embraced the idea, and most recently has, of all things, pushed through a one-time $300 million tax rebate. Still, no matter how he went about it, Guinn managed to put Nevada's long-term fiscal health above his own or his party's political considerations. That's a risky gamble for any politician. But with his approval numbers back near 60%, Guinn has gone a long way in showing that it can pay off in the end. —By Daniel Eisenberg. Reported by Stacy J. Willis/Las Vegas and Amanda Bower/San Francisco

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

LaCrosse Tribune
November 13, 2005

Activists: Keep nuclear waste here

By Reid Magney
La Crosse Tribune

Storing nuclear waste nearby in places like Genoa, Wis., and Prairie Island, Minn., is better than shipping it cross-country to Utah or Nevada, anti-nuclear activists said Saturday in La Crosse.

Moving nuclear waste on trains and trucks creates risk of accidents and terrorist attacks, said Kevin Kamps, a nuclear waste specialist with the Washington, D.C.-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service.

Kamps was one of several activists and experts who spoke at a conference Saturday at UW-La Crosse dealing with the dangers of transporting nuclear waste and the impact on American Indian people. About 50 people attended the event, sponsored by the UW-L Native American Student Association.

Nuclear power plants across the U.S. are running out of space to store spent fuel, and the federal government hasn´t been able to complete its Yucca Mountain long-term storage site in Nevada. Several utilities, including Xcel Energy and Dairyland Power Cooperative, formed a company called Private Fuel Storage LLC and recently got approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to create an interim waste storage site on American Indian land in Utah.

Private Fuel Storage is headquartered in La Crosse, and its chairman, John Parkyn, is a former executive with Dairyland. He said recently that it will be several years before the facility is ready to accept shipments, and that shipment plans and routes are subject to further approval of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Margene Bullcreek, a member of the Skull Valley Goshute tribe in Utah, said tribal leaders decided to let Private Fuel Storage operate on their land, but the decision is not supported by the members.

“No matter how safe they say it is, there´s always some kind of a manmade accident,’ Bullcreek said. “This is high-level nuclear waste. It´s poison.’

Dairyland officials say they have not yet decided whether to ship spent fuel from their closed Genoa reactor to Utah, and are considering storing it on-site in dry casks. They are starting to decommission the plant.

Kamps and others at the conference said they prefer the waste stay where it is. Kamps called nuclear waste shipments “pre-deployed weapons of mass destruction’ because “it wouldn´t take a terrorist attack, just an accident’ to cause a major leak.

However, waste stored on site “must be safeguarded against accidents and secured against attacks,’ Kamps said.

Oscar Shirani, a nuclear industry whistle-blower who said he traveled from France to attend the conference, raised questions about the safety of dry storage casks that will likely be used to move and store spent fuel.

Shirani worked in the nuclear industry for 23 years, and was a structural engineer and auditor at Exelon Corp., which operates nuclear plants in Illinois and elsewhere. He said he found problems with casks being made for Exelon, but the company covered up his findings and eventually laid him off. He recently lost a whistle-blower claim against his former employer.

Shirani said he´s concerned that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission isn´t doing enough to ensure safety of waste storage casks and that its audits only look at procedures, not the actual manufacturing of the casks.

Dairyland officials did not attend the conference. In an interview last week, Parkyn said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission took 81/2 years before approving the license for Private Fuel Storage.

He said the states of Nevada and Utah and other opponents made their arguments against the Skull Valley site, but that opponents were not able to convince the NRC not to grant a license.

Reid Magney can be reached at (608) 791-8211 or rmagney@lacrossetribune.com.

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

Las Vegas Review-Journal
November 11, 2005

'Significant reduction' in nuclear waste seen

Yucca Mountain nominee testifies before panel

By Tony Batt
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Even if technology is developed to dispose of nuclear waste, a repository will be necessary, the nominee to direct the Yucca Mountain Project told a Senate committee on Thursday.

Edward "Ward" Sproat acknowledged techniques like reprocessing could result in a "significant reduction" in the 77,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste to be stored at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"No matter which way we go ... you will still need at least one high-level geological repository for waste emplacement," Sproat said.

But Sprout said the country should plan to recycle and not just bury nuclear waste. He made his comments during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said Sproat's nomination may be approved by the panel as early as next week.

Directing the Yucca Mountain Project "will consume you, and sometimes you will wonder for what," Domenici told Sproat.

The confirmation hearing occurred one day after the House voted 399-17 to cut Yucca Mountain's budget by $127 million next year. The House also rejected a proposal for interim storage sites to supplement the Yucca Mountain repository.

In written questions submitted to Sproat, Domenici said Yucca Mountain may not begin receiving nuclear waste until 2015. The Energy Department has postponed earlier opening dates of 1998 and 2010.

"If you're trying to change the law to, in some way, expedite Yucca, you've got to pass it through the Senate; and I'm not advising the (Bush) administration that I know how to do that," Domenici said.

Sproat, a nuclear industry executive from Pennsylvania, was nominated in September by President Bush to be the director of the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.

Sproat was the lead negotiator for PECO Energy Company of Philadelphia, which reached an agreement with the Energy Department in July 2000 to reduce PECO's payments into a federal fund for nuclear waste storage. It was the first time a utility reached an agreement with the Energy Department for the department's failure to meet a Jan. 31, 1998, deadline to begin storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

Sproat said he intends the upcoming licensing activities for Yucca Mountain to be a "transparent process."

"The people who are going to be affected by this project both within the state of Nevada and along the transportation routes have every right to expect that they will get a chance to participate, learn, understand and influence how the spent fuel transportation and disposal system is going to work and impact them," Sproat said.

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

Salt Lake Tribune
November 11, 2005

Bush's Yucca pick endorses recycling of N-waste

By Erica Werner
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - President Bush's pick to oversee the troubled Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada said the country should move toward recycling - not just burying - spent nuclear fuel.

Edward ''Ward'' Sproat, a nuclear industry executive tapped to head the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, made the comments at his Energy Committee confirmation hearing Thursday.

''If the country decides to go and close the fuel cycle, go to full reprocessing like our original intent was back in the 1960s and early 1970s, the impact would be a significant reduction in the amount of high-level radioactive waste that would have to be disposed of in a deep geological repository,'' Sproat said in answering a question from Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.

''I personally believe it makes a lot of sense,'' Sproat said.

The United States abandoned reprocessing in the 1970s over fears that the resulting plutonium could be seized by terrorists, but the Bush administration has proposed reviving the approach.

Lawmakers this week agreed to spend $50 million on recycling initiatives in 2006, even as they cut the budget for the lagging Yucca Mountain project.

The project has been without a permanent director since Margaret Chu resigned in February. Since then, two different acting directors have overseen Yucca Mountain as it suffered setbacks, including the disclosure of e-mails suggesting government scientists on the project falsified data.

Yucca Mountain is planned as a national repository for 77,000 tons of defense waste and used reactor fuel to be buried beneath the desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The planned opening date of the project has been pushed from 2010 until 2012 at earliest.

Sproat told senators that even if the country starts recycling nuclear waste, Yucca Mountain will still be needed to expand the use of nuclear power.

The Energy Committee is expected to vote next week to approve Sproat's nomination and send it to the full Senate.

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

Las Vegas SUN
November 11, 2005

Microscope opening up new worlds

By Mary Manning
<manning@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas Sun

Gazing through the dual lens of UNLV's electron microscope, research scientist Thomas Hartmann can see into the heart of matter.

The new transmission electron microscope housed at UNLV's Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies can help scientists determine the structure and chemical features of materials down to the atomic level.

The microscope, called the TEM, cost $1.3 million and is one of 70 that exist today.

It is letting scientists investigate what happens to metals and other materials when they are bathed in radiation, important research for nuclear waste storage and whether a nuclear waste repository is built at Yucca Mountain.

Allen Johnson, a UNLV chemistry professor, is leading a project to study how stainless steel corrodes. That's important because nuclear waste could be transported and stored in stainless steel containers.

The microscope also allows researchers to perform stress tests on metal or other materials, which is important for construction and engineering.

Researchers studying water treatment are able to actually see if certain microbes will physically work on pollutants, bacteria and viruses.

The university is also letting private industry use the microscope, charging $140 an hour, Hartmann said.

Unlike an ordinary microscope using a light beam shining beneath the specimen on a glass slide, the TEM brings its subject into focus from a shower of electrons cascading from above the sample.

The microscope looks at material that can be 20 times thinner than a human hair, magnifying the sample 1 million times.

Mary Manning can be reached at 259-4065 or at manning@lasvegassun.com.

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

Las Vegas SUN
November 11, 2005

Vegas documentarian Ives is unconventional authority

By Kristen Peterson
<kristen@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas Sun

It's difficult to find a documentary on Las Vegas that attempts to tell the whole story. But "Las Vegas: An Unconventional History," airing Monday and Tuesday on KLVX Channel 10 (PBS) as part of "American Experience," makes the effort.

Produced and directed by Stephen Ives, the two-part documentary examines the idea that Las Vegas and American ideals are merging, and looks at how residents fare in an area devoted to tourists.

It goes beyond the glitter to look at Las Vegas' neighborhoods, its social services, its ugly racist past and its dreams and growing pains.

Contemporary Las Vegas is contrasted against historic footage of the city's growth spurts. We meet compulsive gamblers, a successful real estate agent, students in the crowded Clark County School District and disgruntled longtime residents upset by lack of planned growth.

Since taking on the project two years ago, Ives said he's been fascinated by the "bravado" of a city that has always been able to anticipate desire and keep itself one step ahead of regulators in Washington and the changing taste of the public.

"In the 1950s, you were out on the edge if you went to Las Vegas," he said "The things that would have been scandalous are now on cable. The city and the country are growing together."

State Sen. Dina Titus, art critic Dave Hickey, radio talk-show host Patricia Cunningham, Las Vegas Sun editor Brian Greenspun, and Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith fill in the story narrated by actor Michael Murphy.

Marc Cooper, author of "The Last Honest Place in America," is also a voice in the documentary.

Between intriguing statistics (such as 60 new streets being named each month and Las Vegas once having more churches per capita than any American city of its size) and slow-motion implosions set to the song "The Good Life," the documentary is as educational as it is entertaining.

Old footage shows the change from the Western town's railroad days to the Rat Pack era and how Las Vegas turned atomic testing into an entertainment factor. There is the inevitable look at how America lets loose when it wants to.

"Las Vegas is one of the most astonishing creations in America," Ives said. "It is the most visited place in the world. It's surpassed Mecca."

But, he added, "The level of ignorance about Las Vegas away from the Strip in the country is staggering. And it's understandable. Most people who go to Las Vegas visit the Strip and go home again.

"We wanted to show both sides of that coin. Ten thousand people come to Las Vegas every month, but every month 5,000 leave."

The project is the official documentary of the Las Vegas Centennial Celebration. It ends with the making of the world-record Centennial cake that sums up the city's excess.

"We couldn't really ever do it all," Ives said, referring to the fact that Yucca Mountain, which he said is more of a Nevada issue, was left out. "But I felt that in the end we pretty much put our arms around the story in the best way we could."

On the stage

Stand-up comic Carole Montgomery stars in her one-woman show, "Confessions of a PT & A Mom" at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Backstage Theatre on the Community College of Southern Nevada's Cheyenne campus, 3200 E. Cheyenne Ave.

Montgomery, who has performed comedy in various shows on the Strip, wrote "Confessions" with her husband. The story of a middle-aged woman fighting to get back her true self, it was inspired by the duality of Las Vegas' night life and suburban life. Tickets are $8; $5 for students and seniors. Call 651-5483.

Las Vegas Little Theatre's Insomniac Project explores the afterlife in, well, "Afterlife" at 11 p.m. today and Saturday, and 6 p.m. Sunday at the Las Vegas Little Theatre, 3920 Schiff Drive.

The comedic presentation of four short plays looks at death and what lies beyond: "Crystal Ball" has a mediocre psychic haunted by her late mother, a renowned psychic. "Fast Track" has four strangers awaiting something, but they don't know what. In "Past Lives" a woman lunching with a friend discovers that the waitress is a reincarnation of her ex-husband. "Are You Being Served" portrays a young man being enlightened on the idea of heaven and hell in a metaphysical waiting room after he kills himself.

Tickets are $10. Call 362-7996.

Fall concert

The Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society presents "A Mozart-Haydn-Mendelssohn Celebration" at 3 p.m. Sunday at UNLV's Artemus Ham Hall. The program features the 60-voice Musical Arts Chorus, a 35-piece orchestra and guest soloists, Mezzo-Soprano Juline Gilmore, soprano Amy Cofield and baritone Tod Fitzpatrick.

Tickets are $12; $10 for seniors, disabled and military; free to students with identification. Call 895-2787.

Kristen Peterson can be reached at 259-2317 or at kristen@lasvegassun.com.

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

Pahrump Valley Times
November 11, 2005

YUCCA PROJECT QUESTIONS RISE

Congress negotiators agree to cut spending in 2006

By Erica Werner
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers agreed Monday to cut 2006 spending for Yucca Mountain well below past-year levels and President Bush's budget request, reflecting the faltering prospects for locating the nation's nuclear waste dump in the Nevada desert.

House and Senate negotiators also ditched a House plan to supplement Yucca Mountain with interim storage sites for nuclear waste, settling instead on spending $50 million to promote recycling spent nuclear fuel.

In finishing work on a $30.5 billion bill to fund energy and water projects, lawmakers agreed to spend $450 million in 2006 on Yucca Mountain, the planned underground repository for 77,000 tons of the nation's most radioactive nuclear waste.

The project's budget was $577 million in each of the past two years, and Bush asked for $650 million for the dump in his 2006 budget request.

The final figure also was less than the House and the Senate agreed to separately earlier this year, but lawmakers and aides said delays on the project kept the number low.

"No matter what side of Yucca you're on, the truth of the matter is Yucca is ... not on the schedule that even was predicted the last time. It's behind schedule," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee's energy and water subcommittee.

"We think that this will keep what should be done on schedule," he told reporters.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who has opposed locating the dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, saw progress of another kind.

"The Yucca Mountain project is fraught with inadequate science and insidious mismanagement," the Nevada Democrat said. "The project is never going to open and each year we grow closer to killing it."

Two years ago, the Energy Department projected needing $1.2 billion for Yucca Mountain in 2006. That was when officials were hoping to quickly submit a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and open the dump by 2010.

Since then, a series of setbacks - including a required rewrite of radiation safety standards - have slowed the project.

Now it's not clear when the license application will be submitted, and the projected opening date has slipped to 2012, at the earliest.

"While this funding decision may force us to go at a slower pace, it will not deter us from our principles of using sound science to develop a high-quality license application and a disposal facility that is safe and reliable to operate," Energy Department spokesman Craig Stevens said.

Lawmakers deleted a House proposal to spend $10 million for the Energy Department to produce a plan for temporary aboveground storage for spent reactor fuel from commercial nuclear power plants.

Instead the bill contains $50 million for spent fuel recycling, including $20 million for states or localities to compete to host a recycling facility and $30 million for research and other work.

On the Net:

Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov

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

Pahrump Valley Times
November 11, 2005

Commission Preview

A week full of county meetings

By Phillip Gomez
PVT

The Nye County Board of Commissioners have an almost full-time schedule next week, meeting from Monday through Thursday in Pahrump for several housekeeping matters on their busy agenda.

All meeting locations are scheduled for the Bob Ruud Community Center.

At 3 p.m. on Monday Kitchell CEM, the county's consultant for the new county jail, will make a presentation on its assessment of detention facilities for Pahrump and its master plan for the facility. A workshop will ensue to discuss the future location for the jail, as well as other county offices.

Another workshop will immediately follow to discuss past, present and future PETT allocations and county spending projections. PETT is the Payment Equal To Taxes Nye County receives from the Department of Energy for the Yucca Mountain Repository.

At 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday the commissioners meet to hold their regular monthly meeting in Pahrump; planning and zoning agenda items are reserved for Wednesday's session.

At 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday a second public hearing is scheduled for amending the Nye County code by adopting water conservation standards for the Pahrump Valley.

At 11 a.m. Community Development Block Grants are scheduled for discussion in a public hearing. An overview of the program will be presented and commissioners will make their selection and prioritize possible projects. Also to be discussed and possibly decided upon is the needs statement for housing and community development for FY 2006-07.

On the consent agenda is approval for the purchase of a "Kawasaki Mule" for $6,600 by the town of Beatty. Approval is also sought for retaining MaryEllen C. Giampaoli for preparing a Brownsfield's cleanup revolving-loan fund grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Nye County assessor is scheduled to request an investigation into the possible violation of Nevada law "wherein persons are contracting to sell parcels of land for which no division of land map exists."

Other agenda items scheduled for discussion and possible action include:

€ Authorizing the sheriff's office to spend grant funds without requiring additional documentation besides a standard invoice or purchase order.

€ Authorizing spending up to $100,000 for a dictation/transcription service for the sheriff's office. The amount is not budgeted.

€ A bill authorizing the abolishment of the county's federal impacts advisory board. The board is responsible for assessing the dangers posed by the Yucca Mountain Repository and Nevada Test Site, acting as an early-warning watchdog against possible underground water contamination and other matters related to the federal presence in Nye County.

€ Approval is sought for the purchase of a modular building 140 feet by 60 feet. The location and amount are to be determined by the board.

€ Approval is sought for entering into a contract with US MetroNets to establish a plan to design, fund, construct and operate a fiber-optic ring running throughout Nye County to provide advanced communications services to towns, government agencies and residents along major corridors.

€ Approval of new job descriptions and assigned pay grades for the comptroller department: A senior financial analyst, a financial assistant II, a financial assistant I and a payroll specialist are the position descriptions under review. The human resources manager is proposing using current staffers to fill the positions. Also scheduled is the approval of new job descriptions for personnel technicians in the human resources department.

In addition, an adjustment of the temporary pay scale is sought for part-time employees to bring them in line with the pay for full-time employees.

On Wednesday the commissioners meet to decide a number of planning issues: an appeal of the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission for a waiver to allow a parcel map without adequate public or private access, master plan amendments, zone changes and other waiver applications.

At 1:30 p.m. a public hearing is scheduled for amending the county code refining "home occupations" and allowing craft and other "passive" industries to co-exist within residential areas.

However, at the meeting of the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission held Wednesday the same issue was scheduled for refining before going to the commissioners. A political catfight ensued among the commissioners and planning staff for 45 minutes over the definition of "home occupation" before the decision to hold a workshop on the matter ended it and the commissioners adjourned.

Action is also possible on adopting or rejecting a resolution establishing a Pahrump storm water utility task force. Additionally, the TischlerBise consulting company is to be asked to provide services to the task force, and the task force is to be asked to perform an assessment of viable alternatives for establishing a storm-water tax district to deal with flooding in the Pahrump Valley. A recommendation is to be made to county commissioners.

Beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday the commission will conduct its second public auction of 24 county properties. A deposit of 25 percent of all bids is required of bidders.

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

Salt Lake Tribune
November 11, 2005

Skull Valley: Western states should stand together against fuel rods

The myth says that rugged loners won the West. In fact, people out West always have worked together. Survival demanded it.

So we tip our hat to Harry Reid, the senior U.S. senator from Nevada, who is making common cause with Utah in its effort to keep 44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel rods out of the Beehive State. Reid, the leader of the Senate's Democratic minority, has dropped his opposition to a Utah-sponsored bill that would create a wilderness area around Cedar Mountain. Wilderness designation would make it impossible for a group of Eastern bushwhackers to build a rail line to a nuclear holding pen they propose to build on the Goshute Reservation in Utah's Skull Valley.

The bushwhackers, otherwise known as Private Fuel Storage, are a consortium of Midwestern and Eastern public utilities that operate nuclear-fueled electric power plants. Because it is becoming inconvenient for them to store their spent fuel rods at their reactor sites, they want to move them to Utah.

The highly radioactive fuel rods would be entombed in glass, encased in giant cannisters and set upright on a giant parking lot. There they would stay for 20 years, or until they or their contents could be moved to a permanent repository inside Yucca Mountain, Nev.

That's where Sen. Reid comes in. He and other Nevadans don't want a toxic tomb in their state any more than Utahns want a plutonium parking lot in theirs.

But Utah and Nevada are not the only Western states with a dog in this fight. The waste would have to move through neighboring states on its way to either Utah or Nevada. Which is why Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and other states should be joining a Western compact to keep the spent fuel rods at the reactor sites. Transport through numerous cities and towns across the nation creates greater risk of accident.

If Western leaders can get together and stump for things like a combined presidential primary - a good idea - they should certainly form a posse on this fuel rods issue.

We regret that Utah's congressional delegation did not take Nevada's side during earlier votes on Yucca Mountain. But, with the exception of Sen. Orrin Hatch, Utah's congressional delegation, led by Sen. Bob Bennett, has since realized that joint interest is self-interest. Other Westerners - and Hatch - should too.

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

Korea Times
November 11, 2005

Research Begins on High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository

By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter

The government has launched a feasibility research on the construction of a high-level nuclear waste storage, following the designation of Kyongju in North Kyongsang Province as the first dumpsite for low- and mid-level radioactive waste.

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE) is poised to highlight the global issue on the handling of the most highly radioactive waste.

``We started out to study domestic and foreign research documents on the high-level nuclear waste dumpsite,´´ Cho Seok, a director general in charge of new energy & nuclear power at the MOCIE, told The Korea Times yesterday.

Saying that several developed countries are in active discussion to set up a high-level nuclear repository, respectively, he stressed the issue is a matter of urgency to Korea, which also ranked 10th in energy consumption in the world.

``We expect a series of backlashes from environmentalists and NGOs,´´ Cho said. ``I believe the nation´s atomic energy use would be impossible in the long run without a storage for waste.´´

But he admitted that advanced countries, including the United States, are also taking a wait-and-see attitude as the issue may trigger resistance among global activists as well as domestically.

There is no nation that has a high-level nuclear dumpsite while there are about 70 low- and intermediate-level repositories in more than 30 countries.

High-level nuclear waste could be a fatal threat to mankind while low- and mid-level waste would turn into harmless products in around 300 years. ``It takes more than 10,000 years for high-level waste to become safe for humans,´´ Cho said.

The U.S. designated Yucca Mountain, Nevada as the high-level waste storage in 2002. The central government is set to launch construction in consultation with the state government.

Japan is also deep in internal discussions, aiming to operate a high-level waste facility in the 2030s. European countries, such as Sweden, Finland and Britain, have named a site or are in the final-stages of research.

Korea has temporary dumpsites for the radioactive waste in several locations. But the storage capacity will hit the ceiling before 2010, according to atomic energy experts.

On Nov. 2, South Korea named Kyongju as the low- and mid-level nuke dumpsite via respective votes at four candidate locations. The designation through bidding competition involving voting was a worldwide unprecedented case, according to MOCIE officials.

kys@koreatimes.co.kr

---------------------------
State of Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects
www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/
nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us
775-687-3744
---------------------------