Yucca Mountain News Clips
Friday, February 17, 2006
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Las Vegas SUN
February 17, 2006
DOE: Suspect Yucca Mountain work is sound, but will be redone
By Erica Werner
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Work on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, though performed by federal employees who apparently made up facts, was scientifically sound, an Energy Department report said Friday.
But the work will be redone anyway because it didn't comply with quality assurance rules. That will take months and could cost as much as several million dollars, said Paul Golan, acting director of the department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.
"We need to move forward based on work that meets our quality standards. And if that means redeveloping this work, taking the time and incurring the cost to do that, we just need to do that," Golan said in a conference call.
The Energy Department released the 144-page report nearly a year after disclosing the existence of e-mails written by U.S. Geological Survey hydrologists indicating they fabricated facts, deleted inconvenient data and kept one set of documents for themselves and another for quality assurance officials.
The e-mails were written from 1998 through 2004 by scientists using computer models to determine how quickly precipitation could make its way through the dump site in the desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The dump is planned as a national repository for 77,000 tons of used commercial reactor fuel and defense waste now stored at sites in 39 states.
The Geological Survey validated Energy Department conclusions that water seepage was relatively slow, so radiation would be less likely to escape. That led Nevada lawmakers and other Yucca Mountain opponents to contend the scientists were changing data to reach a predetermined conclusion.
The Energy Department's report, which was reviewed by three outside experts, found no problems with water infiltration rates estimated by the Geological Survey scientists. The conclusions were corroborated by other data and were comparable to findings by other scientists studying similar environments around the country, the report said. It found no problem with the basis for the Energy Department's 2002 recommendation of Yucca Mountain as the site for a nuclear waste dump.
However, Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico will redo the computer models because quality assurance rules weren't complied with, Golan said. The lab started the work in September and is scheduled to finish by summer.
Nevada officials dismissed the report as a whitewash.
"The DOE, which failed to prevent the falsification of scientific data on Yucca Mountain projects in the first place, now wants to us to believe that the falsifications made no difference in the quality of the work. That's absurd," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., called the report "laughable" and "ridiculous."
The Energy Department is trying to recover from a series of problems with the project, including a federal court's ruling that overturned the government's original radiation protection standards for the dump.
Project managers no longer offer estimates as to when the dump might open; as of a year ago, the most optimistic estimate was 2012. Golan said he couldn't say when the Energy Department might submit an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for an operating license.
He also couldn't say whether the Geological Survey controversy has delayed the project. Separately, a redesign has been required by the Energy Department's decision to use a different kind of packaging to hold nuclear waste buried in the dump.
---On the Net:
U.S. Geological Survey: http://www.usgs.gov
Department of Energy: http://www.doe.gov
Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management: http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/
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KLAS-TV
February 17, 2006
DOE Releases Yucca Report
The Department of Energy released a report it says confirms the technical work at Yucca Mountain.
In the 144-page report, the DOE says the technical basis has a strong conceptual foundation and is corroborated by independently derived scientific conclusions. The government agency also said it is on the right path to opening Yucca Mountain based only on sound science.
The U.S. Geological Survey performed infiltration tests after employees wrote emails indicating scientists falsified data to get the nuclear waste dump approved. As soon as the DOE report was released, Nevada officials reacted.
"Support for Yucca Mountain on Capitol Hill and across the country is waning and the failure of DOE to recognize the project's deep problems, as reflected in today's ridiculous report, will only continue that trend," Senator John Ensign (R) Nevada released a statement.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D) Nevada echoed Ensign's respons. "Both before and after the falsified scientific data was discovered. They're trying to whitewash the situation with this report, but Nevadans have no reason to trust them."
"If safety truly is DOE's number one concern, their best course of action would be to scrap the entire Yucca Mountain project," said Rep. John Porter (R) Nevada.
Click here to read the DOE report.
http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/newsroom/evaluation.shtml
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KLAS-TV
February 17, 2006
Yucca Mt. Dump: Two Perspectives
Gary Waddell, Anchor
Department of Energy said this week that Yucca Mountain could be used to help keep the world's nuclear waste out of the hands of terrorists or rogue nations. The Yucca Mountain dump is about 90-miles northwest of Las Vegas.
No specifics of the plan have been made public only that waste from other countries could be brought there for reprocessing so it could be controlled and used in power plants to generate electricity.
Bob Loux, who heads up the nevada agency for nuclear projects, says he doesn't think a real plan exists and that being able to economically reprocess the waste is, at best, many years away. "The problem is they are not going to have this technology, if it works, for another 30 to 50 years, yet they want to push Yucca into licensing as soon as they can. So, none of it matches up, it's merely a diversionary tactic."
Bob List, nuclear power industry consultant, said, "I don't think that could be further from the truth. The reality is, this whole thing basically is started on the assumption that we need to do something to protect our nation from non proliferation, to keep rogue nations and the bad guys tp have the ability to produce nuclear weapons."
List says this plan, if it works, would give emerging countries and others the ability to build non-polluting, non-greenhouse gas emitting power plants that could economically produce electrictiy. Another problem, according to Bob Loux, is that even if reprocessing becomes a reality the plan would require the shipping of nuclear products around the world.
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Nevada Observer
February 17, 2006
Yucca Mountain Transportation Plan Gains Significant Backing
One Of Nation's Most Respected Scientific Organization Gives Its Blessing
While conceding that the general public has a perception that the transportation of casks filled with high level nuclear waste is extremely dangerous, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the nation's most respected scientific organizations has said in a report that the waste can be conducted safely from around the country to Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada. The waste is piling up at a high rate at nuclear power plants around the country and the federal government has been attempting for more than 20-years to get an underground repository opened for waste storage.
Scientists from NAS that wrote the report said as far as they were able to tell, there would be no significant danger from containers or from possible breaches during wrecks. What they did not address is the potential for terrorist acts on the shipments. Saying the idea of dedicated trains for hauling the waste is the best solution, they said the government would not release information dealing with potential terrorism concerning the transport of the waste.
The state of Nevada has continued to question the concept of Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository, and the director of the Office of Nuclear Projects in Nevada, Bob Loux said the report from NAS contained many of the recommendations that his office had made to the Department of Energy (DOE), the federal agency responsible for Yucca Mountain. DOE has not publicly responded to the NAS report.
The report points out that shipments of high-level nuclear material have taken place for more than 40-years with a perfect safety record. "There has never been a significant release of radioactive material," the report says. One of the programs supported by DOE is the building of a 319-mile railroad from the Nevada-Utah border to Yucca. The road would travel through several counties, across public and private land, including grazing land and operating mines, and end at the proposed repository. NAS scientists indicated the road would be the safest way to get the waste to Yucca.
There has been a strong move recently to reconsider Yucca Mountain as the final answer to the disposition of the high-level waste. The President has directed that DOE begin a program to research way to reprocess the waste into a usable fuel, and in his recent State of the Union address he included money in his proposed budget for this. A number of representatives and senators have been calling for reprocessing for months, and a new voice joined the chorus just this month.
North Carolina Senator Richard Burr (R) thinks it's time to rethink the concept of simply burying the dangerous material for later generations to have to deal with. Burr is calling for continued research into reprocessing of the waste. Well over 70,000 tons of nuclear waste is on the ground in 39 states at this time, and new nuclear plants will be coming on line during the next few years according to several power companies along the east and gulf coasts. Yucca Mountain has not been designed to provide storage for as much waste as exists at this time.
In the meantime Nevada Congressman Jon Porter (R) is continuing to demand papers and information from DOE. He has scheduled a hearing for the end of the month and wants DOE to provide the draft license application for Yucca Mountain. Porter is chairman of the federal workforce and agency organization subcommittee, which has issued subpoenas for material from DOE.
He says the hearing is needed because of continued stonewalling from DOE, because more information dealing with falsified documents continues to surface, and because that application form may be sullied by current and new information made available to the committee.
Governor Kenny Guinn, among those that have opposed the creation of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository has appointed former Assemblywoman Joan Lambert of Reno to the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects. The agency oversees the Yucca project at the state level and has led the fight to halt the project. Lambert served on the Committee on High-Level Radioactive Waste in the assembly during her terms of office.
Guinn says, "Joan Lambert's wealth of experience including her time on the nuclear committee prepares her to make a substantial contribution to the important work of the Commission on Nuclear Projects." Lambert will complete the term of former Nevada Attorney General Brian McKay who recently resigned from the commission.
Saying she is honored by the appointment, Lambert said, "Ever since I served on the Legislature's Committee on High-Level Radioactive Waste in the 1990s, I have followed the Yucca Mountain repository project and nuclear waste issues with interest." Lambert continued, "I am very flattered to be considered for the commission."
Agency director Bob Loux said, "Lambert will be a fine addition to the board. We look forward to working with her as we continue our efforts to make sure Nevada is not used as a federal dumping ground." For more on the agency, go to http://www.gov.nv.us/nucwaste.
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Pahrump Valley Times
February 17, 2006
County Commission Preview
Subdivisions, strip clubs
Officials Have a Full Slate of Important Issues to Debate
By Phillip Gomez
PVT
Next week's Nye County Board of Commissioners meeting in Pahrump should be the sexiest ever. The agenda sizzles with "S" sounds: a new subdivision coming to Pahrump, a show-cause proceeding against strip-club owner Joe Richards and a proposition for Pahrump cityhood.
Sin, or salvation, lies in the lurches.
The meeting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at the Bob Ruud Community Center. As usual, Wednesday is reserved for planning and zoning items. Additionally, at 6 p.m. Monday night a workshop is scheduled, "How to prepare a county budget with input from our citizens."
An application for the incorporation of Pahrump is scheduled with a public petitioning of the commission. The request will be made for the initiative to be placed on the general election ballot in November (See the Feb. 10 PVT edition for the full story).
With the convening of the Nye County Liquor and Licensing Board at 9 a.m., brothel and strip-club owner Joe Richards will be in the dock for a matter of old county business: his needed liquor license to continue operating The Kingdom Gentlemen's Club on South Highway 160.
Richards was denied his liquor license renewal over a year ago due to allegations of misrepresentation he made in applying for the license in 1998. The county's action threatened the loss of Richards' business and its property value and he subsequently sued the county. This hearing will mark the first time the matter returns to open public discussion, and it is possible commissioners, facing legal pitfalls, will reinstate the license.
Local developer Sam Woods boldly brings forward a master plan amendment, a nonconforming zone change and a tentative subdivision map application for 40 acres at the southeast corner of Gamebird Road and Leslie Street. Woods wants to build a 76-lot residential subdivision with a commercial lot, two utility lots and an open space lot.
The county manager is requesting going to bid for the drilling of a water well at the county's Amargosa Science and Technology Park, the facility planned for leasing to Yucca Mountain contractors. The cost of the well is estimated to be between $250,000 and $450,000.
In a related action item, approval of a contract amendment is scheduled for consulting geological support in well construction. The amended contract, with Bob Wilcoxon, would take the not-to-exceed amount for Wilcoxon's services from $60,000 to $75,000.
The county comptroller is requesting that the commissioners relinquish the "guaranteed" status of Nye County as it relates to the distribution of the supplemental city-county relief tax, the "SCCRT."
The sheriff's office is requesting the purchase of 13 patrol vehicles for a total amount not-to-exceed $371,000. It is not budgeted. The vehicles include five new Dodge four-wheel-drive, quad-cab pickup trucks and eight Ford Crown Victoria patrol cars.
The sheriff's office currently has 31 vehicles, each with more than 100,000 miles. The new vehicles will replace the older ones.
An action item is scheduled for increasing the consultant fee paid to Russ Reid Co. in lobbying for Nye County's interests in Washington, D.C. The increase is scheduled to go from $10,000 per month to $12,000 per month, an increase of $24,000 annually.
The commission added to its agenda at the last minute two action items: approval of the interest earned from the educational endowment fund prior to fiscal year 2004; also scheduled is a decision to approve the annual request from the school district for $50,000 for educational trips for Nye County students.
On Wednesday the final subdivision map and planned unit development application for Willow Creek Golf Villas will get a hearing. The developers plan 150 residential condominiums in phases, in addition to 15 single-family lots. The development is located at various sites within the Willow Creek Golf Course.
An amended final subdivision map for Mountain Falls is scheduled for the purpose of creating "common elements" from a portion of another "common element" and dedicating a private drainage easement and public utility easement.
An appeal is scheduled from an applicant for a Class II liquor license located at the northwest corner of Simkins Road and State Route 160.
Finally, discussion and possible action is scheduled for modifications to the recently passed "at risk" policy for issuance of building permits.
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Pahrump Valley Times
February 17, 2006
Meet The Candidates
Babb, Derby, Gibbons vie for same congressional seat
Three Candidates Declare for Nevada District 2 in House of Representatives
By Gina B. Good
PVT
Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines ... or in this case, the political machine. Politicians are shifting into gear in anticipation of the great race toward Election Day - the first Tuesday in November.
Since it was Nevada's rural counties that turned the state red in the last presidential election - over the objection of the majority of Clark County's blue voters - savvy polls are targeting "the rurals" during this election year.
Several political teams stumped through Pahrump in the last quarter of 2005, shaking hands and noting the major concerns of Nye County voters. Now they are back - with a slew of others - telling voters what they will do when they are elected.
The District 2 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, currently held by Republican Jim Gibbons, is one up for grabs this year. Gibbons is running for governor of Nevada. Three candidates vying for his seat - including his wife Dawn - spoke to the Pahrump Valley Times last week.
At this time, these political hopefuls are unopposed in their respective parties and will not have to run in the Aug. 15 primary election.
Scott Babb, Libertarian
For some politicians, attracting "almost 30 people" at a countywide convention would be discouraging. However, for Scott Babb, the Libertarian candidate for Congress, the 2006 Nye County Libertarian Party convention held at the Mountain Falls clubhouse last week was, to say the least, a hit.
"It was our first convention to rent a meeting room; first to be covered by the press ... and first to announce a congressional candidate," enthused Babb.
The Pahrump resident is running for the District 2 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, against Republican Dawn Gibbons and Democrat Jill Derby - both of whom have more political experience, more extensive organizations and larger war chests. None of those things matter to Babb. "I know I am going to be a big underdog. As a party, we are trying to earn respect," he explained.
"We believe (the Libertarian Party) is in the best position because with the other parties it doesn't matter who is in office - they all spend like crazy. The Libertarian Party stands for lower taxes and smaller government," Babb said.
"In the past, other parties have promised a contract with America ... but there has been a contract with America for over 200 years and it's the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the United States," he said.
The candidate's overriding issues, at this early stage in his campaign, revolve around the national debt and federal interference in what Babb thinks should be local issues.
"The national debt is out of control," Babb said. "A child born today owes $27,000. This Congress is mortgaging our children's future.
"Our debt is over $13 trillion and the interest on that debt is more than our annual deficit. That's why I'm running for Congress.
"There are a lot of federal policies that harshly affect Nevada. Yucca Mountain proves how little the federal government thinks of Nevada. To them, this state is just a dumping ground," he said.
The candidate said when nuclear power was introduced in the 1960s the government didn't think about what to do with the waste. "They thought they could figure that out later," he said. "Well, it's later. They should be burying the stuff where it is, on-site. Trucking it across country makes us all vulnerable.
"The No Child Left Behind (mandate) in our schools is another example of our federal government exerting undo influence in local matters," Babb continued. "The real policy seems to be no child left behind from paying off our national debt.
"These are all problems that the federal government is forcing on Nevada ... forcing the state to capitulate. If I am elected, I will have a new approach to government."
The Libertarian Party has 61,000 registered members statewide. Pahrump is the heart of the Nye County organization.
"This is the only organized Libertarian Party in the rurals," he said. "There are (larger) organizations in Clark and Washoe counties."
Jill Derby
Jill Derby is the Democratic candidate for the District 2 congressional seat. Like her Republican opponent, she is traveling across Nevada getting feedback from voters and discussing issues important to families.
Her family's deep roots in Nevada shaped Derby. Her great-grandfather bought land in Pershing County at the turn of the century and her grandfather worked in the mines in Virginia City.
They would be proud of Jill. She's a world traveler who lived in Saudi Arabia and returned home to pursue a doctorate in Middle Eastern cultures at UNLV and the University of California, Davis.
That background was her prelude to spending the past 17 years as a regent for the Higher Education System of Nevada. "As a regent, I had to reach across party lines to seek the right solutions for our state," she said at the June 10 Democratic women's event at Willow Creek Golf Club.
Derby laid out her issues, based on concerns identified by people throughout the state. They are:
• Affordable energy and housing;
• Water;
• Managing growth within the state;
• The health care system;
• Retirement security;
• Economic development;
• Jobs;
• Education.
The candidate has an aggressive stance on energy. "We must free ourselves from our dependence on foreign oil. Nevada has some great opportunities to develop other sources of energy," Derby said. "That development would also offer economic development and bring jobs to the state."
Given her background, it is no wonder Derby is passionate about education. "People need the opportunity to go on after high school so they have the opportunity for better paying jobs," she said. "Quality education and accessible education (is the goal).
"I was very much behind Great Basin College coming into Nye County," she said.
Derby sees her background of 17 years in a non-partisan elected office as one of her foremost strengths.
"Being a regent trained me to be a problem solver," she said. "We've had enough of partisan gridlock. People must pull together. We all care about our families and we all want opportunities.
"There are so many common values that we share. We're Americans and we're Nevadans and we've always had a 'can do' spirit," she continued. "I think we need a problem solver in Washington, D.C., that is not locked into a partisan office.
"The deep divide between the parties has not served us well. We need a balance in Washington, D.C.," said Derby.
Mentioning her family's deep roots in rural Nevada, the candidate said she was born in Lovelock. "My values are those of rural Nevada." She also stated that her strong ties to UNR and UNLV give her a broad perspective on urban issues. "I will represent the whole district and span the bridge between rural Nevada and Washington, D.C.," she said.
Derby mentioned she first decided to run for Congress when she heard a speech that included a quote from a piece called "A Time to Weep for America" that said, in part, "Not on my watch will the tide turn for the decline of America."
According to the candidate, "I am running for Congress because we need balance in Washington," she said. "I will be a strong voice for Nevada values."
Dawn Gibbons
At the monthly Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce luncheon last week, tough questions from the floor got straight answers from Republican candidate Dawn Gibbons.
Gibbons spelled out her objectives for the 45 businessmen and women at the chamber meeting on Feb. 8.
As a businesswoman who moved to Nevada with not much more than the clothes on her back, Gibbons said she knows what it means to balance a budget and build a highly successful business - something she added that most legislators have never experienced.
On the Yucca Mountain repository, the candidate said she is in favor of recycling nuclear waste on the site where it is used. She said the Yucca Mountain project is based on technology from 20 years ago.
"Nuclear waste can be very efficient, but transporting casks across country leaves us open to terrorists. All they have to do is get to one of the casks and we are toast," she said. "For the money the government is spending on Yucca Mountain, the waste could be recycled on site, where it already is."
Gibbons is passionate about illegal immigration and pledged to vote for real immigration reform and border security.
"I am fed up with government not doing its job to keep our borders secure," she said. "We need to revise our immigration laws and we need to enforce the laws already on the books."
Briefly touching on her support for Social Security and Medicare reforms, she said, "Promises made are promises to be kept. We have a sacred trust to the seniors who have paid (into the program).
"Washington is spending every bit of our Social Security surplus ... on everything. How could Social Security not be broke?" she asked.
The candidate also brought up the national debt by speaking about the birthday party she recently attended for her 4-year-old grandson.
To put the amount of the debt into perspective, she said that every man, woman and child in the United States owes $27,000. However, she added that only about one-third of the people pay taxes, meaning each taxpayer actually would have to pay $100,000 to eliminate the national debt.
Mike Johnson, president of Kiwanis Club of Pahrump Valley, asked Gibbons if she would support a line item presidential veto. He also asked her to support separate bills for each subject in order to eliminate special interests adding items that had no relation to the original proposal.
Gibbons assured him that she supports both his ideas. "I am a grass roots person - you empower me. When you talk to me straight, I get it."
She also had a strong opinion about firearm legislation. "My idea of gun control is to use two hands to steady your aim," said Gibbons.
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Pahrump Valley Times
February 17, 2006
Democrat women on the run
By Gina B. Good
PVT
Five Democratic hopefuls for state office spoke before an enthusiastic gathering of supporters Friday evening at a rally sponsored by the Nye County Democrat Central Committee.
The event was billed as "Women on the run for a better Nevada." An effective meet-and-greet before the speeches began saw all the candidates work the crowd - introducing themselves to constituents and potential voters and talking about campaign issues.
Moderator John Murray began the program by asking, "Is it going to take a woman to turn Nevada blue?" The audience responded with cheers before settling down to listen to the women at the head table.
• Dina Titus has a Southern accent that would do Larry the cable guy proud, but she doesn't tell tall tales about her relatives. As a candidate for governor, she talks passionately about limiting federal control on state issues.
"Let us educate our kids," she said. "The federal government should (find and) lock up the bad guys, provide needed services and then get out of the way."
Titus also favors seniors who want to die with dignity and the rights of people who want to own firearms. "The government should not be so involved in our lives," she said.
"Nevada is at a crossroads. One direction will take us to California where we would have more problems, traffic and taxes. Mississippi is another direction ... where we short change education, don't pay for needed services and don't provide for what people need," she continued.
"What I would like to do is take us to a proud future for the whole state," Titus said as she mentioned renewable energy and substantive education. "We don't need a Washington, D.C., solution to those issues."
The candidate also spoke of her Republican opponent, Jim Gibbons, by saying his votes for women equaled zero, his votes on minority issues equaled zero, votes on the environment equaled zero and his votes for veterans equal zero. She ended by saying, "Jim Gibbons is no hero; he's a zero."
• Native Nevadan Catherine Cortez Masto is running for attorney general. As the state's top law enforcement officer she spoke about bringing her experience as a former criminal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office to step up the fight against drugs and violent drug users. Masto also said she would tackle the methamphetamine problem head-on.
"I would do more to make Nevada safer," she said. "I was a civil litigator. I was asked by (then) Governor Bob Miller to ... become his chief of staff. I was a federal criminal prosecutor and I protected victims and put away drug dealers."
Masto also started a juvenile justice program and worked with family services. "But this job will take more than just my experience," she told the Pahrump Valley Times. "You need to have the dedication and the motivation to get things done.
"I will continue to work to protect women and children from domestic violence," Masto vowed. "I will work with the juvenile justice system to assure that we are not turning our kids into career criminals.
"I will fight for affordable prescription drugs and to bring ethics back into government," she said.
Masto has been active in the fight against Yucca Mountain for two decades.
She was born in Henderson, and she and her husband still live in the area. Masto graduated from UNR and received her law degree from Gonzaga University, graduating Cum Laude.
• As a candidate for state treasurer, Kate Marshall is a "Yes!" woman when it comes to the Millennium Scholarship.
"Funds are running out for the scholarship and yes, I will seek to continue it," she stated. "Education is the smartest long-term investment we can make; especially these days when we need to make sure Nevada stays on top and the Millennium Scholarship helps us do that.
"I will work with the Legislature to support the program without increasing taxes," she vowed.
Another critical area for Marshall is maintaining or improving the credit rating of the state, which was increased by Moody's last year. "One reason our state rating went up was because the rainy day fund had money in it," she explained. "The Legislature did not roll back taxes and the debt structure was well maintained."
According to the candidate, the investment community evaluates the state by what kind of skilled work force is available as well as the infrastructure. Marshall knows infrastructure problems plague Pahrump.
"When you want to widen Highway 160, a strong economy will help with bond issues," she said. "A strong economy will let us support firefighters and will increase a hospital to 50 or 75 beds."
Marshall also compared Nevada to other states. "We want to diversify our economy. Employers and investors look at whether they will be able to hire people to run their businesses. We need to use the college system so we get all kinds of skilled workers."
Marshall would bring years of experience to the office of treasurer - from her work with the state as well as private business - which includes protecting consumers and shareholders in many different areas and industries. She has worked for Frankie Sue Del Papa, George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton. "For all of them I felt I was doing worthwhile things," Marshall said. "Now it's time for me to step up to the plate - it's my turn to bat," she said.
Marshall lives in Reno with her husband and two daughters.
• The impeachment of Nevada's current controller, Kathy Augustine, who was recently slapped on the wrist by the Senate for using state employees and equipment for personal use, has eroded the public's confidence in yet another public office, according to candidate Kim Wallin, who is running for the position.
Wallin lists a string of capital letters after her name showing she is a financial professional. She is a CMA, CFM, CPA (certified management accountant, certified financial manager and certified public accountant).
"People need to understand that the controller's job is a very important office ... playing a major role in the state," Wallin said.
Wallin wants to bring her experience, training and qualifications to the state job because, "In today's business environment, the controller needs more than just standard accounting skills. Our state controller must be a management accountant."
While this is her first race for public office, Wallin is the former national chair of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). "I was nominated from the floor and elected by popular vote for the 2002-2003 term. This was the only time in the then 83-year history of IMA that a president was chosen from the floor. She was also recognized in 2003 as one of the 100 most influential people in accounting in the country.
"I want to bring quality to the office," Wallin stated. "The controller is an advocate for the people. The office can save the state money while making sure services are provided to make things run efficiently."
The candidate says the role of the accountant has changed. It's not enough to crunch numbers. "An accountant must have the personality to communicate with members of their team and the business community. An accountant has to take the numbers, analyze them and manage them," she said.
Wallin graduated from UNLV and served for two years on the ethics committee of the Nevada Society of CPAs. Her parents, who are now retired, were both educators in Clark County. Wallin's husband, Ken, is a firefighter in Las Vegas.
• Pahrump's own town board member Laurayne Murray was also at the head table.
"I am running for your State Assembly, District 36," Murray said when she took the podium, adding, "That's the first time I've said that in public."
Murray said her issues center around education, public health and safety and fiscal responsibility.
"I believe in the core values of the Democratic Party and I want to represent those values in this state," she said.
"We need to have the ability to cooperate across party lines so our issues get the attention they deserve," Murray added.
By way of introducing herself to the gathering, Murray said she is the mother of three beautiful children and comes from a family with roots in the Unites States before the country was founded.
"I want to live in the rural area," she explained. "You can't pick where you are born, but you can choose where to live and I choose to live in Nevada and in Pahrump."
Murray said that although she has held jobs in large cities, she has always lived in rural areas, even when commuting wasn't convenient.
"I want to live in the rural area and I know the hearts and souls of the rural people, because you are just like me," she said.
Making light of her accomplishments, Murray said it took her 32 years to graduate from college while working full time. She started at a major corporation as a long distance operator and retired as the executive assistant to the vice president of consumer products.
"The company reimbursed our college classes and each semester I took two or three classes," she explained.
In addition to sitting on the Pahrump Town Board, Murray is the board's liaison to the Regional Planning Commission. She also attends all the Nye County Commission meetings and is involved in countless projects throughout the Pahrump Valley.
Murray's husband, Tim, is a Pahrump Valley Fire-Rescue Service paramedic and firefighter.
• Pahrump resident Jan Bearss threw her hat in the ring for Patricia Cox's still warm seat on the Nye County Board of Commissioners at the Democratic women candidates forum on Feb. 10.
That makes two candidates who have announced they're running for the District V seat on the board, which this week Cox said she will relinquish at the end of her term. The other candidate, to date, is Republican Peter Liakopoulos.
Born in North Carolina and growing up in Michigan, Bearss told her audience she was "raised on southern cooking and blue collar ethics. The ethics were clean at home and in public: Do no harm to others and don't use others for (personal) gain."
Bearss focused in her brief presentation on bringing ethical standards of behavior to the political arena. "For over 50 years those ethics have served me well," she said.
A former telephone company employee for 30 years, Bearss said she retired to Pahrump and "loved the rural atmosphere.
"I was really good at retirement," she said, "I want you to know that."
But Bearss couldn't help getting involved in local politics, having recently gone back to school to study political science, she said.
She became involved with Nye County Democrats in 2004 and said she grew "frustrated" with local county government.
"Unfortunately, they've spent so much money on studies, they don't have any money left to do what they've studied," she said.
"I want to work for you," she said, "I want to get in there and do the job. I want to be accountable to you ... I want to ask you what you want me to do and then do it."
Pahrump Valley Times reporter Phillip Gomez contributed to this report.
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Pahrump Valley Times
February 17, 2006
Doug McMurdo
Governor's race exciting in a good way
But Nye Voters won't be So Fortunate When it Comes to Commission Districts Four, Five
Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson was in Pahrump earlier this week to do a meet and greet with a few of Pahrump's finest citizens.
And me.
Gibson, a Democrat, hopes to move to Carson City in 2007 and into the Governor's Mansion, occupied at this time by Kenny Guinn, who can't run again due to term limits.
I listened to Gibson speak to a small gathering and what he said resonated with me. Gibson is progressive and intelligent, two qualities always attractive in a political candidate. His issues are our issues: affordable housing, education and health care are his apparent top three. His plan isn't to increase taxes, but to better "deploy" the resources Nevada already has. Political capital, said Gibson, is something that needs to be used for the good.
I decided I liked Gibson somewhere in the middle of his impromptu speech, probably when he was talking about literacy and its importance in today's world. Nothing gets an editor's attention quicker than a good literacy program. After all, today's children are tomorrow's newspaper readers, and the City of Henderson has a wonderful literacy program.
I digress.
On the drive back to the office I realized Gibson wasn't the only gubernatorial candidate who has said things I like to hear. It matters not if they're Republicans (Jim Gibbons, Bob Beers) or Democrats (Gibson, Dina Titus), Nevadans could hardly do wrong this election. If these four of the five announced candidates mean what they say the Silver State will continue to prosper.
We in the rural counties need to determine which candidate would do the most for us, and we are fortunate to have so many choices.
We're not so lucky on the local front. Commissioner Patricia Cox has announced she will not seek re-election. It is almost a certainty Candice Trummell will not pursue four more years, especially now that she's taken a job with Ace Robeson, perhaps the best Yucca Mountain consultant in the nation and the one lobbyist Nye County should have hired away from Lincoln County years ago.
That leaves the fate of Nye County in the hands of voters living in districts four and five.
To date I haven't heard of any candidate who could step in and fill the void when Cox and Trummell leave office. I'm not poking fun at many of the people that have revealed their intentions to run for the commission. It's just that ... oh, who am I trying to kid? Of course I'm poking fun.
The point is this: Folks out there with the right stuff have until the first couple of weeks in May to file for office. They need to make a decision now rather than later or else the early birds will eat the hidden agenda.
My advice is to call Cox and Trummell. Don't ask for their endorsement. Ask them to give you the Reader's Digest version of the myriad problems in Nye County. Familiarize yourself with those issues and try to learn as much as you can. Being a Nye County commissioner is one of the toughest jobs out there and the pay stinks, so don't do it for the money, do it for the people of Nye.
More of me sticking my nose in other people's business: If you do seek office don't make promises. If elected you'll soon discover it takes three of five votes to get a motion passed. Learn to work with your peers. Understand the budget and how state and federal law dictates which revenue can be expended on what project. Be honest and have the good sense to know you can't be popular with every single person on the planet.
Other thoughts on Election 2006:
• Any person who runs for town board needs to have their head examined. Don't even try it unless you're one of two kinds of people: Human lap dogs or human pit bulls.
If you want to keep the status quo in a rapidly deteriorating town government be a lap dog. If you want to find out how and why the town manager took control of the current board - and you want to take back that control - be a pit bull. Be a raging, out of control pit bull with bad breath and an appetite for fighting dirty. Those are the qualities I'll be looking for in a town board candidate.
• Most current incumbents in constitutional offices are doing a good job. Make the challenger prove they could do better.
• Former Sheriff Wade Lieseke hasn't officially announced his intention to regain the office he held for 12 years before Tony DeMeo dethroned him in 2002, but a recent telephone survey regarding Lieseke - a very amateur telephone survey, I might add - tells me Wade wants his old gig back.
I don't know what people are saying elsewhere in Nye County, but the reception he's getting in Pahrump is cold enough to make me think it's snowing outside.
• Voters have a responsibility to learn as much as they can about the candidates and the issues before making a decision.
We've got people in office who were elected despite the fact they have records with more spots than a baby's bib. Why? Because voters and the media - including the Pahrump Valley Times - have allowed elections to turn into popularity contests with no more depth to the process than is a vote for prom queen.
Find out what the hard questions are and then force candidates to answer them.
Parting shot: Mayor Gibson, in speaking of health care, said roughly 250,000 Nevada residents are on Prozac or a similar medicine to help them through the day. Said Gibson, and I'm paraphrasing: "We all know someone who takes Prozac. Or we know someone who wants to be on Prozac - or we know someone we wish were on Prozac." The audience laughed and so did I.
Then I thought they oughta put that stuff in the water supply.
Yes, indeed.
Write to Doug McMurdo at dmcmurdo@pvtimes.com.
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Nuclear Fuels
January 30, 2006
Yucca Mountain news; Pg. 6 Vol. 31 No. 3
Blend-down of USEC HEU near end, others gearing up, DOE official says
Daniel Horner
Washington
BWX Technologies Inc. has almost completed the downblending of more than 40 metric tons (MT) of high-enriched uranium (HEU) for USEC Inc., DOE's Dean Tousley said last week.
Tousley, acting deputy director in the office of disposition projects in DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), said BWXT should be finished with the job around June. The company is working through a stockpile of 45.8 MT of surplus HEU that the government has delivered to USEC, as required by the USEC Privatization Act.
Tousley noted that the amount is often cited as 50 MT. However, he said that figure was based on an assumed enrichment level of 40% U-235. Since the actual enrichment level of the material is about 43%, the amount was reduced somewhat, he said.
Speaking at the Nuclear Energy Institute's Nuclear Fuel Supply Forum Jan. 24 in Washington, D.C., Tousley also said a request for proposals (RFP) was "expected in the near future" from NNSA on the 17.4 MT of HEU that is to be blended down and made part of an international fuel bank (NF, 10 Oct. '05, 1). The RFP will cover both HEU downblending and storage of the resulting low-enriched uranium (LEU), he said.
In response to a question from Melissa Mann of Ux Consulting, he said foreign entities were eligible for the contract, although the blend-down would have to take place in the U.S. But he said it wasn't yet clear if the LEU could be stored overseas.
Mann later said Tousley's response indicated the uncertainty as to where the material for the fuel bank would be stored. One factor in that decision, she said, would have to be accessibility of the material to its potential recipients.
NNSA plans to award the contract and begin HEU deliveries in the current fiscal year, Tousley said. The downblending is projected to last from 2006 to 2009, he said.
NNSA's newest blend-down project is on a much more stretched-out schedule, he said. In November, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said an additional 200 MT HEU would be withdrawn from the U.S. weapons stockpile. Most of the total, 160 MT, is to be used to fabricate fuel for U.S. naval reactors, while 20 MT is to be used for fuel for the U.S. space program and for research reactors that cannot yet convert to LEU. Another 20 MT is to be downblended to LEU. (NF, 21 Nov., '05, 1)
Tousley estimated that about 20 or 30 MT of the 160 MT would not meet the specifications for naval reactor fuel and therefore would be added to the material to be blended down. When DOE announced the 200-MT withdrawal, NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks said some of the 20 MT from the research and space reactor category might be shifted to another use (NF, 21 Nov. '05, 1).
The timing of the downblending is tied to weapons dismantlement, which will take until about 2030, Tousley said.
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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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