Yucca Mountain News Clips
Thursday, July 6, 2006
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Arizona Republic
July 06, 2006
Complex comeback
A new atomic age faces hurdles in America
When the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station came on line in the Arizona desert in 1986, it seemed destined to be the last American atomic-power plant.
The Chernobyl accident happened the same year, and memories of the mishap at Three Mile Island were still fresh. Economics were also against nuclear: Fossil-fuel prices were cheap; reactors were plagued by cost overruns and regulatory issues.
Twenty years later, nuclear power is back, thanks to high oil prices and concerns over global warming.
"Nuclear energy has come a long way," said James Levine, executive vice president for generation at Arizona Public Service Co. "The plants are more efficient. Nuclear contributes nothing to aggravating climate change."
Whether the capital markets are ready to support a nuclear-energy revival in the United States is another matter. Even with incentives from Washington and strong backing from the Bush administration, the nuclear business in America faces hurdles that go beyond environmental critics.
Still, early signs of a nuclear comeback are abundant.
Fourteen new plants are at various stages of development, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, the major industry group.
Among the first utilities to move forward is Progress Energy, based in Raleigh, N.C. Progress, which already operates four nuclear plants, has preliminary plans for four new reactors.
Other southeastern utilities with nuclear experience are also in the running to be the first to apply for a license, among them Duke Energy, Southern Cos., Entergy and Florida Power & Light.
In another deal, Hitachi Ltd. and General Electric have been hired to build two reactors for Houston-based NRG Energy. The deal is worth $5.2 billion.
Closer to home, APS has begun a study on adding two reactors at Palo Verde, although it's on a longer timetable.
Aiding the companies are incentives for nuclear power approved in the new energy bill. The federal government will offer insurance against project delays, as well as the possibility of loan guarantees, for the first new reactors.
Meanwhile, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last month approved the $1.5 billion National Enrichment Facility in New Mexico, the first license for a major commercial nuclear facility in 30 years.
The facility, which will produce enriched uranium for reactors, is run by Louisiana Energy Services, a consortium of nuclear companies.
Power shortage
Nuclear's new appeal comes not merely from higher energy costs but the likelihood that oil prices will keep rising and the most abundant remaining oil reserves are located in dangerous parts of the world.
Demand for power is also exploding. In the United States, commercial electricity demand is projected to increase 75 percent by 2030 and residential demand is expected to rise by 47 percent, according to the federal Department of Energy. Demand will be especially strong in the West and South.
Yet another plus for nuclear: It produces none of the greenhouse gases that most climate scientists agree are a major factor behind global warming. Environmentalists make the point that fossil fuels are consumed in making nuclear components. Even so, from a climate-change standpoint, nuclear is far preferable to coal, the other abundant fuel.
Earlier this year, President Bush said, "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. Other countries are."
Indeed, 27 nuclear plants are under construction worldwide, from Argentina to Ukraine. Asia is the industry's hot spot, with China hoping to build as many as 30 by 2020.
Already, the world has 441 nuclear plants, including 103 in the United States. No wonder some of the world's biggest conglomerates are in the nuclear business.
France, a world leader in nuclear energy, chose to focus on reactors after the 1973 oil shock. With no oil and little coal, France depends on 56 nuclear stations.
But are Americans are ready to be so . . . French? Only 44 percent of Americans supported nuclear energy in a Pew Research Center poll earlier this year. A total of 49 percent opposed promoting nuclear as a way to meet the nation's energy needs.
Disposal of reactor waste remains a problem, according to environmentalists. The federal facility to bury spent radioactive fuel at Yucca Mountain in Nevada has yet to begin operations. Nuclear plants are also inviting targets for terrorists, they say. And mining and processing uranium creates a host of environmental problems.
For example, the proposed New Mexico uranium plant will generate a form of waste that can't be handled by any existing American disposal site. No processing facility exists in this country to turn the waste into lower-level radioactive material. Louisiana Energy is working with a French company to build such a facility.
Environmental uncertainties
"From environmental standpoint, nuclear is a disaster," said the Sierra Club's Jon Findley, a Mesa resident who once helped write training manuals for nuclear plants. "We can't even deal with the waste we are generating today."
But the nuclear industry must also get past business hurdles that are at least as daunting. They include:
• The history of cost overruns and busted timetables that proved costly to utilities in the past by raising the cost of borrowing. Under favorable circumstances, it can take eight to 10 years to build a nuclear station in the United States. Washington hopes to help by a speedier permitting process.
• Aging plants that must be reconditioned to get an extension of their licenses or go through the costly and environmentally controversial process of decommissioning and cleanup.
• A lack of nuclear expertise as engineers and other specialists retire or go to more lucrative offers overseas. Half of the industry's employees in the United States are older than 47, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute.
Even new designs and the streamlined licensing system bring uncertainties and risk simply because they are new, nuclear plants cost huge sums, and it has been decades since one has been built in the United States.
"There's lots of people somewhere in the process" of developing new reactors," said Levine of APS. "But they're being very cautious."
So it may be the dawn of a new atomic age, but the payoff for businesses is uncertain. What is more clear is that we will need many different energy sources, and each carries unpleasant trade-offs. None will be as cheap and efficient as the light sweet crude that is becoming less abundant.
The Sierra Club's Findley said, "The problem is that everybody is dependent on fossil fuels. Everybody wants to find a silver bullet. There is none."
Reach Talton at jon.talton@arizonarepublic.com. Read Talton's blog at www.taltonblog.azcentral.com.
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Las Vegas SUN
July 05, 2006
Editorial: Protecting our lakes
A Senate proposal would give much-needed support to two Nevada lakes
A bill headed to the U.S. Senate floor would provide almost $100 million for preservation efforts at Lake Tahoe and Nevada's Walker Lake.
According to the Associated Press, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid included the funding in an energy and water appropriations bill that was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee, which then sent it to the full Senate.
The bill calls for dedicating $88 million for projects at Walker Lake, which is 10 miles north of Hawthorne on the east side of U.S. 95. Water levels have dropped more than 150 feet over the past 120 years, largely because of water diversions for agriculture upstream.
Walker Lake, a leftover from the ancient Lake Lahontan, receives water only from snowmelt that rolls into the Walker River and has no natural outflow. This means that as water levels drop, the levels of minerals and salt continue to rise, which has already made the lake uninhabitable for species of fish it once supported. This, along with elevated mercury levels, threatens remaining fish populations and also migrating loons that rest and refuel on Walker Lake annually.
The bill also would provide $9.4 million to support ongoing restoration and preservation projects at Lake Tahoe.
Although federal officials who wish to bury high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain would prefer to see Nevada's interior as a vast, barren wasteland, treasured geographical features such as Walker Lake and Lake Tahoe provide but two stark reminders that such an assumption is absolutely untrue. Congress should approve the funding for restoration of these beautiful, but somewhat neglected, natural wonders.
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Las Vegas SUN
July 05, 2006
New wildfire reported in Nevada Test Site north of Las Vegas
By Ken Ritter
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) - A new wildfire was reported Wednesday in a vast U.S. nuclear weapons testing range in Nevada, while firefighters reported progress containing a separate fire in a nature refuge about 25 miles north of the Las Vegas Strip.
Dubbed the Mid-Valley Fire, the Nevada Test Site blaze covered some 12 square miles and was burning away from test site administration facilities in Mercury and Yucca Mountain, the site the government has picked to entomb the nation's nuclear waste.
The fire did not threaten structures or sites left contaminated following above- and below-ground nuclear testing from 1951 to 1992, said National Nuclear Security Administration spokesman Kevin Rohrer in North Las Vegas.
"The fire has not burned through any posted radiological areas, nor is it threatening any surface-contaminated areas at this time," Rohrer said. "Fires can be erratic and they can change, but right now there is no threat to any structures or facilities."
About 60 test site and federal Bureau of Land Management firefighters were working to contain the fire, aided by two single-engine air tankers and a spotter plane working from a test site airstrip.
The fire was estimated at 8,000 to 10,000 acres, and was believed to have been ignited Tuesday morning by a lightning strike about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Rohrer said the fire was about 15 miles from Mercury and 10 miles from Yucca Mountain, the Energy Department facility designated in 2002 as the collecting point and repository for highly radioactive waste now stored at sites in 39 states.
Energy Department plans to begin entombing waste at the site have been postponed by legal, administrative and budget battles.
The test site fire was 80 miles northwest of another large fire, dubbed the Gass Complex, burning since Friday in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge.
Some 325 firefighters from states including Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon and Montana were battling flames by hand in crackling-dry grasses, creosote and mesquite bushes, and pinon, juniper and Joshua trees in steep terrain.
Lisa Ortega, a Nevada Division of Forestry spokeswoman fires, said officials hoped favorable weather would help contain the irregular 26-square-mile fire area, which cast smoke over Gass Peak that was visible in Las Vegas.
"Mother Nature has a bag of tricks. You never know what she's going to give," Ortega said Wednesday, noting that thunderstorms forecast for the area could bring rain to help quell flames, but also pack lightning to start more fires.
Fire managers estimated containment at about 20 percent, but expected to be able to encircle the 16,800-acre fire by Friday, Ortega said. Several fires merged over the weekend after being sparked by multiple lightning strikes.
The fire was about seven miles west of the largest power plant serving Las Vegas. But no structures, including the electricity plant, were immediately threatened, officials said. No injuries were reported.
Adding the Mid-Valley Fire to several large fires that have been contained in southern and northern Nevada in recent days, some 160,000 acres have burned in Nevada since June 23. To date, no major injuries or structure damage have been reported.
---On the Net
National Interagency Fire Center Incident Management Report: http://www.nifc.gov/nicc/sitreprt.pdf
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Las Vegas SUN
July 04, 2006
Editorial: Public's right to know
Study shows Freedom of Information Act isn't aging gracefully
As the Freedom of Information Act turns 40 today, a new study shows that the federal government is taking longer to respond to requests for information and that when it does respond, more than half of the requests still are being denied.
The Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, an organization of nine media outlets, examined the public information requests made of 13 Cabinet departments and nine agencies and discovered that a third of all queries were unprocessed in 2005. The number of requests for information made by citizens, private groups and corporations decreased, the report shows, and 63 percent of all requests made were declined.
The Freedom of Information Act allows people to check what the federal government is doing by requesting access to public documents and data. But results of this recent study illustrate what seems to be a lax attitude toward the importance of timely responses on the part the Bush administration's agencies and departments.
The Associated Press reports that the coalition, of which AP is a member, notes that the number of employees working on information act requests in the 22 agencies studied had dropped from 4,288 before Bush won office in 2000 to 3,315 in 2005. And the response-time delays have grown significantly. There are 261 federal workdays a year, but the median wait for information request responses from some areas of the Agriculture Department was 1,277 workdays - 4.8 federal years.
While it is sometimes thought of as a tool reserved for the news media, the Freedom of Information Act actually is one of the most important privileges that all Americans possess. At minimum, it allows any citizen to track how his tax money is being spent.
Congress, which failed to enact a bipartisan proposal to streamline the act's process, must revisit such a proposal and correct the system. The government must ensure that the public is not being denied access to information to which it is entitled.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
July 05, 2006
Republicans tout skills, timeliness for Senate primary
Ray Hagar
After one term, U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., is already vying for a leadership position -- Senate Republican vice chair, fifth-highest in his party.
His opponent in Nevada's primary election, however, thinks he can get things done more quickly than Ensign. That's why Edward Hamilton of Las Vegas registered as "Fast Eddie" Hamilton when he filed for office with Nevada's secretary of state.
"That (nickname) basically reflects my strength for getting the job done," said Hamilton, 63, and a retired auto executive. "If something would take three years to get done, I can do in six months because I have the skill and knowledge."
Ensign might not work that quickly but has shown considerable skill in his first term, said Sig Rogich, a longtime Nevada Republican political consultant who has worked for presidents George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.
Ensign's support for the policies of President Bush during his first term will not hurt his chances for re-election this year, Rogich said. Ensign voted along the Bush administration line at least 96 percent of the time during his first four years in office, according to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee report. Ensign voted with Bush 89 percent of the time in 2005, according to the Congressional Quarterly.
U.S. Sen John Cornyn, R-Texas, also expected to seek the Senate Republican vice chair position, voted with President Bush's wishes 98 percent of the time in 2005, according to the Congressional Quarterly. The vice-chair position is held by U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas.
"I don't think John Ensign is in trouble in any way, shape or form," Rogich said on the Nevada Newsmakers television program last week. "His job approval ratings are the highest of any statewide elected (federal) official and the fact that he supported the president on key issues is not going to be a detriment to him in Nevada. I expect him to win pretty handily."
Hamilton counters Ensign's incumbency and support from influential backers with a five-point plan that he hopes will resonate with Republicans who want a return to fiscal responsibility:
He will not take his congressional salary of $168,500 until the federal budget is balanced. His salary instead will be donated to Nevada's military families and the homeless. He will ask the president, vice president and all federal judges to take a 10 percent pay cut until the budget is balanced.
He wants an immediate withdrawal from Iraq by U.S. troops. "Let the Arabs fight and die for their country from now on," he said.
He wants a system of Vietnam-style fire bases to be stretched across the Mexican border to quell the flood of undocumented immigrants into the U.S.
He wants an additional $1,000 per-capita return of federal tax dollars back to Nevada.
He wants Nevada's legal drinking age to be dropped from 21 to 18.
Besides his five-point plan, Hamilton says he will live up to his nickname by lowering the price of gas quickly if elected.
"All the politicians have given up on lowering the price of gasoline as something that is not doable," Hamilton said. "I know how to do it and I can do it quickly. I can do it in one year."
Ensign takes a more conservative view on removing troops from Iraq and says much more work needs to be done to solve the energy and fuel crisis.
"I would like to see us get out of there (Iraq) as soon as we can and that means Iraq has to have a stable government with a military and police force that can keep their county secure for a free people," Ensign said. "As soon as that is obtained, we can get out of there and bring our men and women home.
Ensign said the U.S. needs to be less dependent on foreign oil, and that the country needs to bring down energy costs.
And he takes exception with those who paint him as a never-bending Bush loyalist.
"I will continue to support the policies of the Bush administration when I think he is right," Ensign said.
Ensign said he has disagreed with the president on major policies, including Bush's Medicare prescription drug program. Ensign said he had an alternative plan that was simpler and cheaper.
He also opposed the president on Bush's plan to provide grants to Iraq for reconstruction, Ensign said.
"I had the secretary of state calling me. I had the vice president calling me," Ensign said. "I had the president call me to a sit-down meeting at the White House and I stood my ground. I continued and we beat him on the floor of the Senate.
"I thought (the reconstruction money) should be half grants and half loans, and I was the lead Republican on that. I joined with the Democrats and a few Republicans and we beat him on that."
Ensign said he is proud of the way he and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., work together for the good of Nevada.
"Look what we've done with Lake Tahoe, Yucca Mountain, the Southern Nevada Lands Act, what we are trying to do for the Truckee River (flood control). All those things are Nevada issues "" defending the mining industry "" on and on and on," Ensign said. "He (Reid) works his side of the aisle and I work mine. Because of that working relationship and trust, we are able to get things done that frankly, members of the same party in some states can't get done."
His close working relationship with Reid on Nevada issues will continue if he's re-elected, Ensign said.
"I want to try to work with Senator Reid and whoever the congressman is from up there (Nevada's Second Congressional District) on getting the Truckee River flood control project authorized," Ensign said. "We are competing against these kinds of projects from all over the nation. It will be a heavy lift, but we will work together toward that goal for the next year."
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Charleston Post Courier
July 05, 2006
Editorials - Opinion
'Interim' dodge on nuclear waste
The nuclear waste storage plan incorporated in a Senate appropriations bill takes the pressure off the government to provide a timely permanent waste storage solution for commercial radioactive waste, and removes state authority to veto the presence of "interim" storage sites. In other words, South Carolina, beware.
The proposal, sponsored by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., would open up interim storage sites at existing federal facilities, presumably including the sprawling Savannah River Site near Aiken. The sites would be used to take care of 50,000 tons of highly radioactive waste now stored on site in 31 states by commercial energy producers.
The appropriations bill passed out of committee last week, and will require both Senate and House approval.
The provision for nuclear waste defines "interim" as 25 years. SRS has been providing "temporary" storage of high-level radioactive waste related to the production of nuclear weapons for more than half a century.
The federal government has been successfully sued by utilities for failing to provide storage in a timely manner, as required by law. Meanwhile, it has been unable to gain final approval of a permanent repository in Yucca Mountain, Nev., largely because of the determined opposition of that state.
It is worth noting that Congress' major opponent to the Yucca Mountain site, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., endorses the interim storage plan.
Sen. Domenici said that interim storage begins "to resolve the nuclear waste problem," in comments to The Associated Press. "This is an orderly way to do it."
Mainly, it gets the federal government off the hotseat for failing to complete a permanent storage site, despite the expenditure of billions at Yucca Mountain. If approved, most of the congressmen now in office will be given a breather on the intransigent waste issue for the rest of their political lives. Utilities presumably will be relieved of their storage responsibilities and will stop suing the federal government. Development of nuclear power will likely resume.
And a few states would probably assume the waste storage burden for the nation. If past is prelude, South Carolina would be required to assume a major role, like it or not. Our congressmen should oppose this plan.
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Pottstown Mercury
July 05, 2006
Consultant hired to help Limerick with nuclear power issues
Evan Brandt
ebrandt@pottsmerc.com
LIMERICK -- Township supervisors have decided to hire a specialist to advise them on nuclear power issues.
The hiring comes just as the supervisors will be asked to vote on a proposal to store spent nuclear fuel on the grounds of Exelon Nuclear´s Limerick Generating Station.
The consultant will have to work fast because the supervisors announced they intend to cast a crucial vote on the project at their July 13 meeting.
Township Manager Daniel Kerr said the person the supervisors hired, William Sherbin of Malvern, is a licensed engineer with 35 years experience, 26 of them in the nuclear energy field with specific experience in design and inspections.
According to his resume, Sherbin, who has a masters in engineering, has worked in about one half the nuclear power plants in the country.
His clients have included plant owners, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy, Kerr said.
Sherbin will charge the township $113.30 per hour and, if he is still working for the township after Oct. 30, his rate will increase to $120 per hour.
In addition to Sherbin, the township has retained the services of Michael Pincus, who will help to community outreach services on the project. His fee of $120 per hour, will be "passed through" to Exelon and will not be paid by taxpayers, according to Supervisor Renee Chesler.
The project Sherbin and Pincus will help the township evaluate is a proposal by Exelon to erect 24 steel and concrete canisters to hold spent nuclear fuel that has been accumulating in storage pools inside the plant since it was constructed.
Each canister can hold 61 bundles of fuel rods. Each bundle holds as many as 64 to 289 rods of uranium pellets that will remain radioactive for thousands of years.
Exelon, like other nuclear plants across the country, has been forced to construct these "temporary" storage facilities because of the federal government´s failure to make good on its promise to provide a national depository for the fuel.
The depository, beneath Yucca Mountain in Nevada, is decades behind schedule and is mired in scientific and political controversy.
Kevin Carrabine, Exelon´s project manager, said last month that each year, the Limerick plant plans to fill four canisters.
Although plans only call for 24 canisters, the approximately three-foot thick concrete pad on which the canisters will rest will be big enough to house about 90 canisters, said Carrabine.
"We hope never to have to use more than 25 or 30 casks," said Carrabine.
However, the plan to build the pad for those canisters, as well as several outbuildings, hit a snag when earlier this month, the township´s planning commission voted unanimously to reject Exelon´s land development proposal for the project.
However, they are a recommending body only and the final decision rests with the supervisors.
The township´s engineer, Khaled R. Hassan, P.E., of Pennoni Associates Inc., told the board Tuesday he has since visited the Exelon site and has had a look at the area where the project is proposed and that he expects further paperwork later this week.
The planners had complained they had not received enough information, some of which, Exelon officials argued, they could not provide for security reasons.
Security, particularly the potential for a terrorist attack, was the basis for a June 2 ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco which set aside the permit granted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California.
In the 3-0 decision, the court said the NRC´s argument that the threat of a terrorist attack was too remote to include in environmental planning for the California project, was undermined by the Bush administration´s post-Sept. 11 statements and actions about the terrorist threat against those self-same plants, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the appeals court concluded it was unreasonable for the NRC to declare that "the possibility of a terrorist attack ..is speculative .. at the same time the government is spending time, effort and taxpayer money to combat the threat of terrorist attacks on nuclear power plants.
Whether that ruling will have an effect on this project remains unknown.
The Diablo Canyon spent fuel storage project had a "site specific" permit from the NRC, while the Limerick project is being carried out by a contractor who holds a "general license" to do the work.
The NRC has not yet responded to the decision and Exelon officials say their lawyers are aware of the decision, but will move ahead with their plans unless told otherwise by the NRC.
That leaves the supervisors will little to say about the project, other than the land development aspects, Supervisors Chairman David Kane said recently.
"Our jurisdiction is over some issues and not others," Kane said. "What we can vote on is land development, and on land development, we don´t have much leeway on what we can rule on."
Resident Bill Miller also questioned why the township is not planning a "public hearing" on the project.
He said the "open house" meeting Exelon has planned for July 11 from 4 to 7 p.m. in the township building is inadequate for the purposes of public discussion.
"The kind of thing they´re planning is only good for one-on-one. The only interaction you get is with the person at the table," said Miller. "It is a public display, not a public hearing."
Beth Rapczynski, an Exelon spokeswoman, said the open house will be "specific to the dry cask storage project" and that her company views it as "an opportunity for folks to get their questions answered."
She said representatives from the company erecting the casks will be on hand and that the NRC has been invited, but she does not know if NRC official will accept.
Kane suggested that the township begin the July 13 meeting at 6 p.m., one hour earlier than normal, and will ask Exelon officials to attend to answer questions in a more public format.
"I understand what you´re saying," Kane said to Miller. "You want to see questions and concerns heard before the entire board."
Reader Comments
RE: Limerick Nucelar Storage
Y'all have short memories. The plant is dangerous enough, but you forget that it is located on a geological fault line and limerick has been visited by quakes in the past and probably will be visited again in the future. Storage facility? LOL. AT one time, they also wanted to flood the old Spring City Home for the Mentally Ill and use that for storage of spent rods. Gee. What next?
R. Foster
Royersford, PA
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Las Vegas SUN
July 03, 2006
Book says geology wrong at Yucca
Study's scientist calls part of mountain a 'volcano'
By Launce Rake
<lrake@lasvegassun.com>
Las Vegas Sun
A new book by three dozen scientists from across the country is questioning the suitability of Yucca Mountain as a dump site for the nation's high-level radioactive waste.
Yucca Mountain's complex geology - including what one scientist called an active volcano - makes the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas a poor choice to dump at least 77,000 tons of radioactive waste, according to the book, "Uncertainty Underground."
Allison Macfarlane, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology research associate, and Rodney Ewing, a University of Michigan professor, co-edited the anthology of 23 papers looking at the mountain's geology. The book was published by MIT Press.
Yucca geology and chemistry have been central issues as the federal Energy Department seeks to win approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the dump.
As the debate continues, research produced by federal agencies on the site has been questioned. Independent scientists have said the mountain is more vulnerable to water flow and other issues than once thought. And as the technical issues have piled up, the dump's opening date has receded: It was supposed to open in 1998. A year ago, Yucca's opening date was 2012. In recent discussions with Congress, the Energy Department put the date at 2018.
Critics say it should never open. Macfarlane said that while the country needs a permanent repository for nuclear waste, it shouldn't be Yucca Mountain. Congress selected the mountain in 1987, but the science does not support the decision, she said.
"There are issues that remain unresolved, and it's a geologically complex site," she said.
Macfarlane noted that a federal court has ordered the government to set a radiation standard to protect the environment and people for 1 million years.
"If we decided we were going to worry about nuclear waste for 1,000 years, then Yucca Mountain would be fine," she said. "But 10,000 or 1 million years, then there are significant issues. It's a tectonically active site - earthquakes and volcanoes. ¦ There's a volcano at the southern tip of Yucca Mountain, and it's 80,000 years old. Eighty thousand years is a really short time, geologically. It's considered still an active area."
Macfarlane said the dry desert environment is also a problem, providing an "oxidizing environment" that would corrode the metal casks holding the nuclear waste: "It's dry. Although it's touted as a plus, it's actually a problem ¦ It makes finding canister material more difficult."
She emphasized that those conclusions are her own, not necessarily of the scientists across the country who contributed to the book.
Macfarlane, who provided similar comments earlier this year to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said one thing is clear from the research: Yucca Mountain "is a really complicated place ¦ I think the solution for high-level radioactive waste is a geologic repository, but I'm not sure we've selected the right location. There's plenty of better options out there."
She declined to identify other sites better suited for the dump.
Not everyone agrees with Macfarlane's assessment. Glenn Biasi, a UNR associate professor, has studied the seismic and volcanic conditions at Yucca Mountain. Those conditions are the "subject of continuing study, certainly, but the things I know about ¦ wouldn't cause me to be concerned about the site."
Biasi said the volcanic activity that created Yucca Mountain over millions of years, and that reappeared within the last 100,000 years, is a result of underground water interacting with and helping to melt rock and bring it to the surface. That water is now largely expelled from deep under Yucca, making a future eruption less likely, he said.
Allen Benson, a spokesman for the Energy Department's Yucca Mountain Project, said the site is suitable: "We have spent over 20 years and a considerable amount of money evaluating the scientific suitability of Yucca Mountain."
The Energy Department recommended the site to President Bush in 2002, and the president forwarded that recommendation to Congress, which further sanctioned the site. The Energy Department is now preparing the license application of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Benson said.
"We will have to demonstrate that Yucca Mountain can safely protect the community and the environment," he said.
Benson said his agency does not intend to review the book and its findings. "The scientific community in general will review it," he said.
Bob Loux, executive director of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, the state agency fighting Yucca Mountain, said the book adds to a scientific picture of Yucca Mountain that makes the dump increasingly unlikely.
"Most independent scientists believe the issues at Yucca Mountain are too complex to be resolved," he said. "We would agree with those conclusions."
Launce Rake can be reached at 259-4127 or at lrake@lasvegassun.com.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
July 03, 2006
Insiders finally embrace outsider
Gibbons is leader in race for governor
By Molly Ball
Review-Journal
Editor's note: The following is the last in a series of profiles of Nevada's major gubernatorial candidates. More profiles.
In 2003, Jim Gibbons took to the floor of the state Legislature and, in front of a startled Gov. Kenny Guinn, denounced Guinn's planned budget.
Guinn never has forgiven him for the incident, which the governor took as a sucker-punch. The rift between the two men illustrates much about the differences between Nevada's governor for the past eight years and the candidate currently considered his most likely replacement.
Gibbons faces state Sen. Bob Beers and Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt in the Republican primary for the gubernatorial nomination.
As the front-runner in the race for governor, Gibbons is attracting the bulk of the money and support from the political establishment, from gaming bigwigs like MGM Mirage CEO Terry Lanni to the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce.
Although the election of Guinn, who never had held an elected office before, was famously engineered by those powerful interests, that's where the similarity ends.
For most of his career, Gibbons was an outsider to the state's power structure, intent on going his own way, often frustrating the political establishment with his successes. It's only now that Gibbons' election seems likely that the powers that be are lining up behind him, and even so, their embrace of him is not unanimous.
Gibbons' coronation "hasn't been anything near what you had with Kenny Guinn or (former Gov.) Bob Miller," said Republican political consultant Pete Ernaut, who does not have a candidate in the governor's race. "There hasn't been the total breadth of support financially across different industries."
Ernaut, who has had a rocky relationship with Gibbons over the years, says he has seen Gibbons mellow from an isolated, impetuous populist to a more conventional politician capable of listening to a variety of interests and building consensus.
"I don't think it's any secret that he had a style that didn't sit well with people" at the beginning of his career, Ernaut said. "He's realized that, if you want to be governor, it's a game of addition, not subtraction."
That is, to win the state's top office, Gibbons has had to work on making allies rather than enemies.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Born in Sparks to a father who was a ditch-digger for the Southern Pacific Railroad, Gibbons' life reads as a traditional Republican up-by-his-bootstraps tale, one in which education plays a central role.
"My father taught me a lot about the value of getting an education because his opportunities were so limited by the lack of it," Gibbons said.
Gibbons' father died the day he graduated from high school. His last words to his son were another admonishment to get an education.
Gibbons' mother was also an inspiration: a strong-willed woman who raised six boys, ran a business in the days when women seldom did so, and ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Sparks. Gibbons credits her with planting the seed in his mind of serving the community through elected office.
After earning his undergraduate degree in geology from the University of Nevada, Gibbons signed up for the Air Force rather than be drafted. Since he was a child he had been fascinated with airplanes. Gibbons became a fighter pilot, flying missions in Vietnam that remain classified.
Returning home, Gibbons aimed to become an airline pilot, but the airlines weren't hiring. He enrolled in graduate school, earning a master's degree and getting most of the way toward a doctorate while also working for Union Carbide's tungsten prospecting operation.
Deciding that he "didn't want to be packing rocks up and down a hill when I was 55," Gibbons left without completing his doctorate and enrolled in law school instead. But no sooner did he graduate than Western Airlines called. There had been 3,000 applicants for 38 pilot positions, Gibbons recalls, and he was one of the chosen.
Gibbons flew for Western from 1978 to 1980, when he was furloughed. He worked as a lawyer for the Homestake Mining Co. and then in private practice until 1984, when he was called back by the airline. He gave up the law for flying, always his first love.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Ron J. Bath, a friend of Gibbons since college who served with him in the 1991 Gulf War, said Gibbons was a "natural aviator" who inspired admiration in his military colleagues.
"He had what we call 'air savvy' -- he could see that jet in three dimensions," Bath said. "He really stood out in the Gulf War. He always took the hardest missions, and he never turned down a mission."
POLITICAL CAREER
Gibbons credits his wife Dawn -- now a politician herself, running for the congressional seat he is leaving -- with his entry into politics.
It was 1988, and Gibbons was a pilot for Delta Airlines, which had purchased Western a couple of years before.
"My wife calls me up and says that the guy representing our Assembly district isn't running for re-election," Gibbons recalled.
"I said, 'Let's talk about it when I get home.' I walk in the door and she has the paperwork all filled out for me to sign."
A popular former county commissioner, Jim King, was the favorite in the race, but Gibbons defeated him in the primary and went on to win.
Gibbons tells a curious story about his first term in the Assembly. Perhaps intended to illustrate his ability to stand his ground, it also reads as a tale of political payback.
The newly elected legislator told Delta, his employer, that he would need a six-month unpaid leave to serve in the Assembly. But unlike his previous airline, Delta didn't have a public-service leave policy, and Gibbons was told he would have to choose between his job as a pilot and serving in the Legislature.
Sure enough, when Gibbons went to Carson City he was fired for failing to show up to work. But he soon had a chance to get back at the airline.
"The Legislature was increasing the tax on jet fuel, and they put me in charge of the bill," Gibbons said. "Delta sent a representative to lobby, and guess who they had to come talk to? Me."
Because of the way the airline had treated Gibbons, its lobbyist got nowhere with him. Within days, Gibbons got a call from Delta saying he'd been rehired. When he returned to work after the legislative session, the airline had a public-service leave policy.
"I couldn't believe Delta would be so stubborn when it's so important to have a good relationship with the government," Gibbons said. "I think it was that lobbyist who went back and said, 'This (leave policy) is silly, it could jeopardize our ability to survive.'"
Gibbons was re-elected in 1990. Five days after the election, his National Guard unit was called up for Operation Desert Shield. Gibbons was sure he'd be back soon, but he gave Dawn a letter of resignation just in case.
"We were transferred to a base in Bahrain," Gibbons said. "The wing commander says, 'We're going to war in January.' I couldn't tell anybody.
"On January 16, I called my wife and said, 'I cannot tell you why, but you have to take that letter to the governor tomorrow morning.'"
The war started as Dawn Gibbons was on her way home from giving her husband's resignation to Gov. Bob Miller.
In Gibbons' absence, the Washoe County Commission appointed his wife to serve in the Legislature, then reappointed Gibbons when he returned.
OUTSIDER CANDIDATE
After three terms in the Legislature, Gibbons, despite his relative political inexperience, decided to run for governor in 1994. He looked like the underdog in a crowded Republican primary. The establishment's candidate was then-Secretary of State Cheryl Lau.
But Gibbons campaigned tirelessly and won the primary. He says he ran for the simple reason that he wanted the job.
"I've always wanted to be governor," he said. "That was my goal then, and I hold it today: to lead the state of Nevada."
At the same time, Gibbons was backing an initiative petition, the Gibbons Tax Restraint Initiative, that would amend the state Constitution to require a two-thirds vote of the state Legislature to raise taxes.
Gibbons lost the governor's race to incumbent Democrat Bob Miller by 11 percentage points. But his initiative passed with nearly 80 percent of the vote.
In 1996, with the tax initiative again on the ballot -- Nevada voters must approve proposed constitutional amendments in two successive elections -- Gibbons ran for the open Congressional District 2 seat vacated by former Rep. Barbara Vucanovich.
That is the seat he has held for the past 10 years, representing all of Nevada except parts of Clark County. In 2000, a third Nevada congressional district was carved out of Gibbons' territory, but his district still includes all of 16 counties and part of the 17th, Clark.
Gibbons currently serves on the House Resources Committee, the Armed Services Committee and the Homeland Security Committee. For eight years, Gibbons served on the House Intelligence Committee and was poised to become chairman when then-chair Porter Goss was appointed to head the CIA in 2004.
Gibbons lobbied hard for the post, saying he would not run for governor if he got it. But Gibbons was passed over for the chairmanship, an event his critics paint as a telling failure. Gibbons doesn't deny he was disappointed.
"Porter Goss said if I wanted to become the next chair, he would support me," Gibbons said. "I put my name in, and at the end of the day the speaker (House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.) chose someone else."
Gibbons' allies suspect his vocal opposition to the proposed nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain, which Hastert favors, may have played a role. His critics say it's just another example of what they call Gibbons' failed tenure as a congressman.
RECORD IN CONGRESS
Democrats portray Gibbons' decade as a congressman as a case study in mediocrity.
"We hear the term back-bencher used for Gibbons a lot, and it really fits him," Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirsten Searer said. "He has not sponsored one substantial policy bill and gotten it through Congress. That's indicative of his career in Washington -- just kind of floating along."
Gibbons has introduced 16 bills that succeeded in becoming law. Most are related to public lands. Three served to rename post offices, and one conferred honors on Ronald and Nancy Reagan.
"He hasn't provided leadership to the state of Nevada," Searer said.
Gibbons' record also draws fire for some notable incidents.
In December 2003, he was named "Porker of the Month" by Citizens Against Government Waste for obtaining $225,000 in federal funds to repair a swimming pool down the road from his childhood home in Sparks; he said he wanted to atone for clogging the pool's drain with tadpoles as a teenager.
In November 2005, he co-authored a last-minute amendment to a federal budget bill that would have loosened restrictions on the sale of public lands for mining. The amendment drew heavy criticism from environmentalists, Democrats and some Republicans.
Environmentalists also decry Gibbons' co-authorship last year of a report that attempted to frame mercury in a more positive light. Opponents accuse Gibbons of attempting to whitewash a dangerous substance on behalf of industry.
Gibbons' stance on abortion also has been questioned. He always has claimed to be pro-choice, a position he says comes from his belief that government should stay out of people's bedrooms.
Yet abortion-rights advocates do not consider him a friend because of his votes in favor of restrictions on abortion. Earlier this year, Gibbons told the Review-Journal, "I do not support government funding of abortions, and I do not support late-term abortions," but he still considers himself pro-choice.
Meanwhile, back home, Gibbons has championed the Education First ballot initiative, which would amend the state Constitution to require the Legislature to fund education before the rest of the budget. The measure passed with 57 percent of the vote in 2004 and must pass again in November to take effect.
Gibbons says the initiative shows the priority he places on education, but his critics on both sides say the proposal doesn't really address the state's education problems. Hunt, for instance, called the initiative "a feel-good solution" that "doesn't offer any real answer to Nevada's educational issues."
Gibbons supporters say he hardly has been a do-nothing congressman. "You don't work your way into those committee assignments if you're a back-bencher," said Hal Furman, a former Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Nevada who is now a Washington lobbyist.
Furman said Gibbons is well-respected in the capital as hardworking and straightforward.
In addition to his lands bills, Gibbons, backed by his scientific credentials, has been an aggressive opponent of Yucca Mountain, a stance that has put him at odds with President Bush and many Republicans. Gibbons was also an early supporter of the creation of the Homeland Security Department. He has said that is his proudest accomplishment in Congress.
THE RACE
The guy in front always has the most arrows in his back. Gibbons has been the target of everyone's attacks in the campaign thus far, but it's hard to see how he could lose in November, much less in August, when the primary is held.
Most polls show Gibbons more than 30 points ahead of both Beers and Hunt in the Republican primary. To the other Republicans' great frustration, he has refused to debate them until August, when early voting for the primary already will have started, meaning even a giant gaffe in such a forum would be unlikely to turn the election.
In the general election, most polls show Gibbons beating either Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson or state Sen. Dina Titus by more than 10 points.
University of Nevada, Reno political scientist Eric Herzik said Gibson might give Gibbons a tougher race than Titus, but Gibson still would have an uphill climb against Gibbons' statewide support and financial resources.
Gibbons is supported by Republican political heavyweight Sig Rogich, the power broker whose backing of Guinn was decisive eight years ago. "He's done a terrific job in Congress," Rogich said. "He's been innovative as a legislator here in Nevada. He's not afraid to stand up for what he believes in. ... (Through the initiative process) he's shown that he has the ability to be creative in government."
With Rogich's help, Gibbons has managed to reel in powerful players who didn't take kindly to him at first. University Chancellor Jim Rogers once said Gibbons was "not very bright," but in April, having junked his own gubernatorial ambitions, Rogers got onboard with Gibbons, giving him a $5,000 donation.
Others, notably Guinn, have not come around. Guinn has said he will not endorse a successor, but he recently issued a statement praising Hunt and saying, "Nevada would certainly benefit from her continued leadership."
Guinn is nursing a grudge against Gibbons, Herzik said.
"Kenny Guinn headed Republicans for Miller," against Gibbons' 1994 gubernatorial candidacy. "But Jim Gibbons doesn't hold that against him. The grudge only goes one way."
Gibbons can act rashly, as when last year he made two widely publicized gaffes in quick succession. In January 2005, he said anyone who objected to President Bush's lavish re-inauguration "must be a communist." The following month, he gave a speech in Elko that was shocking enough for its content, suggesting that Hollywood liberals be sent to Iraq as human shields. Even worse, the speech turned out to be plagiarized.
Those types of missteps are the flip side of Gibbons' instinctive, decisive style as a politician. But it would be a mistake to see him as unintelligent or his probable coronation as governor as accidental, Herzik said.
"Gibbons has been consistently underestimated by Democrats and many Republicans," Herzik said. "He's always been something of an outsider, but he's succeeded by going directly to the people," as with his tax restraint measure.
"Many of the state's mainstream interests have always had an arm's length relationship with Jim Gibbons," Herzik added. "They're warming up to him real quick now. They're going to have to work with him."
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Tri-City Herald
July 03, 2006
Vit plant earthquake study under way
By Annette Cary
Herald staff writer
Drilling has begun on a new earthquake study at Hanford's vitrification plant.
It's the third look at how much a severe quake would shake two massive buildings being constructed for separating and treating high-level radioactive waste.
"The Hanford site is one of the most geologically studied areas on the planet next to Yucca Mountain, (Nev.)," said John Eschenberg, project manager for the Department of Energy's Hanford Office of River Protection.
The problem is knowing exactly what's under the vitrification plant.
To answer that question, DOE is spending an estimated $18 million to $20 million to drill four holes on the 65-acre plant site and study the data collected.
The first hole is being drilled in the middle of the complex. On one side is the High Level Waste Facility and on the other is the Low Activity Waste Facility. Both facilities will take million of gallons of pretreated radioactive and hazardous chemical waste left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program and turn the waste into a stable glass form for permanent disposal.
The hope is that this new study will confirm the results of a smaller study done in 2004. That study showed that the design for the plant's High Level Waste Facility and the Pretreatment Facility might be inadequate to withstand a severe earthquake.
After the results were announced, the seismic design standard was increased 38 percent.
But under a best-case scenario, the new study could show that the 2004 study overstated the potential harm of a severe earthquake.
The plant's seismic design standards were originally based on a 1996 study, called a probabilistic seismic hazard analysis.
It looked at the seven fault lines in the Yakima Belt Fold, then rated them on how active they had been in the last 10,000 years. It then considered how sound waves caused by an earthquake would travel through the ground beneath Hanford.
The problem was that the study was for the entire 586 square miles of Hanford. But there's a lot of variation in the depths of the layers of soil and rock at the site, Eschenberg said.
The issue of whether plant design practices were sound was raised by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, which has oversight of DOE at Hanford, in 2002.
DOE was able to answer all the board's seismic questions throughout 2002 except the issue of shear wave velocity, Eschenberg said.
In 2004, the defense board followed up with specific questions about how interbeds -- layers of sand, silt and gravel sandwiched between layers of basalt -- would affect earthquake energy, Eschenberg said.
DOE already had decided to drill a relatively shallow bore hole, he said.
By fall it had actually drilled two near the site. The first was abandoned at 350 feet deep because of problems with the casing. In a second attempt, a hole was drilled to 550 feet.
By spring, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory delivered its report on the findings.
"It showed the velocity of the shear wave was much quicker than assumed," Eschenberg said.
Hanford typically has 550 feet of sand and gravel above layers of basalt, and that was the assumption used for the 1996 study. But there is only 365 feet of sand and gravel beneath the vitrification plant to slow the energy of an earthquake.
The waves travel quickly through the basalt, but are slowed by the softer soil. It's somewhat like pounding a hammer on a sheet of metal -- the reverberations can be felt on the other end. But pound a hammer on top of a mattress, and they'll be more difficult to feel on the other end.
Scientific and computational modeling also has advanced in the decade since the 1996 study. How the sound waves behave can be predicted more accurately now, Eschenberg said.
However, the 2004 findings were based on a single hole that was relatively shallow. And it was intended as a conservative, bounding study, and did not fully account for the waves being slowed as they passed through sand, according to DOE.
The study under way now should give a more complete look at how an earthquake might affect the vitrification plant.
"(This) study proves unequivocally the soil properties under the vit plant," Eschenberg said. "It tells us exactly what the properties are within the fence yard."
The study will collect data from four separate holes.
"Each hole is designed for a specific purpose," said Martin Gardner, field operations manager for EnergySolutions, a subcontractor on the project.
Three are deep bore holes planned to reach 1,250 feet beneath the surface. The other hole is a core boring that will collect samples of soil and rock for physical analysis, said Thomas Brouns, a senior program manager at PNNL.
It will provide a geologic record of how much gravel, sand and silt is in the interbeds dispersed between the basalt layers.
All the drilling is planned to be completed by spring 2007 and data analyzed by the end of June of that year.
DOE doesn't plan to resume construction on the two buildings affected by the seismic issue until late spring 2007 -- when the study is complete -- in part because of a funding cut and other issues raised in an independent review of the plant.
Then DOE will have a better idea if the 38 percent increase in the design standard was the right call.
Because of extra margin built into the design before the 2004 study, no concrete already in place had to be reworked at the plant. But there could be some impacts to the design of upper levels of the buildings yet to be built because they would sway more than lower levels in an earthquake.
Some design changes to equipment and supports for piping in the plant, which is extensive, also will be required.
"We used considerable amount of the design margin on seismic," Eschenberg said.
If the 38 percent additional design margin can be reduced, engineers designing the plant will have more flexibility, which could be helpful in dealing with other design issues.
"It's possible we could get back some design margin," he said.
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Baltimore Sun
July 03, 2006
opinion
Nuclear folly
Bipartisan celebration greeted news last week that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had licensed, for the first time in 30 years, a major commercial nuclear facility, to be built near the small New Mexican town of Eunice.
Republican lawmakers saw proof of the resurgence of nuclear power in the United States as an alternative to fossil fuels. Democrats spoke of high-paying jobs that would come to an impoverished section of the state.
Just one rub, though. The nuclear enrichment plant, scheduled to be ready for operation within eight years, will produce a toxic and corrosive waste for which there is currently no disposal site anywhere in the country - and no certainty of one being available soon. In fact, the only designated nuclear waste disposal facility in the United States is still fighting a two-decade-long battle to win regulatory approval.
Building first and dealing with the consequences later is shortsightedness in the extreme. The attraction of new, potentially cleaner energy sources and short-term economic gains simply doesn't justify failing to resolve the nuclear waste issue before building new facilities.
New Mexico expects its problem will be solved by the enrichment plant's private owners, an international consortium that plans to have a second facility built to decontaminate the waste so it can be buried. These disposal plans also have to overcome a series of hurdles, though, including finding a site.
What the rest of the country has to worry about is the precedent set in New Mexico.
Nuclear reactor waste far more dangerous than what's left over from the fuel enrichment process is piling up at plants around the nation, including Maryland's Calvert Cliffs. There's no place else to put it. If the disputes surrounding the federally designated waste site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada aren't resolved soon, local space will run out. New Mexico Sen. Pete V. Domenici has proposed creating temporary waste sites on federal land, but his legislation faces a stormy trip through Congress. Creating more waste of any type before disposal options are certain only heightens the danger.
Nuclear power is no panacea for America's energy woes in the best of circumstances. It produces only electricity, and thus can't easily replace the shrinking supplies of oil burned for transportation. And though cleaner than coal, nuclear power is not without adverse environmental impacts.
Even so, with improved technology and sounder safety procedures, nuclear power deserves a place among the various energy sources on which the nation relies - but only if political and industrial leaders can agree on what to do with the nasty leftovers.
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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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