Yucca Mountain News Clips
Sunday, June 18, 2006
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Las Vegas SUN
June 18, 2006
Security institute misses the mark
UNLV's Institute for Security Studies has received $8.9 million - money that has come mostly from taxpayers. But in three years, The Sun found, the ISS hasn't provided much bang for those bucks.
By Jeff German <german@lasvegassun.com> and Steve Kanigher <steve@lasvegassun.com>, Las Vegas Sun
Las Vegas Sun
Nineteen months after 9/11, Nevada's largest university won approval for a promising new step in the fight against terrorism. Using federal money, UNLV would create an institute devoted to counterterrorism research and training.
Sen. Harry Reid hailed the undertaking as a "bold step forward." Over the next three years, the new Institute for Security Studies received $8.9 million, more than three-quarters of it in federal money the Nevada Democrat steered its way. Congress also has agreed to send the institute another $5 million.
The institute opened as scheduled in 2003 and has since grown to 14 full-time employees, mostly from a circle of former Nevada Test Site executives and military veterans living in Nevada. They are paid salaries ranging from $79,500 to $160,000.
Beyond the payroll, however, the institute has little to show for the money, the Sun found in a detailed review of the program.
Ambitious mission
Three years ago, as the institute sought approval from the state Board of Regents and federal funding from the Energy Department, it outlined a mission it promised would turn UNLV into a leading think tank and academic authority on homeland security and place it on the leading edge of anti-terrorism laboratory research. The affiliation with UNLV was a major factor in securing the federal money.
The status today of its seven major objectives:
The institute planned to create an academic program offering a master's degree and eventually a bachelor's and a doctorate.
Three years later no academic program exists. The institute drifted away from its ties with the university. Its employees have not produced reports or analysis typical of academic think tanks.
The institute planned to conduct laboratory research and testing to create counterterrorism technology.
Today, the institute's leaders cannot cite any advances in technology. They do say the institute is working on a sensor device to seek out snipers, doing infrared testing to detect heat from a human body and studying electromagnetic waves that measure energy from a nuclear blast. They also say the institute has developed a research program for concealed weapons that can see through walls.
The institute said it would study psychological and social ramifications of terrorism.
It no longer has that as an objective.
The institute planned to study the relationship between terrorism and the Internet.
That, too, is no longer an objective.
The institute said it would team with the university's outreach division to provide professional training and continuing education credits to emergency workers in a terror attack.
The institute cut ties with the outreach division 16 months ago. It says its biggest accomplishment is providing an eight-hour course on terrorism awareness to 149 law enforcement and private security officers. It also has participated in several other short training programs, including one at University Medical Center, involving small numbers of emergency workers.
The institute planned to develop a microbial defense lab to study organisms that have potential to be used as weapons of mass destruction.
That no longer is an objective.
The institute pledged to serve as a forum for domestic preparedness to encourage public discussion on homeland security issues.
That remains part of its mission.
While the institute has not added any new objectives, the institute did land a $500,000 contract from the Nevada Commission on Homeland Security to study the state's vulnerability to terrorism and natural disasters. Records show, however, that the institute handed off the majority of that work, about $387,000 worth, to a defense consulting firm headquartered in New Mexico.
That contract is indicative of the institute's operating method. As federal money poured in to the institute under UNLV's name, a large portion was paid out to contractors and security consultants with ties to the Test Site. The man who spearheaded the work on the vulnerability study for the New Mexico company, James Sudderth, once ran counterterrorism operations for Bechtel Nevada, the private firm that manages the Test Site. Sudderth is now the deputy director of the institute.
When asked to provide a list of accomplishments, the institute named several federal research grants it said it had received. But when pressed for details by the Sun, the institute admitted misrepresenting some of those claims, as well as other claims about its role in some university research projects.
Thomas Williams, the institute's interim director, said that even though the institute may have veered off course, "I think we've been very successful in the last couple of years. You're far from perfect when you start up. You make mistakes. You have growing pains. But I'm feeling very positive about this organization."
Jerry Bussell, who served as Nevada's first homeland security adviser from November 2002 to June 2004, doesn't share that view.
"What's over there now is not what it was supposed to be in any way, shape or form," said Bussell who, after retiring, worked as a paid consultant for the institute to help establish the agency. "It was supposed to be an honest broker, an independent voice assisting on the homeland security effort. But it has fallen short of that. So far, the taxpayers are being cheated."
UNLV also has fallen behind other universities that started similar homeland security academic programs - a development that Williams, a former senior government manager at the Test Site, acknowledged was a setback for UNLV.
"This hiccup is of concern because I think we've lost momentum," Williams said. "At the time we started, there were only two or three universities that were offering these executive masters courses. Now, there are probably 50 or 60 out there."
UNLV President Carol Harter acknowledged that the academic end has faltered.
"We might have been slightly overambitious," she said. "But academic programs take years to develop."
Reid, however, is taking a dim view of the use of the federal money.
After the Sun described its findings to Reid, the senator said he was "very concerned" that the institute may not be producing what it promised.
"Unless they have some deliverables that I can see, they're not going to get any more money," Reid said. "I don't want this to be a boondoggle or a waste of taxpayer money. They've got to do something rather than just sit down and talk to each other."
Shrouded in secrecy
The institute is a product of the nation's mobilization after 9/11 to prevent future terrorist attacks.
Reid envisioned that it would feed off the national resources being poured into a high-tech counterterrorism training facility the senator championed at the Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The list of those who have either worked or have been associated with the institute over the past three years looks like the cast of a Hollywood spy thriller.
At the top of the list is Lee Van Arsdale, the institute's founding director, a former Delta Force commander and Defense Department counterterrorism chief who left 16 months ago,
The roster includes a former Central Intelligence Agency operative who said he worked undercover in 101 countries, as well as a special forces expert involved in the ill-fated rescue attempt of the American hostages in Iran, a counterterrorism consultant who helped design security for American embassies in Moscow and Beijing, an engineer who has worked on imaging mechanisms that can see through walls and a former United Nations weapons inspector.
But their work is shrouded in secrecy.
The institute refused, for example, to provide details about a $550,000 contract it said it obtained to design a counterterrorism curriculum for a "major entertainment and resort complex." It wouldn't even confirm information obtained by the Sun that showed that the contract was with the Walt Disney Co. Much of the work on the contract was turned over to consultants.
Even the institute's off-campus location gives rise to intrigue.
Its rented offices and 600-square-foot technical research lab are housed on two underground floors of the Alexander Dawson Building, a security conscious facility at Flamingo Road and Spencer Street that posts warnings that visitors are being monitored by surveillance cameras. Individuals can enter the lab area only by punching in a security code.
Little is known about the institute within UNLV and the university system. The agency offers no information, other than its mission statement, on its Web Site, which hasn't been updated since August.
University Regent Steve Sisolak, who was among those who voted to approve the institute three years ago, said he had difficulty getting information from UNLV and pinning down Williams about the institute's mission.
"I have no idea what they're doing," Sisolak said. "They're flying under the radar. Whatever they're doing is secretive in nature. They don't want people to be aware of it."
After inquiries by the Sun, Sisolak said he expects the institute will be brought before the Board of Regents in August.
"We want to find out what they've done with all the money they got," Sisolak said. "I'm concerned that it's not doing what it was approved to do. It was supposed to be an academic program, and there's no academic program."
Those involved in the homeland security effort here also have trouble understanding what the institute has been trying to accomplish.
"I haven't seen where they fit in," said Clark County Emergency Manager Jim O'Brien. "I haven't seen them participating in the regular day-to-day emergency management and homeland security preparedness activities."
The institute also has failed to attract national attention.
It is barely known outside the state by members of the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium - a five-member group of institutions considered the nation's leading providers of training for emergency workers in situations involving weapons of mass destruction.
"While we are aware of the institute, we do not have enough information about the organization to comment further regarding its training programs and other homeland security-related initiatives," Texas A&M University spokesman Jason Cook said.
Texas A&M's National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center in College Station, Texas, specializes in helping government agencies develop plans to address events involving weapons of mass destruction.
Fellow consortium member Louisiana State University, which trains emergency personnel in biological incidents at its Academy of Counter-Terrorist Education in Baton Rouge, La., also doesn't know much about UNLV's program.
LSU spokeswoman Jennifer Hughes said she spoke with three academy directors at the university involved in counterterrorism education and asked them about UNLV's institute.
"One of our directors had heard of the institute but didn't know what it was doing, and the other two said they had never heard of it," Hughes said.
Van Romero, vice president of research at another consortium member, the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, said the UNLV institute once provided the consortium with a useful "train the trainers" curriculum.
But Romero, the consortium's former chairman, said the institute needs to develop some specialized expertise in homeland security to establish a national reputation. Romero's university has a research center that offers training in live explosives, such as car bombs.
"UNLV has some connection to the Test Site, so radiation detection and monitoring is one thing I would look for them to do," Romero said. "And I would look for them to do things like security in casinos and at big events where there are lots of people."
Part of the reason why educators and emergency management professionals cannot figure out the institute's role in combating terrorism is that the institute itself is still searching for an identity.
"Over a year period, this organization may be completely changed," Williams said. "We're trying to go where the priorities are."
Today, the institute has only two divisions, down from the six it described in the plan approved by the Board of Regents. One is the Office of Advanced Technologies, intended to perform laboratory research related to homeland security and counterterrorism. The other is the Office of Education, Training and Readiness, designated primarily to provide training to emergency workers and conduct seminars.
Williams said the downsizing was deliberate and part of his management style since assuming the reins from Van Arsdale, who left in March 2005 to take a job as chief executive officer of Triple Canopy Inc., a fast-growing security company based in Virginia.
"I'm trying to streamline the organization because, if you have too many tentacles out there, you start losing control and losing sight of what you're supposed to be doing," Williams said. "Even though it looks like a much-reduced organization, a lot of those functions may function well within just two different business lines."
Roles reversed
When UNLV officials brought the idea of creating the institute to the regents in May 2003, they trumpeted the academic side, saying it would be part of the Graduate College, where it would fall under the watchful eye of the university.
Instead, it wound up as part of the UNLV Research Foundation, a private and wealthy offshoot of the UNLV Foundation, the university's chief fundraising arm.
The Research Foundation, which was run by Williams at the time, was supposed to play only a supporting role by promoting the institute's commercial and nonacademic features.
But as it turned out, the university ended up playing the supporting role.
Harter said the institute was put under the Research Foundation simply because officials at the time thought that was the best place for it.
"We had many moving parts all at once," she said. "You're trying to get it structured in a way that makes the most sense."
Williams said the Research Foundation had the background and experience to take the institute.
"There wasn't a lot of base at the university to support the wide diversity of programs we expected," he said.
Bussell found those words troubling.
"I have never understood why the institute was placed under the Research Foundation," he said. "It was clearly defined by the regents that it would be an integral part of the university, linked at the hip."
Since the Sun began inquiring about the institute's role at UNLV, its leaders said they now intend to put it under the university's wing, as originally planned. They also said they plan to re-establish ties between the institute and the educational outreach division.
The master's program has been on hold since May of last year, when it graduated a pilot class of 15 students, including Sheriff Bill Young, all of whom received full $31,596 scholarships from the university. Records show that the pilot program was underwritten in part by Bechtel Nevada. The company provided UNLV with a $315,916 check to pay for several of its executives to participate.
The quality of the pilot program received mixed reviews.
"Some of the professors were high quality and others were not," said Young, who added that overall he found the program challenging.
But Bussell, who was one of the instructors, said the curriculum lacked a strong academic foundation.
"At the time, it didn't seem to have the academic standards that it needed," he said. "I recommended that it needed to be significantly improved."
Students, for example, received graduate credits for spending a week observing how the Test Site deals with emergencies and another week in Washington hearing presentations from Homeland Security officials. One two-credit course listed in the catalog is called "Cyber Security for non-Nerds."
Public Administration Department Chairman Lee Bernick, who ran the pilot master's program last year, acknowledged that curriculum needs to be strengthened.
"There were some very good things, and there were some things we want to change," he said. "We want to structure it so it's more traditionally academic."
Bernick said collaborating with the institute was rocky at times.
"It was a learning process for them to understand what a master's degree program should have in it," he explained.
In hindsight, Williams said, both he and Van Arsdale learned a lot in their dealings with academia.
"We realized over time that the higher education side is a different culture that neither one of us were used to," he said. "They just don't have a business sense in terms of priorities, speed and meeting deadlines."
The pilot program went into its stall after the 2005 graduating class when Bernick decided he did not have enough time to devote to both his duties as chairman of the department and director of the program.
The university, Bernick said, has had a difficult time finding his replacement, but it expects to hire someone this summer and re-launch the program in January.
Bernick conceded that UNLV might now be lagging behind other universities in this fast-growing field, but added: "We'd rather have a good product than a bad product."
Something else missing at the institute is an effort to position itself as a homeland security think tank.
Bussell said he has not seen the institute conduct any scholarly research on homeland security issues or publish any major papers.
"They should be a center of information to the outside world," he said. "They should be holding seminars and conferences and doing some real scholarly work that can be applied to the homeland security effort. That's the kind of stuff the community needs."
Van Arsdale said the academic side of the institute was important to him when he was at the helm.
"There are a lot of people doing a lot of things, but the universities haven't been brought to bear here," he said. "I'm proud of what we accomplished, but there's a lot of work remaining to be done."
First, however, the institute may need to clarify exactly what it has accomplished.
Exaggerated claims
Institute officials acknowledged that they exaggerated the institute's achievements in written information provided to the Sun.
In a four-page summary of its goals and accomplishments, Williams listed several grants for projects totaling more than $1.1 million that officials later admitted were never received.
Those false claims included a $220,000 grant to develop a "launched listening device," a $446,000 grant to produce a surveillance camera and a $447,000 grant to work on a project dubbed "vehicle borne improvised explosive device defeat."
The summary also claimed that the institute had been teaming with the UNLV College of Engineering's Transportation Research Center to analyze the safety and risks of transporting high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. But when pressed, Williams admitted the institute is not participating in the project.
Also on the list was a claim that the institute is working with Qualcomm Inc., a wireless communications company based in San Diego, on a project to improve the tracking of hazardous waste shipments and states' response to accidents.
But Williams said the institute is merely administering a $992,000 Energy Department grant for the project and that the actual campus research is being handled by the College of Engineering.
One area in which the institute has excelled is in providing jobs and contracts to former Test Site executives, several of whom worked with Williams when he was at the Test Site.
Of the $8.9 million the institute has budgeted since its inception, $3.1 million has been allocated to salaries and fringe benefits. Another $2.8 million has been set aside for consultants, who often have close ties to the institute's managers.
Van Arsdale and six of the 14 current salaried employees at the institute came from Bechtel Nevada, which has a written agreement with the institute to collaborate on funding requests for federal research related to homeland security.
Former Bechtel employees hold the key management positions at the institute. Sudderth, who once headed Bechtel's counterterrorism operations at the Test Site, was named deputy director under Williams last month. Harry Bostic, a former top counterterrorism lab researcher for Bechtel, runs the institute's Office of Advanced Technologies.
How Sudderth wound up as the No. 2 man at the institute is an example of the nature of the organization.
On Sept. 10, 2003, while he managed Bechtel's Counter Terrorism Operations Support Project at the Test Site, Sudderth gave the institute and UNLV a company check for $315,960 to pay for the tuitions of Bechtel employees looking to participate in the pilot master's program.
By the time the class graduated in May 2005, Sudderth, a former Delta Force member with extensive experience in counterterrorism and special operations, had left Bechtel and was employed at Keystone International Inc., a New Mexico-based private security firm.
While heading up Keystone's Las Vegas office, Sudderth helped the company land a subcontract from the institute to do the majority of the work on the $500,000 contract that the agency had received from Nevada to study the state's vulnerability to terrorism.
Keystone, records show, also has done other work for the institute, receiving a total of $680,000 over the last couple of years.
But Sudderth soon got restless at Keystone.
While spearheading the vulnerability study for the institute, he applied for the agency's deputy director's job. On May 15, less than three weeks after the institute delivered the study to the Homeland Security Commission, Sudderth was named to the post. Keystone, meanwhile, still has an ongoing contract with the institute.
For months before he was hired, sources familiar with the institute said, there was speculation within the agency that Sudderth was coming on board.
But Williams said Sudderth won the job fairly over 18 other candidates.
"I'd stack James Sudderth's qualifications up against anybody in the United States," Williams said. "I'm glad we have him."
Sudderth said he hopes to shape the institute into a real resource for the community in the fight against terrorism.
"I've got some strong feelings about what needs to be done in Nevada to get us prepared," he said.
His most ambitious project is to position the institute at the center of plans to create a Terrorism Early Warning Group, a new concept in homeland security aimed at improving intelligence sharing between local, state and federal agencies.
Sudderth said the institute, which has worked with Metro Police early in the effort, hopes to tap into the state's share of federal homeland security funding for the project, which will be designed to create what he calls a "social network of trust" among the various agencies.
The institute, Sudderth said, also has applied for about $6 million in Department of Homeland Security funding to set up counterterrorism training for local police.
As the institute works to add some heft to its resume, Williams defends the institute's practice of maintaining close ties to his former Test Site associates.
"It's a small world," he said. "The more you deal in this, the more you find out that a lot of the same personalities have run into each other over the years.
"Although it may look like inside politics, I just think we're trying to bring in the best in the business to get the job done here."
Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. He can be reached at 259-4067 or at german@lasvegassun.com. Steve Kanigher can be reached at 259-4075 or at steve@lasvegassun.com.
INSIDE THE ISS
The UNLV Institute for Security Studies is not short on colorful figures. Some key staffers from over the years:
Lee Van Arsdale: A former Delta Force commander and consultant for the movie, "Black Hawk Down" - was the institute's founding executive director. With his top secret clearance, he once helped run the emergency response team at the Nevada Test Site for its managing contractor, Bechtel Nevada.
Thomas F. Williams: A recently named associate UNLV vice president with strong Energy Department ties - is the man in charge of the institute today. As a senior executive for the National Nuclear Security Administration, he used to coordinate all defense-related programs for the government at the Nevada Test Site.
James Sudderth: An Army special forces veteran with expertise in chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction - is the No. 2 man at the institute. He ran counterterrorism operations for Bechtel Nevada at the Test Site from 2000 to 2004 and once served on United Nations weapons inspection teams.
Harry Bostick: A former top lab researcher for Bechtel Nevada who specialized in nuclear emergency responses - oversees the institute's advanced technology lab. He has expertise in counterterrorism technology and radiation detection and once had a hand in the security design of the U.S. embassies in Moscow and Beijing.
Michael Gillette: An ex-Army paratrooper and SWAT commander who has expertise in counterterrorism training and several black belts in martial arts “ runs the institute's training and readiness office. He once provided threat training for the airline industry.
Wade Ishimoto: A member of the nation's first counterterrorism force and a top expert in special operations - is listed as deputy director of planning and development for the institute. But he spends his time working at the Pentagon under a special government program. He was a Delta Force intelligence officer in the 1980 failed attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran, and he served as a security consultant to the U.S. Olympic Committee in 1984.
Charles Madsen: A former Bechtel Nevada employee who designed electromagnetic technology for concealed weapons detection and through-wall imaging “ is the institute's principal engineer. He has had ties to the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency.
Douglas Seastrand: A former senior engineer at Bechtel Nevada - is a principal computer scientist at the institute's lab. He left his job as a university regent last year to take the position.
Some former instructors:
David Binney: An ex-FBI deputy director who once oversaw the worldwide security program for IBM.
Castle Nishimoto: A former Army infantry commander and tactical response instructor and a career FBI agent who once served at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo.
Kenneth Walther: An undercover CIA operative for three decades who had assignments overseas in 101 countries. He has expertise in electronic spyware, including radio transmitters, receivers and antennas.
John Whitney: A former Secret Service assigned to presidential details and an ex-FBI SWAT Team sniper and hostage negotiator who has experience teaching tactical operations.
Lewis Subelsky: A former police officer, FBI supervisor and Energy Department counterterrorism expert who specialized in weapons of mass destruction.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
June 17, 2006
New look at nuke waste issue urged
Diaz completing 10 years as NRC chief
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The departing chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Friday that leaders should re-examine policies for nuclear waste and radioactive material can remain stored safely at power plants for years in the meantime.
"The country needs to look at this entire process," said Nils Diaz, who is completing 10 years as commissioner at the federal agency that regulates nuclear power and nuclear waste, and the handling of nuclear materials. He has been principal executive officer since 2003.
Diaz said he continues to support geologic disposal for nuclear waste. But as far as what exactly would be stored at an underground repository, "there is a real need to provide some answers."
When Diaz joined the NRC in 1996, the focus was on burial of highly radioactive spent fuel rods from power plants, and the Department of Energy was preparing to put forward Yucca Mountain as a repository site.
More recently, the Bush administration and key members of Congress have promoted reprocessing technologies, which would alter the composition of the waste while extracting more energy from the spent fuel.
The chairman of the Senate energy committee, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has suggested Yucca Mountain be recast at least in part as a destination for reprocessed fuel, which could be smaller in volume and less toxic.
Diaz said he did not expect progress on nuclear waste policy during an election year.
"I am hopeful that by next year there will be a much clearer picture," he said. "There are many people who realize a solution has to be put in place."
Diaz said there is consensus that waste from military nuclear weapons production should be first in line for disposal. Beyond that is less clear, he said.
In the meantime, Diaz said radioactive spent fuel can continue to be stored safely at nuclear power reactors.
"I am a firm believer that civilian nuclear waste at reactors is safe right now in spent fuel pools and dry casks and can be safely stored for a number of years," he said.
While the Energy Department continues to work on Yucca Mountain, the program has been delayed for eight years and some experts say it could be another decade at least before it can open.
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Tulsa World
June 17, 2006
Nuke foe reloads
Russell Ray
World Staff Writer
Power plant push reignites safety debate
CLAREMORE -- In a small gray house in this northeast Oklahoma town lives one of the nation's best-known foes of nuclear power.
Inside, Carrie Dickerson is on the phone talking to old friends -- devoted opponents of nuclear power -- about state leaders who say nuclear energy should be part of Oklahoma's future.
"They're testing the waters," Dickerson said.
The Bush administration is pushing nuclear power in the name of cleaner air and energy independence. Ten new nuclear plants are under consideration between Maryland and Mississippi, though no company has yet applied for a construction permit.
But Dickerson says nuclear power is as irresponsible today as it was when she took on Black Fox, a proposed nuclear plant, 33 years ago.
Dickerson sold her business, mortgaged her farm and spent nearly a decade battling plans to build the plant near Inola, about 16 miles east of Tulsa. Dickerson delayed the project for years until it was finally canceled in February 1982.
"They said, 'You can't win, so why try?' " Dickerson recalled during a recent interview. "I said, 'You can't win if you don't try.' "
Nuclear power plants don't pollute the
air, but the amount of radiation they emit is a danger to those who live near them, Dickerson said.
"More radiation is emitted from a nuclear power plant than from any other facility of any kind," she said. "Because of this, there are more birth defects, more spontaneous abortions, more cancers than there are in the general populous."
But the CEO of Enercon Services Inc., a Tulsa company working to obtain construction and operating permits for new nuclear reactors in three Southeast states, says he's convinced that nuclear power plants are safe to be around.
In fact, John Richardson's daughter lives just 10 miles from the site of a proposed nuclear facility near Gaffney, S.C.
"I haven't told her she needs to move," Richardson said. "I firmly believe in the safety of these plants. I have no qualms about it."
Larry Miller, a nuclear industry consultant in Tulsa, said the odds of a nuclear accident the scale of Chernobyl or Three Mile Island are next to nil because of better technology and additional layers of security.
"The redundant safety systems are absolutely incredible," Miller said. "The backup systems in a nuclear plant are almost fail safe."
With 104 nuclear facilities operating in 31 states, nuclear power accounts for 20 percent of U.S. electricity. Demand for power in the United States is expected to rise an estimated 50 percent over the next 25 years, according to the Department of Energy.
Building more nuclear capacity will help the United States meet the rising demand for electricity without increasing greenhouse gas emissions, industry proponents say.
"It's the largest source of emission-free electricity," Miller said.
President Bush, during a speech last month at the Limerick Nuclear Plant in Pennsylvania, said, "Without nuclear energy, carbon dioxide emissions would have been 28 percent greater in 2004."
Concerns about global warming and a sharp increase in the price of natural gas, which is used at most new power plants, are driving what's been described as a nuclear renaissance in the United States.
The federal energy bill that became law last August included incentives worth billions of dollars for the nuclear industry, including loan guarantees for the construction of reactors and production tax credits. In addition, the bill added a 20-year extension to the Price-Anderson Act, which limits the liability of nuclear operators in the event of a nuclear accident.
"If nuclear power was so safe, why would the federal government need to put a liability cap on the cost of an accident or an act of sabotage?" said Paul Gunter of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a Takoma Park, Md.-based organization opposed to nuclear power.
Although industry polls indicate that public support for nuclear power is growing, the results of independent polls show just the opposite, Gunter said.
"If you look at the industry polls, nuclear power is as acceptable as apple pie," he said. "When you look at the polling services that don't have a dog in this fight, the opposition continues to grow."
As U.S. companies pursue the construction of new nuclear plants, the federal government has failed to designate a central repository for nuclear waste.
The uncertainty surrounding the storage of radioactive waste could scuttle plans to build new reactors. The waste -- tons of spent fuel rods that once powered nuclear plants -- is now stored at scores of reactor sites nationwide, a tempting target for terrorists.
The plan is to bury the waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but the national repository is years behind schedule and far from being finalized due to strong opposition in that state.
"There is no management strategy other than to put it out on the back 40," Gunter said. "If this were a scientific process, you'd be looking at at least three sites."
Despite new incentives for the construction and operation of new nuclear plants, the financial risks remain high for companies that decide to apply for a permit. According to Standard & Poor's, nuclear power could lead to lower credit ratings.
"From a credit perspective, these legislative measures may not be substantial enough to sustain credit quality," S&P said in a recent report.
Grunter agrees.
"If an Oklahoma utility announced plans to build a nuclear power plant, their stock would be reduced to junk bonds," he said.
American Electric Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma, the state's second largest electric utility and the chief power provider in the Tulsa area, said it has no plans to add nuclear power to its generation mix. But AEP-PSO President Stuart Solomon has said the utility is interested in nuclear power and will be watching the progress of other companies.
Columbus, Ohio-based AEP owns and operates one nuclear facility -- the Cook Nuclear Power Plant in Bridgman, Mich.
PSO proposed the Black Fox nuclear plant in 1973. The utility canceled the project after costs skyrocketed amid numerous legal challenges from Dickerson's nuclear opposition group -- Citizens Action for Safe Energy - and the 1979 partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.
"What could have been built for $1 billion suddenly was going to be $5 billion or $6 billion," Miller said.
Dickerson was 56 when she started the fight against Black Fox. At 89, she isn't as spry as she once was, but she's still passionate and knowledgeable about the safety of nuclear power.
"Nuclear power is not safe," she said. "We have had a lot of near accidents."
A former school teacher and registered nurse, Dickerson sold her nursing home and mortgaged her family farm to pay for the nine-year campaign to stop Black Fox. She said she and her supporters stand ready to fight again.
"I can't walk very well, but I can sure mobilize people," Dickerson said. "I felt like God was with me all those nine years, and I'm sure he'll be with us again."
Russell Ray 581-8380
russell.ray@tulsaworld.com
Black Fox history
On May 8, 1973, Public Service Company of Oklahoma announced plans to build a $450 million nuclear power plant at a site southwest of Inola. The project, known as Black Fox Station, promised to create 500 to 1,000 jobs.
Carrie Dickerson, a registered nurse and operator of Aunt Carrie's Nursing Home in Claremore, formed a group known as Citizens' Action for Safe Energy and launched a campaign to stop Black Fox.
CASE became an intervenor in the case at both the state and federal levels, and managed to delay hearings on the project.
The partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in 1979 and other incidents helped cause the cost of building a nuclear plant to skyrocket.
To cover the increasing cost of construction, PSO sought permission from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to substantially raise electric rates. On Jan. 15, 1982, the commission rejected the utility's request, saying the project's cost was too high to be included in the utility's base rates.
On Feb. 16, 1982, PSO announced it would not build the plant. By then, $550,000 had been spent to stop the project, Dickerson said.
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Seattle Weekly
June 16, 2006
Losing the Initiative
The most popular citizens ballot measure in state history has been struck down, and we shouldn't be surprised.
By Geov Parrish
Last week, judges in Washington state struck down two separate statewide, voter-approved initiatives.
King County Superior Court Judge Mary Roberts ruled that I-747, Tim Eyman's 2001 initiative limiting property-tax increases, had deceived voters. It isn't entirely clear why it took a judge five years to figure out that Tim Eyman was deceptive. The concept isn't exactly new.
Attorney General Rob McKenna has already announced he will appeal the I-747 ruling, but he has not said whether his office will appeal a ruling the previous day in Yakima by U.S. District Judge Alan McDonald. Even though only a portion of the law had been appealed, McDonald invalidated the entirety of I-297, the 2004 initiative prohibiting the federal government from sending more radioactive waste to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation until most types of existing noncommercial waste was cleaned up. (The timeline for said cleanup is presently sometime shortly after the sun goes supernova.)
With 70 percent of the vote, I-297 was the most popular statewide initiative in Washington history. When the Hanford watchdog group Heart of America Northwest launched its drive to approve I-297, the question was never seriously whether voters wanted more nuclear waste at Hanford. It was always whether the measure would hold up in court. With McDonald's ruling, we have our first, and, if McKenna chooses not to appeal, quite possibly final, answer.
Only a week earlier, when the I-297 hearing was held in McDonald's court, Heart of America confidently said it would prevail. But McDonald's ruling was unequivocal. He agreed with the federal government's argument that I-297 violated the feds' sole authority to manage nuclear waste, as codified in the Atomic Energy Act, and, furthermore, that it impinged on federal regulation of interstate commerce.
This should not have come as a surprise. McDonald's ruling parallels a situation in the late 1990s in Nevada, when local residents, the legislature, the governor, and Nevada's congressional delegation all opposed turning Yucca Mountain into the nation's sole permanent repository of high-level nuclear waste. Their arguments were compelling—among other things, that Yucca Mountain rests on an active earthquake fault—but it didn't matter. Congress voted to site the waste there, and the courts ruled that the federal government had sole authority to decide what happened to the waste.
Heart of America and its supporters were thoroughly convinced that they had found a legal strategy that could compel the federal government to abandon its plan to import more nuclear waste to Hanford. And they still might prevail on appeal. But at first glance, the odds are against it. And let's be clear on this one: Yeah, it's great that I-297 got 70 percent of the vote. But we should know by now that the federal government does not particularly care what we think, especially on matters having anything to do with national security. And moral victories are no longer enough. If they ever were.
Moral victory, in this case, sucks. But it seems like a great many progressive ballot measures in recent years have met this same ineffectual fate: passed by voters, and then either struck down by the courts, eventually reversed by the Legislature, ignored due to lack of funding, or (a local favorite) ignored as an "advisory" measure that advises nobody. Advocates get their message before voters, they get a free ad in the state Voters Pamphlet, they even get their perspective ratified by voters. But public policy does not change.
Eyman, accompanied by a slew of well-funded corporate special interests, discovered the possibilities of the modern citizen-sponsored ballot measure before local progressives did. Despite Eyman's various court setbacks, Republican and business interests have been more successful at crafting measures that stand up in court and have a real impact. Progressives haven't been as good at turning public support into law.
That also shows up in many electoral challenges. As a current notorious example, consider all the agitation over U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell's qualified support of the war in Iraq. Three progressive campaigns are challenging her in November with emphasis on the war: Mark Wilson and Hong Tran in the Democratic primary, and the Greens' Aaron Dixon. (Libertarian Bruce Guthrie is also running on an antiwar platform.) None has held office, and none has any real chance of affecting the race, let alone winning—even though polls show a majority of voters, especially Democrats, oppose the war and want troops brought home. But without strong, unified pressure, why should Cantwell reconsider?
Filing initiatives and running electoral campaigns are steps up from protests and letter writing. They are attempts to not just influence the dialogue but create policies that reflect actual public sentiment. Even in a state where Democrats control the Legislature and most statewide offices, these efforts usually haven't succeeded.
Not yet. The barriers are formidable, but they can be overcome. Hopefully, progressive activists will figure out how to tap into that sentiment in a way that actually does change public policy—sometime before the sun goes supernova.
gparrish@seattleweekly.com
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Las Vegas SUN
June 15, 2006
State spent millions in legal fees
By Cy Ryan
<cy@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas Sun
CARSON CITY - Nevada spends enormous sums of money for private attorneys to handle legal matters for the state, government officials said Wednesday.
For example:
A Virginia law firm has been paid up to $325 an hour by the state to withdraw a contract that called for building a controversial bridge south of Reno.
The state has spent nearly $5 million in outside legal fees to block the proposed nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain.
A San Francisco law firm is earning more than $3 million to handle lawsuits involving faulty construction on state buildings.
The state paid those legal bills despite having a staff of more than 140 lawyers in the attorney general's office.
Calling the amount of the contracts staggering, Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, demanded better accountability. "Someone needs to ride herd on these contracts," he told Assistant Attorney General Randy Munn.
The legal contracts were partly responsible for depletion of a $3 million contingency fund available for unanticipated state expenses. The Legislative Interim Finance Committee replenished the fund Tuesday by adding $1.5 million to tide the state over until the 2007 Legislature.
The outside lawyers are needed, Munn told the finance committee, to handle complex lawsuits "beyond the expertise of counsel on staff." He also pointed out that there had been substantial turnover in the attorney general's office.
The biggest payout - about $5 million - has gone to outside lawyers in the Yucca Mountain battle, for which the law firm of Egan Fitzpatrick Malsch & Cynkar of Vienna, Va., is being paid $430 to $485 per hour.
Another seven-figure recipient of fees for outside legal work is the San Francisco-based firm of Senn Meulemans, which has been paid more than $3 million for handling various cases, including the high-profile Las Vegas case involving developer Bill Walters' attempt to convert his Royal Links Golf Club into a residential community.
Senn Meulemans, hired after Attorney General George Chanos decided that his own land deal in Las Vegas posed a potential conflict of interest, is being paid $265,000 .
The firm, however, did not complete the inquiry by the deadline, forcing the lawyers to get an extension last week from the state Board of Examiners. That request drew an angry response from Gov. Kenny Guinn, who told a representative of the firm that it needed to quickly wrap up its investigation - and should not expect any more money from the state.
Senn Meulemans also received a $2.6 million contract ($250 per hour) to defend the state Public Works Division in a suit by Addison Inc., a construction company that was pulled off the job during building of the state Veterans Home in Boulder City after complaining about design deficiencies.
Cy Ryan can be reached at (775) 687-5032 or at cy@lasvegassun.com.
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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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