Vol. 4,  No. 8          February 15, 2007

Nevada's Online State News Journal

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Top News Story:

Yucca Costs Not Reality,

Say Nevada Officials

Harry Reid Looking To Shut

Off Funding For Nuke Dump

by Johnny Gunn

The Department of Energy (DOE) continues to show contempt for doing its job properly, by law or by rule according to a report released by the State of Nevada's Nuclear Projects Agency.  Scientific agencies around the world agree that the high level nuclear waste that DOE and the nuclear energy industry wants to store under Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada will continue to be extremely dangerous for more than 250,000 years, and will reach its peak of danger about 200,000 years into the program.

According to Bob Loux of Nevada's Nuclear Projects Agency, DOE has not used proper budgeting methods when they assert that it would be costlier to hold the waste at the site of the nuclear energy reactors than to store it in the Yucca repository.  Loux has said that DOE did a faulty analysis and failed to use a proper "discount rate" when determining the costs of the project.  Loux said the discount rates are demanded by such government budgetary agencies as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and others (he specifically mentioned OMB and CBO).

A Nevada cost analysis also assumes that even within the next 200 years there will means to make the concept of Yucca unnecessary.  The ability to reuse the waste is already being scientifically studied around the world.  A cost estimate by DOE of $58 billion for Yucca is being questioned by state officials, and is being thoroughly investigated in congressional hearings.  The current fiscal year budget proposal before congress is almost half a billion dollars and Nevada Representative Jon Porter calls it a "reckless waste of taxpayer funds."

Porter is responsible for bringing to the public's attention the quality control problems and outright lies perpetrated by DOE contract workers, in particular water infiltration problems within the Yucca tunnels and holding areas.  Porter's congressional hearings detailed how scientists created two sets of quality control books, one for the public that was false and filled with lies, and one for the agency that may have held the truth.  "How do my constituents feel safe about a high risk project when the Department of Energy has admittedly played fast and loose with quality control procedures?" Porter asks.

The DOE budget request comes shortly after an interim General Accountability Office (GAO) report cited the DOE for spending supplemental money after scientists disobeyed quality control processes and reported faulty data on the water infiltration processes.  On Monday, February 5, Porter asked how it is possible for the government "to ask for an additional dime for this doomed project is not only fiscally irresponsible but an insult to the residents of Nevada?" 

The DOE continues to say they will file a license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by June 2008, slightly more than one year from now.  Nevada Senator and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he is planning to put as much energy as he has into shutting off all funding for the Yucca Mountain project.  Reid said, "The proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump is never going to open.  Since I was elected to Congress in 1982, I have been fighting against Yucca Mountain because it threatens the health and safety of Nevadans and people across the United States.  The science is incomplete, unsound, yet clearly demonstrates that Yucca Mountain is not a safe site for isolating nuclear waste."

Reid is one of the proponents of storing the high level nuclear waste at its source, the nuclear energy production sites.  He feels the safety factor alone should be enough to end the concept of underground storage in a single location.  Raid said, "I am convinced that the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump will never be built because of the myriad of scientific, safety and technical problems with the project. It simply is neither safe nor secure, as illustrated by numerous significant scientific, legal and budgetary setbacks.  Yet, we must safely store spent nuclear fuel. Fortunately, dry cask storage is a viable, safe and secure alternative that is readily available and can be fully implemented."

In 2005 Reid was joined by the rest of the Nevada congressional delegation and that of Utah to introduce the Spent Nuclear Fuel On-Site Storage Act of 2005, S. 2099.  "Our bill would effectively end our government's funding for Yucca Mountain because it would require commercial nuclear utilities to safely transfer spent nuclear fuel from temporary storage in water-filled pools to secure storage in licensed, on-site dry cask storage facilities," he said in a statement at the time.

Reid is under the impression, as are so many today that long term waste disposal isn't necessary since other means will be discovered in time.  Reid put it this way, "Since the Spent Nuclear Fuel On-Site Storage Act of 2005 will allow nuclear waste to be safely stored for approximately a hundred years, our legislation will also allow time for a scientifically-based, safe solution to be developed."

One problem with the Yucca Mountain facility is how to get 77,000 tons of the most dangerous material in the world across the country safely.  The subject of safety is answered by DOE by using tests that were conducted more than 20-years ago, well before September 11, 2001, well before the concept of international terrorists coming to America to do harm.  Senator Reid believes the transportation of the waste would involve 53,000 truck shipments and over 10,000 rail shipments spread over 25 years to get the material to Yucca Mountain.

Reid says, "Most of the waste is generated east of the Mississippi, that means most waste will be traveling across the country, through 43 states and hundreds of major metropolitan areas on its way to Nevada."  DOE has not addressed the potential disaster from a terrorist attack on trucks or trains.  As many as 15 million people may be living within one half a mile of the transportation routes planned by DOE.  A nuclear waste cask breach would flood a 40-square-mile area with deadly radiation.

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