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Yucca project review halted
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Updated: Oct. 7, 2010 | 8:03 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission tossed water on the embers of the Yucca Mountain project this week, directing agency scientists to halt a formal review of the nuclear waste site.
The guidance by NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko could hasten a final chapter on the nuclear repository program, whose personnel have dispersed and whose offices in Las Vegas and Washington were shut down as of Oct. 1.
The move was applauded by Nevada federal and state officials eager to see the nuclear program ended. But it has raised hackles in other states and among industry groups, and attorneys said it could add fuel to the ongoing legal battles over the project's remains.
The commissioners who lead the nuclear safety body have not yet ruled on a Department of Energy request to withdraw a construction application for the site -- about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas -- raising questions as to whether it might be premature for NRC analysts to stop their work, some attorneys said.
"As a general matter, when an administrative agency has an application before it, and in particular the NRC, there is an obligation to review the application," according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear industry's lobbying arm. "That would be a general principle, that as long as an application is pending, which it is, the agency is under an obligation."
An attorney for the state of Washington, one of the parties suing the Department of Energy over the Yucca Mountain shutdown, asked the NRC and the Department of Justice on Wednesday for more information, a possible precursor to further legal action.
In Nevada, the head of the nuclear projects agency said the state earlier this year formally requested the NRC halt its Yucca Mountain review after the Obama administration indicated it wanted to shut down the project.
For the NRC to continue producing reports about Yucca Mountain "would be a waste of taxpayer money," said Bruce Breslow.
Meredith MacKenzie, a spokeswoman for leading Yucca critic Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the writing has been on the wall for Yucca Mountain's demise for some time.
"The president's FY11 budget clearly stated that the Yucca Mountain project was being closed out," MacKenzie said. "Why would anybody want the federal government to continue wasting time and valuable resources working on a license application for a project that has no money, no staff, and no chance of ever being built?"
"The NRC and its chairman are 100 percent right to move forward on ending Yucca Mountain given the dump's lack of funding and continued opposition in Nevada," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.
The guidance to NRC staff came in the context of a memo, issued Monday by Chief Financial Officer James Dyer, on how the NRC would manage its budget for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, according to NRC officials.
"The chairman is the principal executive officer of the NRC and the staff is now following previously established commission policy that directs a transition to begin an orderly closure of high level waste activities," according to a statement issued by the agency.
Agency spokesman David McIntyre said the NRC would allocate $10 million during the new budget year to archive documents gathered during the NRC's long involvement with the Yucca program.
McIntyre said the memo was an internal document and there were no plans to make it public. Neither Jaczko nor the other four commissioners planned to comment, he said.
An appeal to allow the Department of Energy to withdraw its Yucca Mountain application has been pending since July, after a lower board rejected DOE's request.
There has been wide speculation among officials in various states and industry-leaning bloggers that a final ruling has been delayed because Jaczko favors Yucca termination but has not gathered a majority among three other commissioners to join him.
There are five commissioners but one, George Apostolakis, has recused himself from the case.
Jaczko, a physicist, has served on the NRC since 2005 and was designated chairman in 2009 by President Barack Obama. Previously, Jaczko was a top aide to Reid, who fought the Bush administration to nominate him and later to appoint him to a second term.
The NRC commissioners do most of their deliberations in writing or behind closed doors, and other agency officials have not been able to shed light on the Yucca case that many attorneys expected to be settled by the end of the summer.
Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.
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Per Obama, "Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket." Reid is proposing Obama's plan. Cost to our utilities for solar $.45/kilowatt, wind $.10/kilowatt,coal $.035/kilowatt, nuclear $.01/kilowatt, nuclear with decomissioning and storage costs $.015/kilowatt. So Reid has stopped Nevada Power from buying coal power at $.03/k and is forcing it to buy "green" power at 3-4 or more times.
Solar and wind receive subsidies of over $23/Mwh (megawatt hour) compared with $1.59/Mwh for nuclear, $0.44/Mwh for conventional coal, and $0.25/Mwh for natural gas.
Harry Reid held up all of President Bush's judicial appointments for over a year until President Bush agreed to appoint Gregory Jaczko to a five year term to the NRC in exchange for Reid allowing some of President Bush's judicial appointments to go forward.
Jaczko was Harry Reid's assistant at the time.
He was put in this position for exactly this reason--to stop the 30 years of progress in solving the nuclear waste problem, and to allow the expansion of low cost nuclear energy.
The thing that most people ignore in the Yucca Mountain debate is simply this--the problem is not going away.
The material is safe where it is now, perhaps for another 60 years but the materials have a half life of 500,000 years, meaning 60 years is not going to cut it.
These materials are stored next to major population centers.
Those places are where many of our 1.5 million new residents came from--places where their family and friends still live.
So we must have a safe place to store the material, and we do--a place that we studied for 30 years. The money to do that has been spent. But what are we doing?
Ignoring the problem. Leaving it for the next generation--those people in 5th grade right now...
..along with the massive debts, the unfunded Social Security promises and all the other issues we are passing onto their small shoulders.
Because we are essentially moral cowards.
The movers and shakes that directed Harry Reid to pressure banks to loan money to "save City Center" and their investments while pushing the workers at the Yucca Mountain Project down the well are just the tip of this iceberg--and Harry says "its not MY fault!"
..well yes Harry..it is, yours and your parties.
Interestingly..there is only one place on the plant where thy have actually blown up 921 nuclear devices already--as it happens it is also a very good place to store the nuclear waste from our nuclear power plants.
Hard to find a combination of low water table,low rainfall, isolation, high security, and--a place that will never be used for anything else because.. they blew up all those nuclear bombs there.
One day the material encased in the caskets will be exposed to blowing in he wind.
Right now we have about 5 inches of concrete between these materials and the wind. The Yucca Mountain project would magnesium drip shields, containers made of specially formulated Alloys--add 1000 feet of volcanic tuff before those materials ever saw the light of day. Easily extending the safety factor.. but that's OK Harry Reid has his priorities....
I'm sure in 25 years the kids in school now--those future scientists and leaders, will look back with amazement at what those were..
May. 14, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Former Reid aide named chairman of NRC
Gregory Jaczko doubted plans for Yucca repository
By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Gregory Jaczko, left, shown in 2008 with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., was named chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Wednesday.
WASHINGTON -- Gregory Jaczko, a former aide to Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who has expressed doubts about storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, was designated Wednesday as chairman of the federal nuclear safety agency.
President Barack Obama approved the promotion, which was announced by the White House.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/44970662.html
Election 2010: Nevada Senate
Nevada Senate: Angle (R) Edges Ahead of Reid (D)
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Republican challenger Sharron Angle has now moved to a four-point lead over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada’s bare-knuckles U.S. Senate race.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Nevada Voters shows Angle hitting the 50% mark for the first time since mid-August, while Reid earns 46% of the vote. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate in the race, and two percent (2%) more are undecided. (To see question wording, click here.)
This marks the widest gap between the two candidates since late June, but the race remains a Toss-Up in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Senate Balance of Power rankings.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2010/election_2010_senate_elections/nevada/election_2010_nevada_senate
Judgement day is coming Harry.. It will be EXTREMEly rewarding...
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just picked up the endorsement of a very special Republican for Reid -- the current leader of the state Senate GOP!
State Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, who has served in the legislature since 1972, released a statement of support for Reid.
"Only one of these candidates has sought my endorsement, Senator Harry Reid. I haven't heard from Sharron Angle or talked with her since long before she decided to run against me for State Senate two years ago. After losing to me in a primary, during which she ran a very negative campaign and distorted my record, referred to me as a liar and a RINO, I never heard one word from her, or a concession, or an offer of support. Instead, she lent aid and comfort to an effort to recall me as State Senator.
"Those are personal issues which I was willing to put behind me.
"What is difficult to overlook is her record of being totally ineffective as a four-term assemblywomen, her inability or unwillingness to work with others, even within her own party, and her extreme positions on issues such as Medicare, social security, education, veterans affairs and many others."
Solar and wind receive subsidies of over $23/Mwh (megawatt hour) compared with $1.59/Mwh for nuclear, $0.44/Mwh for conventional coal, and $0.25/Mwh for natural gas.
One more thing,You think you got it bad with Reid? We got Butch! I'm not a tea bagger "heh heh" but I agree with their slogan,Throw the bums out! All of 'em! Jeezz!