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Energy Department pulls water applications for Yucca rail line
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Apr. 10, 2012 | 10:55 a.m.
In what is the strongest sign to date that it will abandon the Yucca Mountain Project, the Department of Energy on Tuesday withdrew 116 water applications it had filed with the State Engineer for building a rail line to haul nuclear waste to the mountain from Caliente.
"This is the first card in hopefully a domino of cards that is ready to fall," said Nevada's Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams.
She leads the state's legal effort to block DOE from obtaining water for the project, both for the proposed rail line and for constructing and operating a repository to bury 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste in the mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"I'm really happy about it, but we need to make sure it's really in the grave. The next telling thing will be the motion to withdraw the license application," Adams said late Tuesday.
She expects the appeals the federal government has pending in federal court over constitutional issues with Nevada's denial of water for constructing and operating a repository will be dismissed.
The letter dated Monday from DOE Federal Project Director Ned B. Larson to State Engineer Tracy Taylor said the department does not intend to pursue the Caliente rail line water applications "in light of recent developments."
The "developments" stem from the Obama administration's plan to zero out funding for the project and Energy Secretary Steven Chu's announcement last week that the department would withdraw the license application within 30 days. A review of the license application by nuclear regulators has been suspended temporarily.
DOE filed the Caliente rail line water requests on Jan. 20, 2009, the day Barack Obama was sworn in as president. Nevada filed its protests on April 1.
Bob Conrad, spokesman for the state engineer's office, said Larson's letter was received by acting State Engineer Jason King because Taylor is on medical leave.
"Obviously, we will withdraw the applications at their request," Conrad said.
Of the applications, 103 were for temporary wells to build a rail line through a 319-mile corridor from Caliente west to Yucca Mountain. The remaining 13 applications were for permanent wells to maintain and operate the rail line, which would funnel nuclear waste shipments mainly from states in the East and Midwest.
Bruce Breslow, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects and a opponent of the Yucca Mountain Project, said the state wants Chu to declare the site unsuitable and withdraw the license application with prejudice so that it will not be refiled.
He said that Congress probably will not act on Obama's budget recommendation to zero out funding until after the fall elections.
"This is another step toward ending the misguided Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project," Breslow said in a statement Tuesday.
"We are awaiting DOE's motion to withdraw the Yucca license application 'with prejudice,' and hope that the Construction Authorization Board rules quickly to dispose of the application," he said.
Yucca Mountain is by law the only site being studied for a national nuclear waste repository although Obama has fielded a commission to chart a new course for dealing with nuclear waste that does not include Yucca Mountain.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., released a statement Tuesday, saying, "This is another important step toward not only killing the dump, but also making sure it can never come back to life."
Reid has sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office asking the agency to examine alternatives for the Yucca Mountain site.
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This action is contrary to the NWPA. By this law, Secretary Chu should be reporting to Congress that he is not complying. Betcha he doesn't.
Also, to everyone who thinks Yucca Mountain is in Las Vegas, it is actually over 90 miles away. Take a 90 mile circle around any point in the eastern states and you are probably in a different state. Just because you can see 50 miles doesn't mean something at over twice that distance is unsafe.
Further, the runaway chlorine tanker last year almost killed 35000 Las Vegans - where is your demand that all trains be stopped from going through Las Vegas? If Yucca scares you, start demanding NOW that far more frequent and dangerous shipments are stopped immediately from traveling through Las Vegas.
Michael Green;
It's people like you that Senator Reid rely on to buy all the hype and mis-information on Yucca Mountain.
Bad Reid
Bad Senator
http://aBadReid.com
Michael Green,
Actually I have talked to people in Nevada and Utah whose relatives died of radiation poisoning, as you suggest. But I still don't understand how the above-ground nuclear weapons testing which probably caused those deaths can be directly, literally equated to the underground storage of nuclear waste in sealed containers.
I remember right after the Nevada Test Site was shut down, and Senator Reid was so eager to use the site to decommision nuclear weapons. He didn't seem too concerned about nuclear or nuclear-transportation-related risks then!
Nevertheless, I will be glad to talk to those people whose relatives died from radiation if you will talk to those people who have lost their jobs or who can't make ends meet on a casino salary. Tell them why they should just wait until somebody comes up with the perfect solution.
Finally, Michael, when I was a child my aunt died of leukemia that was probably caused by being downwind from the Trinity Site in New Mexico during the first test in 1945. So please don't use rhetoric like that on me. I don't buy it.
Talk to the people here and in Utah whose relatives died to cancer and radiation-related diseases. They'll be glad to tell you how wonderful nuclear energy has been for the area, and what happens when government lies or scientists waffle. We should be giving thanks to Harry Reid and a lot of other leaders for Nevada who have fought to end this project--which, by the way, was passed right after Nevadans kicked out a four-term senior senator and replaced him with a brand-new Republican. Sound familiar? Interested in suicide? Looks like some around here are.
Linda,
Of course you are entitled to your opinion opposing Yucca Mountain, just like Craig. But as you say, at this point the issue for or against Yucca Mountain may never be anything but opinion. We may never actually know, now that the process of evaluating the evidence seems to have been killed.
In the meantime, though, it's only fair to point out that the decision to NOT proceed with Yucca Mountain has real world, practical consequences and risks, just like the decision TO proceed with it.
Unfortunately, making that decision is far more complex in the real world, than the us-against-them, Senator-Reid-is-Saint-George-and-the-DOE-is-the-Dragon way that it seems so commonly to be portrayed.
I guess all that's left now is to try and make sure that BOTH sides are fully presented to Nevada voters, so they can decide for themselves in November which risks they prefer.
to SOCIALIST PROJECT KILLED:
Yes, I believe it does. Thank you. I've known quite a few anti-government types, throughout my life, who were venomously opposed to government intervention until their industry or company were at risk. I agree, you can't have it both ways.
Craig,
I'm still waiting for some reasons why I should agree with you.
For example, you say that Yucca Mountain would harm tourism. What is your basis for saying that? Has the WIPP site in Carlsbad New Mexico hurt tourism at Carlsbad Caverns? Are there studies to show it?
Certainly there are risks associated with proceeding on nuclear energy in general, and Yucca Mountain in particular. But there are also risks associated with NOT proceeding with them.
Of course you are entitled to your opinion about Yucca Mountain. As are the people who share that opinion. But when other people start losing their jobs, and the nation's economic future is put at risk thanks to those opinions, then something more than just opinion is called for. You need to show why proceeding with Yucca Mountain and nuclear power is more dangerous than NOT proceeding with them.
Please remember, Craig, "your freedom to swing your arms ends where my nose begins."
Thanks for your input.
Guess we'll never know whether an off-strip chernoble-type accident or mishap along the rails and roads that would have brought nuclear waste to our backyard would have occurred here, because thanks to Harry Reid, it's one less thing we have to worry about.
To consider converting Vegas to a nuclear dump for the sake of jobs, when other industries (green energy/wind/solar) can be developed to provide jobs is awfully shortsighted. Yucca was a mistake to begin with. Too bad it took so long to kill it.