Yucca Mountain News Clips
Friday, May 26, 2006
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Las Vegas SUN
May 26, 2006
Senate confirms appointments to DOE, NRC
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate on Friday confirmed President Bush's nominee to head the Department of Energy office that oversees Yucca Mountain, after Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign lifted their opposition.
Edward F. "Ward" Sproat III was confirmed by voice vote as director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.
The Senate also confirmed the nomination of Reid's former aide Greg Jaczko for a seat on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Jaczko has been serving on the commission for about a year-and-a-half under a recess appointment.
Reid and Ensign used a procedural "hold" to block Sproat's confirmation after Bush nominated him in September, saying they wanted answers about the administration's plans for nuclear waste storage.
Reid's spokeswoman, Sharyn Stein, said they lifted the hold earlier this month after they were given the full investigative report compiled by the DOE Inspector General on an e-mail controversy over work falsification on the Yucca Mountain project.
Sproat is a nuclear industry executive who was the lead negotiator in a nuclear waste settlement that Chiacgo-based energy company Exelon Corp. completed with DOE in 2004.
"His confirmation will allow us to continue on our path forward to opening Yucca Mountain as our nation's repository for spent nuclear fuel," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said in a statement.
The Senate confirmed Jaczko for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by voice vote along with two other NRC nominees: Peter Lyons, a nuclear policy adviser to Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M.; and Dale Klein, who will replace retiring commissioner Nils Diaz as chairman.
Jaczko will serve out the remainder of a five-year term, ending in 2008.
"Dr. Jaczko has served honorably in his year and a half with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," Reid said in a statement. "I am pleased that the full Senate confirmed him to the post today so he can serve Nevada and the nation for his full term."
Jaczko initially was opposed by Senate Republicans; he got his recess appointment as part of a deal in which Reid agreed to lift his hold on a package of Bush nominees.
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Las Vegas SUN
May 26, 2006
FLASHPOINT for May 26, 2006
By Jon Ralston
<ralston@vegas.com>
Las Vegas Sun
Just in case anyone had forgotten where President Bush stands on Yucca Mountain and just in case Congress gets shaky on the idea of stuffing nuclear waste into that hole, the president reminded everyone this week in little-noticed comments. Most of the stories about a Pennsylvania speech the president gave focused on his talk of alternative energy sources and his advocacy for nuclear power. But, The Wall Street Journal reported, Bush also had this to say: "You've got to be wise about nuclear waste. I'm a believer that Yucca Mountain is a scientifically sound place to send the waste, and I would hope the United States Congress would recognize that as well." Sound science. Still on message after all these years.
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Las Vegas SUN
May 26, 2006
Editorial: Bush loves nuclear power
President fails to acknowledge - again - the dangers of nuclear waste
President Bush this week visited Pennsylvania's Limerick Generating Station to again tout the benefits of nuclear power and call for its expansion. While what Bush said - and what he didn't say - was all too familiar, it still doesn't make it any less alarming than his previous statements about nuclear power.
Bush has said repeatedly that more U.S. reactors should be constructed so that nuclear power would represent a bigger portion of the nation's "energy mix" - along with coal, natural gas, oil and a tiny percentage of renewable sources such as wind, water and geothermal - to ease the nation's dependence on foreign oil.
America needs nuclear power to assure its "economic security and national security," Bush said on his tour Wednesday. What he didn't say was that an expansion of nuclear power would do little to curb our oil "addiction" - only about 3 percent of the nation's energy plants are fueled by oil (about half are coal-fired, and almost 20 percent are nuclear).
Bush's visit to Limerick was about 60 miles from the site of the 1979 Three Mile Island reactor accident. Bush contended that nuclear power is safe today, but the record is hardly spot-free; the nation's aging nuclear plants have had several troubling safety violations in recent years.
What Bush did not address this week was the lingering unease that many Americans still have with nuclear power - the fear that it would only take one terrible accident, such as Chernobyl 20 years ago, to create a major catastrophe.
Bush also said that nuclear power offers an "abundant and plentiful" alternative energy source. The president noted that nuclear reactors burn no fossil fuels that pollute the air and contribute to global warming.
But Bush, like so many other nuclear cheerleaders, hasn't come to grips with the most fundamental problem with nuclear power: America has no safe, long-term plan for the waste. The highly radioactive spent fuel from nuclear reactors is some of the most deadly material known to man.
The administration is committed to a deeply flawed, long-delayed plan to launch an unprecedented waste-shipping campaign to transport the nation's most highly radioactive spent fuel to Nevada's Yucca Mountain for permanent burial. The deadly waste and the dangerous plan to bury high-level nuclear waste at Yucca very much contradict Bush's assertion this week that nuclear power "helps us protect the environment."
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Reno Gazette-Journal
May 26, 2006
Which party owns the 'culture of corruption'?
Ryan Mcginness
Fallon Star Press Correspondent
Sometimes bipartisanship comes in the strangest of forms. Sometimes it's teaming up on a regionally important issue that, in some areas, crosses party lines; Nevada's Congressional delegation does this on a regular basis to fight Yucca Mountain.
This week, though, it was an issue of institutional propriety, and it came in the form of outrage from the Republican Speaker about an action taken against a Democratic House Members.
This past Saturday, the office of Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson was the subject of search by the FBI. The investigation isn't without warrant; affidavits revealed the FBI even found $90,000 in cash was recovered during a search of the Congressman's freezer. Perhaps that's not damning, but it's certainly not something that law abiding citizens normally do. Overused credit cards, maybe.
Let's be clear: the Speaker isn't defending Congressman Jefferson. Even his own party isn't doing that. The Speaker is defending his turf; never in our country's history has the office of a sitting Congressman been searched by the FBI "" or any arm of the Executive Branch.
It's an interesting legal question, and one that isn't immediately clear. Speaker Hastert's assertion is that a search by what is essentially the Executive Branch of the Legislative Branch violates the separation of powers. In that, he's got a point: the office of Congressman Jefferson doesn't belong to him "" it belongs to the people of Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District.
His personal freezer, though, is fair game; no one's questioning that. No one has argued that Members of Congress are above the law ""in just the past five years I have spent working in and around Congress, that fact has become abundantly clear.
While the controversy over the search continues to roil, the Democrats continue to do their best to push Jefferson as far out of the picture as possible. The gentleman from Louisiana doesn't seem eager to appease, though "" he's publicly stated not only that he won't resign; he's announced his intent to run for re-election.
The Democrats have hung their hat on what they continue to hope will be a winning strategy this year: remind the public what the Republicans have done. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has all but tattooed "culture of corruption" on her forehead in order to deliver the message that she believes Republicans are out of control.
It's a strategy not without merit: Republicans have had a hard time over the past couple years, with redistricting and bribery scandals at the top of the marquee. Unfortunately, when a Democrat joins the ranks of the culture of corruption, the message weakens. While Pelosi will continue to do everything within her power to encourage Jefferson to resign, the longer he stays in, the longer the spotlight is on him and his frozen assets.
It was a smart move by the Speaker to seemingly come to the aid of his Democratic colleague. Not only does it increase his bipartisan gravitas, it will keep the story in the front of the public. He knows they're the ones who ultimately get to decide whether or not the Democrats will retain the moral high-ground on Congressional corruption.
In celebration of this, my 100th consecutive weekly column in the Fallon Star Press, I am celebrating by taking a week off and my sister has graciously volunteered to write my June 2 column.
In celebration of this, my 100th consecutive weekly column for the Fallon Star Press, I am taking a week off and my sister has graciously agreed to opine in this space next week.
Ryan McGinness is a Nevada native living and working in Washington, D.C. He can be reached via e-mail at rmcginness@yahoo.com.
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Brattleboro Reformer
May 26, 2006
How safe is safe?
Reformer.com
On Wednesday, President Bush took a tour of the Limerick Generating Station, a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, about 40 miles from Philadelphia.
The trip was another opportunity for the Bush administration to tout nuclear energy as being abundant, safe, affordable and clean.
Meanwhile, Wednesday night, there was an "unusual event" at Vermont Yankee. An electrical problem with one of the nuclear plant's cooling pumps triggered the switching room's fire extinguishing system to go off.
No one was in danger, but when we heard the police scanner sounding multiple tones in the Reformer newsroom Wednesday night and heard the words "unusual event" and "this is not a drill," admittedly, we felt a chill.
This was the third significant electrical incident that has occurred at Vermont Yankee in the last two years. Fortunately, none has been a threat to public safety. But with each mishap in Vernon, the tension grows. How safe are we? How safe is the plant? And will more incidents occur as the plant started running at 120 percent of its original generating capacity?
We've been repeatedly reassured that the plant can handle its so-called "uprate," and that it can safely run for another 20 years. But "events" keep happening at the plant, and they erode the trust and confidence area residents might still have that Vermont Yankee is safe.
Nights like Wednesday -- when, for about an hour, we weren't totally sure that the "unusual event" was just a minor mishap -- make Bush's rhetoric on nuclear energy seem ridiculous.
The arguments about nuclear energy being safe, clean and affordable disappear when you run into its biggest flaw -- what to do with the tens of thousands of tons of radioactive waste.
While the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday night voted to fully fund the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada, after years of reduced spending on the program, Yucca has yet to receive a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It is years behind schedule and there is no firm date for its completion.
Meanwhile, the waste keeps piling up and it looks increasingly like there is going be a nuclear waste dump in Vernon. That is because the spent fuel from Vermont Yankee will be eventually encased in concrete "dry casks" to sit and wait for transport to a facility that may never open.
"Nuclear power helps us protect the environment and nuclear power is safe," Bush said Wednesday.
Few in Windham County would say that statement is true, and fewer still would agree after the latest mishap.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
May 25, 2006
Senators meet with nominee for NRC
Klein would head agency tasked with licensing Yucca
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Nevada's senators met Tuesday with the official nominated to become chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but said little as to whether they found him acceptable to head the agency that might consider allowing high-level nuclear waste to be stored in the state.
Dale Klein told Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., he believed he could be objective in judging a waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Ensign said after their 20-minute meeting.
Ensign said he remained uncertain about Klein, who had appeared in nuclear industry TV commercials in Nevada during a Yucca Mountain push in the early 1990s.
"He gave the patented response that he would let sound science determine everything," Ensign said of the meeting. "I told him if somebody has a biased attitude, then sound science is different to that person."
Reid declined to talk about the meeting amid signs that a deal already was in the works for Klein's confirmation to a five-year NRC term. As Senate minority leader, Reid has the power to block or grease the skids for nominees.
Klein also declined to comment.
Klein is a nuclear waste expert and former University of Texas professor and associate dean who serves at the Pentagon as assistant to the secretary of defense for nuclear, biological and chemical programs.
As chairman of a five-member commission and leader of the regulatory agency, Klein would set a course for the agency that has 3,300 employees and a $760 million budget. The NRC regulates nuclear power plants and management of nuclear waste and other nuclear materials.
Staff scientists at the agency have been monitoring Energy Department plans to submit an application for nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain. Commissioners would have the final word after license hearings.
Klein's nomination became a flashpoint for some Nevada officials and anti-Yucca activists because he took part in a series of television commercials 15 years ago as part of a Yucca Mountain public relations drive in Nevada.
Critics questioned whether Klein's participation in the so-called "Nevada Initiative" compromised his ability to be impartial in judging Yucca Mountain. Klein at the time was a faculty member at the University of Texas.
Klein's supporters say he appeared in the commercials as a scientist and not a repository advocate, and his remarks were noncontroversial.
Klein's meeting with the Nevada senators took place amid indications a Senate deal was in the works no matter the outcome. The deal reportedly would place Klein at the NRC while extending the terms of two others on the five-member nuclear commission.
One of them is Gregory Jaczko, a former Reid science adviser who the senator has said he wants to keep on the commission. The other is Peter Lyons, a former adviser on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and formerly a manager at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
On Tuesday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved the nominations of all three, and Chairman Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said they were moving forward as a bloc.
Inhofe was asked afterwards if he and Reid had reached an agreement on the nominees.
"I'm not sure there is a formal agreement," Inhofe said. "I think we had a discussion and there shouldn't be a problem."
Inhofe and Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said they wanted to get the slots filled as soon as possible. The NRC will assess plans for new nuclear power plants and other pro-nuclear initiatives encouraged by the Bush administration.
Senate officials said the three could win final approval by the end of the week.
"They've got a lot of work to do and we've come to an agreement that all of them are qualified," Inhofe said.
Referring to Jaczko and Lyons, Voinovich said, "we've worked it out so they both can remain on the commission."
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
May 25, 2006
Yucca cartoon figure withstands Berkley attack in Congress
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Maybe it was the makeover that left him newly buff, but Yucca Mountain Johnny on Wednesday survived an attempt to put him out of business.
Johnny is a cartoon miner, the mascot for the youth pages of the Web site for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
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He had raised the ire of Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and anti-Yucca activists who derided him as a pro-nuclear tool aimed at children.
When the House debated its annual energy spending bill Wednesday, Berkley proposed an amendment to take Johnny down. It would have cut off funding for the youth section of the Web site.
"This character was created with taxpayer money to convince elementary school children that nuclear waste is a good thing," Berkley said.
"We should not be using our children as propaganda tools. This is not Communist Russia, the last time I looked."
Berkley's amendment failed, 271-147, after senior lawmakers spoke in defense of DOE's education efforts.
"To my knowledge, nobody is questioning the accuracy and truth of what's on the Web site," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas.
"The people have spoken. Johnny wins," DOE spokesman Craig Stevens said after the vote, calling the amendment "pure silliness."
"Yucca Mountain Johnny may live to fight another day, but he has been exposed to the world for the phony that he is," Berkley responded.
"More than 140 of my colleagues agreed that taxpayer funds should not be used for such blatant pro-Yucca propaganda aimed at America's youth."
The Yucca Mountain "youth zone" within www.ymp.gov talks about the Nevada site and the repository project in simplified language, linking users to more details deeper within DOE Web pages. It also contains quizzes and games.
But Berkley said the site is silent on safety risks of transporting nuclear waste and shortcomings in the Yucca project that have caused it to fall years behind schedule.
Recent visitors to the Web site have found a new Yucca Mountain Johnny. DOE officials said he was modernized in a redesign last month.
The new Johnny sports safety goggles, a safety vest and a tool belt. He also appears more muscular.
"He looks more like a miner," DOE spokesman Allen Benson said. "It is not subliminal; those are safety glasses and a safety belt. The message is safety."
As for his buffness, "he may have been updated a little bit," Benson said.
During debate, Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, said perhaps Johnny was "cutesy" and could be reworked. But he urged that DOE's education efforts not be abandoned.
"The best thing against fear is knowledge," Hobson said. "If we could have a more balanced approach, I think Yucca Mountain Johnny may have a place in teaching kids."
Debate came as the House moved toward passage of a $30 billion spending bill for the Energy Department, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation for 2007.
The bill contains $544.5 million to continue development of Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste. It also contains $120 million for the Bush administration's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, a waste reprocessing initiative.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., proposed to cut $40 million from the GNEP budget. His amendment was defeated, 295-128.
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Guardian
May 25, 2006
Nevada Lawmaker Rips Energy Dept. Cartoon
WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. is no fan of Yucca Mountain John. She tried Wednesday to stop the Energy Department from using the cartoon character on a department Web site designed to inform children about nuclear waste.
``This character was created by taxpayer money to convince elementary school children that nuclear waste is a good thing,'' she complained, and ``to promote the proposed nuclear waste repository.''
``What's next? Will the Department of Health and Human Services recruit Joe Camel?'' she said, referring to the former cartoon mascot of Camel cigarettes.
Berkley, an ardent opponent of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump planned for 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, tried to get an amendment into a $30 billion energy and water projects spending bill that would bar money being used for the DOE youth-oriented web site featuring Yucca Mountain John.
It was defeated 271-147.
``Nobody questions the accuracy or truth of what's on the Web site,'' countered Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas.
Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio said Yucca Mountain John ``may have a place in teaching kids ... We may differ where that place is.''
``Right now just this name is an offense to the people of Nevada,'' shot back Berkley.
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Deseret News
May 25, 2006
House OKs funds for temporary nuclear storage
Bishop believes Utah won't get waste; Matheson wary
By Suzanne Struglinski
Deseret Morning News
WASHINGTON — The House approved $30 million for the temporary storage of nuclear waste in the energy spending bill passed late Wednesday.
The bill's report says the Energy Department could consider private sites, which might make Private Fuel Storage's proposed site in Tooele County a possible contender to store waste before it went to Nevada's Yucca Mountain — if it ever opens.
Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, is confident the bill is written in a way that would look to other sites before putting waste in Utah, while Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, is concerned about the money opening up the possibility for PFS to move forward. Bishop said on the House floor late Tuesday that a "key word" in the bill is "voluntary."
The bill says the department will "explore consolidation of spent fuel within states with high volumes of spent fuel. The department should conduct a voluntary, competitive process to select interim storage sites."
"Chairman Hobson added this important phrase and clearly understands that it is far wiser and better to voluntarily work with states than to try to impose mandates on states," Bishop said. "That not only protects the rights and positions of states in our federal state, but it is clearly a wiser policy of choice."
Bishop said this "reinforces" a commitment that Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, has made in the past about not forcing waste into Utah. Hobson is the head of the House Appropriations Energy and Water Development Committee, which wrote the energy spending bill.
"State and local officials in my state, military in my state, environmental groups and citizens in my state are encouraged with these particular words," Bishop said.
But Matheson said just the existence of the $30 million in the bill "is a step in the wrong direction." He worries that the funding may be viewed by PFS as an opportunity to push harder for customers.
"Because PFS has been granted a license by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, we have to be concerned about Congress seeing Utah as a viable interim storage site," said Matheson. "That is a non-starter, as far as I am concerned."
Matheson — and the rest of the Utah delegation — co-sponsored a bill that would keep nuclear waste at commercial reactors. Right now, federal law requires nuclear waste to go inside Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, but the repository is eight years behind schedule.
Because of the delay, the government estimates it will cost the federal government about $500 million in legal liability on top of other costs. Utilities are suing the department because the waste is still there and not in Nevada.
This is why interim storage grows more attractive, but federal nuclear waste law would have to change before any government-sponsored interim storage could move forward. Right now it is not allowed.
PFS is willing to work with the Energy Department and has formally asked the department to become a customer, but it has not received a response.
The $30 billion spending bill contains about $40 million specific to Utah for a variety of projects. The Senate still needs to work on its version of the bill.
It contains $19.8 million for remediation work at the Moab uranium mill tailings site and $40 million for the Central Utah Project — most of which is for construction, according to Matheson's office.
Bishop's office said the bill contains almost $1.7 million for the Weber Basin Project, $200,000 for the Park City Feasibility Study to do an environmental study on the feasibility of transporting water from Rockport Reservoir to the Snyderville Basin, $200,000 for digital mammography equipment and other cancer equipment for Logan's Cancer Center, among other items.
--E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com
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Philadelphia Inquirer
May 25, 2006
At Limerick, Bush pushes nuclear power
By Jeff Shields
Inquirer Staff Writer
The Limerick nuclear power plant's giant twin cooling towers were the backdrop yesterday as President Bush promoted his plan to build more reactors and develop controversial technology to recycle nuclear waste.
It is a pivotal time for Bush's nuclear agenda. Funding for a new nuclear initiative is being fought over in Congress. Last year, he won a host of other incentives for the nuclear industry, including tax breaks and insurance against regulatory and legal delays.
On Monday, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that 16 companies had expressed interest in building 25 reactors. Bush said that only two companies had expressed interest at this time last year.
Bush is pushing nuclear power as one way to meet future electrical needs.
"For the sake of economic security and national security, the United States of America must aggressively move forward with the construction of nuclear-power plants," Bush said before 300 employees at Exelon Nuclear's Limerick Generating Station.
"I want it to be said that this generation of folks had the foresight necessary... to continue to diversify electricity supply, and recognize that nuclear power is safe - and we did something about it."
Bush's initiative would encourage construction of reactors by solving the nuclear-waste problem with a safe system of recycling used nuclear fuel rods.
Another part of his plan calls for expediting the opening the Yucca Mountain storage facility in Nevada, which would allow plants such as Exelon's Limerick Generating Station to begin shipping out spent fuel that is now stored on site. Providing a place to store spent fuel is critical if new power plants are to be built.
Limerick's two nuclear generators, opened in 1986 and 1990, are among the newest of the country's 103 nuclear reactors, yet Limerick's pools for storing spent fuel rods will reach capacity in 2009.
The plant has designed a new storage system that does not require water pools, but Exelon officials said the opening of Yucca Mountain nevertheless remains important for long-term disposal of spent fuel from the Montgomery County plant.
Some environmentalists have said opposition to nuclear power should be reconsidered in light of the environmental impact from burning fossil fuel.
But a coalition of four environmental groups in Pennsylvania yesterday derided Bush's faith in nuclear power.
"The Bush administration is reinventing a broken wheel that is funded by subsidies," said Eric Epstein, spokesman for Harrisburg-based Three Mile Island Alert. The country's worst nuclear accident occurred there in 1979.
Of particular concern, other critics say, is the idea of using a recycling technique that generates radioactive material that could be used in a dirty bomb, or, eventually, a nuclear bomb. Bush has said he favors research that will make that technique safe.
For some in the crowd, Bush's speech had the effect of a pep rally, as he praised their work as helping preserve the country's security and prosperity.
Tim Saunders, a reactor-services supervisor at Limerick, called the speech "motivating."
"Obviously, it's stimulating," he said, "to be picked out to run with that."
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Pottstown Mercury
May 25, 2006
President picks local plant to boost energy initiative
Evan Brandt
ebrandt@pottsmerc.com
LIMERICK -- Hybrid vehicles, cars powered by ethanol and hydrogen, wind-powered generators and liquefied natural gas terminals -- and of course, nuclear power.
Those innovations were the focus of the energy policy outlined by President Bush in a speech Wednesday before an enthusiastic audience of about 300 employees of Exelon Nuclear´s Limerick Generating Station.
"If we don´t get it right on energy, we can have the most educated work force in the world, but we´re not going to be able to compete. We can have the lowest taxes in the world, the least regulations, the fewest lawsuits, but if we haven´t done something about our energy situation, we´re not going to be able to compete in the world," Bush said.
Bush, who was also in Pennsylvania for an evening fund-raiser in Philadelphia for Republican congressional candidates, spoke on several subjects, including the economy and his signature educational reform -- No Child Left Behind.
But his primary reason for being in Limerick was energy.
Standing in front of a backdrop heralding his "Advanced Energy Initiative," Bush emphasized research and technology as the best way to maximize the energy resources available to the nation and thus break America´s addiction to foreign oil.
Noting that innovations like the iPod and the Internet were the result of government research, he said, "I intend to double the budget for basic research over the next 10 years."
The reason gas prices are rising, Bush explained, is a simple capitalist equation: Demand is outstripping supply.
"One of the reasons why our price of gasoline is going up is because demand for oil is increasing in places like India and China, and the supply for oil is not meeting that demand," Bush said.
Pump prices would be reduced, Bush said, if cars would be driven on alternative fuels like ethanol, made from corn and perhaps one day made from wood chips or switch-grass.
"Pretty cool deal, isn´t it," Bush asked, "for the president to be able to say, you know, we´re growing a lot of corn, and we´re less dependent on foreign sources of oil?"
Another way to reduce reliance on petroleum, Bush said, is through the use of hybrid vehicles, particularly those with a new kind of battery "that will enable you to drive your first 40 miles on electricity."
Electricity is a key component to the American quality of life, and its economy, said Bush, noting that "electricity demand is projected to increase by nearly 50 percent over the next 25 years. That´s a lot," he said.
"And we had better be wise about how we implement a strategy to meet that demand -- otherwise, we´re not going to be the economic leader; otherwise, our people aren´t going to be having the good jobs that we want them to have; otherwise, your children and my children, our grandchildren, are not going to have a bright, hopeful America that we want for them," Bush said.
To power that brightness, Bush said he envisions a nation that draws electricity from advanced wind turbines -- he joked a good place to put one would be Washington, D.C. -- combined with clean-burning coal plants, solar-powered homes, natural gas and new nuclear power plants.
Clean coal technology is important, Bush said, because it is an abundant resource in the United States and currently provides about 50 percent of the nation´s electricity. The United States has about 240 years worth of coal reserves, he said.
About $20 billion will be spent in the next 10 years to develop "clean coal" technology so that by 2012, "we think we will build the first power plant to run on coal and remove virtually all pollutants," said Bush.
His initiative to allow the federal government to overrule local objections in the siting of liquefied natural gas depots will also help drive down the cost of electricity, Bush said.
He added that "environmentally friendly" exploration for natural gas reserves should be allowed in the Gulf Coast and in Alaska´s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a remark that generated applause in the audience.
Applause was also frequent when Bush addressed the issue with which his audience was most familiar -- nuclear power.
Prior to making his 35-minute speech, Bush toured the station, visiting the plant´s two massive generators and its control room.
He praised the employees´ "strong dedication to safety," and earned more of their applause when he said "this plant serves two million homes in the area, and it does so in a way that does not require us to pollute the air. It´s a perfect example of how we can grow our economy and protect our environment at the same time."
Sidestepping the issue of global warming -- an issue on which his position questioning its cause has been widely criticized -- Bush said nuclear power plants emit no greenhouse gases, considered by most scientists to be the cause of the global warming phenomenon.
"I try to tell people, let´s quit the debates about whether greenhouse gases are caused by mankind or natural causes; let´s just focus on technologies that deal with the issue," said Bush.
One of those technologies is nuclear technology, he said.
"Without nuclear energy, carbon dioxide emissions would have been 28 percent greater in the electricity industry in 2004," Bush said. "Without nuclear power, we would have had an additional 700 million tons of a year of carbon dioxide, and that´s nearly equal to the annual emissions from 136 million passenger cars."
But nuclear power is a technology that has not been expanded in the United States in 30 years, said Bush. He pointed to France where 58 new plants have been built in the same period, plants that now generate 78 percent of that country´s power.
Plants are also in the works in China and India and unless the United States begins to diversify its energy strategy with more nuclear plants, it will cease to be an economic world leader, he said.
The energy bill Bush signed last year provides incentives for new plants.
Those incentives include loan guarantees for companies who undertake construction, "risk insurance" against delays and cost over-runs beyond their control, particularly those that have to do with regulations or bureaucratic delays as well as a package of tax credits.
These efforts, combined with "a $1.1 billion partnership between the federal government and the industry to facilitate new plant orders," have grabbed the attention of potential plant builders, Bush said.
"This time last year, only two companies were seeking to build nuclear power plants," he said. "Now 16 companies have expressed an interest in new construction, and they´re considering as many as 25 new plants."
To deal with the additional radioactive waste those plants would generate, Bush continued to back the controversial Yucca Mountain federal repository in Nevada.
He also promoted a "Global Nuclear Energy Partnership" in which the United States would ask for help in re-processing nuclear waste from countries that do it now.
"It will reduce the amount of toxicity of the fuel and reduce the amount we have to store," said Bush. "To me, it´s a smart way to combine with others to reduce storage requirements for nuclear waste by up to 90 percent."
That would be welcome news at many nuclear plants, including Limerick, where pools designed to hold waste temporarily for seven years to cool it have begun to reach capacity.
Had Yucca Mountain been ready now, that fuel would have been shipped to Nevada for burial. But now plants have been forced to set up "temporary" storage in "dry casks," that some opponents fear may end up being a final solution.
Last month, Exelon announced plans for a pad that could hold as many as 90 dry storage casks.
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Pottstown Mercury
May 25, 2006
Protesters rally against Bush energy stance
Lindsay Moyer, lmoyer@pottsmerc.com
Hours before President Bush shook the hands of workers at Exelon Nuclear´s Limerick Generating Station and spoke on energy policy, about 25 community members and activists gathered outside Pottstown Borough Hall to protest Bush´s energy policy.
Lewis Cuthbert, president of the Alliance for a Clean Environment, opened the Wednesday afternoon protest by criticizing Bush´s call for building more nuclear power plants.
"President Bush, we adamantly oppose your plan for more nuclear power plants," Cuthbert said. "Facts suggest financial and safety risks associated with nuclear power are so grave that it should not be a part of any solution to the energy crisis."
Cuthbert criticized nuclear power as too polluting, dangerous and expensive, and said it is not an answer to global warming.
"Mr. President, are you trying to deceive us, or don´t you know the facts?" Cuthbert said.
Joseph J. Mangano, national coordinator for the Radiation and Public Health Project, a nonprofit group of science and health professionals based in New York City, and Mike Ewall, of the Energy Justice Network, also addressed the protesters.
Mangano said nuclear reactors pose a risk to public health in two ways -- in the event of an accident affecting the reactor´s core or waste and in the routine radioactive emissions from nuclear power plants.
"We don´t have to have a Chernobyl or a Three Mile Island for people to suffer," he said, adding that he thinks repeated low-dose radioactive emissions do pose a cancer risk to area residents, based on the evidence he´s examined.
"Government officials assert that below a certain permissible level, there is no harm to public health," he said. "Bush and his officials are making assumptions that are irresponsible and dangerous."
Ewall decried nuclear energy as expensive, unsustainable, unnecessary and racist.
"All parts of the nuclear cycle except the site of the reactor disproportionately affect minority communities, from mining to waste disposal," he said.
Ewall also cited a U.S. Department of Energy draft report that has since been removed from the department´s Web site, a report that concluded a combination of renewable energy sources and increased energy efficiency could meet all U.S. energy needs by 2020.
"Bush is following the need of corporate interests, not what´s good for the people," Ewall said.
Following the speakers´ presentations, Donna Cuthbert, vice president of ACE, positioned a cardboard cut-out of Bush in front of the protesters so they could direct their comments and questions to him, since security measures prevented the protesters from getting close to the Limerick plant.
Fred Fritch, of Mertztown, Berks County, asked, "Why are we letting corporations run our democracy instead of the people?"
Donna Cuthbert added, "We think you should value our health and our children and grandchildren more than money, Bush."
Nina Robertson of Pottstown suggested an alternative to the Yucca Mountain federal nuclear waste depository, which could be decades away from opening.
"Bush, why don´t you just donate a portion of your Crawford ranch for the next nuclear waste depository?" she asked.
Jim Crater, president of Recycling Services Inc. in Pottstown, came to the protest with his 1½-year-old daughter, Aurora, and solar-powered rainbow and bubble makers to keep her entertained.
Crater made a sign for her that read, "I believe in sunshine, rainbows and my daddy, not smoke and mirrors and Mr. Bush." The smoke and mirrors, he said, referred to Bush´s energy platform based on illusions and lies.
He also brought a T-shirt that read, "Nuclear power? No thanks," and used it to dress Bush´s cardboard stand-in.
Crater said Bush is ignoring energy that´s right at our fingertips, in forms such as solar and wind.
"We´re surrounded by energy and perceived energy shortages," he said, "because we´ve been told we need oil to run our car.
"To use nuclear power to generate electricity is like using a chain saw to cut butter," he continued. "The job is much simpler than the energy that is generated."
Susan Scholl, a North Coventry resident and member of Democracy in Action and Berks Peace, attended the protest because she sees war as "the biggest environmental disaster of all time."
Barry Friedman, a Montgomery County resident, said he came to the protest because he´s concerned about the proposed dry-cask storage of spent fuel rods at the Limerick plant.
"Nuclear power is a blatant disregard for homeland security by allowing above-ground storage of nuclear fuel rods," he said. "Terrorists aren´t going to target a wind-generating station or a solar power unit."
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Reuters
May 25, 2006
House bill mixed bag for Bush energy proposals
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives late on Wednesday passed an appropriations bill that funds President George W. Bush's plan to research clean-burning fuel sources like ethanol, but slashed funding for a Bush plan to recycle radioactive waste.
The $30 billion energy and water appropriations bill for the 2007 fiscal year includes funding for Bush's "Advanced Energy Initiative," his State of the Union plan to reduce U.S. oil import dependence through research into wind, solar and other home-grown energy sources like ethanol.
However, the bill would fund only half of Bush's request for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, a global plan to recycle nuclear waste. The House bill sets funding at $120 million -- $130 million less than Bush requested.
The bill now goes to the Senate, which has yet to draft its bill. Both chambers must agree on language before the funding can be enacted.
An amendment sponsored by Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey to cut funding by another $40 million was voted down.
U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said he will "continue to encourage members to help us strengthen our nation's energy security by fully funding" the nuclear recycling program.
Many House lawmakers have expressed reservations about the program, saying that the administration has not yet given enough details on how it will work.
The bill also includes $545 million to fund the administration's plan to store nuclear waste from U.S. nuclear power plants in an underground repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. That would be a 20 percent funding increase from 2006 levels, if enacted.
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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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