Yucca Mountain News Clips
Thursday, May 11, 2006
---------------------------
Pahrump Valley Times
May 10, 2006
For 2008 to 2013
County goal: increase in PETT funds
First Bargaining Request is for $23 Million in July 2007
By Mark Waite
PVT
Nye County will ask the U.S. Department of Energy for more than twice as much in Payment Equal to Taxes for the years 2008 to 2013 for the land value of the Yucca Mountain project than it's currently receiving.
From the $10.5 million in PETT funds it is currently receiving, the initial bargaining request will be for $23 million in the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2007, gradually rising to $29 million for fiscal year 2011-2012. The PETT agreements are typically negotiated for a five-year period.
The funding is compensation to Nye County for the value of the Yucca Mountain project and improvements.
Nye County Commissioner Gary Hollis said 147,000 acres of federal land have been withdrawn for the Yucca Mountain project.
In a letter to Paul Golan, principal deputy director for the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Hollis said the county views the land for the repository and land being withdrawn for the railroad to Yucca Mountain as the primary commodities.
Construction of the exploratory shafts, underground rail system, ventilation, electrical and water systems, surface facilities and infrastructure all constitute taxable improvements.
The county made several points for the increased funding:
• Payments since 2001 have not kept pace with the increasing land values in Amargosa Valley. The payment for 2009 would have to be at least $17.4 million if indexed on current land values;
• DOE is requesting the withdrawal of additional land for the railroad;
• DOE has spent over $6 billion on improvements since the program began.
The county states delays to the Yucca Mountain project shouldn't be reason to curb the PETT funds, which are specifically authorized by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.
Hollis said the requested amounts are merely the start of a negotiating position.
"I think we're going to get more," Hollis predicted. "I don't know how much, negotiations are negotiations."
The commissioner said counties with nuclear power plants receive much more in compensation. In the past, Nye County has used PETT funds for anything from funding a Pahrump Valley master plan to buying school buses to an education endowment fund.
A five-member committee was appointed by Nye County Commissioners May 2 to review requests for PETT funds in the coming fiscal year beginning July 1. The committee members include Interim County Manager Ron Williams, Interim Assistant County Manager Rick Marshall, Interim Comptroller Wiley Jung, Public Works Director Samson Yao and Facilities Director Bob Jones.
The "Priority A" wish list for PETT funds for the coming year includes, in no particular order,
• $400,000 for Nye County Sheriff's Department patrol vehicles,
• $244,000 for the Tonopah Public Utilities sewer system,
• $400,000 for fairgrounds development in Pahrump,
• $2.5 million for county facility expansion,
• $1.5 million for roads,
• $800,000 for an Amargosa Valley swimming pool,
• $350,000 to pave the Amargosa Valley Community Center parking lot,
• $980,000 to develop the old Barrick mine outside Beatty,
• $500,000 for the volunteer fire departments,
• $250,000 for emergency services equipment,
• $169,000 for HAZMAT equipment,
• $150,000 for the Beatty Water and Sanitation department and
• $100,000 for a Tonopah fire department ladder truck.
---------------------------
Indian Country Today
May 10, 2006
Censored film wins Trustee Award at festival
By: Brenda Norrell
Indian Country Today
TUCSON, Ariz. - ''Trespassing,'' censored in more film festivals worldwide than it has been shown, reveals how the Colorado River Indian Tribes, Fort Mojave, Western Shoshone, Pueblo and Navajo were targeted by the nuclear industry.
Stewart Udall, former Interior Department secretary under presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, appears in the film and calls for honesty from the United States regarding the mistakes of the Cold War and Atomic Age. Udall points out that Americans were told to trust those in power concerning radiation and uranium.
''Well, it turns out - and we're learning more and more about it - that they made mistakes. And they lied. And now we have to confront this with the legacy of the Atomic Age. And that includes radiation, the waste, the dumps, the people that were harmed; and I think we have to demand the truth.''
Truth and censorship have become the key words in the making and distribution of ''Trespassing.''
''Trespassing'' documents the Colorado River Indian Tribes and Fort Mojave's successful fight against the proposed Ward Valley nuclear dump and the ongoing Western Shoshone protest of nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site and proposed nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain.
The film exposes the Cold War machinations of the nuclear industry, resulting in widespread cancer and respiratory diseases for Pueblos and Navajos working without protective clothing in Cold War uranium mines.
''Trespassing,'' by Red Umbrella Productions, captured the Trustee Award at the 15th Arizona International Film Festival April 28, an award based on merit, which is not given out annually.
In the United States and worldwide, however, the film has been rejected by more film festivals than it has been accepted.
DeMenezes, in an interview with Indian Country Today, discussed the rejections.
''There are two kinds of film festivals: true independent film festivals and those who sell their souls to the studios and corporations,'' DeMenezes said after the well-received screening at the Arizona International Film Festival.
''Trespassing'' was rejected at every film festival in Canada, France, Germany, Denmark, Portugal, Australia, Brazil and Argentina.
''Sundance Film Festival rejected it twice,'' DeMenezes said. The film was rejected at some of the leading festivals: Los Angeles International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Hot Docs International Film Festival, Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival and the York Film Festival. Comments from these festivals' organizers were not received by press time.
The Barcelona Human Rights Film Festival in Spain was the only festival in Europe to accept the film. It received a standing ovation.
Although he is Brazilian, DeMenezes prefers to be known as a world citizen. He grew up in Brazil and lived with an aunt after his mother died, where his world opened up with experimental theater.
With both indigenous Tapuia and Jewish ancestry, he said he can identify with victims of massacres and holocausts.
''If it happened to them yesterday, it could happen to me tomorrow, we all have that responsibility toward one another. Injustice doesn't discriminate and nuclear poisons don't discriminate.''
Besides the obvious political reasons for the festivals' rejections, DeMenezes said there are reasons other than politics.
''Restitution is an issue,'' he said of the possibility for financial compensation for victims, including American Indians.
Guilt is an issue as well; and, he added, the censorship of critical thinking. ''They don't want people to think. They do not want critical thinking.''
''Trespassing'' was nearly nine years in the making. DeMenezes waited 1-1/2 years to film the craters left by atomic bomb testing at the Nevada Test Site.
Finally, flanked by special forces, he filmed aerial footage of pockmarked earth, with its mammoth recessions resulting from atom bombs.
The media has also been critical of the film, DeMenezes said. ''Variety trashed the film.'' But, he said, the response from American Indians has been very good.
Michelle Thomas, Navajo from Indian Wells and Miss University of Arizona, lauded the film for its honesty and strength.
''It is a powerful film,'' Thomas said, as she thanked the filmmaker for revealing the often-censored truth about American Indians and the nuclear industry.
At a private screening in Los Angeles, Mojave tribal members praised the film. Western Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney also praised the film at the Pan-African Film Festival in Los Angeles.
The film is dedicated to Dorothy Purley, of Laguna Pueblo, N.M., and activist Stormy William. Both died while the film was being made. The film reveals the passionate struggle for the land, air and water.
While the struggle is for all living things, the film points out that it is especially for the children and those yet to come.
DeMenezes said ''Trespassing'' won acclaim from one important reviewer.
The grandson of activist Steve Lopez, Mojave, said, ''Thank you for making a movie about my papa.''
---------------------------
State of Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects
www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/
nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us
775-687-3744
---------------------------