Yucca Mountain News Clips
Thursday, February 22, 2007
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UPI
February 22, 2007
Sen. Reid: Yucca a no go
CARSON CITY, Nev., Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told his state legislature a federal plan to store nuclear waste near Las Vegas will not move forward.
Reid, like the rest of the state's Congressional delegation, has only increased his anti-Yucca Mountain rhetoric since becoming the top U.S. Senator last month.
"After 25 years, folks, it's history," Reid on Tuesday told a joint session of the Nevada Senate and Assembly. "They can keep spending money there. Nothing's going to happen."
Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, was declared by Congress and President Bush in 2002 as the only potential geologic repository for storing the highly radioactive waste created by U.S. nuclear plants and military nuclear activity.
But the project has been set back by numerous problems, including U.S. Energy Department mismanagement, scientific controversy and heavy opposition by both politicians and opposition groups.
And funding for the project has been constantly constrained, led by Reid.
The Energy Department says it will still submit in June 2008 an application to store waste at Yucca Mountain.
Reid says Congress and the nuclear industry should refocus its efforts at an alternative to Yucca, the Nevada Appeal reports.
"People realize that if they store the waste on-site, we can move to some reasonable nuclear power," he said.
The federal government officially is supposed to take possession of the waste and is paying millions to nuclear plants that have sued.
While the NRC said it expects more than 30 applications for new nuclear plants in the coming years, the industry says a lack of final policy on handling the waste could impede nuclear energy growth in the country.
There are 103 nuclear reactors operating in the United States, generating an average 2,000 tons of waste a year. Nuclear power makes up 20 percent of U.S. electricity demand.
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KVBC
February 22, 2007
UNLV working on way to safely transport hazardous waste
UNLV's Engineering Department is helping with the safe transportation of hazardous waste. On Wednesday they showed off a truck sponsored by the Department of Energy. The truck and driver can be monitored from another location.
An alert tells the home office when the truck is somewhere it shouldn't be and a device on the truck helps the driver avoid collisions. This could possibly be used to transport nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain which is about a hundred miles from Las Vegas.
Although much of this technology has existed for some time, it's never been bundled together in quite the same way.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
February 22, 2007
DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL FORUM: War prompts discourse
At Carson City event, U.S. policy in Iraq unites, divides candidates
By Molly Ball
Review-Journal
Presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., signs autographs Wednesday during an appearance before the Nevada State Education Association in Las Vegas.
CARSON CITY -- Nevada provided the backdrop for the kickoff of the 2008 presidential campaign season Wednesday as eight Democrats seeking their party's nomination participated in a nationally broadcast forum.
The war in Iraq was front and center, with all eight candidates blasting the Bush administration's conduct. Iraq also was the issue on which subtle differences could be seen among mostly like-minded politicians, with some calling for an immediate pullout and others calling for a more gradual approach.
"It needs to be ended now," said Tom Vilsack, former governor of Iowa. "Not six days from now, not six months from now, not six years from now."
Vilsack said Congress should take away funding for the war and redirect it to domestic uses.
But Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware said a pullout would lead to disaster. "I don't know anybody who believes that the Iraqis either have the competence, at this moment, or the will to make the significant compromises needed to stop this self-sustaining cycle of revenge," he said.
Without significant intervention to stabilize Iraq politically, he said, the current civil war will "metastasize" into a regional conflict that endangers the world and, in a "tragic irony," leads either to a new dictatorship or another occupying force.
Vilsack, Biden and the six other Democratic presidential candidates at the Carson City Community Center participated in an informal, individual question-and-answer session attended by about 600 people. Most were members of the national public employees union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which sponsored the event. Some of the audience members were retirees and there was a smattering of elected officials in the crowd as well.
The forum was shown live on the C-SPAN cable network and moderated by ABC News' George Stephanopoulos. Each candidate came onstage, gave a statement, answered questions and then gave a concluding statement. Many of the candidates also took questions from a horde of local and national media gathered backstage to record the first official gathering of candidates in the 2008 race.
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama was the only announced Democratic candidate to skip the event. Retired Gen. Wesley Clark and former Vice President Al Gore are also rumored to be considering running for the party's nomination.
For the first time, Nevada will be among the earliest states to choose a Democratic presidential nominee, a move made by the Democratic National Committee in an attempt to inject geographical and ethnic diversity into the selection process. There is no corresponding Republican event as there is in Iowa and New Hampshire.
The Nevada Democratic caucus is scheduled for Jan. 19.
The Democratic front-runner at this early stage of the process, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, on Wednesday proposed "redeployment" of troops in Iraq within 90 days to roles that are out of harm's way. She also proposed taking away President Bush's authority to conduct the war if benchmarks are not met. She said the Iraqi government must be forced to take more responsibility, with financial consequences.
"I want to cut money for Iraqi troops," Clinton said. "I want to cut the money that they get because they're not standing up and fighting the way that they have said they would."
Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004, said, "It is time for us, the leaders of this country, the leaders in the United States Congress, to stop George Bush's escalation of the war, for us to stand up strongly and firmly."
He said he would do that by immediately pulling 50,000 troops out and redeploying the rest of the forces over the course of a year.
Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut also favored redeployment, saying U.S. forces in Iraq should only be used for border security, training Iraqi forces and fighting terrorism. Democratic senators are working to amend Bush's original war authorization to that effect, a direct rebuke of Bush's move for a troop "surge" into Baghdad to pacify the capital city.
"Don't put our men and women in uniform into these highly, densely populated areas where they're nothing more than referees in a civil war," Dodd said. "We need to get them out of there as soon as possible."
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said that having authorized the war, Congress should "deauthorize" it. He called for the United States to "withdraw with diplomacy."
All the candidates said the United States should negotiate directly with enemies such as Syria and Iran, and most called for holding an international conference with all regional interests included, as recommended last year by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group.
Biden, however, said he was the only candidate with a plan for the political future of Iraq. He said the country should be divided into relatively autonomous regions joined by a weak central government.
In addition to their differences about how to move forward in Iraq, many of the candidates ran into trouble over their initial support for the war. Biden, Clinton, Edwards and Dodd all voted for the 2002 measure authorizing Bush to go to war.
Only Clinton has not repudiated her vote, saying she made the best decision she could based on what she knew at the time.
The two least-known candidates had the easiest time, having opposed the war from the start. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, who also ran as an antiwar candidate in 2004, said a president should have "the ability to do the right thing when it matters most, and I've demonstrated that."
Former U.S. Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska also said he had nothing to apologize for. When Bush was pushing the case against Iraq in early 2002, he said, "I was saying on television, 'His lips are moving, and he's lying to you, just like Lyndon Johnson lied to us 30 years ago.' "
Clinton said she could not second-guess a vote that was "sincere." "I have taken responsibility for my vote, and I believe that none of us should get a free pass," she said. "It is up to the voters to judge what each of us has said and done."
Dodd said his vote was based on bad information about weapons of mass destruction, but added too many politicians are unable to acknowledge they made the wrong decision. "When you make a mistake, there's nothing wrong with admitting that," he said. "I've made them in the past, I'll make them in the future. It was a mistake, in my view, to vote the way we did five years ago on that resolution."
Edwards said his frankness in regretting his decision should be seen as proof he is honest. "I should never have voted for this war," he said. "I take responsibility for that. No one else is responsible for it. But the truth is, if we want to live in a moral and just America, if we want America to be able to lead in a moral and just world, we need a leader who is honest open and decent and trying to do the right thing."
Biden chalked up his regrettable authorization vote to a failure of imagination. "I vastly underestimated the incompetence of this administration," he said. Because the war in Afghanistan had been carried out well, he trusted the administration to take on Iraq. "We assumed they'd act equally as responsibly," Biden said. "They've been absolutely irresponsible."
The other major topics the candidates addressed were health care, taxes, Social Security, unions' right to organize, jobs and trade issues and education. They were largely in agreement that health care should be universal, the tax code should not favor the rich, Social Security should be protected and not privatized, unions should have the right of collective bargaining, U.S. jobs should not be shipped overseas, and education, from elementary to college, should be internationally competitive and available to all.
Answering questions backstage in a kinder-care room in which toys had been pushed to the corners and risers for cameras and a podium platform had been installed, Dodd, Richardson and Biden were asked about the proposed nuclear waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, considered the key federal issue for Nevadans. All agreed with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's assessment that the project is dead and rightly so.
Forum attendees said they liked the opportunity to hear from candidates such as Biden, Dodd, Richardson and Vilsack, whose national profiles aren't as high as Clinton and Edwards.
"They have a good perspective, and it's nice to see them get some attention," Tamatha Schreinert of Reno said.
Asked what the most important issue was, she said, "Getting us out of Iraq, definitely, for me. I wish it was education and health care, but I think we have to solve that first before we can do anything else."
A few dozen red-shirted members of the College Republicans protested in front of the community center, and Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., issued a statement on behalf of the state Republican Party, saying the Democratic hoopla was the wrong approach for the state and the country.
"What I saw today was a cast of Democrats pandering for individual political points, illustrating again that Democrats have more candidates than they do substantive ideas," Heller said. "Of this large cast of left-wing characters, I saw not one president among them."
But there was no doubt the assembled candidates left many people in the capital city star-struck, starting when Clinton, Vilsack and Dodd visited the Legislature in the morning.
When Clinton then stopped across the street at Comma Coffee, the owner, June Joplin, literally leaped into the air.
"It is a historical day for Carson City," said Joplin, whose establishment, usually a low-key hangout for musicians and chess players, also saw visits from Biden and Kucinich.
Even the Republican mayor of the 57,000-population burg was impressed.
"This is the biggest event we ever have had in Carson City," Marv Teixeira said. "It is as big as the Final Four. We really spiffed up the town."
Only the world's heavyweight championship fight between "Gentleman Jim" Corbett and Bob Fitzsimmons attracted similar national attention, and that was back in 1897.
Teixeira watched the forum on television with a crowd of nearly 400 at the offices of the Nevada Appeal newspaper.
Also in attendance was Shirley Breeden of Las Vegas who took off work so she and her daughter Jennifer, a legislative employee, would have a chance to meet Clinton, who dropped by after her appearance at the forum.
"I think Hillary has a big heart," Shirley Breeden said after getting her picture taken with the candidate. "She has my vote."
--Review-Journal Capital Bureau chief Ed Vogel contributed to this report.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
February 22, 2007
Clinton discusses protecting the environment, vote on war in Iraq
Associated Press
Before the first forum for Democratic presidential candidates, state party leaders sought to emphasize Nevada's heartland over its gambling image. But Hillary Rodham Clinton isn't buying it.
Asked in a brief interview with the Associated Press about the party's efforts, U.S. Sen. Clinton laughed.
"I don't know anything about that. I think it's funny," she said of the 44-page document recently circulated that repackaged Las Vegas and Nevada as utterly ordinary and dismissed the state's storied gambling history in a single sentence.
Clinton said her favorite casino game probably is blackjack.
"I'm not much of a gambler, but I have gambled," she said.
In the interview, Clinton addressed a number of questions, including several of concern to Western voters and one dealing with her husband, former President Clinton.
If she's elected president in 2008, will he get an office in the West Wing?
"I never think ahead," she said. "I'm like the person sitting in the dugout. I don't want to talk about it during the game."
Clinton said protecting the environment is a key concern, although she's "not against any industry" such as mining companies that have huge operations in Nevada.
"We've got to get back to protecting our environment and wilderness areas, and what I've been very impressed with in the last several years is how protecting wilderness and being on the front lines of the environmental movement is really part of the Western agenda," she said.
"There's a role for mining," Clinton said. "I just think everybody has to be held to certain standards because the world and our beautiful country, particularly here in the West, is a common good that we all have a stake in trying to preserve."
Clinton, who repeatedly has faced calls to say her 2002 vote authorizing President Bush to use military force in Iraq was a mistake, repeated her previous comments.
"I'm not asking for a free pass. I don't think anyone should. My vote was a sincere vote based on my assessment of the facts and the assurances that we had at the time, and I am willing to take responsibility for my vote, and everyone should take responsibility for what they've done and said.
"I think any fair reading of everything I've done and said over the last 4½ years demonstrates clearly that I've been a consistent critic and trying to be helpful with respect to helping our troops and changing the direction where we are headed under this president in Iraq."
Clinton said she hoped Britain's plans to reduce its troops in Iraq would influence Bush's decisions on U.S. military involvement there.
"I hope that since the president seems unwilling to listen to the results of the November election or to the new Democratic majority in Congress that he would at least listen to someone who he has claimed has been his strongest ally in this effort," she said.
Clinton spoke after meeting with state lawmakers. Her quick stroll through the Nevada Legislative Building caused a stir big enough to pull Democrats out of morning hearings and Republicans into the hallways -- mostly just to watch.
A crowd of 30 or so, including lobbyists, a local coffee shop owner and Miss Nevada Caydi Cole, huddled in Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus' office to meet the senator from New York. Assembly Minority Leader Garn Mabey, a Republican, briefly lingered with the group, but decided he didn't want to wait in a crowded room for a Democrat.
Clinton assured the star-struck group she would continue to fight a proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain,
90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, calling the project advanced by the Bush administration "scientifically unsound."
She called her husband's two narrow victories in Nevada "near-death experiences" and said that if she's the Democratic nominee in the 2008 elections, "I'd like to open it up a little bit."
Clinton promised that her Nevada supporters would be picking a winner.
"From my perspective I want to run a primary campaign that sets me up to win the general election. ... and not get pulled off in one direction or another," she said. "And I want to run a general election campaign that allows me to hit the ground running in January 2009."
--Associated Press Writer Kathleen Hennessey contributed to this report.
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Nevada Appeal
February 22, 2007
Presidential hopeful deserves better look than he's getting
by John L. Smith
He's the dynamic son of parents from different ethnic backgrounds. If successful, his long-shot campaign for president would be historic by placing the first minority in the nation's highest office.
So why aren't more people buzzing about the candidacy of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson?
While the press continues to gush and enthuse at Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign, recently sinking to the laughable low of pondering whether he was "black enough" to win black voters, Richardson's candidacy bumps along in comparative obscurity. On the upside, to date I know of no sober political pundit who has wondered aloud whether Richardson is "Hispanic enough."
For the record, he is the son of a Mexican mother and Anglo father. (His just-published autobiography is titled "Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life.") Not that the major media are penning journalistic sonnets about him.
Although the Nevada Today Web site's recent small-sample survey has Richardson ahead of the competition with slightly less than a year to go before the Nevada Democratic Caucus, it doesn't take a Gallup Poll to figure Richardson's name isn't well-recognized. His political celebrity is eclipsed by Obama, Hillary Clinton and even John Edwards. With the first Democratic presidential forum Wednesday in Carson City, many eyes were on presumed front-runner Clinton.
Obama, who missed the forum, is a dynamic speaker and a remarkable American success story. But you don't need all day to read his resume.
Richardson, meanwhile, has served as a governor, congressman, secretary of Energy and ambassador to the United Nations. He's taken part in successful hostage negotiations involving Iraq, North Korea and Cuba. He's been on the ground to seek a cease-fire in Darfur, Sudan.
This isn't meant as a criticism of Obama. The fact is no declared Democrat can match Richardson's work experience.
Of course, that experience cuts both ways. Although he has a keen understanding of Nevada's longtime battle against the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, Richardson can be faulted for not accomplishing more as Energy secretary. Although he's logged plenty of face time with foreign ministers and volatile heads of rogue nations, Richardson can be thumped for his tenure as U.N. ambassador. Although he was re-elected as governor with 69 percent of the vote, he has his critics in New Mexico.
Voters might not like his stance on immigration - a guest-worker program, path to citizenship, increased physical border security and U.S.-Mexico political fence-mending, not fence-building - they can't say he lacks an intimate understanding of the issue.
In short, Richardson gives his critics and voters a track record to chew on.
Not that Americans have always cared about experience. When it comes to the presidency, voters have often been moved more by dynamic characters than by capable journeymen.
One more thing: Richardson is the only Democratic candidate who gets his mail in the West.
His candidacy could conceivably put the real West, which excludes California, Oregon and Washington, in play for the Democrats for the first time in many years. Real West voters, a generally conservative lot, have greeted recent Democratic presidential nominees about as warmly as extras from the set of "Brokeback Mountain."
With only $2 million banked, Richardson is a political pauper. He may not have the financial steam or party support to win nationwide, but Richardson on a presidential ticket would give the Democrats a chance to compete in the West.
In Nevada, Richardson's senior contact is Reynaldo Martinez, who served 16 years as Harry Reid's House and Senate chief of staff before leaving Washington in 1998. When Richardson contemplated running for the presidency, he sought the counsel of Martinez, his friend of 35 years.
"Others can talk about what they'll do," Martinez says. "He can talk about what he's done. He can talk all day about Nevada. The other folks have a learning curve."
And then there's the potential impact of invigorated Latino voters, who might find inspiration in Richardson.
"I think Bill Richardson is a guy who will give Latinos a reason to register and go to the caucus," Martinez says.
We'll see. For Richardson, the Westerner, success in Nevada is imperative.
Bill Richardson may be a long shot to make presidential history in 2008, but it's hard to doubt he has the experience to do the job.
--John L. Smith's column, reprinted from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, appears on Thursdays on the Appeal's Opinion page. E-mail him at smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295.
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Santa Fe New Mexican
February 22, 2007
Center stage in Nevada
By Steve Terrell
The New Mexican
CARSON CITY, Nev. -- He didn't seem to get as much applause as two of the frontrunners for the Democratic presidential nomination, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. And he didn't get as many laughs as former U.S. Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska.
But New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson got a good reaction from a union audience Wednesday at the first presidential candidate forum of the early starting 2008 election cycle.
Richardson, who is working to break out of the second tier of Democratic candidates, perhaps was under more pressure to connect with Nevada Democrats than the other candidates. As a governor of a nearby Western state, he has to make a strong showing in next January's Nevada caucus to be considered a serious contender.
"I've got to do well (in Nevada)," Richardson told a room full of reporters immediately after his appearance at the forum, which was shown live on cable television's C-SPAN network. When asked if that means he has to win the fast-growing state, which has emerged as a presidential-election battleground, the governor repeated, "I've got to do well."
In a state where unions are a major force in Democratic Party politics, the American Federation of State, Country and Municipal Employees sponsored the forum. ABC News' George Stephanopoulis served as moderator.
AFSCME members filled the auditorium of the Carson City Community Center while reporters and bloggers watched on television monitors from a nearby gymnasium.
All major Democratic candidates except U.S. Sen. Barak Obama of Illinois attended. Obama was campaigning Wednesday in Iowa, which is scheduled to lead off the candidate winnowing process next year with caucuses five days ahead of Nevada's.
The forum's format provided for candidates to appear on stage separately rather than simultaneously. Each made what was supposed to be a two-minute opening statement, then sat at a table with Stephanopoulis, who posed three questions, including some from AFSCME members. Each candidate then was allowed a minutelong closing statement.
During his opening statement, Richardson stood with a hand in his pocket and talked without a script -- though most of the short speech was rhetoric he's recited countless times before.
He stressed his experience in dealing with issues as a state executive, taking credit for tens of thousands of new jobs in New Mexico while also saying he has taken union-friendly stands.
"Governors actually do things," said Richardson, who served 15 years as Northern New Mexico's congressman before becoming part of the Clinton administration in 1997.
Richardson also stressed his experience as a diplomat, both as a globe-trotting troubleshooter and as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Talking about how he has negotiated with dictators such as Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein, he said President Clinton used to say, "Bad guys like Richardson, so I'm sending him there."
Richardson used part of his opening statement to say he and the other Democratic presidential candidates should sign a pledge not to attack one another. He also said the candidates should offer positive solutions, not just attack President Bush. That's what voters want, he said.
Richardson later told reporters his plea to refrain from negativity applied to the primary season, adding, "It's probably not practical through the general election."
Nevada Democrats who couldn't get into the event were able to watch it on television in a large room at the Nevada Appeal newspaper. Shortly before the forum, Richardson stopped by the newspaper to speak to the crowd of about 200.
While speaking at the newspaper and answering reporters' questions after his forum appearance, Richardson stressed his credentials as a Westerner. However, he didn't stress this theme during his time at the forum.
Asked why he didn't say much about being a Westerner at the Community Center stage, Richardson's campaign manager Dave Contarino said, "He talked about New Mexico. New Mexico is part of the West."
The West, he told the audience at the Nevada Appeal, has special values such as "personal responsibility, respect for others, fiscal responsibility in the government and a deep and abiding reverence for the air, water and land."
"The West is where everyone wants to be," Richardson said.
He said the West was becoming more Democratic for various reasons: environmental issues that bring hunters and environmentalists together, an increasing number of Hispanics, people from both coasts moving to the West because of "quality of life" concerns and because the West has the most "experiments in energy."
He also spoke about specific Nevada issues. Richardson told reporters he agreed with a recent statement by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., that the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste facility is dead. But he added, "The Bush Administration tries to revive it every year."
Richardson said "science not politics" should determine where nuclear waste is stored.
"I stood with Nevada as secretary of energy to not have it happen," Richardson told reporters, referring to Yucca Mountain.
Nevada newspaper accounts, however, have said Richardson as energy secretary had a "rocky relationship" with Nevada over Yucca Mountain, located about 100 miles from Las Vegas, where about two-thirds of the state's registered voters reside. While the project saw some significant progress during Richardson's tenure at the Energy Department, Richardson is credited by Yucca Mountain foes for demanding an inspector general's investigation when questions arose over a DOE scientific study that some said was nothing more than a sales job.
Reynaldo Martinez -- a former chief of staff to Reid and Richardson's Nevada campaign manager -- told a reporter he's confident Richardson will be strong in Nevada.
Martinez said he wasn't concerned that Reid's son, Rory Reid, signed on as Hillary Clinton's campaign manager.
He said Rory Reid was a good score for the Clinton camp, then added: "But frankly, I'm not chopped liver. I've spent 65 of my 69 years here in Nevada, and I've managed a lot of statewide campaigns. I'll match myself against Rory Reid any day."
Sen. Harry Reid, who welcomed the candidates at the forum, has said he won't endorse any candidate before the Nevada caucus.
Martinez, who was born in Chama, joked that he had to back Richardson or his ancestors from Rio Arriba County would roll over in their graves. Martinez said he first met Richardson in the early 1980s, when the governor was in Congress and Martinez was a lobbyist for the National Education Association, a teachers' union.
Shortly after the forum, Richardson left for Denver, where he planned to announce his Colorado campaign team. This weekend, he heads to south Florida, where he will be the featured speaker at the Broward County Jefferson-Jackson Dinner on Saturday. Sunday through Tuesday, Richardson will be at the winter meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington, D.C., which includes a Sunday night dinner at the White House.
--Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com.
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Pioneer Press
February 22, 2007
Nuclear is green, advocate says
Ex-Greenpeace chief touts energy source during St. Paul visit
By Leslie Brooks Suzukamo
Pioneer Press
Forget the tree hugging. Environmentalists ought to embrace nuclear power as an alternative to more coal- and natural-gas-powered electricity plants whose emissions will only speed up global warming, a former Greenpeace director who advocates nuclear power told the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.
"Nuclear energy is the only non-greenhouse-gas-emitting energy source that can effectively replace fossil fuels and satisfy global demand," Patrick Moore said at a seminar on Minnesota's energy future that the chamber held in downtown St. Paul.
Moore helped found Greenpeace in the early 1970s, eventually becoming director of Greenpeace International before leaving it in 1986.
Now he runs an environmental consultancy in Vancouver, British Columbia, called Greenspirit Strategies and is leading a movement to rehabilitate nuclear energy's image from that of Frankenstein's monster to one of environmental hero.
Although one of his former colleagues called him an "eco-Judas" according to a Wall Street Journal article last week, Moore said environmentalists are acting irrationally when they eliminate nuclear power as an option for reducing emissions of global-warming-causing carbon dioxide from coal- and gas-burning power plants.
The United States produces 20 tons of carbon dioxide per capita while France and Sweden produce only one-third of that amount, he said. Those countries get greater portions of their electricity from nuclear power — in Sweden, it's 80 percent.
Wind energy, touted in Minnesota by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Xcel Energy, can help reduce fossil fuel dependence but will only be a niche source, he said.
The United States has 103 nuclear plants in operation, and while no new plants have been built in the past three decades, 32 are on the drawing boards in the Southeast, he said.
Only coal, natural gas and nuclear power can provide enough energy to meet growing energy needs, Moore said.
Moore dismisses smudges on nuclear power's image like the incidents that shut down Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979 and Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986.
Three Mile Island was actually "a total success" because its containment walls kept radioactivity from leaking, while Chernobyl was simply a poorly designed accident waiting to happen that wouldn't be repeated today, he said.
But local environmentalists bridle at expanding nuclear power.
There is no solution to long-term storage of nuclear waste, environmentalists at the St. Paul-based Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy said. A proposed permanent underground storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is opposed by that state, and the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission recently granted longer above-ground, temporary storage of radioactive waste from Xcel's two Minnesota plants in Monticello and Prairie Island.
"Nuclear may have broad support, but it's only an inch deep," said George Crocker, executive director of the North American Water Office, another group that opposes nuclear energy.
One more incident like Three Mile Island and support would collapse, he said.
Though Minnesota law prevents the construction of new nuclear power plants, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce believes the state should start now to pave the way for more nuclear plants two decades down the road if they're needed, said William Blazar, senior vice president of public affairs and business development.
"I'm sure innovation will produce things that we've never thought of," Blazar said. "But we do know standing here today there is a technology that's available, and it's called nuclear."
Leslie Brooks Suzukamo covers telecommunications, technology and energy. He can be reached at lsuzukamo@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5475.
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Sparks Tribune
February 21, 2007
Nuke waste could travel through Sparks, Reno
Serious property value impacts predicted
By Janine Kearney
jkearney@sparkstribune.net
If the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump moves forward, nuke waste shipments could be sent along railroad lines through the cities of Sparks and Reno.
At Tuesday's Washoe County Commission meeting, Joe Strolin and Robert Halstead, with the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects (under the governor's office), talked about the possible impacts of the plan. The Department of Energy is proposing to build a railroad line along the Schurz-Mina Route to the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.
Nuclear waste casks sent along the Schurz-Mina Route could use the Union Pacific Railroad track through Sparks and Reno, officials said. DOE estimates that 2-3 nuke waste cask trains per week would travel through Sparks and Reno, or about 10,725 shipments.
Strolin and Halstead emphasized that many government leaders think it's highly unlikely the dump will be completed, although there's always a possibility.
"In the opinion of the state, Yucca Mountain is really almost dead in the water," Strolin said. "The project is really on life support at this time. The project is on its last legs, although we acknowledge that there are possible ways for this program to go forward."
Strolin said under the most favorable circumstances and no further delays on Yucca Mountain, the DOE estimates the nuke waste shipments would begin in 2017. However, Strolin said a more reasonable start date is 2025 or later, should the project move forward.
If the Mina route is selected, DOE estimates that between 10 percent and 50 percent of all nuke waste shipments contained in railroad casks will travel through Sparks and Reno, Halstead said.
From the East Coast, the Mina route would begin at the Nevada-Utah border, travel across northern Nevada possibly near Interstate-80, travel through Silver Springs, Sparks and Reno, then head south to Yucca Mountain.
Many residents and business owners are concerned about the impacts, should an accident or terror attack occur.
Halstead said that a release of toxic radioisotopes could result in up to 4,000 cancer deaths and untold money needed for cleanup.
"This could have some serious negative impacts," he said.
The proposed nuke waste shipments through Reno and Sparks would have a half-mile exposure radius along railroad tracks — an area that will encompass most major hotel-casinos, Halstead said.
Urban Environmental Research conducted a survey in 2002 that looks at property value impacts for three scenarios.
If no accidents occur along the route, DOE estimates the nuke waste shipments could result in Washoe County property value declines:
• Residential property values decline $71 million to $149 million
• Commercial property values decline $2.6 million to $11 million
• Industrial property values decline $6.3 million to $13 million
If there is an accident along the route but no radiation is released, DOE estimates the nuke waste shipments could result in Washoe County property value declines:
• Residential property values decline $225 million to $368 million
• Commercial property values decline $13.5 million to $26 million
• Industrial property values decline $37.2 million to $51.1 million
If there is a serious accident and radiation is released, DOE estimates the nuke waste shipments could result in Washoe County property value declines:
• Residential property values decline between $1 billion, 563 million to $1 billion, $836 million.
• Commercial property values decline between $92.2 million and $127.5 million
• Industrial property values decline between $209.7 million and $264.4 million.
Staff were reminded that the above figures are only estimates and were compiled back in 2002 through the Survey of Lenders and Appraisers in Washoe County by Urban Environmental Research.
"The survey will likely have to be redone in the future because of the methodology used," Halstead said.
On Oct. 13, 2006, the DOE expanded the environmental impact study on nuclear waste shipments to include the Schurz-Mina route. The DOE will continue to evaluate the Caliente railroad corridor, and any other possible sites identified during the federal environmental study. The Caliente route intersects the southeast border of the state on its way to Yucca Mountain.
Previously, the Schurz-Mina railroad route was not an option because the Walker River Paiutes objected to the route going through their reservation. The Walker River Paiutes - recognized by the federal government as a sovereign, independent nation - were able to stop the route through their lands. However, the Walker River Paiutes have since withdrawn their objection, allowing for further study of this nuke railroad route as an option.
The DOE has not released exact maps of either the proposed Mina route or the Caliente route, according to Strolin and Halstead.
However, the DOE may identify all routes available to nuclear waste shipping sites, instead of designating a primary route and an emergency or back-up route, Halstead said. This would mean that if Yucca Mountain moves forward, shipments could be traveling across northern Nevada and through the southeast border.
The DOE currently has not developed or addressed:
• preserving cultural resources located along the railroad route
• options to relocate an existing Department of Defense railroad across the reservation. The tribe has requested that rail lines be moved away from the tribe's businesses and home. To accomplish this, the DOE will need to build a 3,000-foot bridge in sandy soil, over a river that is the habitat of an endangered species of fish.
• challenges with crossing 50-60 miles of rough terrain through the Montezuma Range and mining near Silver Peak, Tonopah and Goldfield.
The current Department of Defense rail line travels to the Hawthorne Army Depot, and there is an abandoned line from Hawthorne down to Mina.
"The best estimate is the new line will use the old railroad grade into Goldfield," Halstead said.
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KLAS-TV
February 21, 2007
Senator Reid Addresses The Nevada Legislature
Senator Harry Reid questions whether the British pull out will have any effect on the president's current plan to send in more troops. Reid was in Carson City Tuesday addressing state lawmakers.
Reid said senators will move forward trying to limit the 2002 measure authorizing use of force in Iraq, even though republicans have promised to uphold a veto to such an effort.
Senator Reid also reiterated his promise to make sure the nation's nuclear waste is not stored in our backyard.
"Yucca Mountain, after 25 years folks, it's all over, it's history. They can keep spending the money; it's not going to happen," said Reid.
More democratic senators will be in Carson City Wednesday afternoon for the first National Democratic Forum. Among them will be presidential hopefuls -- Senators Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Joe Biden.
You can watch the event on our sister station Las Vegas One, cable channel 19, starting at noon today. We will also stream the forum live here on our web site.
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Nevada Appeal
February 21, 2007
Reid says Yucca is dead
Geoff Dornan
Appeal Capitol Bureau
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., told a joint session of Nevada's Senate and Assembly on Tuesday the Yucca Mountain project is dead.
"After 25 years, folks, it's history," he said. "They can keep spending money there. Nothing's going to happen."
The comment drew loud applause from lawmakers and the gallery of the Nevada Assembly.
Reid told lawmakers now that the waste dump project is dead, "people realize that if they store the waste on-site, we can move to some reasonable nuclear power."
He said much has changed since he first arrived as an assemblyman in 1969. But Reid said there is much more to do, and he urged them to set aside partisan differences and work together.
He quoted former Nevada Assemblyman and Secretary of State Bill Swackhamer as advising him as a freshman: "Never forget who you are. Never forget from where you come. Never forget who sent you here, and never forget why they sent you here."
"Nevada voters sent us to places like Carson City and Washington, D.C., to work for them," Reid said, adding that he wants to work with the Legislature to make the state better.
And one of those areas, he said, is renewable energy. He said the state has vast resources in solar, wind and geothermal energy to tap.
"We have to work together to make sure people understand Nevada can be the center for renewable energy."
In a press conference before the speech, Reid said he understands British Prime Minister Tony Blair is setting a timetable for the withdrawal of his country's troops from Iraq.
He repeated his charge that Iraq, "is the worst foreign policy blunder in the country's history."
Reid said a majority of both the House and Senate sent a clear message to President Bush that he needs to change course. But he expressed doubt even British plans to pull out would change the Bush Administration's Iraq strategy.
"In the past, they've ignored everybody, so I guess they'll ignore Blair," he said.
Reid said he isn't pushing for immediate withdrawal of the troops.
"Pull the troops out tomorrow? Of course not," he said.
Reid said there must be a regional solution to Iraq which includes Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, "and, yes, Iran." And, he said, that will take time and help from the U.S. and other countries.
Reid was in Carson City for the speech to lawmakers and to attend today's Democratic presidential candidates' forum at the community center.
He said the party decision to hold caucuses in Nevada in January, one of the first official political events of the presidential campaign season, puts Nevada in as "part of the race."
Eight of the nine announced Democratic candidates are planning to attend today's forum.
--Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.
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Nevada Appeal
February 21, 2007
Oh, so this is what it's like to finally be noticed
Carson City in the national spotlight? Sparsely populated Nevada a player in presidential politics? The Western states drawing the serious attention of a major political party?
Times are certainly changing, and there's no way to interpret it as anything but positive.
For Carson City, it suggests we may be on the cusp of losing our status as a sleepy town that most people from other states would be unable to locate on a map. It won't happen overnight, and the caucus won't do it alone. But this and future political events, combined with our natural assets and history, certainly put the capital city in the game.
People will be surprised to learn that Nevada isn't Las Vegas surrounded by an endless desert. When you consider future local developments like the V&T Railroad, it seems unlikely that Carson City will shrink back into complete obscurity.
The caucus will also put the entire state under the spotlight, which means we can put the candidates under the spotlight. Issues like keeping Yucca Mountain from opening and allowing local input in determining usage of public lands barely register on the radar screen of national politics.
But now there's no candidate who will be able to avoid answering those questions in detail.
It's been too easy for political candidates to take the West for granted while they do battle in the Eastern states rich in electoral votes.
So this is a big day for Carson City, for Nevada and for the Western states.
In fact, the only thing that might be bigger would be if the Republicans brought its candidates to town. Are you listening, Republicans?
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Nevada Appeal
February 21, 2007
Overheard in Carson: What the candidates would learn from listening to locals
Abby Johnson
Democratic presidential candidates: Welcome to Carson City, and to your first job interview in Nevada.
If you've done your homework, you know to say "Ne-vadd-a," not "Ne-vodd-a." You may know more about us that we know about ourselves. You may be here to listen to our concerns and ideas as you begin to shape your campaign message and mission in advance of the Nevada Democratic Caucus in January.
Here's some of what you would hear if you came to my house for a chat with my Carson City friends and neighbors.
Iraq: "Get out of Iraq and establish a foreign policy of collaboration and cooperation rather than pre-emptive war." ... "The current administration seems bent on actually making things worse. When you only have one tool in your tool belt (or gun belt, as it were), that's the tool you use, leaving a diplomatic solution totally out of reach. Our international credibility is bankrupt until January 2009." ... "What is it about your experience that equips you to make peace and restore our respect in the world? Tell us your plan to make peace without compromising our national interests."
Health care: "My outrage on health care is hard to contain. My family's health history and current problems would prevent us from getting coverage in Nevada at rates we could afford if my wife lost her job. States are forced to tackle these issues because the federal government clearly doesn't give a damn that 45 million Americans are chronically uninsured." (Eighteen percent of Nevadans are uninsured). ... "Fix our increasingly dysfunctional health-care system. Make health insurance affordable and available to all."
Money in the middle: "My No. 1 concern is how to restore, revive, and resuscitate the middle class." ... "Many problems in this nation such as gangs and crime, broken families and lack of pursuit of secondary and higher education are at their core related to economic inadequacy and instability among the middle and lower classes in America. How would you address this problem?" ... "Get out of Iraq and free up money to invest in our schools and our social services and reduce the deficit. Reinvest in our communities by repealing tax breaks to the rich." ... "I'd like to see our government and social institutions revert to 'the common good' instead of 'the bottom line.'"
Nevada is not a wasteland: "The West is no longer that vast wasteland for an endless amount of garbage from other parts of the country. We are the perfect place for developing renewable energy, not enabling nuclear power by accepting the burden of the waste." ... "The proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project is fatally flawed. It's unsafe and unfair, and we want to know how and when (not if) you will kill the project when you are president."
Water in the West: "The rural West is being threatened by drought and water grabs from urban areas which need water to fuel growth at any cost. How will you ensure that rural areas are not destroyed as urban areas scramble for water at any cost?" ... "Develop regional water resource plans that preserve rural and urban sectors, their economies and the environments upon which those economies depend. Include drought plans that reflect pending changes suggested by global warming, water conservation and sustainable growth that reflects the natural hydrologic cycle of each region."
Tests of leadership: "What would you as president do about the genocide occurring in Sudan?" ... "We need an energy policy that reduces our dependence on fossil fuels and reduces our contribution to global warming (without using Nevada as a dumping ground)." ... "How can you hold the Democratic party base and its traditional supporters and at the same time lead the development of a platform and winning campaign that crosses racial, economic, social, religious and generational lines to appeal to Republicans and nonpartisans?"
It is exciting that the Democrats have focused on Nevada as an early-caucus state. Democratic candidates, thank you for coming to Carson City. We missed you, Sen. Obama.
The final question for the candidates is: Will you still listen to us after January?
--Abby Johnson is a resident of Carson City, and a part-time resident of Baker, Nevada. She consults on community development and nuclear waste issues. Her opinions are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of her clients.
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Lahontan Valley News
February 21, 2007
Editorial: Nevada needs to maximize heightened political clout
Nevada will have the opportunity to test its newfound political clout today when eight Democratic presidential contenders participate at a forum in Carson City.
The Silver State is strategically more important now that the Democratic Party has moved the state's caucus to Jan. 19, 2008, between the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, from which the national front-runners will likely emerge.
Now that Nevada has the national spotlight, the question is what will the state's political leaders do with it? Hopefully they will take advantage of the opportunity to focus national attention on Western issues.
So what are the issues that presidential candidates need to be talking about?
Certainly immigration is a hot-button issue as the flood of illegal immigrants from Mexico stretches our schools, hospitals and social services to the breaking point. Fundamental to this issue is what the federal government is going to do to secure our borders. Build a fence? Beef up border patrols? Send the illegals back home? Strong leadership, political courage and a clear vision are needed to deal with this issue before it spirals out of control and blood is spilled on the streets of America.
Another uniquely Western issue that desperately needs attention is unfunded federal mandates. This is particularly challenging in the West because the government owns tremendous amounts of land that do not generate property taxes to help pay for infrastructure and government services needed to support a burgeoning population. Federal payments in lieu of taxes don't come close to making the region's budgets whole. Before Westerners go to the polls, they need to know what the candidates for president intend to do to make sure that the federal government becomes a good neighbor by paying its fair share of the cost of owning property in our states.
Speaking of being a good neighbor, Nevadans want and need to know which of the presidential contenders will lead the charge when it comes to making sure that Nevada does not become a national nuclear waste dump. The citizens of this state, who have already suffered unfathomable health consequences as a result of the federal government's experiments at the Nevada Test Site, are rightfully and overwhelmingly opposed to the Department of Energy's nuclear storage program at Yucca Mountain.
Catastrophic wildfires are another threat to the health and well being of people in Western states. Westerners are tiring of the misguided federal policies underlying these events, which are blackening hundreds of thousands of acres of public and private property every year, not to mention depleting the national treasury and causing injuries and even loss of human life.
Federal projects that store and deliver water throughout the arid West and provide renewable sources of low-cost energy are critical to the continued prosperity. How do the candidates propose to balance the needs of the environment with the needs of the people who live here? The candidates need to provide straight answers on this topic.
It would be a shame if Nevada's leaders let the candidates get out of Northern Nevada without pinning them down on the future of the Naval Air Station at Fallon and the Hawthorne Army Depot. These facilities are not only important to our nation's security but are socially and economically vital to the communities in which they reside.
The candidates can no longer afford to ignore Nevada just because it is a sparsely populated state as they have in years past. It's up to Nevada to make the most of this opportunity by demanding straight answers to direct questions, then voting accordingly.
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Las Vegas SUN
February 21, 2007
Vignettes from the Nevada Democratic presidential forum
Associated Press
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - While it wasn't clear who got the biggest cheer at Wednesday's Democratic presidential forum, moderator and ABC newsman George Stephanopoulus got the first boo.
The chorus of groans immediately broke out minutes into the event, when Stephanopoulus mispronounced Nevada as "Ne-VAH-duh" in his first question to Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.
"Ne-VA-duh!" a crowd gathered to watch the forum immediately shouted.
Stephanopoulus looked confused until Dodd explained.
"I think you may have mispronounced it," Dodd said, smiling and shaking his finger at him.
"If I mispronounced it, I'm sorry," Stephanopoulus said.
Earlier, John Mercurio, senior editor for Hotline, mispronounced the state three times in the first two minutes of his pre-forum introduction broadcast on C-SPAN.
The pitfall is a perennial one for outsiders, often elected ones, who wind up branding themselves as out-of-the-loop.
The Nevada Democratic Party sent materials noting the correct pronunciation to every campaign, with the hope of helping candidates avoid the gaffe.
Stephanopoulus didn't get the memo. But he got the message Wednesday, taking special care with the pronunciation the next time around when Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., closed her opening remarks by saying she was ready to take any and all questions.
"From Ne-VA-duh," Stephanopoulus added.
---
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is banking on his Western roots and policy experience to get a leg up in the newly important Nevada caucus. But the governor didn't want to get into too many specifics Wednesday.
In brief remarks to about 300 Democrats who gathered at a local newspaper's conference room to watch the presidential candidates forum aired live on C-SPAN, Richardson touched on several key Nevada issues, saying he's opposed to nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain and wants to find ways to free up federal land.
He said the West would need to find ways to conserve and desalinate water, and needs to forge new water agreements that accommodate growth.
"It's critically important that we find ways that Nevada get more water from the Colorado (River)," he said.
But the governor had nothing to say on southern Nevada water officials' current answer to sustaining Nevada's massive growth: a multibillion water pipeline that will pump water from rural counties to Las Vegas. The issue is a prickly one within state, dividing north from south and urban from rural, and uniting environmentalists with ranchers afraid the plan could damage ecosystems.
"I'll get into those issues a little later," Richardson said.
---
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -While they didn't stuff the hallways quite like Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Christopher Dodd and former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack both took time to meet with state Democratic lawmakers, lobbyists, and staffers hoping for a quick chat or a photograph in the state legislative building.
Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas, stopped in to meet Vilsack between committee meetings.
The great state of Nevada has only one small problem, Vilsack told Horne.
"Too many former Iowans here," Vilsack said.
"That might help you, though," said Horne, laughing.
"That's true in every state," Vilsack said. "In Long Beach (Calif.) they have a reunion of former Iowans every year."
Assemblyman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, found a sympathetic ear as he chatted with Vilsack about the challenge Nevada Democrats face in their push for universal all-day kindergarten.
"There are Nobel prize-winning economists who will tell you that investing in young children is the single best thing you can do," Vilsack said.
One floor down, Dodd, D-Conn., met with a crowd of fans in Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus' office, about 10 minutes after Clinton's entourage had cleared out. Dodd took a minute to practice his Spanish language skills while speaking to Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, who recently delivered the national Democratic Hispanic radio address, telling Spanish-speaking voters they stand to play a major role in the 2008 presidential elections.
An obviously pleased Titus surveyed the scene of presidential candidates trooping through the state capital.
"They care about Nevada," she said. "These are good crowds."
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CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich brought a crowd of 300 people to its feet Wednesday at a newspaper office with a roaring speech in which he called for Congress to deny funding for the Iraq war.
"Bring the troops home!" Kucinich thundered three times to a whooping and whistling crowd at The Nevada Appeal.
He also jabbed at his opponents who voted for war.
"We had an audition for president in October, 2002," he said, referring to Congress' vote on the Iraq war.
He said it was always clear there was no connection between al-Qaida and Iraq.
"That's not what the war was about. What was it about?" he asked, to which the crowd answered with a roar, "Oil!"
Kucinich was accompanied by a tall, striking redheaded, a contrast to his 2004 presidential campaign, when his single status stood out among other candidates: Kucinich, 60, married British citizen Elizabeth Harper, then 27, in August 2005, a few months after meeting her, and the two spent much of time holding hands Wednesday. The twice-divorced congressman's single status made headlines in 2004, when he told New Hampshire campaign audiences that he was seeking a mate. Women then vied for a date with him during a contest arranged by a political Web site, but nothing romantic evolved from Kucinich's breakfast with the winner.
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CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - New York Sen. Hillary Clinton told Nevada Democrats on Wednesday that when she first heard about the presidential candidates forum in Carson City, she didn't think she could make it.
"Harry, I'm supposed to be somewhere else," she told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid when he gave her the date a few weeks ago.
"Well, we'll sure miss you," Reid responded.
Clinton told the story to a packed room at The Nevada Appeal, saying she'd flown all night from Florida rather than miss the forum, perhaps taking a shot at Sen. Barack Obama, who did not attend the forum. Obama, D-Ill., was campaigning in Iowa instead. He headlined a Las Vegas rally over the weekend and was in California on Tuesday for a major Hollywood fundraiser.
--Associated Press Writers Kathleen Hennessey, Joe Mullin, Scott Sonner and Amanda Fehd contributed to this report.
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Bloomberg
February 21, 2007
Harrah's, MGM Gain Clout With Early Nevada Caucus (Update1)
By Jonathan D. Salant
Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- For U.S. presidential candidates, the problems of blackjack dealers and nuclear-waste repositories may be in 2008 what ethanol has been in years past.
With Nevada's Jan. 19 Democratic presidential caucus now sandwiched between corn-centric Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, candidates are courting the state's more than 200,000 casino workers and voicing concern about the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste site.
The state's newly outsized influence on picking the party's nominee is a boon to Las Vegas-based gambling companies, including MGM Mirage and Harrah's Entertainment Inc. Jan Jones, a vice president of Harrah's, the world's largest casino owner, said the company wants to demonstrate the ``the positive power of the gaming industry'' in economic development.
The companies see a chance to lobby potential presidents to support a study of legalizing Internet gambling, which is currently banned; on immigration, to give undocumented workers already in the nation a path to citizenship; and to block any move to outlaw betting on college sports. The companies also want to assure that anti-terrorism laws don't keep foreign visitors from coming, and spending.
``In Iowa, it's an ethanol plant,'' said Alan Feldman, a senior vice president at MGM Mirage, the No. 2 casino company. ``In Michigan, it's a car plant. In Las Vegas, it's the tourism industry.''
Courting Unions
As one mark of the state's new-found clout, every Democratic candidate except for Illinois Senator Barack Obama is due to attend a Carson City forum today hosted by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Obama, citing a scheduling conflict, visited Las Vegas over the weekend to hold an outdoor rally and meet with representatives of a union that represents casino workers.
``This is our coal mine, our auto plants, our cotton fields,'' said state Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, who represents Las Vegas. ``Candidates need to address the needs of the industry and talk to the people who work there. Just think of how many maids and chefs and dealers there are. That's Nevada's working class.''
MGM's Feldman said that ``none of us is waiting for that moment when one of the major candidates walks through the front door of a casino. That's where the tourists go. The story is to go in the back of the house and meet with the men and women who make these places work.''
Housing and Health-Care
Like Obama, the other candidates have focused on the state's unionized workforce, emphasizing issues including affordable health care and housing. Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards visited the Las Vegas union hall of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers on Feb. 17; after today's forum, New York Senator Hillary Clinton is scheduled to fly to Las Vegas to address members of the state's teachers union.
The candidates may also focus on water and development, huge issues in a state where more than 80 percent of the land is owned by the federal government. A prime topic is the proposed nuclear- waste site at Yucca Mountain, which is opposed by politicians of both parties. A 2004 poll commissioned by the state's two U.S. senators, Democrat Harry Reid and Republican John Ensign, showed 70 percent of Nevadans oppose locating the waste site in their state.
`Significant Questions'
Obama, who wasn't in the Senate the last time Yucca Mountain came up for a vote, doesn't support the project because ``there are still significant questions about whether nuclear waste can be safely stored there,'' spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. Clinton opposed a 2002 measure supporting the project, while Edwards backed it.
Now Edwards, too, is against the project because of ``increasing concerns about serious safety issues surrounding the project that have only continued to build,'' spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said.
Nevada is fast becoming important for presidential aspirants from both parties for another reason: money. In 2006, Nevada, which ranks 35th in population, ranked 24th in campaign contributions to federal candidates and the political parties, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington- based research group. That is greater than more-populous early primary and caucus states such as Iowa and South Carolina.
Edwards held a fundraiser in Las Vegas before visiting the union hall, and Delaware Senator Joe Biden raised money this week in a casino in Reno.
Republicans haven't decided when they will pick Nevada's delegates to their party's presidential nominating convention. For the Democrats, the scheduling of the caucus so early in the process is part of their effort to continue making inroads in the fast-growing Western region.
Democrats last year captured the Colorado governorship, a U.S. Senate seat in Montana and two Arizona congressional districts. They will hold their nominating convention next year in Denver.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Las Vegas at jsalant@bloomberg.net .
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StockInterview
February 21, 2007
Uranium Resurgence Adds Super
Symposium to 2007 SME Annual Meeting
“Public Doesn’t Know Where Its Energy Comes From”
By Julie Ickes
How important is a mining conference when two of the invited speakers are U.S. cabinet members: Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman and Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne? And upon which metal is the emphasis for this conference when another invited speaker is Cameco Corp chief executive Gerald Grandey? The theme of the conference is "The Power of Mining: Energy's Influence."
Mining engineers, metallurgists and geologists will brush shoulders with government officials, academia and high net-worth investors in Denver next week at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Society of Mining Metallurgy and Exploration (SME) and the 109th National Western Mining Conference at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado. “Over 4000 are expected to attend,” SME conference organizer Carol Cudworth told us. This will be Colorado's largest mining conference in decades.
For the first time, SME will highlight a 5-part Uranium Symposium with 34 separate workshops. We asked Cudworth’s associate, Tara Davis, if this symposium was open the general public. Surprised, she answered, “It’s open to the public, but it’s not something the public would appreciate.” Davis explained this is a highly technical conference with the kind of workshops where metallurgists, academia and engineers would feel more at home than the cheerleading ‘resource conferences’ the retail investors often attend. Admission at $645 for the four-day conference may be sufficient to discourage the idle Looky Lou in search of glossy IR brochures and geegaw company giveaways.
We talked with Courtney Young, professor of mining engineering at the University of Montana, about his role in organizing the largest assembly of uranium presentations in the history of SME conferences. Dr. Young organized about 60 percent of the presentations being made February 25th to 28th.
Why, we asked, are so many workshops devoted to uranium this year? “We wanted to give support to the industry,” Young told us. “The public doesn’t know where their energy comes from.” The professor then related a story that had been bugging him for years, after teaching a class appropriately called ‘Energy’ at the University of Utah. “Some of the students thought that you just plug the ‘thing’ in and it works,” he explained. “The public reminds me of some of these students.”
Having reviewed the four-day curriculum, we were amazed at the caliber of speakers and the breadth of presentations by these notables. “We wanted to get everyone in the industry together so they could see how it all works,” Young said. “That way, we can sell it better to the public.’ Young was referring to the uranium and nuclear renaissance. The 34 presentations cover nearly every vital aspect of the nuclear fuel cycle. Topics cover just about everything an investor would ever want to know about the uranium cycle, from mining to disposal and everything in between.
How are materials selected for nuclear energy systems? Speakers from Idaho National Laboratories (INL) and the University of Wisconsin will discuss the power plant materials selection process. The Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology will discuss Yucca Mountain, which could start accepting nuclear waste by 2017. Dow Chemical will explain the new technology of uranium mining resins – they manufacture the resin beads for the in situ recovery (ISR) process. Another INL speaker will discuss the latest technology advance for dealing with spent nuclear fuel. One of our favorite quotables, TradeTech’s Nuclear Market Review editor Treva Klingbiel, will discuss the outlook for nuclear power and demand.
Various geologists from state bureaus will discuss everything from mineralization of the Grants Mineral District to Arizona’s breccia pipes. Numerous interviewees found on the StockInterview news service will present according to their specialties. Mark Pelizza of Uranium Resources will discuss the rigors of permitting and licensing a uranium mine. Bill Boberg of Ur-Energy will discuss U.S. uranium resources. Dick Clement of PowerTech will discuss the uranium revival of South Dakota’s Black Hills. John DeJoia of Strathmore Minerals will discuss what it takes to build a new uranium mill in the United States. Dennis Stover of Energy Metals will describe the ongoing work at renovating the old Hobson Central Processing Plant. Not only will company executives present, but several government geologists will compare various geologies of uranium deposits in North America.
Asked about the selection process of the speaker, Tara Davis told us, “They were chosen on the basis of their expertise.” She added, “It’s a timely topic because of the resurgence of uranium as a commodity.” No kidding. The price of spot uranium is already being forecast for $80/pound (or higher), even before this conference begins, and some predictions for yellowcake reach to $US100/pound and beyond.
This is the type of show where one finds many of the world’s largest mining companies and the top technical people from those companies mingling among some of the world’s top academic experts and government decision makers. This isn’t just about uranium, but for a number of commodities – everything from coal and copper to nickel and zinc. This is a conference where engineers and others can get continuing education credits, the workshops are 'technical courses,' and the emphasis is on education not hyping a stock. It is a perfect gathering for many of the technical experts, some of whom will be flying from Denver to Toronto for the PDAC, laden with the latest industry insights.
--For more information on the SME Mining Conference, visit: http://www.smenet.org/meetings/annualMeeting2007/attendees.cfm
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Politico
February 20, 2007
Nevada's New Political Wattage Alters Balance in Yucca Nuclear Fight
Jean Chemnick
If the U.S. Department of Energy has its way, radioactive waste wouldn't be the only thing dumped at Yucca Mountain; the infamous swath of desert in southern Nevada would be a money pit as well, according to a report released this month by the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.
Depositing radioactive debris deep beneath the surface would cost more than leaving the waste in dry casks near nuclear plants, as the waste is stored now. In fact, the report's authors contended, keeping the site closed for another 200 years would save taxpayers $24.1 billion.
The report is the latest of hundreds of studies and about 20 lawsuits that the state agency has filed in the last 25 years to poke holes in DOE's plan to permanently store 70,000 metric tons of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. The Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects is part of the governor's office and essentially lobbies for the state against the project. Former Gov. Richard Bryan, a Democrat who served during the years Yucca was being selected, said that about 80 percent of Nevadans oppose it.
Changes in Nevada's political clout and its congressional delegation's commitment to the issue have helped block Yucca over the years, Bryan said. In 1987, when Yucca was singled out as the sole site to be studied for a high-level nuclear repository, the state had a congressional delegation of four. In contrast, Washington and Texas, which also had sites on the final list, had big delegations and even bigger players: Tom Foley, D-Wash., the House majority leader at the time, and Jim Wright, D-Texas, the House speaker.
Times have changed. Nevada has three House members and stands to gain one other seat after 2010. More important, it has Harry Reid, the new Senate majority leader. He has said he will block any pro-Yucca legislation.
The state's new early Democratic presidential caucus also doesn't hurt its cause. Candidates -- especially Democrats -- who have campaigned in Nevada have always had to pass the Yucca test. Now with the state's new role in choosing the Democratic nominee, no Democrat can afford to be pro-Yucca. Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack have stated their total or conditional opposition to the project. Their Democratic rivals, all of whom are slated to visit Carson City this month, for Wednesday's Democratic candidate forum or individually, will find it difficult to do well in the state without taking a similar position.
Robert Loux, the executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, argues that the project's problems are partly due to DOE's mishandling of the assessment process. A Government Accountability Office report released last month revived a two-year old scandal over the possible falsification of data by the U.S. Geological Survey, a contractor for DOE on the project. Loux said DOE realized in the mid-1990s that Yucca Mountain rock was not uniquely suited to isolate waste, as its scientists had once believed, and began to focus its study on how to make the chosen site work. He said DOE's solution -- metal containers -- would isolate the waste for perhaps 500 years.
DOE spokesman Craig Stevens said that between the metal casks and the mountain rock, studies of the site show that the waste would be isolated for several hundred thousand years. The Environmental Protection Agency has set a million-year standard, requiring proof that the waste would not harm humans in that time. Stevens agreed that the Yucca Mountain project will have to meet that standard before it can be licensed, a judgment that resides with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. DOE plans to submit its application by June 2008.
Loux said that President Bush's budget request for the project reflects declining interest in it; Bush has requested $495 million in fiscal 2008, down from $544.5 million for fiscal 2007. However, Stevens said that the project's major expenses -- the exhaustive studies of the site -- are largely complete. The budget request is adequate for the licensing process, he said, which will cost less money.
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Las Vegas SUN
February 20, 2007
Just how clueless do we have to be here?
Edwards patient with Vegas press corps
By Michael J. Mishak
Las Vegas Sun
John Edwards was dumbfounded.
The Democratic presidential aspirant had just finished a speech Saturday in Las Vegas and, with a throng of local reporters blocking his exit, he took a few questions.
"Why is Nevada receiving all this attention from presidential candidates?" a KVBC Channel 3 television reporter asked.
A puzzled Edwards gave a look that said: "It's the caucus, stupid."
He explained that presidential candidates were coming to Nevada to try to win votes. The Democratic National Committee had changed the schedule of the Nevada caucus, which state and national media have been reporting for six months.
Moreover, the reporter's own station had aired a preview of the weekend's political events the previous night, including the reason for the early visits.
Next came a pair of questions about health care and Iraq, two areas the former senator covered extensively in the 40-minute speech he had just delivered to about 250 people at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 357 union hall.
Then came this question: "Can you talk about energy?"
It deserved a simple "yes," but Edwards, with the look of a patient father, talked about America's addiction to oil.
The Nevada Democratic caucus is 11 months away. Voters are only starting to understand the candidates and the issues. But judging from Edwards' appearance Saturday, maybe this much is already clear: Nevada needs a better press corps.
After he answered the energy question, Edwards' campaign insisted (mercifully?) that the candidate had time for just one last question.
What about Yucca Mountain, a reporter asked. Where did the senator stand on the proposed nuclear waste repository?
Nice save.
Edwards said he opposes it. The government, he said, should look at alternatives.
--Michael J. Mishak can be reached at 259-2347 or at michael.mishak@lasvegassun.com.
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Santa Fe New Mexican
February 20, 2007
News: Politics, The Richardson File
It's Nevada or nada
Steve Terrell
The New Mexican
When Gov. Bill Richardson goes to Carson City, Nev., this week for the first Democratic presidential forum, he'll be going to an early primary state where his campaign rhetoric of "Western values" might resonate with voters.
In fact, many say it's the early primary state in which Richardson's message on Western issues like water, environment, federal land, immigration and gun rights will have to sink in if he has any serious hope about becoming the party's nominee.
"I believe it's an important state for me, and I have to do well there," Richardson told reporters at a news conference Monday. He was referring to the Nevada Democratic Caucus, which is scheduled between the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary in January 2008.
One Nevada political science professor put it even stronger. "If he can't win here, he won't win anywhere," said David Damore of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in a telephone interview last week.
Wednesday's forum is sponsored by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The moderator is George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton administration spokesman who now works for ABC News.
Nevada is a relatively conservative state, especially at the presidential level. Since Lyndon Johnson's landslide of 1964, the state has cast its electoral votes for only one Democrat -- Michael Dukakis in 1988. But sometimes Nevada elects Democrats to state and federal offices, such as U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Republicans elected a governor last year and control the state senate. However, Democrats are in power in the assembly.
It's a state with apparent political contradictions. But it has a strong libertarian streak. For instance, Nevada is the first state with legalized gambling and the only state that allows prostitution in some counties. However, as Damore pointed out, in recent years, Nevada adopted a constitutional amendment prohibiting same sex marriage. The Mormon Church is a strong presence in the state. And Mormons tend to be Republicans, though Sen. Reid belongs to the church.
There's also an anti-government streak, Damore noted.
It's a state in which 85 percent of the land belongs to the federal government, a sparsely populated state in which 70 percent of the population lives in one city, Las Vegas.
But the state is growing so rapidly that politics is in a constant state of flux. It was the fastest growing state in the U.S. for 19 years until Arizona edged it out for that distinction last year.
There are two major forces in the Nevada Democratic Party, according to political columnist Jon Ralston of the Las Vegas Sun: Harry Reid and the Culinary Workers Union.
"The union represents the service workers in the casinos," Ralston said. Democrats in Nevada tend to be urban blue-collar voters, he added.
"The unions are the Democratic Party," Damore said. "They're even relying on the unions to put the caucus on."
The stronghold of Nevada Democrats is Las Vegas, Damore said. Republicans are the majority in small towns and rural areas, especially in the northern part of the state. "But the Democrats have horrible voter turnout. Republicans here are much better in getting out the vote."
That's especially true of the Hispanic population, which makes up nearly 25 percent of the state's population and is heavily Democratic.
"The Hispanic population is growing rapidly, but it's a big challenge getting them to the polls," said state Senate minority leader Dina Titus, who was the Democratic gubernatorial candidate last year.
Damore said Democratic candidates should have a good record on the environment, "but you don't want to be seen as too much of an environmentalist. The heart of the economy here is growth."
Titus said to appeal to Nevada Democrats, presidential candidates should favor "federal sensitivity to state's rights issues, such as wilderness issues and regulatory issues. I know that sounds kind of conservative."
Ralston said the issue of guns isn't huge in the state. Many Democrats, including Titus, support gun rights, he noted. This of course would work in the favor of Richardson, who last year was endorsed for re-election by the National Rifle Association.
At Monday's news conference. Richardson told reporters he is leading in a poll on a Web site called Nevada Today. Indeed the news site's online poll Monday showed Richardson with a commanding lead of 39 percent. In second place was Hillary Clinton with 17 percent.
However, only 268 people had participated in that nonscientific poll. Scientific polls, such as the American Research Group, which polled Nevada voters in December, show the governor near the bottom of the pack with single-digit support.
But Titus, Damore and Ralston say despite his present low poll standing, Richardson, as a Western governor, has a good shot in the Silver State.
Damore said currently Richardson and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards have the most visible organizations in the state. "Though when (Hillary) Clinton and (Barak) Obama come in with all their money for televisions ads, it may be a different story," he said.
Titus said Richardson will be helped by the fact the head of his Nevada campaign is Reynolds Martinez, a former chief of staff for Reid.
Richardson's trip to Nevada this week is his second since he announced his candidacy last month. He also made several appearances there last year, mainly to campaign for Titus in the gubernatorial contest.
Among the worst blunders a presidential candidate in Nevada, especially a Democrat, could commit would be to declare a desire to put nuclear waste in the Yucca Mountain facility, Titus said. The controversy over storing spent nuclear fuel in the facility, which is about 100 miles from Las Vegas, was a major issue in the 2004 presidential race, which raised Democrats' hopes for carrying the state.
The issue has calmed down in the past two years, most observers say, especially since Reid became majority leader. "It's an issue that ebbs and flows," Titus said.
But despite his popularity with environmentalists in this state, Richardson, who served as energy secretary under President Clinton, could be hurt by Yucca Mountain.
"No energy secretary has been overly popular in Nevada," Ralston said. "He's got a history with Yucca Mountain. No secretary of energy has done anything to slow it down."
Reno Gazette-Journal political writer Anjeanette Damon said in a September blog post that when Richardson was energy secretary, he had a "rocky relationship" with Nevada because of Yucca Mountain.
"Under his tenure as head of the Department of Energy, the nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain progressed past several milestones," Damon wrote. "While he was secretary, Richardson approved the $3.1 billion contract with Bechtel for work on the project, and the DOE issued a controversial report validating Yucca Mountain's suitability for the project."
But Damon also wrote that Richardson as a congressman had a solid record voting against the project. During his DOE tenure, he "demanded an inspector general's investigation when questions arose over whether the DOE's scientific study was designed to sell the project to Congress," Damon wrote.
Richardson also backed Clinton's veto of a bill that would have approved Yucca Mountain as the temporary nuclear waste storage site.
As a presidential candidate, Richardson has said he's opposed to Yucca Mountain.
--Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com.
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New York Times
February 20, 2007
Books on Science
The Problems in Modeling Nature, With Its Unruly Natural Tendencies
By Cornelia Dean
When coastal engineers decide whether to dredge sand and pump it onto an eroded beach, they use mathematical models to predict how much sand they will need, when and where they must apply it, the rate it will move and how long the project will survive in the face of coastal storms and erosion.
Orrin H. Pilkey, a coastal geologist and emeritus professor at Duke, recommends another approach: just dredge up a lot of sand and dump it on the beach willy-nilly. This “kamikaze engineering” might not last very long, he says, but projects built according to models do not usually last very long either, and at least his approach would not lull anyone into false mathematical certitude.
Now Dr. Pilkey and his daughter Linda Pilkey-Jarvis, a geologist in the Washington State Department of Geology, have expanded this view into an overall attack on the use of computer programs to model nature. Nature is too complex, they say, and depends on too many processes that are poorly understood or little monitored — whether the process is the feedback effects of cloud cover on global warming or the movement of grains of sand on a beach.
Their book, “Useless Arithmetic: Why Environmental Scientists Can’t Predict the Future,” originated in a seminar Dr. Pilkey organized at Duke to look into the performance of mathematical models used in coastal geology. Among other things, participants concluded that beach modelers applied too many fixed values to phenomena that actually change quite a lot. For example, “assumed average wave height,” a variable crucial for many models, assumes that all waves hit the beach in the same way, that they are all the same height and that their patterns will not change over time. But, the authors say, that’s not the way things work.
Also, modelers’ formulas may include coefficients (the authors call them “fudge factors”) to ensure that they come out right. And the modelers may not check to see whether projects performed as predicted.
Eventually, the seminar participants widened the project, concluding that erroneous assumptions, fudge factors and the reluctance to check predictions against unruly natural outcomes produce models with, as the authors put it, “no demonstrable basis in nature.” Among other problems, they cite much-modeled but nevertheless collapsed North Atlantic fishing stocks, poisonous pools unexpectedly produced by open pit mining, and invasive plants and animals that routinely outflank their modelers.
Two issues, the authors say, illustrate other problems with modeling. One is climate change, in which, they say, experts’ justifiable caution about model uncertainties can encourage them to ignore accumulating evidence from the real world. The other is the movement of nuclear waste through an underground storage site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, not because it has failed — it has yet to be built — but because they say it is unreasonable to expect accurate predictions of what will happen far into the future — in this extreme case, tens or even hundreds of thousands of years from now.
Along the way, Dr. Pilkey and Ms. Pilkey-Jarvis describe and explain a host of modeling terms, including quantitative and qualitative models (models that seek to answer precise questions with more or less precise numbers, as against models that seek to discern environmental trends).
They also discuss concepts like model sensitivity — the analysis of parameters included in a model to see which ones, if changed, are most likely to change model results.
But, the authors say it is important to remember that model sensitivity assesses the parameter’s importance in the model, not necessarily in nature. If a model itself is “a poor representation of reality,” they write, “determining the sensitivity of an individual parameter in the model is a meaningless pursuit.”
Given the problems with models, should we abandon them altogether? Perhaps, the authors say. Their favored alternative seems to be adaptive management, in which policymakers may start with a model of how a given ecosystem works, but make constant observations in the field, altering their policies as conditions change. But that approach has drawbacks, among them requirements for assiduous monitoring, flexible planning and a willingness to change courses in midstream. For practical and political reasons, all are hard to achieve.
Besides, they acknowledge, people seem to have such a powerful desire to defend policies with formulas (or “fig leaves,” as the authors call them), that managers keep applying them, long after their utility has been called into question.
So the authors offer some suggestions for using models better. We could, for example, pay more attention to nature, monitoring our streams, beaches, forests or fields to accumulate information on how living things and their environments interact. That kind of data is crucial for models. Modeling should be transparent. That is, any interested person should be able to see and understand how the model works — what factors it weighs heaviest, what coefficients it includes, what phenomena it leaves out, and so on. Also, modelers should say explicitly what assumptions they make.
And instead of demanding to know exactly how high seas will rise or how many fish will be left in them or what the average global temperature will be in 20 years, they argue, we should seek to discern simply whether seas are rising, fish stocks are falling and average temperatures are increasing. And we should couple these models with observations from the field. Models should be regarded as producing “ballpark figures,” they write, not accurate impact forecasts.
“If we wish to stay within the bounds of reality we must look to a more qualitative future,” the authors write, “a future where there will be no certain answers to many of the important questions we have about the future of human interactions with the earth.”
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Michigan Live
February 19, 2007
DTE faces deadline for dealing with spent nuclear fuel
The Associated Press
FRENCHTOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — DTE Energy Co. faces a deadline for dealing with the mounting problem of storing spent nuclear fuel from its Fermi 2 reactor in southeastern Michigan.
In about three years, the Detroit-based utility will run out of room in a fuel storage pool next to the reactor vessel and expects it will have to store the fuel bundles on the Fermi plant's grounds in heavy concrete and steel casks designed to contain the radiation.
"We have received some bids from a number of vendors and those are under evaluation," DTE spokesman John Austerberry told The Monroe Evening News. "We're also looking at the option of forming alliances with other plants to obtain the storage containers."
Storage of spent nuclear fuel has been a controversial issue at plants across the country due to environmental and security concerns.
DTE will begin a $9 million "re-racking" of Fermi's fuel pool this month, allowing a tighter pack of the spent fuel assemblies to extend the pool's capacity to 2010. It will be the second time the plant has re-racked the pool.
The federal government initially vowed to take used fuel off the hands of utilities with nuclear plants and store it deep underground in Nevada's Yucca Mountain. But that plan is years behind schedule, due to planning, political and safety concerns.
DTE officials have said that because of the buildup of waste at other nuclear plants, the chances of any Fermi waste ever being transported to Yucca Mountain are slim.
Spent fuel already is stored in casks at Consumers Energy's Big Rock plant near Charlevoix, the Palisades plant near South Haven and more than two dozen other locations around the country.
---On the Net:
http://www.dteenergy.com
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Pottstown Mercury
February 19, 2007
Adviser: Fuel rod storage may not be 'temporary'
By Evan Brandt
ebrandt@pottsmerc.com
He told the Borough Council Monday that a change in language by Exelon Nuclear - from calling its project to store spent nuclear fuel in dry casks outside the reactor building in Limerick an "interim solution" to a "temporary solution" - is something to watch.
Had the project been permanent, it might have drawn more scrutiny from local officials and residents, Read said. But calling it a "temporary solution" probably convinced many people that it was not something they needed to worry about, said Read.
The recent change in the party controlling Congress has led to a new Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has long opposed the federal government's plan to permanently store the nation's spent nuclear fuel beneath Yucca Mountain in his home state. That combined with the cost overruns, scientific conflicts and delays associated with the project have led many to theorize that the repository at Yucca Mountain will never open.
When these elements are considered in light of the fact that "Exelon has changed the official designation of this project to an 'interim solution,'" the project deserves new scrutiny, Read argued.
"Let's face facts, council. For all intents and purposes, at least for our lifetimes, this is going to be a permanent storage facility," Read said of the project, approved in July by the Limerick Board of Supervisors.
"If we can't ship this fuel to Nevada, where is it likely to end up?" Borough Council President Jack Wolf asked Read.
"Most likely we'll end up with regional depositories around the country; hopefully Limerick doesn't end up as one of those," Read said.
Beth Rapczynski, a spokeswoman for Exelon, disputed that conclusion.
"Our ultimate goal is to have all our spent fuel taken to the federal repository at Yucca Mountain," she said.
"Our (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) permit does not allow us to take fuel from other facilities," Rapczynski added.
Those permits, one for each of the two nuclear reactors, expire in 2024 and 2029.
Also important to consider, Read said, "if this project has been designed as a 'temporary solution,' what happens when it becomes the permanent solution?
"Nothing man has ever built is 100 percent reliable, particularly not something that was designed to be temporary. What we should be doing now is prepare for the time when it fails," Read said.
Which is why Read said his committee is so disappointed Exelon rebuffed Pottstown's request for additional radiation and temperature monitoring outside the casks. The fuel inside them will remain radioactive for thousands of years.
Read said his group is also "disappointed other municipalities near the plant didn't have some concerns. You know, it seems that until someone bangs the gong, there isn't always a lot of support for people who are trying to make a difference."
In an effort to generate some of that support, Read asked the Borough Council for permission for the environmental advisory commission to "send a letter to each municipality in the nuclear plant's evacuation zone and hopefully solicit some support."
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Joliet Herald News
February 18, 2007
GE plans nuclear recycling
By Bob Okon
Staff writer
MORRIS -- GE Morris Operation was licensed 36 years ago to recycle nuclear fuel. But the facility has never been used for its intended purpose.
The federal government called a halt to the country's first recycling projects in the 1970s, and GE Morris has been holding spent nuclear fuel rods for more than three decades.
Now, the federal government is on the verge of approving a new fuel recycling plan. And GE Morris combined with research facilities at Argonne National Laboratory outside of Lemont are among 13 sites in the United States under consideration for the project.
Argonne National Laboratory is one of two research facilities in the country that have been developing the new recycling process that would be used in the new program.
The recycling project
The U.S. Department of Energy will hold what it calls a "scoping meeting" in Joliet on Thursday to hear public comments on the potential environmental impact of a nuclear fuel recycling operation at GE Morris Operation. The meeting will be 6 to 9:30 p.m. in the Barber & Oberwortmann Horticultural Center at 227 N. Gougar Road in Joliet.
The project, called the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, has been developing a fuel recycling technology that would not isolate plutonium.
Plutonium is an essential element in the production of nuclear weapons. Recycling technology available in the 1970s isolated plutonium, and fears arose that re-use of nuclear fuel could inadvertently lead to plutonium getting in the wrong hands.
Still, General Electric believed that the nation at some point would have to consider the recycling option again, said company spokesman Tom Rumsey.
"The decision not to recycle in our opinion did not make a lot of sense," Rumsey said. "Ninety-five of it (fuel) can be recycled. It was a political decision."
Local response
Rumsey said GE already has received letters of support for the project from local officials in Grundy County.
Most of the public is just beginning to hear about the plan, but GE has been approaching local officials in recent weeks.
The project does have some attractive economic points: an investment of more than $1.5 billion into the GE Morris Operation to build the new recycling plant; up to 2,000 construction jobs over a five-to-six year period; and more than 400 high-paying, permanent jobs similar to those at Exelon Nuclear's Dresden Station, which is a neighbor to the GE facility.
GE presented its plan to the Coal City Village Board last week, and the board was "very interested in what the presenters had to say," said Village Administrator Philip "Leo" Middleton.
Coal City actually is closer to the GE facility than Morris. But GE will make a similar presentation at the Morris City Council meeting on 7 p.m. Tuesday.
In addition to the economic benefits, Middleton said, local officials are interested in the prospect of using the spent nuclear fuel that has been piling up at Dresden and other nuclear plants.
Spent fuel
There are 55,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel in the United States, said Craig Stevens, spokesman for the Department of Energy. Most of it is being stored at nuclear plants like Dresden and Exelon Nuclear's Braidwood Station, part of a fleet of Exelon plants through northern Illinois.
The government's primary plan up to now has been to move fuel to Yucca Mountain in Nevada. But the Yucca Mountain project has been stalled for years, largely because of opposition in Nevada.
The meeting in Joliet this week is one of a series of meetings to be held around the country at the proposed sites to scope out local opinion about the project.
If GE Morris does get the contract, just recycling the fuel already on site would take about five years, Rumsey said.
The logical next place to get spent fuel after that would be from Dresden and other nuclear facilities in the region, he said.
"There's enough spent nuclear fuel in Illinois to power it for the life cycle of the plant," said Rumsey. GE Morris would have a life cycle of about 40 years, he said.
The timetable
Unlike the Yucca Mountain Project, the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership is expected to be put into use in a set time frame.
"I think your going to see this move pretty quickly," said Stevens at the Department of Energy.
The timetable now calls for the Department of Energy to award contracts for the project in June 2008. It would take four to five years to build the recycling plant, according to GE.
Sites that get the contract would initially be testing the new process to see if it works commercially. So far, the recycling technology has been done only at the laboratory level -- at Argonne and at Idaho National Laboratory.
The key to the project, Stevens said, is to demonstrate that the new recycling process can be put into operation at a commercial level.
"Right now, we can do it on a laboratory scale," he said.
Bob Okon can be reached at (815) 729-6046 or bokon@scn1.com
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MonroeNews
February 18, 2007
Wrestling with waste
By: Charles Slat
While DTE Energy ponders building a new nuclear plant near Newport, it faces a more urgent deadline for dealing with the mounting problem of storing highly radioactive waste - the spent nuclear fuel from its existing Fermi 2 reactor.
In about three years, the utility will run out of room in a fuel storage pool next to the reactor vessel and expects it will have to store the fuel bundles on the Fermi plant's grounds in heavy concrete and steel casks designed to contain the radiation.
"We have received some bids from a number of vendors and those are under evaluation," said John J. Austerberry, a DTE spokesman. "We're also looking at the option of forming alliances with other plants to obtain the storage containers."
Cask storage of used nuclear fuel has been a controversial issue at various plants in the U.S. and elsewhere due to environmental and security concerns. But, lacking a central federal storage facility, spent fuel continues to crowd nuclear plant storage pools around the nation.
DTE will begin a $9 million "re-racking" of Fermi's fuel pool this month, allowing a tighter pack of the spent fuel assemblies to extend the pool's capacity to 2010. It now has 2,296 fuel bundles cooling in the pool with room for a total of 3,146. With the re-racking, capacity will rise to 3,588 bundles. It will be the second time the plant has had to re-rack the pool.
Initially, the federal government vowed to take the used fuel off the hands of utilities with nuclear plants and store it deep underground in Nevada's Yucca Mountain. The storage plan is funded by $28 billion in surcharges electric customers have paid as part of their electric bills. Michigan customers already have paid more than $450 million into that fund. But that plan is years behind schedule, due to planning, political and safety concerns.
During a talk at the Detroit Economic Club last week, Anthony F. Earley Jr., DTE chairman and chief executive officer, said the Yucca impasse may worsen due to the rise of longtime Yucca opponent Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to Senate Majority Leader.
But he suggested it might be proper to explore reprocessing of spent fuel - a prospect that was downplayed in past decades because of its potential link to weapons development. "We now need to explore other options," Mr. Earley said. "In fact, the nuclear fuel left in these used fuel rods has immense value, so we really do not want to ‘dispose' of them by just burying them in the ground. The political logjam on Yucca may give us the opportunity to rethink nuclear fuel policy.
But he asserted that the used fuel issue is a political and policy debate, not a safety debate. "Used fuel can be stored for decades in fuel pools and dry cask storage facilities in total safety," he said.
Michael Keegan, a Monroe resident, DTE shareholder, and member of the Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes, disagrees.
"They are teeing up a situation that would be very inviting for terrorists. In doing so, I'd say they're aiding and abetting," he said. "It's irresponsible of them to generate another ounce of this stuff knowing there's no place to put it."
He said even transporting the waste to a central repository would risk having a "mobile Chernobyl," a reference to the 1986 Soviet reactor accident that contaminated parts of Europe.
"The casks are faulty," he added. "There is no cask technology that's solid."
But industry experts claim storage in casks is far safer than storage in fuel pools.
A DTE cask storage facility would consist of reinforced concrete pads located inside the plant's "protected area," behind barriers, fencing and security portals, and licensed casks would be placed on those pads, said John J. Austerberry, a DTE spokesman. "Those spent fuel containers are proven to be very robust."
Dale Zorn, vice chairman of the Monroe County Board of Commissioners, has been following efforts to develop a federal waste storage facility and visited Yucca Mountain in 1998.
"If there's really a concern to this it's to get the high-level waste out of our local communities," he said. "The federal government has said by law they would accept the waste. They haven't done that and they need to start accepting it. Casks are safe but we still need to get it out of our local communities."
But DTE officials have said that because of the buildup of waste at most of the nation's nuclear plants, the chances of any Fermi waste ever being transported to Yucca Mountain are slim.
Spent fuel already is stored in casks at Consumers Energy's Big Rock plant near Charlevoix, Palisades plant near South Haven, and the Davis-Besse plant near Port Clinton, Ohio, and more than two dozen other locations around the country.
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Capital Times
February 17, 2007
Nuclear comeback heats UW classroom
By Mike Ivey
The Capital Times
The prospect of new nuclear power plants rising on the Wisconsin horizon sent sparks flying on the UW-Madison campus Friday.
UW engineering physics professor Michael Corradini irked many in the audience at Grainger Hall with his call for expanding nuclear energy, saying that concerns over safety and waste disposal have been overblown.
"You could take all of the high-level nuclear waste generated in the U.S. since 1957 and store it in half of Grainger Hall," Corradini said. "We're talking about a very small volume of material."
No nuclear power plants have been built in the U.S. in over two decades and a state law on the books since 1984 blocks any new plant construction in Wisconsin.
But a debate on the future of nuclear power and whether it has a place in the state's energy portfolio has developed following a recommendation last month by the Legislative Council's Committee on Nuclear Power to lift the nuclear moratorium.
Corradini has been a leading supporter of nuclear power and speaking at a forum sponsored by the Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies he argued for moving away from polluting fossil fuels.
At present, the world relies heavily on fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal as primary energy resource. Fossil fuels account for over 75 percent for all energy and 70 percent of electricity production in the U.S. Worldwide, fossil fuels generate 88 percent for all energy and 65 percent of electricity.
And the environmental impact of fossil-fuel energy are becoming significant. Recent analyses by NASA scientists indicate that if levels of greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide are not reduced, global warming will become unstoppable.
"If you're worried about CO2 then don't shut down nuclear," said Corradini.
But Dennis Dums, research director for the Citizens Utility Board, said the lack of a viable storage facility for high level radioactive waste from the nation's 103 operating nuclear power plants remains an overriding concern. "The fact is, spent nuclear fuel continues to pile up in Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan," he said.
Wisconsin has two operating nuclear facilities, Kewaunee and Point Beach, supplying about 20 percent of the state's electric generation. Coal remains the largest source of electric generation at about 70 percent, with three new plants in the works in the state.
The federal Department of Energy has been unable to site a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, despite spending millions of dollars in ratepayer money on the project. Dums said Wisconsin should keep its moratorium on nuclear plant construction until that issue is solved.
Wisconsin utilities have been moving to divest their nuclear plants, with the Kewaunee facility being sold in 2005 to Dominion Resources Inc. of Richmond, Va. and the Point Beach plant being sold by Wisconsin Energy Corp. to Florida Power & Light. "Our utilities are showing no interest in ownership of these plants," said Dums.
Dums also warned that if Wisconsin lifted its nuclear plant law, other companies could move in to site merchant plants here and sell the electricity out of state, leaving state residents to deal with the waste.
Some in audience went a step further in their criticism of nuclear power, saying the industry continues to deceive the public about the risks of both waste and plant operations.
"This is an industry that built two bombs that killed a lot of people and since then they have been trying to make something good out of it," said Jim Pawley, a UW professor of zoology.
Others said that if nuclear power is such a panacea, why is the insurance industry hesitant to provide coverage and Wall Street reluctant to invest?
But Corradini noted that the energy picture is a global one and whatever happens in Wisconsin will ultimately not mean much. He noted that electric use in Asia is increasing 5 to 8 percent annually vs. 2 percent in Europe and the U.S.
"The short-term answer is energy efficiency either by cost or law, and we need both," he said. "Medium term we should be looking at 'clean' coal, nuclear, hybrid cars and wind."
Corradini also tossed water on those who say renewable energy sources like biofuels can solve the energy crisis. He said using land to grow crops for energy use makes no sense from either an environmental or technological perspective.
"Renewables just aren't going to do it." he said.
This comes as Gov. Doyle has announced $30 million in his new budget for production of ethanol, biodiesel and other crop-based fuels in Wisconsin.
Ave Bie, former chair of the state Public Service Commission, was among those in attendance Friday.
"I think it's a good discussion to be having," said Bie, now working for the Quarles & Brady law firm.
--E-mail: mivey@madison.com
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
February 16, 2007
Ex-director: Yucca project in jeopardy
Flagging 'political will' threatens repository, he says, but it remains best solution
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- A former Yucca Mountain director said Thursday that flagging "political will" threatens to sink the proposed Nevada repository, but he maintained the project is worth fixing as the best solution for nuclear waste storage.
"I think the program is in jeopardy," said Lake Barrett, an Energy Department manager who retired in 2002. "Everybody recognizes the political problems, which are real and they want to find a, quote, better way.
"I would like to find a better way, but we should not lose what we have until we have a better way in hand," Barrett said.
Barrett discussed the Yucca project in an interview that came on the heels of an opinion article he wrote that was published Thursday in Energy Daily, a widely read newsletter.
Apart from science presentations, the former DOE official's remarks were his first public comments on Yucca Mountain policy since he left the department. He was principal deputy director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management from 1993 to 2002, and stepped in as acting director five times.
Barrett was running the program in 2002 when President Bush and Congress formalized the selection of the Yucca site. Since then, the repository has been mired in delays amid legal, financial and management setbacks that have pushed a projected opening to 2017 and beyond.
In Energy Daily, Barrett wrote that Congress singling out Nevada for nuclear waste in 1987 "was detrimental" and set the stage for years of conflict between the federal government and the state.
"But the fact is that Yucca Mountain is as good an overall site as can be found in the United States for long-term nuclear materials management," he wrote. "There has been nothing scientifically discovered indicating the site should be disqualified."
Barrett said he decided to speak out after Edward McGaffigan, a departing member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told reporters last month that DOE should set aside the Yucca site and "go back to the beginning" in search of a repository solution that could be sold to states willing to host a site.
"I believe this nation needs to address these issues fairly, but not by abandoning the only site we have," Barrett said in response.
He said he supported forming a high-level commission to examine the project, but in ways to improve the current program rather than scrapping it.
"A fundamental rewrite and do-over would not be helpful," he said.
In the interview, Barrett said the "political will" for Yucca Mountain among its traditional supporters has been tested by the rise of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, the project's most powerful critic.
"Mr. Reid is a powerful individual and wields a tremendous amount of influence," Barrett said. "It is very difficult for people to stand up."
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
February 16, 2007
YUCCA MOUNTAIN PROJECT: Berkley urges DOE to cancel firm's contract
Company denies conflict of interest
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., is calling for the Energy Department to withdraw a $450,000 Yucca Mountain contract given to a consulting company whose board contains several former executives of the nuclear waste project.
"They are up to their eyeballs in conflict," Berkley said of the department and the company, Longenecker & Associates.
The company's president, John Longenecker, said Thursday that no conflict exists. He said that the firm's bid was formed expressly to avoid conflict and that the company has a reputation for "candid" performance.
"This couldn't be more straight up," Longenecker said.
A Department of Energy spokesman indicated that the contract would stand.
"These criticisms are meritless," spokesman Allen Benson said. "We have every expectation that the firm will produce an independent review of value to the program."
For its relatively small sum, the contract has generated the latest controversy for Nevada officials and other Yucca critics to challenge DOE's management of the repository program.
The department hired Longenecker & Associates last week to review engineering processes at Yucca Mountain, where the government proposes to build an underground and above-ground complex to manage and bury 77,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste.
Longenecker, which has performed quality assurance assessments and other work on the Yucca project, is an international engineering, environmental and energy consulting company based in Henderson.
Energy Department officials stated that the review would be independent, but Yucca critics said otherwise after the former ties of several Longenecker associates were disclosed.
The company's 14-member senior management team includes Ronald A. Milner, chief operating officer for the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management from 1996 to 2006. The office oversees the Yucca project.
Among 10 outside board members listed on the Longenecker Web site is Donald Pearman, who was deputy general manager of the nuclear waste effort while employed by Bechtel SAIC, its managing contractor.
Donald G. Horton, who managed the development of the Yucca Mountain site recommendation report, also is listed among Longenecker personnel.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement this week that retaining the company was like "hiring a student who is failing in literature to grade his own term paper."
"The DOE is planning to waste half a million more taxpayer dollars on work that will ultimately be meaningless because the company hired to conduct the review has a major conflict of interest," Reid said.
Unlike Berkley, Reid stopped short of demanding the contract be rescinded.
"He did not make that call," spokesman Jon Summers said. "Is it incumbent on him to call on people to do what is right?"
Longenecker, the company president, said the associates with Yucca Mountain backgrounds are at arm's length from the project.
He said Milner and Horton are part-time consultants who perform no Yucca-related work. Pearman is on the company's board "in an advisory capacity and is not a consultant to us."
"None of them were involved in the bid, and none of them will work on the project," Longenecker said. "Any allegation to that effect is just baseless."
A 10-person review team will be drawn from among senior engineers at four partner companies, including Northrop Corp. and Fluor Corp., Longenecker said.
"We won this because we proposed very senior people who have run multibillion dollar projects before," he said.
Berkley renewed a call for the White House to establish "an independent investigation into all aspects of the work now being done at Yucca Mountain. They said no to this plan for fear it would expose additional problems" at the delayed nuclear waste site.
"Unfortunately, this latest effort seems to be more of the same when it comes to ignoring the concerns of those who disagree with the Yucca Mountain Project," Berkley said.
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Pahrump Valley Times
February 16, 2007
Reid fires on review choice
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., issued the following statement after it was revealed that the Department of Energy (DOE) has hired Longenecker and Associates to conduct an "independent" review of Yucca Mountain.
Ronald Milner, who served as the chief operating officer for the DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, is a member of the senior management team of Longenecker and Associates.
"This situation would be laughable if the risks weren't so high," Reid said. "The man formerly responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Yucca Mountain Project as a chief operating officer at the DOE now turns out to be a senior manager at the same firm the DOE just hired to conduct a review of Yucca.
"That's like hiring a student who is failing in literature to grade his own term paper."
Reid continued, "The DOE is planning to waste half a million more taxpayer dollars on work that will ultimately be meaningless because the company hired to conduct the review has a major conflict of interest. The DOE should stop wasting taxpayer dollars and come to the realization that the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain is a dying beast and will never be built. On-site storage is the answer to the nation's nuclear waste challenges."
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Pahrump Valley Times
February 16, 2007
Beatty awards two beautification grants
By Richard Stephens
PVT
The Beatty Town Advisory Board approved two more applications for storefront beautification grants at its Valentine's Day meeting. It also approved the expenditure of $3,450 to purchase 10 new pagers for the Beatty Volunteer Fire Department.
The beautification grants, which reimburse a portion of the cost of materials used to improve the facades of businesses along the downtown corridor, were awarded to the Beatty Chamber of Commerce for its building near the bridge and to Alpheus Bruton for improvements to the Beatty Club.
Those receiving the grants must spend the money up front and submit receipts for reimbursement after the work is done.
Concerning the pagers, firefighter Mike Lasorsa said that they are needed because the department had been successful with recruiting and retention and needed equipment for more firemen.
The board endorsed the Nevada Department of Transportation's new Landscape and Aesthetics Corridor Plan. Several people from Beatty, including board member Bert Bertam, represented the town in contributing ideas for the plan.
Among the features of the plan mentioned by Bertram were rest stops and additional signs. He also said that there would need to be secured rest areas for trucks hauling high-level nuclear waste if such were transported over the highway to Yucca Mountain.
Most of the items in the plan would be constructed only if a major highway project were undertaken, as they are funded by a mandated 3 percent of the cost of projects.
Bertram also said he thought it was time for the town to update the list of items included in the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy published by EDEN (Economic Development Authority of Esmeralda and Nye Counties). He said that "the most glaring omission is that we are working on a master plan."
Commissioner Joni Eastley said that another item that should be included is the development of a water supply for the Beatty airport. This might entail the drilling of a well.
Chairman Larry Gray suggested tabling this item to provide time for people to make additional suggestions.
Bertram said he had discussed with Ann Marchand the possibility of putting plaques on historical buildings in Beatty as part of the beautification project. He said th