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South Carolina governor protests Yucca termination
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Mark Sanford
South Carolina's governor aims to block shutdown of project
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STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Updated: Apr. 10, 2012 | 10:59 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- South Carolina's governor is protesting the Obama administration's planned termination of the Yucca Mountain Project, including asking the state's attorney general to "pursue every legal action possible" to stop the shutdown.
Gov. Mark Sanford is scheduled to hold a news conference today in Columbia, S.C., alongside two members of the state's congressional delegation, where they are expected to broadcast their unhappiness with steps the White House is taking to end development of a Nevada nuclear waste repository.
"The governor will not be announcing any specific legal action tomorrow, at least as of right now," said Sanford's spokesman, Ben Fox.
Sanford, a Republican, will call for President Barack Obama "to recommit to Yucca Mountain, to put it bluntly," Fox said.
It was unclear what options South Carolina could pursue. But Sanford's reaction reflects what is being described as a mixture of bafflement, anger and resignation to the planned Yucca termination in several of the 38 states where radioactive spent fuel figures to remain stored at reactor sites for decades longer while the government considers alternatives to underground storage in Nevada.
"They are frustrated obviously," said David Wright, a South Carolina public service commissioner.
Wright predicted that within a month, one or more states will seek to intervene with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to protest the administration's plan. "And once something like that is filed, there is no telling who else would get involved," he said.
Sanford, whose state is home to an estimated 4,000 metric tons of nuclear waste from seven commercial nuclear reactors and defense nuclear waste stored at the Savannah River processing center, asked Attorney General Henry McMaster in a letter Thursday to start researching options for the state to pursue.
In his letter, Sanford said the decision to end funding for the repository and withdraw a pending license application at the NRC "is spectacularly misguided" and "breaks a promise" the government made almost three decades ago to dispose of the radioactive material produced by 104 commercial reactors.
He said the decision to terminate Yucca Mountain was "nothing more than what many would see as a Chicago-style political payoff" to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who secured such a pledge from Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Sanford sent a similar letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and other members of his state's congressional delegation last week. He asked them to do what they could "in pushing the Obama administration and Congress to complete the permanent repository."
A Reid spokesman said Obama was right to shelve the Yucca Mountain repository because Nevada did not have the clout to prevent its selection years ago and now has the power in Reid, the Senate majority leader, to force a new direction. "Because of Harry Reid, a scientific panel is going to determine how best to dispose of nuclear waste," spokesman Jon Summers said, referring to a commission established by the Obama administration.
Reps. Joe Wilson and Gresham Barrett, both Republicans, are scheduled to join Sanford at the news conference today, along with other state officials and residents near the Savannah River complex, Fox said.
At a conference of state utility regulators in Washington on Monday, officials debated but could not agree on how states holding nuclear waste should respond to the Obama administration's decision.
"What do we really want? We want the waste moved," said Brian O'Connell, nuclear waste adviser to the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.
Department of Energy officials met over the weekend with utility regulators and staff but could not answer why DOE wanted to withdraw the Yucca license application "with prejudice," a legal term that signifies the application cannot be refiled at a later date. The decision was made at the White House, the regulators were told.
"It was interesting to watch them squirm," Sarah Hofmann, a public utilities staff member from Vermont, said in a presentation. Regardless, Hofmann said, "the ground has shifted beneath us, and we need to readjust."
A National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners subcommittee considered an official resolution that expressed frustration with the proposed ending of the repository program but pledged to work with the commission to study alternatives.
Lauren McDonald, chairman of the Georgia Public Service Commission, called for something stronger. He said states should demand that DOE produce all of the documents that supported its decision to find the Yucca site unsatisfactory and to have them examined in congressional hearings.
McDonald said the association of utility regulators should formally oppose the withdrawal of the repository license application and call for the NRC to complete its evaluation of the project.
Dusty Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, said the Yucca Mountain issue "is a lot more about politics and always has been, than it has been about good policy."
"Leadership is not dithering and delaying until you can pass the buck onto the next generation," Johnson said. "While we may have 40 years to deal with this problem, 25 years has gone by, and we are not a whole lot closer. Forty years might as well be tomorrow."
But Greg Jergerson, chairman of the Montana Public Service Commission, said states should be "constructively engaged" with the administration, rather than critical of it.
Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.
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Open Yucca mountain NOW! Lake mead is drying up and Vegas will be history. At least there will be a few jobs left.
The US Department of Energy does NOT own the Yucca Mountain site. This fact is under reported and failure to do so is a disinformation tactic used to keep the true owners, the Western Shoshone Nation, disenfranchised from the benefits of property ownership. Bring it on, I say, so we can get a full record on all the abuses by the US against the Western Shoshone people.
@ Drunken Master
You raise a very good point, even though it is wrapped up in a layer of sarcasm which may discourage people from really recognizing it.
Namely, that there is no reason why solar and nuclear energy could not coexist. In fact, there are good reasons why they should coexist. For one thing, it is probably not reasonable to assume that either one will be able to supply ALL our energy needs any time soon. Why not distribute our energy needs among a number of smaller energy sources, rather than being utterly dependent on only one big one? Wouldn't it be just as dangerous to be utterly dependent on solar as on anything else?
Well done, Drunken. Good suggestion.
PS -
Nevada has no choice but to diversify it's economy. The nuclear industry is an existing, proven industry that could potentially be safely added to the Nevada economy. But if the nuclear industry is out of the question for all time, then what?
THAT is the question Nevadans must answer, not the IQ or sanity or moral integrity of either supporters or opponents of the nuclear industry. Let's not lose track of that.
Just yesterday I saw a news piece reporting that Hawaii, which is one of only TWO states that have not legalized gambling, is now considering legalizing gambling. In fact, supporters were specifically quoted in the piece as saying that now Hawaiians will not have to get in a jet and fly to Las Vegas in order to go to a casino.
With that sort of trend in mind, I submit that it is only a matter of time before Nevada will have no choice but to diversify it's economy. I also submit that by evidently holding out for absolutely perfectly clean, zero risk alternative industries, Senator Reid and his supporters are "fiddling while Rome burns."
Those who support Senator Reid's policies can most productively show their support by arguing for them in front of the NRC. And by providing real business plans for real alternative industries instead of nuclear. You want government to be run like a business? Then run it like one!
Those who oppose Senator Reid's policies can best show their opposition by making it clear to him that they do not wish to join the crowds of Nevadans who have already lost their jobs and/or businesses thanks to his policies. And then by voting him out in November.
Verbal assaults and hatred may feel good, but they don't serve anyone's cause. In the long run, they just make enemies. Even though I am not interested in retaliation, as I said in a previous post, I will NEVER forget a lecture years ago in which an opposition representative accused Yucca Mountain scientists of being the "moral equivalent of Nazi death camp doctors." ANY target of such vicious slander has every right to be deeply, permanently hurt and angered.
@ Skeptical Nevadan,
I don't know how many different ways there are to say that I am NOT saying that Drunken Master proved his point by simply being polite. I am also NOT saying that he was right about Yucca Mountain seismicity. You can't have it both ways, Skeptical - you can't say that this forum is too abbreviated to fully debate this issue, and then verbally assault me for not fully debating it in this forum.
And I take it personally that you seem to think you are the only one qualified to speak for all those Project scientists. I worked on the Project for 16 years before I was laid off thanks to Senator Reid. I read the documents, and knew the scientists you speak of. So far, you haven't told me anything I didn't already know.
I also remember very well how insulting and painful and humiliating it was to be fully DEMONIZED by the opposition for all those years. Perhaps the big difference between you and me, then, is that I am not interested in revenge or getting even. As you seem to be.
I can only conclude that you are intentionally not listening, so as to pick a fight.
@ Drunken Master -
Fair enough. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, then. I am still not convinced that it is safer to leave the waste where it is than to store it at Yucca Mountain. And I am still not convinced that either Nevada or our nation or our planet can afford to start all over again, or wait another fifty years for a perfect solution.
But I do know that demonizing the opposition will NOT help. No matter who does it.