Yucca Mountain News Clips
Monday, December 11, 2006
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Las Vegas SUN
December 11, 2006
Letter: Nuclear power not worth the mess it creates
Regarding the Las Vegas Sun's Dec. 3 story, "Reid's rise to power may be bad news for Yucca backers":
Nuclear power and Yucca dump advocates made some questionable statements. Urging Sen. Harry Reid to stop opposing the Yucca dump, a waste industry spokesman said, "The majority of this country is in favor of nuclear energy." He must have been referring to a September 2006 poll conducted for the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the industry's well-heeled lobby arm in Washington, by a former NEI vice president.
But that biased poll (showing 68 percent in favor of nuclear power) is contradicted by a June 2005 ABC News/Washington Post poll showing 64 percent opposed to building new atomic reactors. In a summer 2006 Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, when asked how best to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, 52 percent chose alternative energies such as wind and solar power, while only 6 percent chose building more nuclear power plants.
The article stated, "Some environmentalists believe nuclear power is a key component of the climate change debate because it is a cleaner energy source. And if you go nuclear, you need a place to store the waste." But last year nearly 300 environmental organizations sent a letter to Congress opposing nuclear power as a global warming solution.
We can either build new reactors, or we can address the climate crisis, but we can't do both: Nuclear power is so expensive and time-consuming, it would foreclose real solutions to global warming such as energy efficiency and renewables. The "nuclear relapse" would generate enough radioactive waste worldwide to fill a Yucca-sized dump every three years. This is utter madness.
Kevin Kamps
Takoma Park, Md.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
December 11, 2006
Letter: What's state's Plan B for Yucca Mountain?
There are people for and against storage of radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain. At this time construction and preparation for such storage still is under way.
Nobody else wants this storage facility in their own backyard, so if we get it (actual storage of radioactive/hazardous waste), what is in it for the citizens of Nevada? Is there a Plan B?
Plan B might include: Users (government and/or private) pay storage costs prior to wastes being accepted into storage and at intervals specified within each storage contract. Contracts reviewed/renewed every 20/30 years for possible adjustment.
All users, in the event of a leak/incident, are responsible for all costs associated with cleanup until site and stored products are again in a certified safe storage configuration.
Fees collected utilized to benefit registered citizens of the state of Nevada. Such fees might be expended to:
Finance construction of approved Nevada education facilities. i.e. elementary, middle/high schools and universities.
Increase number of scholarships available for college-bound Nevada students.
Use some fees to reduce state taxes currently paid by registered Nevada residents.
Is there a Plan B?
You may wish to ask our representatives!
Don Ford
Reno
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San Luis Obispo Tribune
December 11, 2006
DOE to improve oversight at Yucca Mountain
The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) – The Energy Department is making a new push to fix how design mistakes are identified and corrected at a proposed national nuclear waste dump in Nevada, a top project official said.
Paul Golan, principal deputy director for the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said senior Yucca Mountain managers were involved in addressing what he characterized as "a chronic problem."
Auditors have criticized the Energy Department for mistakes discovered in design documents and other work for the planned repository for 77,000 tons of spent nuclear reactor fuel and radioactive waste. Once built, the dump site would be the resting place of nuclear waste hauled in from various reactors around the country, including the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant near Avila Beach.
Nevada officials who oppose the project say quality assurance problems should disqualify the site, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, from receiving waste now stored around the country.
At a meeting of Energy Department officials and Nuclear Regulatory Commission staffers in Pahrump, Golan outlined a new campaign for Yucca managers to screen and prioritize reported errors, identify their causes and develop "effective corrective actions."
DOE plans to hire consultants next year to evaluate whether the reforms are working, he said.
Susan Lynch, nuclear waste technical administrator for the state of Nevada, expressed skepticism that the corrective measures would be effective.
"They assume if they fix one specific problem then everything will be OK, but they don’t look at it globally to make sure the fix will prevent reoccurrence," Lynch said.
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Pahrump Valley Times
December 11, 2006
Nye expects more work by Yucca Mountain consultants
By Mark Waite
PVT
The annual renewal of consulting contracts for oversight of the Yucca Mountain project was approved by Nye County Commissioners Tuesday; the 10 contracts amount to $1.77 million.
The summary by acting Nuclear Waste Repository Office director Dave Swanson states, "NWRPO believes that 2007 will be a year of dramatic and rapidly changing events associated with the Yucca Mountain Project."
Swanson referred to the changing political climate in Washington, D.C., with new U.S. Department of Energy programs like the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership for recycling nuclear waste worldwide, the proposed Hawthorne rail route to Yucca Mountain and a new type of rail canister.
In the coming year, the nuclear waste project office expects there will be legislation to "fix" Yucca Mountain. Negotiations are tentatively for the spring on the $10 million in annual Payment Equal to Taxes Nye County receives from DOE for the land value of Yucca Mountain, and the DOE is encouraging Nye County to become more actively involved in on-site public safety initiatives.
The DOE provided $2.6 million to Nye County in 2006 under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to oversee the project. Nye County expects to receive a similar amount for 2007.
"It is proposed to award these contracts without competition. The justification for this award is based on previously demonstrated technical expertise and years of successful experience," Swanson wrote. "On average these contractors have worked for Nye County at least seven years for facilitation program continuity, stability and the accumulation of a large body of interdisciplinary knowledge regarding Yucca Mountain performance and its potential impacts on the county."
The contractors include:
Mary Ellen Giampaoli, environmental compliance and land use, $120,000;
Mal Murphy, regulatory and licensing, $235,000;
SRS Technologies and consultant Cash Jaszczak, policy and planning support, $200,000;
Wilbur Smith Associates, Nevada rail impact contractor, $300,000;
BEC Environmental Inc., and Eileen Christensen, infrastructure planning, $200,000;
Joseph Ziegler, regulatory, policy and planning support, $135,000;
NERMI LLC, repository ancillary facilities evaluation, $300,000;
Tom Buqo, hydro-geologic evaluations, $175,000;
Jamieson Walker, hydro-geologic evaluations, $80,000;
TerraSpectra Geomatics, graphics support, Web site maintenance, GIS maintenance, $30,000.
Commissioner Patricia Cox said some of the contracts increased, but the scope of work didn't seem to have changed. "Some of these contracts going up $60,000 to $75,000 without knowing what's happening is ridiculous," she said.
Swanson replied, "We're expecting our consulting staff to basically perform the same roles they did in the past. Hence the scope of work is the same as it was historically. We're looking forward to 2007 being a very dramatic year."
Swanson said the amounts listed is the upper level of what the county expects to spend. But Cox said she had concerns the county would purposely spend all of their Yucca Mountain budget by the end of the year just to use it all up. "This is a large amount of money. I just don't want to have audit issues in the future, which is what that department had in the past," Cox said.
She referred to an audit by the Office of the Inspector General in which federal auditors ordered Nye County to return $2 million in funds co-mingled with other accounts.
But Commissioner Joni Eastley, a liaison on nuclear waste, spoke in support of the contractors.
"I speak with these consultants and Mr. Swanson almost on a daily basis," Eastley said. "I have been able to monitor first hand the completion of the scope of work duties involved in these. I would personally lend my support to the renewal of these contracts."
Swanson mentioned that Mal Murphy's $235,000 contract increased significantly from last year due to the scope of services. Murphy, a consultant from Sunriver, Ore., is working on the regulatory and licensing part. His 30-page contract includes hiring a qualified individual to practice law to appear before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on any Yucca Mountain licensing hearing.
Swanson said Buqo, the hydro-geologist who lives in Blue Diamond, will get a big project this year. Buqo's contract includes work on a long-term aquifer test in Amargosa Valley during the coming year.
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McKinney Courier Gazette
December 11, 2006
Fuel diversity key for area’s energy use
By Stefanie Ackerman
The Texas Association of Business has started a cross state campaign promoting policies for alternative fuel choices to keep Texas from running out of power. The TAB’s plan is not supported by all though. Plano mayor, Pat Evans, and a group of 17 mayors from across the state have formed a coalition and hired lawyers to put a stop to the TAB’s ideas.
“For the people who use it to be part of the process instead of part of the problem; they want the power but they don’t want to be involved in getting it,” said state Rep. Buddy West, Dist.-81, and chairman of the energy committee.
TAB CEO, Bill Hammond proposed a three prong plan to solve Texas’ energy crisis. The TAB is lobbying the legislature and speaking to people about the fact that within the next two years, Texans may experience rolling blackouts. By 2008, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas reported that Texas will be about 20 percent under its reserve margin and the flickering will only get worse from there, Hammond said. Unless the energy supply is built up, Hammond said residents better hope for cool summers and no weather-related emergencies, otherwise, Texans will be out of power.
“Economic development in Texas will come to a screeching halt if we don’t build plants,” Hammond said. People will continue to come to Texas and need energy.”
The proposal asks for the legislature, mayors and local officials to expedite the permitting process for coal plants to be built. TXU Energy, a Dallas based company and the largest supplier of energy in the state, has planned to build 11 new coal plants in the state. Hammond said these new coal plants will lessen emissions of carbon dioxide by 20 percent of what they are now and coal energy will be a viable short term solution to the problem. While people are using coal energy, he is lobbying for expeditious permitting for nuclear plants to be built in Texas, which he, West and Congressman Johnson all support as a viable source of serving long-term energy needs.
“Think about California, we don’t want that to happen here,” Hammond said.
Hammond added he thinks Yucca Mountain needs to be opened and the rods from nuclear plants will be stored there when all used up. While people rely on nuclear energy, the coal plants will be taken off n line and, Hammond and his supporters, want the federal government to fund research and develop alternative and new sources of energy.
“We’re concerned that the legislature, the mayors, the county commissioners may delay the permits and the consumer is the one that suffers. Out point is, prices will go down, reliability goes up. Make changes, let’s get permits issued,” Hammond said.
The Texas Cities for Clean Air Coalition, which includes Dallas mayor, Laura Miller and Evans has mounted up and promoting a policy urging the TXU and other energy providers to consider cleaner energy alternatives, like gasification.
Gasification is a process that converts carbonaceous materials, such as coal, petroleum, petroleum coke or biomass, into carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Within the last few years, gasification technologies have been developed that use plastic-rich waste as a feed. In a plant in Germany such a technology - on large scale - converts plastic waste via producer gas into methanol.
None of the mayors were available for comment.
West said that he was unaware of any bills or pre-filings about expediting permitting being presented before the legislature, which is set to meet in January.
“I am for clean burning coal. Then ya’ll are going to have to belly up to the bar and do something about it,” West said.
When it comes down to it, both sides want the same thing: clean, affordable and reliable energy for the state of Texas.
“From the business perspective, we want reliable energy to continue economic development. We don’t want the lights to flicker in ’08 or ’09,” Hammond said.
Contact staff writer Stefanie Ackerman at 972-398-4265 or sackerman@acnpapers.com.
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Chemical & Engineering News
December 11, 2006
Reprocessing proposed
DOE Promotes Nuclear Energy
Spent fuel would be 'recycled' until delayed repository opens
Jeff Johnson
Beginning construction of the first U.S. nuclear power plant in more than 30 years and convincing the public that the government can handle nuclear waste are key Bush Administration energy policy goals for its last 800 days in office, according to Clay Sell, deputy secretary of the Department of Energy.
Sell spoke on Dec. 5 to a conference of several hundred nuclear advocates, drawn together by the promise of the Administration's proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. GNEP would have the U.S. lead an international partnership to expand use of nuclear energy and to reprocess spent nuclear fuel for reuse throughout the world. Currently, however, the U.S. by law may not reprocess spent fuel and must place it in an underground repository.
But Sell laid out a new U.S. nuclear waste program that will undertake reprocessing and reuse of spent fuel while work goes forward on the long-stalled Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. Under the most optimistic scenarios, the repository will not open until 2017 to 2020, Sell said. Meanwhile, the Bush Administration wants nuclear power to advance.
"We think we can develop—on a temporary basis—the consolidation of spent nuclear fuel at several U.S. recycling locations where it can be dealt with and where we can extract great energy value while we are working on the long-term goal of licensing and building a permanent geological repository," Sell said. "Let's be real about 'temporary,' " he added, "we are talking about decades."
Some 11 U.S. communities have expressed an interest in housing a GNEP reprocessing facility, DOE says.
Recent changes in congressional leadership will present a stumbling block, particularly in the Senate, where Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will become majority leader. Reid, although a nuclear power supporter, opposes the waste repository's location in Nevada.
The Administration's and nuclear industry's challenge, Sell said, is to show Nevada residents that nuclear reprocessing and the repository will be a "tremendously positive thing," with new jobs and a new state industry.
"I see a future in Nevada where facilities out there become centers of excellence for some of the most important materials in the world."
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Reno Gazette-Journal
December 10, 2006
New energy chair endorses Yucca Mountain
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The incoming chairman of the Senate Energy Committee said Friday that Yucca Mountain remains the best option for nuclear waste disposal, and voiced skepticism about the alternative plan backed by Nevada's congressional delegation.
The proposed nuclear waste dump "is the best of the options available to us at the current time assuming that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission determines that it's an appropriate site," Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico said in an interview.
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Nevada's other federal lawmakers want to store nuclear waste at the reactor sites around the country where some 50,000 tons of it now sits.
"I don't think that's politically viable. I don't believe that will become law," Bingaman said.
Republican supporter
When Democrats take over Congress from the GOP in January, Bingaman will replace U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., as head of the committee with oversight of the proposed nuclear waste dump the Energy Department is trying to build
90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Domenici has been one of Yucca Mountain's strongest congressional supporters, introducing legislation the Bush administration has said is needed to move the troubled project forward.
Reid, who will become Senate Majority Leader, has said he would not allow any pro-Yucca bills to reach the Senate floor. Bingaman said he hasn't discussed with Reid what will happen with future legislation.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
December 10, 2006
League of cities adopts stands on several issues
Susan Voyles
Reno Gazette-Journal
After approving a measure that says that city police should not be used to arrest illegal immigrants, the National League of Cities in Reno Saturday adopted a stand on immigration and dozens of other issues in lobbying Congress and the federal government over the next year.
About 510 of 3,500 mayors and city council members who attended the league convention in Reno that ended Saturday participated in a vote on policy issues as well as their first Insta-Poll. With signs for every state scattered across a ballroom in the Reno-Sparks Convention Center, the meeting had the look of a political convention.
Using hand-held devises, officials took part in an instant poll with the results shown on a wide-screen monitor. They surprised themselves when 49 percent agreed with a statement that property-related crimes such as burglaries surged in the past year. With a computer dicing the information, officials could see that the vote was the same for cities big and small.
The only controversy in the policy statements was prompted by Councilwoman Robin Beltramini from Troy, Michigan. In a policy calling for a path of citizenship for foreign nationals already here, she said those gaining citizenship should not have a criminal history.
Then she pointed out another policy that says the federal government should not force local police to enforce U.S. immigration laws and arrest illegal immigrants. That would seem to make being an undocumented immigrant a crime.
Phoenix Councilman Michael Johnson said the federal government first needs to have a new immigration policy. And when it gets one, he said, the cities don't want their police to enforce it.
Manuel Anaya, a councilman from Carlsbad, N.M., said giving local police such power would lead to more racial profiling -- police stopping people on the streets or in their cars because of the color of their skin.
Henry Marraffa, of Gaithersburg, Fla, said such a policy would put police in a bad light. "We want our local police to looking into neighborhoods," he said.
With that, the group approved the immigration policies as written and then dozens of others in a 131-page book.
Reno Councilwoman Jessica Sferrazza won support for a resolution encouraging the federal government to provide grants to local governments for taser guns. She said use of the stun guns has proven to reduce injuries for police officers as well as the public in cities where they are used. The taser guns are standard-issue for Reno police.
Las Vegas Councilman Steve Ross won support for a resolution urging the federal government to cover the full the costs of training public safety agencies if nuclear waste is transported to Yucca Mountain in Southern Nevada. Ross said monitoring the transport of waste in the Las Vegas valley could cost $385 million initially and more than $3.7 billion over 24 years.
The route to Yucca could include the Reno area as well. The route cover 2,000 miles across 24 states.
Among other resolutions, the league:
Took a stronger stance on global warming. It believes the federal government should adopt new policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to stop irreversible effects on the global climate and encourage tax incentives for energy efficiency. Given that, renewable energy sources such as solar should no longer be labeled as alternative energy sources.
Agreed federal lands should never be sold for short-term profits. And in the rare instances when land is sold, local governments should be given right of first-refusal to buy and any income put to a relevant use.
Renewed a resolution calling for the Federal Communications Commission to revise its media ownership rules to allow for more public input and better protection and preservation of diversity ownership of the media.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
December 08, 2006
Yucca quality assurance targeted
DOE officials say steps being taken
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Energy on Thursday announced a new push to fix how Yucca Mountain design mistakes are identified and corrected, a long-standing problem on the nuclear waste project.
"The corrective action program has been a chronic problem for the Yucca Mountain Project," said Paul Golan, principal deputy director for the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.
"The senior management team for the project is personally involved in fixing the program and making it an effective management tool going forward," Golan said.
DOE has been criticized by auditors after recurring mistakes have been discovered in design documents and other work for the science and engineering project.
Flaws in how data can be retraced and double-checked could raise problems with regulators about Yucca Mountain safety. Nevada officials who oppose the project say quality assurance problems should have disqualified the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
At a meeting in Pahrump of DOE officials and staffers from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Golan outlined a new campaign for Yucca managers to screen and prioritize reported errors, identify their causes and develop "effective corrective actions."
DOE plans to hire consultants next year to evaluate whether the reforms are working, Golan said.
Susan Lynch, nuclear waste technical administrator for the state of Nevada, said DOE tries to fix its corrective action program "every couple of years, and they still have a problem with it."
"They assume if they fix one specific problem then everything will be OK, but they don't look at it globally to make sure the fix will prevent reoccurrence and that is where they have had major problems," Lynch said.
"We have heard this over and over again for 20 years," Lynch said of quality assurance reform. DOE "can talk a good line but it has been talked before."
Rod McCullum, Yucca Mountain manager for the Nuclear Energy Institute, said the Energy Department has made strides in quality assurance.
The effort announced Thursday "is not a start-over but a continuation of what they have been doing for a time now, and integrating it into how they manage the program," he said.
"Corrective action programs are not rocket science, but integrating it into how you manage is tough," McCullum said. "It gets a little bit better each step."
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
December 08, 2006
Aide says Reid won't yield in opposing Yucca project
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Nuclear industry executives were told Thursday that Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., will not bend in his opposition to nuclear waste burial at Yucca Mountain.
"Senator Reid's opinion is not going to change," aide Drew Willison told participants at a nuclear conference.
Willison's comments came a day after Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, told the group that he was planning to reintroduce a bill clearing a path for the Department of Energy to move forward on the planned nuclear fuel repository.
Reid, who will be Senate majority leader beginning in January, will have to deal with the issue, Craig said.
But Willison, Reid's clerk for energy and water programs on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said "it will be very difficult" for Reid to allow changes in nuclear waste law benefiting the Yucca bid.
"I don't think there is a case to be made in Nevada," where public opinion remains strong against Yucca, Willison said.
Though Craig said repository supporters might be able to attach a Yucca bill to other legislation moving in the Senate, Willison said, "It won't be moving for long if the majority leader is running the agenda."
Willison noted that DOE Deputy Secretary Clay Sell has said the Bush administration "wants to find new accommodations" on nuclear waste.
Other than that, the Reid aide said, "I don't want to say that Yucca Mountain will be moving along quickly."
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Asheville Citizen-Times
December 08, 2006
How about a little truth in (nuclear) advertising?
by Michael Hopping
If you thought the political ads ended on Election Day, I bear sad tidings. We may be spared the ersatz statesmen approving the mud they sling, but a new round of issue-oriented advertising has already begun.
In the past we’ve seen slick and misleading TV ad campaigns designed to use us to pressure Congress on behalf of the drug industry, telecom corporations, media giants and Social Security reform. Though the appeals may be to freedom, progress, and brighter tomorrows, the bill or deregulation they support is usually aimed at strengthening corporate control of an economic sector.
We can expect more of these campaigns. The election caught too many corporate interest groups under-invested in Democrats. (Influencing the public may be more expensive and unwieldy than the K Street method of buying congressional favor. But hey, they’re playing catch up.) Here’s hoping the news media will do for issue ads what it fitfully tried to do with the claims of political candidates. When I see an issue ad, I’ve got questions. Who are these guys? What’s their agenda, and what does it mean to me?
I’ll get the ball rolling with an overview of a current ad campaign by EnergySolutions. For weeks now, a nice-looking man named Steve Creamer has been telling us about the EnergySolutions commitment to the wonders of nuclear energy and cleaning up the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. (The Savannah River Site is a federal and commercial nuclear industrial complex across the river from Augusta National Golf Club.) Mr. Creamer isn’t asking us to do anything, but he’s spending a bundle to get his name out there. Why?
EnergySolutions, Creamer’s privately held company, has an ambitious agenda. It intends to reprocess America’s 60,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel into new fuel. Princeton Professor Frank von Hippel estimates the cost of such a project at about $100 billion. Quite a project.
Creamer’s pursuit of the jackpot went into high gear late in 2005 when he purchased a nuclear dump company unpopular in his home state of Utah and the nuclear power plant decontamination and decommissioning arm of Scientech. Since then he’s added a nuclear waste hauling and incineration outfit, a radioactive metal machining firm based in Oak Ridge, and the American division of the British Nuclear Group, BNG. BNG reprocesses nuclear fuel in Great Britain.
It was President Bush who proposed that highly radioactive spent fuel be reprocessed—industry prefers the term recycled—into new fuel rather than burying it at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) plan Bush announced last January goes a step farther. He also wants to reprocess spent fuel from other countries. This would prevent those countries from trying it themselves and maybe turning the plutonium they extract into nuclear weapons as several governments have done, including North Korea. The trouble is that the United States hasn’t attempted commercial reprocessing of spent fuel since the Carter administration. Reprocessing is not only horrendously expensive; it poses environmental risks as well.
The reprocessing technology EnergySolutions bought with its BNG-America acquisition is tried and tested. BNG’s Sellafield site on the northwest coast of Britain has been reprocessing spent fuel since 1952. UK press reports indicate that, by 2003, Sellafield had dumped half a ton of plutonium into the Irish Sea. (Plutonium is toxic to people in the same manner as the polonium used to poison the former Russian spy.) Some of Sellafield’s waste plutonium has apparently found its way into marine fish, the West Cumbrian countryside and the teeth of local children. These allegations and briefings on other leaks, spills, and production failures at Sellafield are available at: http://www.corecumbria.co.uk/newsapp/briefings/briefsmenu.asp.
Creamer has promised the citizens of Utah that EnergySolutions will not build a reprocessing facility in Utah. Where then?
A Nov. 20 Associated Press story tells us that some South Carolina business leaders and the Southern Carolina Regional Development Alliance have teamed up with EnergySolutions to advocate for siting the GNEP reprocessing plant in South Carolina, probably near the Savannah River Site.
Because of the way the nation’s highways and rail lines run to Creamer’s South Carolina dream, a large percentage of the deadly spent fuel stored at Midwestern and Eastern nuclear power stations would have to be transported through Asheville, Charlotte or Atlanta. And he looked like such a nice guy. What’s in it for South Carolina? First, says the AP, is the possibility of landing a site study worth $5 million. Those winners are to be announced soon. The eventual grand prize is expected to bring in 10,000 construction jobs and 5,000 permanent jobs. Oh, and maybe some glow-in-the-dark teeth to show off that winning smile.
Michael Hopping is a freelance writer who lives in the Riceville area. He can be reached at mike.hopping@worldnet.att.net.
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Olean Times Herald
December 08, 2006
West Valley cleanup bill to get new push in ‘07
By Rick Miller
Olean Times Herald
Congressman John R. “Randy” Kuhl Jr. and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said this week they will renew their push next year for the West Valley Remediation Act to help ensure cleanup of a former nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in northern Cattaraugus County.
Rep. Kuhl, R-Hammondsport, introduced the bill in the House of Representatives in June 2005, and Sens. Schumer and Hillary Clinton sponsored a companion bill in the Senate.
The West Valley Remediation Act directs the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to take possession of the Western New York Nuclear Service Center at West Valley and pay for remediation of the entire site in the town of Ashford.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission would have authority over the Department of Energy, and New York state would have the authority to concur with the decommissioning of the site of the nation’s only commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant.
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority officials have threatened to sue the U.S. Department of Energy over the level of cleanup the federal government is proposing. The state is insisting that the tanks be removed along with the buildings the DOE is proposing to demolish and entomb on-site.
The state also wants a more aggressive approach to contain a plume of underground contamination at the 200-acre West Valley Demonstration Project.
The West Valley Demonstration Project Act of 1980 charged the U.S. Department of Energy and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority with solidifying 500,000 gallons of highly radioactive liquid waste and cleaning up the site.
The Kuhl bill would require the U.S. Department of Energy to remove the huge underground steel tanks that held the radioactive liquid before it was removed and solidified into glass logs. The inside of the tank still contains high levels of radioactivity that the U.S. Department of Energy wants to fill the tanks with concrete and leave them in place.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Rep. Kuhl said Thursday in a telephone press conference with reporters from the 29th Congressional District. Much of the spent nuclear fuel that was shipped to the West Valley plant, when it operated from 1966 to 1972, came from the federal government.
“There’s no question but it is an environmentally sensitive issue and an economically sensitive issue,” the Southern Tier congressman said. It would be a big boon to Cattaraugus County if the property is cleaned up and made available for new economic development projects.
Although Rep. Kuhl said “there doesn’t seem to be any real opposition” to the bill, others have contended the major issue is cost. To date, more than $2 billion has been spent on the cleanup at West Valley, and 10 percent of the cost is paid by New York taxpayers.
He said that with the Democrats’ new majority in the Senate, Sens. Schumer and Clinton “can start the bill in the Senate.”
Sen. Schumer said Tuesday the West Valley remediation bill “will be a high priority” next year. “We will reintroduce it early next year,” he said.
The senator plans to talk with new Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid about moving the bill along in the Senate.
Sen. Schumer said he didn’t think the West Valley remediation bill would suffer from opposition by Sen. Reid, D-Nevada, to the proposed federal repository at Yucca Mountain where high-level radioactive waste from West Valley was to be shipped.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
December 07, 2006
Senator vows to pursue Yucca
Republican says Reid can't make repository proposal 'go away'
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- An Idaho senator said Wednesday he is uncowed by incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and plans to reintroduce a bill in the next Congress that would speed nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain.
"Harry in his wildest dreams wishes it would go away but it is not going to go away," Sen. Larry Craig, a Republican member of the Senate energy committee, said of the proposed nuclear spent fuel repository.
Speaking to reporters following a speech to a nuclear industry conference, Craig said the Department of Energy will have the necessary money to continue toward repository licensing.
Reid will have to deal with Yucca Mountain despite his opposition to the project and expectations he will block any progress on it as the incoming Senate majority leader, he said.
"This is an issue that cannot be avoided by Harry Reid," said Craig, a leading nuclear energy supporter. "The Congress has been increasingly friendly to nuclear and they don't want to build impediments."
"I will not let a single senator create a trip wire that will slow the energy progress of this country," Craig said.
Craig's remarks could set a combative tone for debate in the upcoming Congress over Yucca Mountain.
They also suggest that although Reid stands to wield power on nuclear waste matters, some pro-nuclear senators may confront him on the issue.
"Some think a bit differently than I do about how we deal with" Reid, Craig said. "This is a political issue and the politics of this will play out on Capitol Hill over the next few years."
But Craig said he was "not sure" ultimately how to get around Reid, who could use his powers to prevent bills from reaching Senate floor votes.
A Yucca Mountain bill might be "sweetened" with other provisions to build support, or perhaps tagged onto more popular bills, he said.
Reid spokesman Jon Summers said the Nevadan plans to stand firm.
He said repository backers are trying to isolate Reid, overlooking that "plenty of senators and congressional representatives are on our side."
"There is no way that Senator Reid will agree to interim storage at Yucca Mountain," Summers said.
"Some of what is being said sounds more like last-ditch efforts to breathe life into this thing. At the end of the day, Yucca Mountain is going to die."
Reid will continue to promote his own bill that would require the Department of Energy to keep nuclear waste stored at power reactors, and to manage it there until alternatives to underground disposal can be developed, Summers said.
Craig told nuclear industry executives he plans to reintroduce a bill that would allow military nuclear waste to be shipped to Yucca Mountain starting in 2010, and commercial spent fuel to be stored there in above-ground casks a year later.
Under the process in law now, Department of Energy officials have projected to open an underground repository in 2017 at the earliest, and perhaps three or more years later, at the Yucca site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
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Las Vegas SUN
December 06, 2006
Jon Ralston's take on the first meeting of Gibbons' team
Welcome to the Thomas & Mack Center for the first meeting of the Gov.- elect Jim Gibbons transition team. First, let's hear from the man about to take the state's most important job.
Gibbons: "As you can see from the thousands of people here, I am an inclusive governor. Inclusion is good, from the ground up, just as I know water from the ground up. I invited everyone to be on my transition team but three people - Kenny Guinn, Dina Titus and, of course, Chrissy Mazzeo. I wanted to have her, but Dawn vetoed that."
Titus (yelling from the nosebleed seats): "I'm not happy."
Ex-Sen./Gov. Richard Bryan, ignoring Titus: "As co-chair of this fine amalgam of people, I must say I am honored, as is my law firm, Lionel Sawyer & Collins. And some of my partners appreciate the governor-elect's willingness to let our firm control the appointments to the Gaming Control Board. Sorry, Sig. You can't have them all."
Ex-Gov. Bob List: "As my co-chairman said, I, too, am honored. I show my appreciation by passing out to each of you the Nuclear Energy Institute's new manifesto, which I understand will make up the third page of Jim's State of the State, called, 'Getting Screwed Can Feel Good.' "
Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt (singing): "There's no business like political business like no business I know. I can call Jim a plagiarist and a flip-flopper who has shattered our trust. But then I can come and be a prop for him. Like no business I know."
Gibbons (Dawn is whispering in his ear): "Thanks, Lorraine. I always loved 'The Sound of Music.' Now let's talk about ideas. I don't have any. How about you, Perry?"
Perry Comeaux, chairman of the budget working group (in his drawl): "At first I thought Jim picked me to get all the Titus accent-lovers back."
Titus (yelling again from far away): "I'm not happy."
Comeaux: "But seriously, we have some important budget issues this biennium. We need to decide how much we want to put into programs such as all-day kindergarten, how much money we have for social programs and how many prisons we need to build. These are serious policy issues. That's why the governor-elect invited us - to make these decisions for him. Mr. Beers?"
State Sen. Bob Beers: "I have a solution ... (he is cut off by Comeaux)"
Comeaux: "No, I meant Assemblyman Bob Beers."
Assemblyman Beers: "I am glad you asked for my input. I think I know about as little as the governor-elect on most of these issues, but ..."
Comeaux: "I was kidding, assemblyman. I have no idea why you are even here. Senator?"
Sen. Beers: "I don't think we can forget Tax and Spending Control. It is still the be all and end all."
Gibbons: "Bob, you lost. I won. Do that math. You are here because I'd rather have you urinating inside the tent than doing it outside. And I know urine from the ground up, too."
Scott Craigie, member of the budget and education working groups: "May I say something here? I am wearing a few hats here today. I am on the budget and education teams, I am a close adviser to Dawn and Jim, I am the brains behind Education First and I have lobbying clients. So I am wearing all those hats and, and ... I forgot what I wanted to say."
Assemblywoman Heidi Gansert, member of budget group: "Why am I here? Because it's cool to be? I don't think so."
Chancellor Jim Rogers, member of education group: "What the hell is the purpose of this meeting? Why are all these people here, Jim? This isn't a transition; it's a political rally."
Gibbons (Dawn is whispering in his ear again): "Um, sorry, Jim. Whatever you say. Dawn and I love higher education. And I know I promised you all that money for the university system, but what about my Dina Taxes thing?"
Titus (yelling from rafters): "I'm not happy."
Larry Ruvo, spirit man and member of the education group: "Anybody want some wine?"
State Sen. Barbara Cegavske, member of the education group: "I am all for all-day kindergarten and more social programs and more health care programs, too, so everyone is happy. So long as it doesn't cost money."
Gibbons: "This is a great start. So many good ideas. So much stuff to think about. Pretty soon now, I will be ready to set my priorities. (He looks behind him.) Right, Dawn?"
Jon Ralston hosts the news discussion program "Face to Face With Jon Ralston" on Las Vegas ONE and publishes the daily e-mail newsletter "RalstonFlash.com." His column for the Las Vegas Sun appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or at ralston@vegas.com.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
December 07, 2006
Notes from NLC convention
Las Vegas Councilman Steve Ross won support from the same committee for a resolution urging the federal government to cover the costs of training public safety agencies if nuclear waste is transported to Yucca Mountain. Ross said monitoring the transport of waste in the Las Vegas valley could cost $385 million initially and more than $3.7 billion over 24 years.
The route to Yucca could include Reno and Sparks. The route would cover 2,000 miles across 24 states.
Both Sferrazza and Reno Councilman Dave Aiazzi added their support.
Both proposals will be considered by a resolutions committee today. If approved, the resolutions could be considered by league membership at its final meeting on Saturday.
Local governments should get the first right of refusal in the rare occasions when federal lands should be offered for sale, according to a policy approved by the league's energy, environment and natural resources committee. It will be subject to the resolutions committee meeting today.
The policy is in response to a failed proposal by President Bush and his Department of Agriculture to sell 300,000 acres of U.S. Forest Services lands for rural agriculture. That could have included some land near Mount Rose Highway.
-- Compiled by Reno Gazette-Journal reporter Susan Voyles
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Nuclear Engineering
December 07, 2006
Utility wins DoE waste lawsuit
The US Court of Federal Claims has awarded the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) $39.8 million for breach of contract against the United States’ Department of Energy.
The suit relates to the failure of the DoE to take title to spent fuel from SMUD’s reactors, as set out in the 1983 Nuclear Waste Policy Act.
The award comes after two related trials on the storage of spent nuclear fuel from SMUD’s now closed Rancho Seco Generating Station.
The government had not followed through on its obligation to collect and dispose of SMUD’s spent fuel due to delays in opening the Yucca Mountain repository or another federal storage facility, consequently SMUD was forced to develop and implement a dry storage facility.
In 1998, SMUD brought suit in the Court of Federal Claims to recover the cost of building, loading, and operating the dry-storage system.
The judgment also validates SMUD’s decision to move the spent nuclear fuel at Rancho Seco to dry storage.
According to a statement from the utility, the company took this action “when it became apparent that the federal government was not making progress on the Yucca Mountain disposal site in Nevada.”
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Vanderbilt University News
December 07, 2006
News from Vanderbilt University
National nuclear waste to be tackled by Vanderbilt-led multi-university team
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nuclear power might be “green power,” but only if nuclear waste can be managed properly.
Vanderbilt is leading a multi-university consortium in a major effort to improve the nation’s efforts to deal with nuclear waste safely and effectively.
The consortium, originally formed to advise the U.S. Department of Energy and its stakeholders on ways to manage the nation’s military nuclear wastes, consists of engineers and scientists who have participated in efforts in the last decade to clean up nuclear weapons production sites and to dispose of nuclear wastes safely. Now, these nuclear waste experts hope to leverage their knowledge to help the U.S. find safe ways to effectively manage nuclear waste from civilian nuclear power as well. They see this effort as critical if the nation is to accept expanded nuclear power-generating capacities.
“We cannot move into the future of expanded nuclear power generation without cleaning up the legacy wastes of the past,” said co-principal investigator Charles W. Powers, Vanderbilt professor of environmental engineering. “We must first solve nuclear waste management issues that have plagued defense and civilian nuclear waste management programs.”
The multi-university Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) will be funded by a DOE cooperative agreement initially of $6 million per year for the next five years. The group will continue to work with DOE and its stakeholders on how to clean up legacy wastes from the nuclear arms race and extend its efforts to help establish a solid technical foundation for safe management of nuclear waste from a wide range of sources.
Vanderbilt’s partners in CRESP include faculty members from Rutgers University, University of Pittsburgh, New York University, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Howard University, University of Arizona and Oregon State University. The team will kick off their collaborative effort with a meeting at Vanderbilt Dec. 7-8.
"CRESP has proven its capability and usefulness to the nation in investigating and recommending solutions to nuclear risk management challenges,” said David S. Kosson, Vanderbilt professor and chairman of civil and environmental engineering and co-principal investigator of CRESP.
Since 1995, CRESP has been researching ways to advance cost-effective cleanup of the nation’s nuclear weapons production waste sites and test facilities. Although CRESP focuses on site remediation, its work requires engineers and scientists to understand the complete life cycle of nuclear power generation, weapons production and environmental impacts from nuclear weapons tests.
Vanderbilt will lead the organization into a new phase of development designed to improve the clarity of the technical standards for nuclear waste management based on experience developed earlier by CRESP to help guide both nuclear weapons sites remediation and safe management of wastes produced by nuclear power plants.
Powers noted that, even without nuclear power generation expansion plans, there is much remaining to be done to handle the nuclear waste that already has been created. Cleanup of the U.S. nuclear complex has already cost more than $70 billion, with future costs projected to exceed $150 billion. On the civilian side, spent nuclear fuel is currently stored in 39 states at some 122 sites, awaiting final disposition. Plans to use Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the national nuclear waste repository have been sidetracked by a variety of technical and political challenges, and despite nearly $6 billion spent to develop the facility, no firm date has been set for completion.
“The proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership raises additional nuclear management issues,” Kosson said. “The DOE plan to reduce waste management problems and to promote non-proliferation through this partnership depends in large measure on spent fuel reprocessing, which presents a variety of new challenges for nuclear waste management.
“There is great overlap technically between the remediation of former nuclear weapons residuals and the effective and safe management of peaceful nuclear power operations, so CRESP’s expertise will be made available to help integrate solutions for nuclear waste management,” he said.
Media contacts:
Vivian F Cooper, (615) 343-6314
Vivian.f.cooper@vanderbilt.edu
David F. Salisbury, (615) 343-6803
David.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu
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Monticello Times
December 07, 2006
MPUC's nuclear storage decision gets challenged
Environmentalists ask the commission to reconsider
By Kathleen Ostroot
News Editor
The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) and Fresh Energy asked the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission Tuesday, Nov. 14, to reconsider a September decision to permit Xcel Energy to store 30 highly radioactive nuclear waste concrete casks at the nuclear power plant in Monticello. The $55 million proposal is to build a storage building that would hold the casks. The utilities commission will review the request Thursday, Dec. 14.
According to MCEA communications director Chuck Laszewski, the MCEA and Fresh Energy argue that the casks will be permanent, not temporary, and pose a substantial risk from either leaks or as a target for terrorists.
"There are cheaper and cleaner alternatives to the Monticello nuclear plant," he said.
Monticello's 40-year operating license expires in 2010, at which time the plant will need to store the spent rods in casks. For that reason, Xcel sought permission from the federal government to extend the operating license of the power plant another 20 years, which would not be possible unless the storage plan is in place.
Nevertheless, the environmentalists argue that these casks could become permanent, since no federal site for nuclear waste disposal has been established and even if the Yucca Mountain storage site eventually is permitted, it may be full before it could accept Monticello's nuclear waste. The state of Nevada is protesting further development of the storage facility.
According to Laszewski, Minnesota has been through this before. In the early 1990s, Xcel Energy (then called Northern States Power Company) sought permission for casks at its Prairie Island nuclear power plant. He said that the decision was based on a premise that the federal government would open its Yucca Mountain site by 2004 and take the wastes.
"That didn't happen, and, in fact, an administrative law judge at the time said those casks should be considered permanent," he said.
The life of the concrete casks is estimated to be between 50 to 100 years.
"Xcel has not calculated the true costs of long-term storage and hasn't established a plan for maintenance and upkeep for the casks in the future or how that upkeep would be paid for, according to the environmental groups. The request said that having such a plan is crucial because Xcel may not exist in 50 years and there would be dire consequences from a cask breaking down on the banks of the Mississippi River," Laszewski said.
The groups asked that the permit for the casks be denied and Xcel should work on shutting down the plant in 2010 and replacing its power.
The request asked that alternatives for the power; primarily increased energy efficiency and using more wind power, stating that those alternatives are cheaper than the long-term storage and maintenance of the casks.
Xcel Energy's Jim Alders said these concerns were already expressed at previous hearings before the commission approved the request for on-site storage Thursday, Sept. 28.
"They didn't raise any new issues; these are the same as what was at the hearings," he said. "The commission approved our plant as ready to handle the storage facility."
Alders added that without the additional storage Xcel would not be able to operate the Monticello plant past 2010.
The item could be before the Legislature in 2007, if they chose to review it. No building can take place until after that, Alders said.
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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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