Yucca Mountain News Clips
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
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Congressman Jon Porter
April 20, 2006
PORTER SUBCOMMITTEE TO HOLD YUCCA MOUNTAIN HEARING - Updated GAO report will be scrutinized
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Tuesday, April 25 at 2 PM, Third District Congressman Jon Porter will hold a Federal Workforce and Agency Organization Subcommittee hearing to examine an updated Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on mismanagement and quality assurance weaknesses at Yucca Mountain. Porter, Subcommittee Chairman and the driving force behind the ongoing Yucca Mountain Project investigation, asked GAO to update the report in April of 2005.
The report, entitled “Quality Assurance at DOE´s (Department of Energy) Planned Nuclear Waste Repository Needs Increased Management Attention,’ highlights concerns surrounding the proposed nuclear waste repository.
The report states that “DOE cannot be certain that its efforts to improve the implementation of its quality assurance requirements have been effective because it adopted management tools that did not target existing management concerns and did not track progress with significant and recurring problems. Although DOE announced, in 2004, that it was making a commitment to continuous quality assurance improvement…its adopted management tools have not been effective for this purpose.’ The report concludes that “Before DOE submits a license application, its aggressive ‘new path forward´ effort faces substantial quality assurance and other challenges.’
The hearing comes on the heels of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman´s first visit to Yucca Mountain since being confirmed as Energy Secretary in January of 2005. In recent months, Bodman has said that the Yucca Mountain Project has been poorly managed and is “broken.’
Porter has extended invitations to Nevada Representatives Jim Gibbons and Shelley Berkley to join him on the dais at the hearing. Nevada Senators John Ensign and Harry Reid have been invited to testify as witnesses.
A complete copy of the GAO report, which was released on March 23, is available at www.house.gov/porter.
WITNESSES:
Paul M. Golan, Acting Director, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, United States Department of Energy
Gregory Friedman, Inspector General, United States Department of Energy
Margaret Federline, Deputy Director, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Jim Wells, Director, Natural Resources and Environment, United States Government Accountability Office
WHEN:
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
2 PM EST
WHERE:
Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2154
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Senator John Ensign
April 25, 2006
ENSIGN OFFERS TESTIMONY ON YUCCA MOUNTAIN HEARING
Washington, D.C. – Senator John Ensign offered written testimony for today´s House Subcommittee hearing on Yucca Mountain, criticizing the Department of Energy for haphazard and irresponsible work on the project. Today´s hearing was chaired by Representative Jon Porter.
“Mr. Chairman, I remain dismayed, but frankly not surprised, that DOE has again cut corners on the very program which has been set up to verify that all scientific data and engineering designs submitted to support a license for Yucca Mountain are accurate and reliable,’ Ensign´s statement reads in part. “Despite its promises DOE has been unable or unwilling to correct quality problems with data, models, software, and management since 1998 and continues to rely on costly and cumbersome reviews that, to date, have proven ineffective. For over 20 years, DOE has had problems developing and implementing the plans and procedures related to quality assurance.’
Ensign´s statement also renewed his call for alternatives to Yucca Mountain.
“We need to find another solution to our nuclear waste problem. I think that we need to amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to require the title to all spent nuclear fuel, stored in dry casks, to be passed on to the DOE upon on-site transfer from storage pools to casks. Senator Reid and I introduced legislation to allow the DOE to assume liability of the waste onsite before it is transferred to Yucca Mountain. Conveying the title means the DOE will have full responsibility for the possession, stewardship, maintenance, and monitoring of all spent nuclear fuel.’
“So far, the Department of Energy has done nothing to instill confidence that the science underpinning the Yucca Mountain program is truly sound.’
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KLAS-TV
April 25, 2006
Yucca Mt. Project to Move Forward With Latest Decision
Edward Lawrence, Reporter
The U.S. Attorney's Office will not prosecute scientists who falsified reports concerning safely storing nuclear waste inside Yucca Mountain.
In an ongoing debate over The Department of Energy and its plans to store high level nuclear waste 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, these new developments have brought some relief to the agency.
The DOE can continue to move forward without the black cloud of criminal charges against scientists working on the project.
The U.S. Attorney's Office gave no reason as to why they declined to prosecute. The energy department's inspector general found quality assurance reports were falsified. The falsified reports were used to verify the science behind how water falls through the rocks at the repository -- water that could erode canisters allowing nuclear waste to spill out.
The Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects calls the decision not to prosecute a "whitewash."
U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden apparently felt it did not rise to the level of criminal charges. However, Yucca Mountain Project Spokesman Allen Benson says the DOE will make sure errors don't happen again.
"We have spent a considerable amount of money running into the millions of dollars to investigate this matter and ensure that the science we are moving forward with is sound and it is," Bogden explained.
It took six years for the Department of Energy to admit there were falsified reports. It took another six months for this decision not to prosecute.
In the meantime, the project moves forward and the DOE will submit a license application next year. It appears the repository could open in 2020.
Nevada delegates are reacting to the latest developments on Yucca Mountain. "A lack of charges in a criminal court does little to ease my concern for the safety of every man, woman and child in Nevada," said Rep. John Porter, (R) Nevada.
Congresswoman Shelley Berkley echoed his statement, by saying, massive problems with quality assurance efforts at the site still remain, as do questions about seismic and volcanic activity, water flow, and the dangers of transporting waste to Nevada.
Email reporter Edward Lawrence at elawrence@klastv.com
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Las Vegas SUN
April 25, 2006
No criminal charges in Yucca Mountain e-mail controversy
By Erica Werner
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. attorney's office will not pursue criminal charges over alleged paperwork fraud by government scientists on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, the Energy Department's inspector general announced.
In a report made public Tuesday, the inspector general said it concluded its criminal investigation in December and turned the results over to the U.S. attorney's office for the District of Nevada.
"The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to pursue criminal prosecution in this matter," said the report, which does not indicate why the U.S. Attorney declined to prosecute. Natalie Collins, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney in Las Vegas, declined immediate comment Tuesday.
According to the inspector general's report, the decision not to prosecute was made on Monday.
"Nonetheless, the actions of those involved - which have been described by observers as irresponsible and reckless - have had the effect of undermining public confidence in the quality of the science associated with the Yucca Mountain Project," the report said.
At issue were e-mails exchanged between employees of the U.S. Geological Survey between 1998 and 2000 that suggested government hydrologists on the nuclear waste dump project falsified documentation of their work to satisfy quality assurance standards.
The Energy Department revealed the existence of the e-mails a year ago. Portions of the e-mails that were made public indicated scientists made up dates, deleted inconvenient data and kept one set of documents for themselves and another for quality assurance officials.
A scientific review by the department concluded that the work done by the scientists was sound, but it is being redone anyway.
Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is planned as the first national repository for nuclear waste and is meant to hold at least 77,000 tons of the material.
Political opposition, money shortages and other problems - including the e-mail controversy - have delayed the project and Energy Department managers now can't say when it will open.
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Bloomberg
April 25, 2006
U.S. Won't Pursue Criminal Charges Over Yucca Mountain E-Mails
The U.S. Justice Department will not pursue criminal charges in response to e-mails that discuss workers falsifying quality assurance work on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, the Energy Department said.
The department's Office of Inspector General released a memorandum today stating that the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada ``declined to pursue criminal prosecution in this matter on April 24.''
The e-mails ``discussed the potential falsification of work and compromise of quality assurance requirements'' for work done on Yucca Mountain, Inspector General Gregory Friedman wrote.
Natalie Collins, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nevada, said in a telephone interview she was not familiar with the report and declined further comment.
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Los Angeles Chronicle
April 25, 2006
PORTER EXAMINES GAO REPORT AT YUCCA MOUNTAIN HEARING
Congressional Desk
Highlights mismanagement and quality assurance failures, questions DOE response.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, at a Federal Workforce and Agency Organization Subcommittee hearing entitled "Yucca Mountain: Broken Management, Broken Quality Assurance, Broken Project," Third District Congressman Jon Porter asked what was being done to address increased concerns surrounding the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. These concerns were highlighted in a General Accounting Office (GAO) report, which was the focal point of today's hearing. Porter, who chairs the Subcommittee and asked GAO to update the report in April of 2005, has been an outspoken critic of the Yucca Mountain Project as more and more evidence points to extensive mismanagement and quality assurance failures.
In his opening remarks, Porter stated that the Project is "consistently failing under the weight of its own mismanagement and ineptitude at correcting recurring quality assurance deficiencies."
Porter was joined on the dais by Nevada Representative Jim Gibbons, who said "I applaud Congressman Porter's leadership today on bringing to light the Government Accountability Office's report which outlines serious quality control problems with the Yucca Mountain Project. I am disappointed that the Department of Energy failed today to properly address these problems. Instead, they continue to be blinded by their obsession to rubber stamp this project in order to rush it to completion."
Nevada Senator John Ensign and Representative Shelley Berkley submitted statements for the record.
The GAO report, which was released on March 23, states that "DOE (Department of Energy) cannot be certain that its efforts to improve the implementation of its quality assurance requirements have been effective because it adopted management tools that did not target existing management concerns and did not track progress with significant and recurring problems. Although DOE announced, in 2004, that it was making a commitment to continuous quality assurance improvement...its adopted management tools have not been effective for this purpose." The report concludes that "Before DOE submits a license application, its aggressive 'new path forward' effort faces substantial quality assurance and other challenges."
At the conclusion of the hearing, Porter asked Paul Golan, Acting Director, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, what he can say today that will ensure the American people that the Yucca Mountain Project will be based on sound science.
While Golan stated that improvements were being made, Porter was unconvinced.
"With the way this Project has been managed, we can never be confident that we're dealing with 'sound' science," Porter stated after the hearing. "I'd like to say Project officials addressed my concerns about quality assurance failures and examples of mismanagement raised in the updated GAO report, but unfortunately, I'm left even more concerned for the safety of Nevadans."
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New York Times
April 25, 2006
Ex-Environmental Leaders Tout Nuclear Energy
By Matthew L. Wald
WASHINGTON, April 24 — The nuclear industry has hired Christie Whitman, the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace, the environmental organization, to lead a public relations campaign for new reactors.
Nuclear power is "environmentally friendly, affordable, clean, dependable and safe," Mrs. Whitman said at a news conference on Monday. She said that as the E.P.A. leader for two and a half years, ending in June 2003, and as governor of New Jersey for seven years, she had promoted various means to reduce the emission of gases that cause global warming and pollution.
But Mrs. Whitman said that "none of them will have as great a positive impact on our environment as will increasing our ability to generate electricity from nuclear power."
Mrs. Whitman headed the E.P.A. when it published rules for the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. After she left the office, the courts threw out the rules because they covered only the first 10,000 years of waste storage, while peak releases of radiation were expected after that time.
Organizers released a list of 58 companies and institutions and 10 people who they said were members of a new Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, which Mr. Moore said would engage in "grass-roots advocacy." A spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the trade association of reactor operators, acknowledged that it was providing all of the financing, but would not say what the budget was.
Mr. Moore said he favored efficiency and renewable energy, but added that solar cells, which produce electricity from sunlight, were "being given too much emphasis and taking too much money." A dollar spent on geothermal energy, he said, was "10 to 12 times more effective in reducing greenhouse emissions."
Mr. Moore is the director of a company that distributes geothermal systems in Canada. He is also a supporter of what he called "sustainable forestry" because, he said, building with wood avoided the use of materials whose manufacture releases greenhouse gases, like steel and concrete.
Mr. Moore, who left Greenpeace in 1986, favors many technologies that some environmentalists oppose, including the genetic engineering of crops, and has referred to his former colleagues as "environmental extremists" and "anti-human."
Mr. Moore said Greenpeace was wrong to oppose nuclear energy, which he called essential to reducing global warming gases. Coincidentally, Greenpeace released a report on Monday about 200 failures at American nuclear power plants, which it described as "near misses," since 1986. The report was to mark the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion in the former Soviet Union.
Mrs. Whitman also referred to Chernobyl, saying people "still think in terms of Bhopal and Chernobyl." A leak at a chemical plant in Bhopal, India, killed more than 2,500 people in December 1984. But nuclear power, she said, "can be safely and appropriately used to expand our mix."
Representatives of the United States Chamber of Commerce and the Teamsters also spoke in favor of new reactors.
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KVBC
April 25, 2006
President Bush in Las Vegas for fundraiser
President Bush has left Las Vegas after stumping for a Nevada congressman at a Las Vegas Strip fund-raiser. Bush was in Las Vegas less than two hours, including a 20-minute speech to about 300 party faithful at The Venetian resort.
The luncheon raised about $400,000 for Congressman Jon Porter and state Republicans. Bush called Porter "a straight shooter" and "a plain talker getting the job done for the people of Nevada."
The president was greeted earlier at McCarran International Airport by the state's top Republicans: Governor Kenny Guinn, Senator John Ensign and Republican Jim Gibbons.
About 100 demonstrators outside The Venetian chanted and waved signs like: "Drop Bush, Not Bombs; No Blood for Oil." Inside, security was tight. Guests paid $500 to $2,100 dollars to attend the luncheon.
Bush talked about a lot of administration policies, including his prescription drug benefit plan. He didn't say anything about immigration or his support for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
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Las Vegas SUN
April 24, 2006
Bush stumps for Nevada congressman at Las Vegas Strip fundraiser
By Ryan Nakashima
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) - President Bush brought a message of resolve in the face of terrorism and emphasized economic optimism as he stumped Monday for U.S. Rep. Jon Porter at a Las Vegas Strip resort.
Bush, who narrowly won Nevada's five electoral college votes in 2004, was in Las Vegas about two hours, including a 20-minute speech to about 300 Republican party faithful at The Venetian hotel-casino.
In his first visit to the city since the last election, Bush denounced Monday's deadly explosions in the Egyptian resort city of Dahab, and pledged to bring terrorists to justice.
"They believe that those of us in free societies are weak and that it's just a matter of time before we lose our nerve and withdraw," Bush said.
"I am not going to lose my nerve, I am going to stay on the offense. I'm going to protect the American people and I need people like Jon Porter who understand the stakes and stands by my side," he said.
Bush's remarks drew a standing ovation from a crowd that included Nevada's top elected Republicans - Gov. Kenny Guinn, Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Jim Gibbons.
Bush said Porter, a congressman from Boulder City, deserved a third term. He called Porter "a straight shooter" and "a plain talker getting the job done for the people of Nevada."
Guests paid $500 to $2,100 for the presidential luncheon, which raised some $400,000 for Porter's campaign, said campaign chairman Mike Slanker. The money lifted funds on hand for Porter's campaign to about $1.7 million, and added a small amount to the state GOP, Slanker said.
Earlier, the president was greeted by Republicans at McCarran International Airport, where he gave a President's Volunteer Service Award to Patty Murphy, a volunteer nurse from Clark County who worked on a cruise ship near Mobile, Ala. for Hurricane Katrina evacuees in September 2005.
About 100 demonstrators chanted and waved signs outside the hotel.
"President Bush should be ashamed to come to Nevada," said Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins, 55, newly elected chairman of the state Democratic party and one of the protesters.
"He's run this country into the ground with deficit spending, and he's here supporting a puppet," Collins said.
Porter faces a challenge in November from Democrat Tessa Hafen, former press secretary to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Hafen has reported raising almost $370,000 during six weeks of campaigning.
Hafen on Monday attacked a January decision by the Department of Homeland Security to remove Las Vegas and 10 other cities from a list of 35 areas due to get federal Urban Area Security Initiative grants in 2006.
"George Bush lectured us about staying on the offensive, but at the same time his administration is cutting funding for Homeland Security," Hafen said.
"It's unfortunate that every time George Bush comes to Nevada, he takes a bunch of money from Nevadans and does nothing in return," she said.
Bush didn't address immigration issues as he did at a stop earlier in the day in Irvine, Calif. He also didn't speak of state concerns about the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
Most Nevada elected officials and its five congressional delegates oppose administration plans for opening and expanding the Yucca Mountain repository, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Earlier this month, Porter criticized proposed legislation to speed up development of the repository as "a desperate attempt" by the Energy Department to move the project forward despite accusations of falsified quality control reports.
Porter is set to hold a hearing Tuesday in Washington to probe updated government reports of mismanagement and quality assurance weaknesses at Yucca Mountain.
"We agree on a lot of things, but disagree on Yucca Mountain and the president knows it," Slanker said. "And someone you agree with 90 percent of the time, he's your friend, not your enemy."
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Las Vegas SUN
April 24, 2006
Protesters gear up for Bush arrival in Las Vegas
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) - President Bush has landed in Las Vegas for a state Republican fundraiser and the presentation of a volunteer award to a nurse who helped Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
About 100 demonstrators have gathered at a corner near The Venetian hotel resort, chanting and waving signs like, "Drop Bush, Not Bombs; No Blood for Oil," as they hope for a glimpse of the presidential motorcade.
Bush's luncheon at The Venetian casino hotel is a joint fundraiser for the state Republican party and U.S. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev. Luncheon guests were charged $500 to $2,100.
Porter is facing a challenge from Democrat Tessa Hafen, former press secretary to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Hafen has reported raising almost $370,000 during six weeks of campaigning.
Nevada's five-member congressional delegation opposes administration plans for opening and expanding the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Bush was due to give the President's Volunteer Service Award to Patty Murphy, a volunteer with the Medical Reserve Corps of Clark County.
In September 2005, Murphy deployed to Mobile, Ala., to work on the M.S. Holiday, a cruise ship that temporarily housed evacuees following Hurricane Katrina.
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U.S. Newswire
April 24, 2006
DNC: Bush Flip-Flopped on Yucca Mountain, Owes Nevadans Answers
Contact: Luis Miranda of the Democratic National Committee, 202-863-8148
WASHINGTON, April 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Today, President Bush attended a fundraiser for Jon Porter's campaign for Congress in Las Vegas. During the luncheon President Bush failed to explain why he flip-flopped on Yucca Mountain after taking millions from the nuclear industry. Once again, President Bush resorted to his strategy of brushing aside the concerns and safety of Nevadans.
"After receiving millions from nuclear power interests, President Bush broke his promise to base his decision on Yucca Mountain on sound science," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Luis Miranda. "President Bush owes the people of Nevada a real answer as to why he flip-flopped on this important issue, and on why he consistently puts special interests ahead of Nevada's families. Democrats have a bold vision for change that will offer Nevadans and all Americans real security."
Nuclear Industry Gave Millions To Bush, GOP
RNC, Bush Took Millions From Nuclear Industry. During the 2000 and 2002 election cycles, the owners and operators of nuclear power plants gave over $7.8 million to Bush, the RNC and GOP candidates and committees. Energy companies with nuclear interests gave over $340,000 to Bush in 2000 and over $3.2 million in soft money to the Republican National Committee from 1999 to 2002. ( http://www.crp.org ; Updated Nuclear Energy Institute of Nuclear Power Plant Operators and Owners, 4/5/01; http://www.tray.com )
A 2004 Bush "Pioneer" Has Lobbied To Send Nuclear Waste To Yucca Mountain.
Thomas Kuhn has served as a Bush Pioneer in 2000 and 2004, pledging to raise at least $100,000 for Bush's presidential campaign. In May 1999, Kuhn, president of Edison Electric since 1990, wrote a fundraising letter asking industry executives to include their "tracking code" at the bottom of their checks to Bush to "ensure that our industry is credited" for the contribution. In 1992, the Edison Electric board approved the so- called Nevada Initiative, which was, according to the publication Nuclear Fuel, "an industry advertising campaign aimed at building public support for DOE's study of the proposed repository site at Yucca Mountain." (UPI, 4/21/87; Nuclear Fuel, 2/3/92; Newsweek, 1/24/00; Journal of Commerce, 11/9/87; Electric Utility Week, 6/26/89; http://www.whitehouseforsale.org )
Bush Promised To Base Yucca Decision On Sound Science And Input From Local Officials
In 2000, Bush Said He Would Listen To Local And State Officials And Base Yucca Mountain Decision On Sound Science. In late May 2000, Bush released the following statement in regard to storing nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain: "I believe sound science, and not politics, must prevail in the designation of any high-level nuclear waste repository. As president, I would not sign legislation that would send nuclear waste to any proposed site unless it's been deemed scientifically safe. I also believe the federal government must work with the local and state governments that will be affected to address safety and transportation issues." (Associated Press, 5/23/00)
In 2002, Bush Signed Bill to Store Nuclear Waste in Yucca Mountain. On July 23, 2002, Bush signed a bill which formally adopted storing nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, a plan that was also adopted by both the House and Senate. (Los Angeles Times, 7/24/02; Associated Press, 7/23/02)
Sound Science Told Bush To Postpone Yucca Decision
GAO Urged Bush Administration To Indefinitely Postpone Decision On Yucca. In December 2001, the General Accounting Office urged the Bush Administration to indefinitely postpone its decision to store nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain. The GAO also said that plans officials showed lawmakers and Nevada residents "may not describe the facilities that DOE would actually develop." In June 2001, the Administration released the final health and safety standards for Yucca, but the GAO report said the Energy Department was still gathering and analyzing technical information on nearly 300 separate issues dealing with the Yucca site. (Washington Post, 11/30/01; GAO "Nuclear Waste: Technical, Schedule, and Cost Uncertainties of the Yucca Mountain Repository Project")
Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board Criticized Energy Department Analysis Of Yucca Mountain. The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, an 11-member board created by Congress comprised from the scientific and engineering fields, said no matter where nuclear waste was put it would be impossible to avoid unexpected problems over the more than 10,000 years the material would be highly radioactive. The board said they had "limited confidence" in the Energy Department's analysis of Yucca Mountain and urged the department to find ways to make their projections "more realistic." (Associated Press, 1/25/02; 5/23/00) Nuclear Waste Would Pass Through 43 States, One Mile From 50 Million Americans. In order to store the nation's nuclear waste in one site, Yucca Mountain, the "deadly waste" would have to be transported through 43 states and come within one mile of 50 million Americans. "If this goes through, some communities along major corridors, including St. Louis and Omaha, might see shipments every hour on the hour for the next 38 years," said Robert R. Loux, executive director of Nevada Governor Guinn's nuclear projects agency, which receives federal funding to provide scientific oversight of the project. (Washington Post, 1/11/02; State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/maps2002 )
And in the last year and a half alone:
-- In 2005, EPA published its revised standards for the proposed Yucca Mountain high-level waste dump, which are wholly inadequate, do not meet the law's requirements and do not protect public health and safety. In fact, EPA is proposing the least protective public health radiation standard in the world. . Numerous scientific and quality assurance problems with transportation plans, corrosion of casks, the effectiveness of materials, etc., causing DOE suspend work on the surface facilities and NRC to issue a stop work order on the containers.
-- In addition, DOE revealed that documents and models about water infiltration at Yucca Mountain had been falsified. They whitewashed this problem, but cannot whitewash the DOE Inspector General's report that DOE continues to ignore falsification of technical and scientific data on the project. (Office of Senator Harry Reid, 03/20/2006)
Administration Moves Forward - Despite all the concerns, the administration has introduced the Nuclear Fuel Management and Disposal Act, S. 2589, a legislative package that will remove health, safety and legal requirements, a clear admission that the project is a public health, safety and scientific failure. (Office of Senator Harry Reid, 04/24/06)
Local Officials Of Both Parties Were Against Yucca Plan
Bush Ignored Warnings From Nevada Leaders From Both Parties. A number of prominent Nevada officials, including Republicans Governor Kenny Guinn, Senator John Ensign, and Rep. Jim Gibbons, opposed the plan to bring nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. (Associated Press, 1/10/02)
Nuclear Power Industry Had Access To Bush Administration. When the White House was putting together the energy plan, nuclear industry representatives were offended that they were not included in decision making. In mid-March, a cadre of seven nuclear power executives sought and won an hour-long meeting in the White House with a number of top advisors. "We said, Look, we are an important player on this energy team and here are our vital statistics, and we think that you should start talking about nuclear when you talk about increasing the nation's supply," Christian H. Poindexter, chairman of the Constellation Energy Group, recalled today. And then a surprising thing happened. "It was shortly after that, as a matter of fact I think the next night, when the vice president was being interviewed on television, he began to talk about nuclear power for the first time," Poindexter said, according to the New York Times. (Time, 2/11/02; New York Times, 5/23/01)
---Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, http://www.democrats.org. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
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KRNV
April 24, 2006
President Bush leaves Las Vegas after Strip resort fund-raiser
President Bush has left Las Vegas after stumping for a Nevada congressman at a Las Vegas Strip fund-raiser.
Bush was in Las Vegas less than two hours -- including a 20-minute speech to about 300 party faithful at The Venetian resort.
The luncheon raised about 400-thousand dollars for Congressman Jon Porter and state Republicans.
Bush called Porter "a straight shooter" and "a plain talker getting the job done for the people of Nevada."
The president was greeted earlier at McCarran International Airport by the state's top Republicans: Governor Kenny Guinn, Senator John Ensign and Congressman Jim Gibbons.
About 100 demonstrators outside The Venetian chanted and waved signs like: "Drop Bush, Not Bombs; No Blood for Oil." Inside, security was tight.
Guests paid 500 to 21-hundred dollars to attend the luncheon.
Bush talked about a lot of administration policies -- including his prescription drug benefit plan.
He didn't say anything about immigration or his support for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
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Las Vegas SUN
April 24, 2006
FLASHPOINT for Apr 24, 2006
By Jon Ralston
<ralston@vegas.com>
Las Vegas Sun
So I have managed to obtain a supersecret copy of the state Democrats' pitch to allow Nevada to have a presidential caucus early in 2008 and compete with Iowa and New Hampshire for attention. It has pictures of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman - one on each of the 42 pages of the pitch book. It has pictures of the Strip and strip clubs and promises the Democratic National Committee - "What happens in Vegas already has happened in The White House." It has pictures of Sen. Harry Reid and declares "You can party all night with this man!" Finally, it has a picture of Yucca Mountain and a caption: "Don't worry; the waste won't be here until long after you're gone." Frankly, I don't see how Nevada can lose.
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Salt Lake Tribune
April 24, 2006
A waste proposal: DOE should not have sole say over Yucca shipments
Tribune Editorial
It is a ploy as old as representative government: If you can't do what you want to do by playing by the accepted rules, you try to change the rules.
That is what the U.S. Department of Energy is attempting to do with legislation pending in Congress that would streamline the government's stalled and increasingly iffy plan to establish a permanent nuclear waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.
Among several troubling provisions of the proposed Nuclear Fuel Management and Disposal Act is one that would free the Energy Department from existing federal and state health and safety regulations governing transport of hazardous materials.
In essence, the bill sponsored by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., would allow the Energy Department to make its own rules and conduct its own oversight over cross-country shipments by truck and by rail of tens of thousands of tons of high-level nuclear waste, many of which would pass through Utah.
Federal laws aimed at protecting public health and safety, such as the Hazarous Materials Transportation Authorization Act, would be trumped by whatever plan the DOE came up with. So, too, would all state, local, and tribal laws and regulations that are accommodated under existing federal guidelines.
Energy Department officials argue that since the shipments would pass through as many as 45 states and 700 counties, they need "consistent treatment" by the DOE under a single "safe and responsible method of transportation."
Like the Western Governors' Association, we view the DOE-written legislation with skepticism. We fail to see the wisdom of abandoning precedent and giving a single federal agency absolute control over the health and safety of the estimated eight million to 11 million people nationwide who live within a half-mile of the proposed shipping routes.
The concerns of state and local jurisdictions must continue to be taken into account if, as seems increasingly unlikely, given the political and scientific hurdles it has yet to clear, a Yucca Mountain repository is ever built and the DOE's trucks and trains begin to roll.
Congress should classify this legislation as hazardous waste.
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San Luis Obispo Tribune
April 24, 2006
How Diablo could be safer
For an estimated $50 million to $100 million, the nuclear plant could move radioactive waste sooner
By David Sneed
dsneed@thetribunenews.com
Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant could lower the amount of highly radioactive waste stored in pools and reduce the possibility of a fire that would release catastrophic amounts of radiation into the county, respected scientists say.
But federal regulators and officials at Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which owns Diablo, say the densely loaded pools are safe and unloading them would be costly and unnecessary.
The disagreement puts the plant north of Avila Beach in the midst of a long debate in the nuclear industry — what to do with spent fuel.
Spent fuel is one of the most hazardous materials known to man. Direct exposure to its intense radiation would kill a person within minutes, and it stays dangerous for tens of thousands of years.
Storage pools at Diablo Canyon and other plants across the nation now contain five times the number of spent fuel assemblies they were designed to handle.
Concerns about terrorism and uncertainty over the future of a national facility to store nuclear waste have prompted a push by experts, activists and some legislators to move spent fuel from the pools after six years and place them in above-ground dry casks, which many experts consider a safer storage method.
Dangerous stockpile
A 2005 study requested by Congress raised questions about the vulnerability of the nation´s growing stockpile of highly radioactive waste, which is scattered at 103 commercial nuclear reactors in 31 states across the nation.
"The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks raised the possibility of a new kind of threat to commercial power plants and spent fuel storage: premeditated, carefully planned, high impact attacks by terrorists to damage these facilities for the purpose of releasing radiation into the environment and spreading fear and panic among civilian populations," concluded the study by the National Academy of Sciences´ Board of Radioactive Waste Management, which advises Congress on nuclear waste matters.
The densely packed spent fuel pools are the result of repeated delays in opening a national underground storage repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
Nuclear plants were built with the assumption that spent fuel would be either reprocessed into fresh fuel or shipped off to Yucca Mountain soon after it spent the mandatory five years cooling in the pools.
Neither of those has come to fruition, and just two years after Diablo opened, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved PG&E´s request to replace the original in-pool fuel storage racks, which can hold 270 assemblies, with ones that can hold 1,324 assemblies.
The use of such high-density storage racks soon became an industrywide trend, and some scientists and nuclear power critics began to wonder what would happen if a powerful earthquake or other catastrophic event caused the water —which circulates around the spent fuel to keep it cool, blocks radiation and protects plant workers — to drain out.
A frightening possibility emerged: Within several hours of losing its cooling water, the newest and hottest assemblies in the pool could heat up and begin to burn, spreading fire to the rest of the assemblies.
Since spent fuel pools are outside of a nuclear plant´s containment domes, there would be little to stop the spread of the resulting clouds of radioactive steam and smoke. The radiation could spread hundreds of miles, the National Academy of Sciences report states.
The pools also contain much larger amounts of radioactive material than a reactor, said David Lochbaum, a nuclear scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, a liberal-leaning organization often critical of the nuclear industry.
"The reactor is better protected than the spent fuel pools," Lochbaum said. "It might be that spent fuel is a more attractive target for our enemies than the reactor itself."
Assessing the risk
The NRC´s stance is that the possibility of a terrorist attack or earthquake damaging the spent fuel pools to the point that they would lose their water is so low that it does not justify requiring utilities to go to the time and expense of reducing them to their low- density loading.
Diablo´s pools are sunk below ground level and lined with six feet of concrete and steel, which would make draining them very difficult, said Jearl Strickland, Diablo Canyon´s spent fuel manager. Plus, PG&E officials and federal regulators say, a fire in a drained pool would take hours to develop, giving plant workers time to take corrective action.
Four months ago, in response to the report, the NRC directed plant operators to arrange the fuel assemblies into a safer configuration, among other measures that remain secret for security reasons.
The other factor is expense.
Along with many other plants, Diablo Canyon already is constructing an aboveground dry cask storage facility in anticipation of the day that the denser racks, too, become full.
The $118 million installation will hold as many as 138 casks, with each cask containing 32 assemblies — enough to store all the spent fuel Diablo Canyon will produce through 2025, when its operating license ends.
But if plants were forced to accelerate the transfer from the pools to the dry casks, Diablo and other plants with dry cask facilities already under construction would have to go back and redesign them.
The NRC estimates the cost to utilities of accelerating transfer of spent fuel from the pools to dry casks at $3.5 billion to $7 billion nationwide. Estimates vary of how much it would cost Diablo Canyon. Nuclear safety expert Gordon Thompson, who has consulted for the nuclear watchdog group San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, has put the price at $50 million. Strickland estimates the cost would be closer to $100 million.
By comparison, the utility plans to spend more than $700 million to replace the plant´s eight steam generators and $141 million to replace the tops of the reactors, paid for through rate increases.
That work coupled with the recent replacement of Diablo Canyon´s low-pressure turbines brings the total price of equipment replacements at the power plant to $1 billion over a decade.
What the critics think
The National Academy of Sciences report stops short of recommending that spent fuel pools be returned to their low-density configuration. Such decisions need to be based on cost-benefit considerations by the NRC and the nuclear industry, the report said.
But nuclear power watchdog groups — including the Union of Concerned Scientists, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace and the San Luis Obispo-based Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility — believe it is worth the expense.
"There is no excuse for failing to take this extremely feasible and affordable step to protect the public from the potentially disastrous effects of a successful attack on a spent fuel pool," said Morgan Rafferty, Mothers for Peace activist.
They consider dry casks to be a safer storage option because it divides a plant´s spent fuel stockpile into smaller groups and encases the assemblies individually in strong steel-and-concrete cylinders.
The casks at Diablo will be bolted to an open-air concrete pad behind the plant. Local environmental groups unsuccessfully urged PG&E to disperse the casks at several locations and protect them with earthen berms to make them a less attractive terrorist target.
"Even if you go with the cheapest thing — which is a concrete pad — that is a better solution than filled pools, by leaps and bounds," Lochbaum said.
A long-term problem
One thing about storage of spent fuel at Diablo Canyon is certain. It is a problem that will confront San Luis Obispo County residents for decades to come.
Staunch opposition to the Yucca Mountain project by Nevada lawmakers, coupled with questions about its safety and scientific viability, leave the future of the facility in serious doubt.
"The Yucca Mountain project is never going to open," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has vowed.
Lawmakers in Utah similarly oppose a proposal to build a temporary nuclear storage facility on an American Indian reservation about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Congressmen and senators from those two states introduced a bill in December that would require all spent-fuel assemblies to be transferred to dry casks within six years.
The Spent Nuclear Fuel On-Site Storage Security Act of 2005 is part of an overall effort to require the federal Department of Energy to take ownership of and manage all of the on-site dry cask storage facilities at individual nuclear plants. It also calls for compensating utilities for transferring the fuel to dry storage with money now earmarked for the Yucca Mountain facility.
The bill has been referred for consideration to committees in both the Senate and House of Representatives.
How spent fuel pools could be safer
Recommendations from a six-month review of the safety of spent fuel pools at commercial nuclear power plants by a panel of scientists with the National Academy of Sciences:
1. The NRC should do more analysis of vulnerabilities of spent fuel pools and make recommendations to correct them.
NRC and nuclear industry officials say this is being done.
2. Two measures to improve spent fuel pool safety should be promptly implemented. They are:
• Reconfiguring the fuel in the pools in a checkerboard fashion so that newer, hotter fuel is surrounded by older, cooler fuel.
The NRC has adopted this recommendation and Diablo Canyon has implemented it.
• Installing a water spray system that would be able to cool the fuel even if the pool or overlying building is severely damaged.
NRC and nuclear industry officials say sprinklers are unnecessary because there are other ways to refill the pools. No such sprinklers have been installed at Diablo Canyon.
David Sneed can be reached at 781-7930.
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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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