Yucca Mountain News Clips
Sunday, July 2, 2006
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Las Vegas SUN
July 02, 2006
Looking in on: Washington
By Lisa Mascaro
Las Vegas Sun
If ever there was any doubt of how Reid felt about the future of Yucca Mountain, it was cleared up outside a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing last week as the panel was approving $494 million for the beleaguered national nuclear repository project in fiscal 2007.
When asked by reporters how the funding, slightly less than last year's allocation, would impact work on the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the senator paused, collected his thoughts, and then offered his assessment.
"I'm trying to find out a way to say how I feel about this. So I guess I'll just make it short and to the point. Anything we spend out there is a huge waste of money. Yucca Mountain's not going to happen. Everybody recognizes that, except a few people who have these lobbying jobs here in Washington. Yucca Mountain's all over with; so whatever we spend on it is a total waste."
The newest opening date for the repository, announced by a fellow senator last week, is 2018 - 20 years behind schedule.
Lisa Mascaro can be reached at (202) 662-7436 or at lisa.mascaro@lasvegassun.com.
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St. George Daily Spectrum
July 02, 2006
Store your own nuclear waste
You generate it, you dispose of it. That's how nuclear waste should be dealt with instead of the more than 40,000 metric tons of highly radioactive waste generated by 103 commercial nuclear plants that are being stored in pools and dry storage at reactor sites in 35 states.
With several nuclear power plants in the United States approaching the end of their operational time periods allowed in their licenses, a solution to storage and disposal of the low- and high-level radioactive waste and thousands of tons of used reactor fuel is paramount. Especially, since most of it is earmarked for Yucca Mountain (located north of the Nevada Test Site,) an underground repository which is not licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or even expected to be ready for use before 2018.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has proposed a temporary answer by sponsoring a $30.7 million spending bill that says the government would store civilian nuclear waste for up to 25 years at federal sites across the country. How about in New Mexico? Especially since the NRC approved a license for a European consortium's proposal to build a $1.5 billion uranium enrichment facility in Eunice, a town in southeastern New Mexico.
The New Mexico plant will be producing nuclear power. Naturally, it will also be yielding waste. It should be kept there as well.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said an agreement between New Mexico and Louisiana Energy Services - a subsidiary of Urenco, a consortium of joint European corporation and government ownership - will address the health, safety and environmental issues of the enrichment facility, which is expected to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars to handle the waste disposal alone.
That contract better include how and where the waste is going to be disposed of because the so-called "renaissance" for nuclear power, Domenici labeled it, is not going to elicit the same surge in enthusiasm about his interim storage idea he has on the table for the central government repository in Utah's neighboring state of Nevada, the Goshutes Reservation in Tooele's Skull Valley, and other U.S. sites.
Domenici and his congressional colleagues cannot continually leave the nuclear waste issue on the back burner as it currently sits, and has done for decades. If nuclear power is integral to dealing with the growing demand for energy, then a more straight forward plan for satisfactory waste disposal should be as essential.
Otherwise, the NRC licensing of a new plant is not only irresponsible, it takes for granted that states like Utah and Nevada are going to welcome the hazardous, nuclear waste of New Mexico with open arms. That's just not going to happen.
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Peacock Report
July 01, 2006
June 30, 2006
DoE Researches Multi-Ton Nuclear Waste Transfer Systems for Yucca Mountain Project
The Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository project yesterday continued its brief spurt in contracting activity, as the Dept. of Energy (DoE) and its project prime-contractor, Bechtel SAIC Co., alerted industry to their anticipated need for a massive waste-transfer system. DoE and Bechtel SAIC issued a request for information (RFI) via the federal government's main contracting database, where it spelled out their preliminary plans for nuclear cannister-grappling equipment capable of lifting multi-ton storage units and containment lids. A more detailed RFI that the company issued separately specifies that the equipment must be capable of moving cylindrical steel cannisters ranging in weight from two-and-a-half tons to 54 tons.
The release of the RFI and the federal "presolicitation notice," dated June 29, comes one day after TPR located three separate DoE notices soliciting industry assistance in gaining formal approval to build the Yucca Mountain Depository -- paving the way to potentially open the site to interstate shipments of nuclear waste. DoE and Bechtel SAIC cannot move forward with the Bush Administration's plans to construct and operate the facility, which at the earliest -- if at all -- would begin 2010.
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Pahrump Valley Times
June 30, 2006
DOE chief leery of temp storage plan
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Wednesday it would be a tall order for the Department of Energy to set up as many as 31 temporary nuclear waste sites as proposed in Congress this week.
"I have to tell you as an initial thought, the idea of creating 31 sites and getting them licensed would be a formidable undertaking," Bodman said. "We are trying to understand what would be required and our ability as a department to undertake this."
The department has focused on establishing a nuclear waste repository in Nevada, with Bodman saying on previous occasions DOE did not have the authority to relocate used fuel now kept at reactors into centralized storage while work continues at the delayed Yucca site.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., advanced a bill Tuesday giving DOE authority to establish nuclear waste "consolidation" facilities in states that host nuclear reactors and their radioactive waste.
Waste is stored at 103 operating reactors in 31 states, and at eight additional plants that have been closed.
Nevada would not be considered for temporary storage under the bill.
Domenici's measure, which he formed with support from Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, was expected to take another step forward Thursday when the Senate Appropriations Committee takes up a fiscal 2007 spending bill for the Energy Department and several smaller agencies.
Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Bodman said he is open to interim nuclear waste storage but still wants Congress to pass legislation that would clear obstacles to DOE's work at Yucca Mountain.
"If Congress wishes to discuss with us the questions of interim storage, which the committee has indicated, we are happy to engage with them," Bodman said. "We are trying to understand the details of what has been proposed and how it matches up with what we needed."
A DOE bill sent to Congress in April calls for a number of changes in Yucca Mountain law, some of them controversial.
It seeks authority to claim water for the site over the objections of Nevada and asserts powers on nuclear waste shipping that have been opposed by a number of states.
It also would formally transfer 147,000 acres of public land surrounding Yucca Mountain into DOE control, and it seeks changes in project funding so larger sums can be drawn from a special construction account.
Congress has held no hearings or taken action on the DOE bill, except for a regulatory "waste confidence" provision that Domenici included in his plan.
In his remarks Bodman declined to confirm the department has set a new 2018 target date for nuclear waste to be accepted at Yucca Mountain, as Domenici had claimed earlier this week.
Bodman said DOE will announce new timetables for the delayed program later this summer.
Meanwhile, the Domenici interim storage bill has provoked a rare split among Nevada members of Congress on a nuclear waste matter.
Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., support it. Reps. Jon Porter and Jim Gibbons, both R-Nev., and Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., oppose it.
Senate aides said Reid and Ensign believe the interim storage plan is a sign that congressional support for Yucca Mountain is faltering and is a step toward keeping nuclear waste stored at reactor sites outside Nevada.
Ensign "is on board with it," spokesman Jack Finn said. "Anything that gets people considering alternatives (to Yucca Mountain) and talking about storing waste where it is produced is a positive development."
The House members said it does nothing to foreclose Nevada as the ultimate destination for nuclear waste. Porter called it "irresponsible."
"At the end of the day, this plan still calls for nuclear waste to be dumped 90 miles from Las Vegas, so nothing has really changed," Berkley said.
Asked about the split within the group, Berkley said "there is no question that Senator Reid's bill is another weapon in Nevada's fight against Yucca Mountain, but there are provisions in this legislation that concern me. Moving radioactive waste is too dangerous, and there is no need when it can be safely stored on-site for the next century."
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Pahrump Valley Times
June 30, 2006
All of Us
Planners mark population changes across county
Pahrump, Amargosa Valley Hold 85.4 Percent of Nye County's Residents
PVT
The population of Tonopah is moving toward the 3,000 mark, with the Nye County Planning Department estimating there were 2,899 Tonopah residents as of March 31. That is an increase of 38 from one year ago, or a 1.3 percent rise in population.
Other communities in Nye County leveled off, with Beatty losing 10 residents from a year ago, down to 1,090.
Gabbs lost two people, with 372 residents in the latest estimate. Planners also figure Big Smoky Valley lost two residents, with 1,698 residents now living in communities like Hadley, Carvers and elsewhere.
The Reese River Valley population went down three people to 111.
However in northeastern Nye County, communities like Duckwater, increased by 25, to 321 residents, according to planning department estimates.
Southern Nye County, including Pahrump and Amargosa Valley, now accounts for 85.4 percent of the total county population.
The planning department estimates the population of Pahrump Valley at 36,584, an increase of 3,636 residents from a year ago, or 11 percent more Pahrumpians.
Amargosa Valley saw an increase of 74 residents over the past year, with 1,362 now calling that locale home.
Planners make their estimates based on customer data from electrical utilities multiplied by the average number of residents per household as determined in the 2000 census.
Estimates of the number of people in group homes, like nursing homes and detention facilities, were made using trends from the past 10 years.
The population estimates for the years beginning with the year 2000 start with a benchmark the 2000 census.
Nye County planners' population estimates were significantly higher than 2000 census takers estimated, with the census figures considered official.
Census takers in 2000 estimated Pahrump Valley had a population of 24,631, amounting to 75.8 percent of the 32,485 people in Nye County. Tonopah had 2,627 residents in the 2000 census, or 272 people fewer than today. Gabbs has 54 more people than in the 2000 census.
Amargosa Valley shows an increase of 186 over that same period, while Beatty lost 64 people since the start of the new millennium.
The population estimates are used for the Yucca Mountain project; to prepare baseline projections for the county; and for public and private agency planning and management purposes, which include determining financial aid.
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Pahrump Valley Times
June 30, 2006
Hollis says county must help make Yucca work
Commission Chairman Wants Dual-Use Railroad Line for Nuclear Waste, Commerce
By Mark Waite
PVT
Nye County Commission Chairman Gary Hollis gave a pro-Yucca Mountain speech at a nuclear waste conference in Washington D.C. June 22, telling delegates that county officials will try to be part of the process of developing the repository.
Hollis said his remarks were his alone.
But he added, "It is our goal as local government most affected by the repository to do everything in our power to make it work, and anything less than that would be a failure of our duties and our responsibilities to the citizens that we represent."
"We will do our best to be part of the path forward for the repository program and a part of the solution for new generations of nuclear power plants that will eventually serve as the nation's energy security," he said.
Transportation of nuclear waste, the effort to examine some type of recycling of nuclear waste, and mid-term storage of nuclear waste while the repository is being built, will be three key issues, Hollis said.
But he said, "Whether we ever do full recycling or not, Yucca Mountain is necessary.
"We want the people who work in Yucca Mountain to live in our county and we want the business and industry associated with development and operation of the repository to be located in Nye County to the best extent that it makes best business sense. We want to know you and we want you to know us."
The U.S. Department of Energy had debated building a rail line to ship the waste from existing rail lines in Caliente in eastern Nevada to Yucca Mountain, traveling around Nellis Air Force Test and Training Range.
Recently there has been talk about building a shorter rail line from Hawthorne down western Nevada to Yucca Mountain.
Hollis discounted opposition by Nye County residents to the shipments of the high level nuclear waste.
Instead, he urged officials to consider dual use of the rail line for commerce as well as nuclear waste, with a Yucca Mountain rail line that would hook up with existing railheads on the other end.
"Transportation is not an issue that most Nye citizens worry about. We are especially interested in the potential economic development a rail line might bring to our communities," Hollis said.
"The railroad investment could easily be expanded to benefit north-south commerce in the western United States. Spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste has safely been transported for years. The private sector has clearly demonstrated its capabilities in transportation."
Hollis said considering all the things a county commissioner has to deal with every day, he'd rank nuclear waste No. 10.
"Dogs and cats and animal control come way before nuclear waste," Hollis said to laughter. "I get zero calls on Yucca Mountain but when it comes to dogs and cats I get it every single day."
Hollis said in the face of the misfortunes the Yucca Mountain program faces and the uncertainty that exists, it should be viewed as an opportunity for everyone assembled in the room.
"I look forward to your companies setting up shop in Nye County, sooner rather than later," Hollis said.
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Pahrump Valley Times
June 30, 2006
Meeting is Wednesday
Commission eyes half-cent tax hike
PVT
The creation of a General Improvement District - including the hiring of bond counsel and drawing up the service plan -- will be considered by Nye County Commissioners when they meet in Tonopah at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The meeting was moved back one day because of the Fourth of July holiday Tuesday.
Commissioners will debate whether to sponsor a resolution putting an advisory question before voters this November, asking for a half-cent increase in the sales tax for the Nye County Sheriff's Department and county fire departments.
Commissioners will debate whether to ask the Nuclear Waste Repository Project Office and the Nye County Emergency Management Services Office to negotiate with the U.S. Department of Energy for additional EMS funding.
More discussions are planned on the $1.5 million county commitment toward construction and expansion of Great Basin College in Pahrump.
One big-ticket item up for approval is purchase of a microwave system connecting Pahrump to Beatty and Tonopah, at a cost of $2 million.
A resolution of intent to sell property at auction on the Calvada Eye in Pahrump is up for approval.
Consultant Mary Ellen Giampaoli would be authorized to work on a Public Lands Act for Nye County under another agenda item. Giampaoli would also be given the go-ahead to continue working on the Amargosa Valley Science and Technology Park development, the strategic planning process and other work.
Commissioners will debate appointing interim County Manager Ron Williams as interim comptroller, effective July 20, until a new comptroller is hired.
A clarification on the subdivision agreement approved for Pleasant Valley Unit 2, for Concordia Homes of Nevada, consisting of 97 single-family residential lots on Homestead Road south of Thousandaire Blvd., will be on the agenda.
A $409,933 bid for the slurry seal program for northern Nye County will also be considered.
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Deseret News
June 30, 2006
Panel OKs bill to bar funds for nuclear waste storage in Tooele
By Suzanne Struglinski
Deseret Morning News
WASHINGTON — The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a plan Thursday that would bar the federal government from paying for a temporary nuclear-waste storage site in Utah.
The bill does not outright cancel the Private Fuel Storage project planned for the Goshute Indian Reservation in Tooele County, but it creates federal competition that could lead to a more attractive alternative than the PFS site for nuclear utilities struggling to handle their nuclear waste.
"I'm extremely pleased that we've found a solution that will ultimately eliminate the need to send nuclear waste to Skull Valley," said Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, who sits on the Appropriations Committee. "Utahns have sufficient reasons to celebrate today's Senate actions."
The government would use money out of the Nuclear Waste Fund to pay for federal interim-storage sites, while utilities that opted to move waste to PFS would have to pay for it themselves.
The $30.7 billion energy and water spending bill contains $10 million from the Nuclear Waste Fund for a "Consolidation and Preparation" program, known as CAP, for nuclear waste.
Nuclear power users have put $28 billion into the Nuclear Waste Fund since 1983. Federal law currently stipulates the fund can only be used to finance the government's planned geological repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
If the plan approved by the Senate committee is made law, it could allow $10 million from the fund to go toward the interim storage sites. About $18 billion remains in the fund.
The energy secretary also would appoint a consolidation and preparation director who would recommend places in states with nuclear-power plants to temporarily store nuclear waste until the federal storage site planned for Nevada's Yucca Mountain would open.
But according to the bill, "any state in which a commercial, away-from-reactor, dry-cask storage facility is authorized" is "ineligible" for a one of these new sites. Because Private Fuel Storage meets those criteria, Utah would be ineligible for such a site. PFS received its license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission earlier this year.
PFS spokeswoman Sue Martin took issue with the term "state" because the proposed PFS site would be on Goshute land, which is sovereign from state control. But she added that she had not seen the exact proposal yet Thursday and could not comment further on how it would affect PFS.
Michele Boyd, a legislative representative for Public Citizen, said such a "huge policy change" is "inappropriate to do in an appropriations bill."
She said the plan was crafted behind closed doors, was made public just this week and was voted on with no hearing, debate or public involvement. The bill's wording, which excludes Utah, "shows that no state is going to be excited about having (nuclear waste) in their state."
Boyd has no problems with Nuclear Waste Fund money going to secure waste on-site at nuclear-power plants — which would keep it out of Yucca and avoid transportation risk. But she said this new plan offers no long-term solution.
The licenses for the federal interim-storage sites would only last 25 years and could not be renewed, according to the bill.
The Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition, a group of nuclear utilities and public officials that supports the Yucca Mountain project, would rather see Congress work on legislation that changes other aspects of the Yucca project.
"We should be talking about reforming the fees paid into the Nuclear Waste Fund as offsetting collections to protect future funding of the permanent repository," said LeRoy Koppendrayer, chairman of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, who heads the coalition. "Instead, we are now talking about stranding waste indefinitely throughout the nation."
The full Senate still needs to pass the bill, which may not come until the fall. The bill would have to be reconciled with the House energy-spending bill before becoming law. The House bill contains $30 million for interim storage of waste but encourages the government to look at federal, military or private sites as places to store the waste until Yucca opens.
The Senate bill also contains $82.8 million for other Utah projects, including $40 million for the Central Utah Project.
E-mail: suzanne@desnews.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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