Sun editorial:

Putting science first

Nomination of Chu as next energy secretary holds promise for Nevada and the nation

Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

President-elect Barack Obama’s announcement Monday that he will nominate Nobel laureate Steven Chu to become the nation’s next energy secretary is welcome news on at least two fronts.

One is that Chu is a scientist who Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is convinced shares Obama’s opposition to a proposed nuclear waste dump in Nevada. Another reason to be enthused about Chu is that with him at the helm, this country can expect more aggressive development and use of environmentally friendly renewable energy resources.

Chu, a physicist who shared the 1997 Nobel Prize for discovering how to cool and trap atoms and molecules with lasers, is intimately familiar with the Energy Department that he would run. As director of the DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, Chu called for increased research involving solar energy and biofuels in an effort to reduce the greenhouse gases that have led to global warming.

The New York Times wrote in a Dec. 5 profile of Chu that he “has spoken unenthusiastically” about the proposal for a Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

“He has shown that he can work beyond the confines of a national lab to tackle real-world issues and his expertise will greatly benefit our country,” Reid said of Chu. “Dr. Chu also knows, like most Nevadans, that Yucca Mountain is not a viable solution for dumping and dealing with nuclear waste.”

Reid’s backing is critical because he had said he would not allow the Senate to approve the nomination of an energy secretary who supported a Yucca Mountain dump.

It will be refreshing to have a scientist of Chu’s stature in Obama’s Cabinet. The Bush administration too often treated scientists as second-class citizens and tainted reasonable scientific recommendations with a destructive political agenda that promoted development of fossil fuels and other policies that harmed the environment. That is not likely to be the case with Obama.

Discussion: 6 comments so far…

By jhv

12/17/08 at 4:38 a.m.

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Quit screwing around with Yucca, build it finally!! This country needs it, we need to continue with nuclear power, its that simple. The people of Nevada will never even know its there. Have you read Chu's Yucca report? Maybe you should before you actually think he has any power to stop it. The dinosaurs of this country have to finally put a foot ahead. He have lost technology, we have lost industry, we have lost personnel who knew the technology to countries like India, Russia, France, China and the list keeps getting larger, we are becoming a 3rd world country, we cannot even supply our own material to make something as simple as clothing let alone a power plant. I am in the power plant business, I see the junk coming from China, Japan, Belgium, Germany, etc. This country was self sufficient at one time now we depend on other countries for our needs. Wake up America...Get rid of these dianosaurs in office.
By jfnance32

12/17/08 at 7:55 a.m.

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It is a quarantee that 10 years from now our utility bills will be larger than a car payment on fancy new car.

Solar and Wind are expensive.

Also, they do not provide 24/7 reliable energy. Which means we have duplicate energy plants to feed into our grid.

If you think our economy is bad now. It is going to horrible than.

I am sure that the Sun and Democrats will than do their regular tap dance supported by the lib media, "Who us?"

Our children and their grandchildren are going to suffer so much.
By Future2012

12/17/08 at 7:57 a.m.

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Obama has selected another Bush appointee.

Excellent choice.

Show Bush has been on the Renewable track for a long time.
By Future2012

12/17/08 at 7:58 a.m.

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The directors of 10 national laboratories including Steven Chu as head of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California prepared an eight-page position paper on nuclear power that was forwarded to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman near the end of the summer, calling for the "licensing of the Yucca repository as a long-term measure."

The main author was Adam Cohen, deputy associate director for the Argonne National Laboratory. Cohen indicated that it is not political. The laboratory officials "are not here to pass judgment as to whether Yucca Mountain is good, bad or indifferent,"

Cohen said. "It is really science based."

So we can go with a science based decision as recommended by Chu

Or we can go with a non-science based political decision by confessed crook Bob Loux and Harry Reid.

This puts to rest the bad science trash that is put out by the anti-nuclear crowd.

The science based YMP License Application was docketed September 8, 2008.

State Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto on 12-19-2008 is to release Lobbyist and confessed crook Bob Loux's list of hundreds of contentions that will be filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Nevada opponents, if they permit an adjudication their positions on technical facts of the program should have nothing to fear from a quality review process.

The LA process continues to establish the suitability of the Yucca Mountain site, and is based on the science of the five supporting national labs and the USGS.

Are Loux, Reid and Obama really smarter than Steven Chu, the five national labs, the USGS, and the NRC to make a decision to stop the project.

If Reid gets the project tanked it will not be because of "bad science".
By Future2012

12/17/08 at 8:03 a.m.

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See what the LV Sun says below.

They missed the part where Steven Chu has been a Bush appointee.

LV Sun said "It will be refreshing to have a scientist of Chu's stature in Obama's Cabinet."
By boco

12/17/08 at 8:47 a.m.

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If Dr. Chu becomes Secretary of Energy, we should expect to see from him and DOE a respect for science as he has shown over the course of his career. I would think that he would have some respect for the Yucca Mountain license application that took umpteen years and several billion dollars to prepare. Even if he is unlikely to have the time to trudge through the 8,600 page documents in the license application presented to the independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission, he should be aware that many technical specialists from the National Laboratories worked on the application and that the NRC has the qualified people and the responsibility under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to judge whether is scientific merit to the proposed repository.
From a distance, it looks as though Sen. Reid did a masterful job at coercing or otherwise getting all of the Democratic candidates seeking Nevada votes in the caucus (and fundraising within a rich donor support base) to pledge to terminate a project important to Reid. Maybe after January 20 the new President will learn it is important to the rest of the Nation as well.