Sun editorial:

The big picture

Nevada should look beyond salary controversy in fight against nuclear waste dump

Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008 | 2:08 a.m.

The overwhelming majority of Nevadans and their elected officials clearly realize the potential dangers of accepting the nation’s high-level nuclear waste at the proposed Yucca Mountain dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. They know that the accidental release of radioactive waste could have catastrophic effects on the state’s population, its environment and its economy.

They also realize the fight against the dump is too critical to be derailed by the resignation Monday of Bob Loux as executive director of the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects. State lawmakers had questioned the legality of pay raises Loux gave to himself and co-workers. The commission, which represents the state in the fight against the dump, is needed more than ever now that the Energy Department’s application to build the dump is being considered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Commission Chairman Richard Bryan, a former Nevada senator and governor, was right when he told the Associated Press: “From my perspective, the paramount issue for all of us on this commission is that nothing we do, nothing Mr. Loux has done in the past, will divert focus from our primary mission.”

A small minority of Nevadans who want to sell out this state to the nuclear power lobby under the guise of “negotiating for benefits” would love to believe that the salary controversy somehow justifies shipping deadly waste here. They are naive to believe Nevadans are that gullible.

If the sellout crowd is so concerned about bringing more jobs and money to Nevada, it would be better served expending its energy on the recruitment of businesses that will not create public health hazards. That way we could grow the economy without worrying about the possibility of a train wreck involving nuclear waste or an unforeseen accident at the dump.

Let’s remain solidly behind the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects, state elected officials and our congressional delegation in their fight against the DOE license application as we enter the critical end game, where a unified voice is one of the strongest weapons Nevada will possess.

Discussion: 5 comments so far…

By Future2012

10/1/08 at 7:33 a.m.

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Crooked Nevada lobbyist Bob Loux has nothing to do with Yucca Mountain

The LV Sun is wrong. There no longer is an overwhelming marjority against Yucca Mountain.

The point was made in the R-J on 1-17-2008, that Bill Clinton and Bill Richardson held 21 formal draft EIS hearings (9 in Nevada) in 1999 and 2000, to establish that danger from transportation of nuclear waste is less then such hazardous materials as chorine and propane.

The License Application has been submittied and accepted for review by the NRC.

The LA meet the EPA standards.

In his own words Obama is more of a realist, choosing to rely on science to make a decision.

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.

Stopping Yucca is not a political decision but a legal and technical decision as played out by the NRC, the five supporting national labs, and the USGS.
By jfnance32

10/1/08 at 8:12 a.m.

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"salary controversy ???????????"

LOL....Democrats sure love their crooks.
By azsk8fan

10/1/08 at 10:08 a.m.

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And the republicans love their dumb-a$$e$
By Ardent

10/1/08 at 3:26 p.m.

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As usual with Sun editorials on Yucca Mountain, a translation is needed.

When the Sun editors say:

"The overwhelming majority of Nevadans and their elected officials clearly realize the potential dangers of accepting the nation's high-level nuclear waste at the proposed Yucca Mountain dump"

What they really mean is:

"A handful of politicians and their well-compensated appointees (e.g., the embezzler Bob Loux) have made it political suicide in Nevada to support the repository and have brainwashed the public, through lies and misinformation, into accepting an anti-repository view that for them is little more than a knee-jerk reflex at this point."

When the Sun editors say:

"A small minority of Nevadans who want to sell out this state to the nuclear power lobby under the guise of negotiating for benefits."

What they really mean is:

"A percentage of the population whose steadily growing size the Sun would rather not disclose, constituted by citizens who feel that, given the increasing likelihood that the repository will indeed be built, Nevada should get whatever benefit it can from what is beginning to look like a fait accompli -- largely due to the incompetence of our elected officials in fighting the federal government."

Finally, when the Sun editors claim that members of the so-called "sellout crowd" are "naive to believe Nevadans are that gullible," the only reasonable response has to be:

"Why shouldn't the sellout crowd think repository opponents are gullible if the latter have consistently believed the lies and misinformation presented in Sun editorials such as this one?"
By Ardent

10/1/08 at 3:52 p.m.

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And here are some more absurdities offered by the Sun editors in this latest example of their cluelessness:

(1) Not only does Nevada's citizenry not possess a "unified voice," but also such a voice would not be much of a weapon. It may be the State's only weapon at this stage, given its utter lack of any credible scientific, regulatory, or legal case against the repository. The unvarnished truth is what Future2012 suggests: Approval of the repository is now in the hands of the NRC, which will decide the case in the context of scientific, regulatory, and legal merit.

If, for some reason, the repository is not approved, I can guarantee you that it will have nothing to do with the opposition case presented by our intrepid State officials, who for decades have offered nothing but the same threadbare propaganda we often find repeated in the editorial pages of the Sun. The real irony will confront us if the repository isn't approved and we are forced to listen as our State officials and its propaganda organs (e.g., the Sun) crow about how they "defeated Yucca Mountain." Kind of like the local witch-doctor taking credit for a hurricane that happened to pass by the mainland.

(2) Most Nevadans, including the editors of the Sun, haven't the slightest idea what effect an "accidental radioactive release" would have on the environment or the economy, simply because they have not bothered to read ANY of the relevant scientific literature, whether it comes from the DOE or an independent scientific agency such as the NAS.

What kind of release are we talking about here? How much material and what kind? Where is it released from and how far does it go?

Heck, my smoke detector, my TV, my computer screen release radiation. I get 350 mrem of it annually from natural sources that cannot be avoided and have no appreciable effect on my health or the environment.

And yet, whenever the Sun or one of our State officials offers a statement such as this, without any specifics or context, without providing us any basis for comparison with what we experience everyday, we're expected to buy off on their "opinion" hook, line, and sinker?

I don't think so. You're entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts. And while I respect the Sun editors' right to voice their opinion, that doesn't mean I have to respect the opinion itself, which is nothing more than allegations without proof or (for that matter) any basis in common sense.

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