State: Yucca is dying, but don’t stop fighting

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 | 4:09 p.m.

Yucca Mountain

CARSON CITY – State officials leading the fight against Yucca Mountain are optimistic that the proposed nuclear waste repository won’t be built, but cautioned that Nevada shouldn’t let up on its opposition.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams told the Commission on Nuclear Projects Wednesday that she believes Yucca Mountain is “on its way to dying,” but there will be endless appeals of the project.

Former U.S. Sen. Dick Bryan, chairman of the commission, said the state should not rest until a “silver stake is driven through the heart” of the project. “This is not the time to relax,” he cautioned.

Robert Halstead, a consultant for the state Office of Nuclear Projects, said if the license is approved for the repository there would be one or two trucks a week and one or two trains a week transporting nuclear waste through the Las Vegas Valley. The shipments would pass 34 hotel-casinos on the Las Vegas Strip and through the Spaghetti Bowl.

It would result in lower property values and also affect tourism to Southern Nevada, he said. There have already been inquiries about the routes from potential buyers of condominiums in Las Vegas, said Halstead, who has been under contract with the state for 20 years.

“Between the best case and the worst case, there would likely be one-time incidents like gridlock exposures and recurrent events like cumulative, low-level radiation exposures at specific locations, that could cause adverse human health effects that would be difficult or impossible to prove,” he said.

The Department of Energy’s transportation plan for the waste does not talk about the dangers of shipping, the cost and it lacks details, Halstead said. The federal agency says these shipments will go through 44 states, 41 Indian reservations and 950 counties with about 160 million residents.

“In a very severe accident cleanup costs could be $10 billion, and even more in the event of a successful terrorist attack,” he said in his prepared remarks.

In Clark County, about 95,000 people live within one-half mile of the DOE rail route and more than 100,000 live within one-half mile of the DOE truck routes, he said.

Discussion: 5 comments so far…

By mrb

4/29/09 at 7:09 p.m.

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Is this the most mindless article you have ever read or what.... Why does the Sun print such crap? This Halstead character has been barfing up the scare tactics that the state of Nevada wants to hear for 20 years? The only reason that Yucca going down would make me happy is that jerks like this would have to find a real job. I'm sure he would find noone is buying his type of "expertise".
By aBadReid

4/29/09 at 7:42 p.m.

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In the interest of a counter-argument visit http://aBadReid.com

You will find it interesting and, take today's post for example, the letter by several Senator's to Dr. Chu (DOE Energy Secretary) asking him WHY he is considering this to be "off the table".
By abevanluik

4/29/09 at 11:18 p.m.

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I fell really bad about the current economic state we are in here in Las Vegas. A repository would not have nearly the impact on the local economy that the current deep recession is having. Plus, the expansion of gaming around the nation and world, and the next middle-class retiree crop not having the types of retirements that previous generations had, make it unlikely that Las Vegas will ever again see a sustained boom like it has seen the last few decades.

So, what to do? How about diversifying? How about a national high-level waste repository and the potential spin-off research and high technology efforts that can come with such a project if the host state requires it from the Federal government. Look at Carlsbad New Mexico which hosts the only working geologic radioactive waste repotory in the nation right now, and it has been operating for 10 years with thousands of safe shipments! That community loves the repository and the reasearch facilities that have come along with it as part of the "deal" struck with the feds.

Compared to the Carlsbad repository, Yucca Mountain would be worth much more, and that worth can be translated into new businesses supported by university programs that will make sure that there are Nevadans ready to work in such advanced technology endeavors.

Is there risk, in transportation? DOE's Environmental Impact Satement says there is, but it is a manageable risk. In Europe and parts of Asia they move spent fuel and high-level waste continually, and the types of severe accidents that the fear-mongers like to describe as possible, which they are, have never been seen! Possible does NOT mean likely. A very real threat to real, living Nevadans is a two-lane highway for most of the distance between its two largest cities. Upgrading that to a freeway ought to be a first demand for taking this enterprise on behalf of the nation, is my opinion as a Nevadan.
By jhv

4/30/09 at 4:54 a.m.

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I have had it with Nevada, hopefully, the DOE will not ever spend one more penny in the state. It seems that the thinking is that of Californian style, or even worse.
By GM

4/30/09 at 10:23 a.m.

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It's about time the nation starting seeing the folly of shipping the nation's nuke waste across the country for decades to a mountain in the Nevada desert that does more harm than good to protecting the environment from one of the most deadly substances man has ever created.

If the nuke dump is ever built, it will do far more harm than good to Nevada's economy.

It's ridiculous to think the relatively few jobs that could come with this nuclear cemetery are in any way a fair trade for the inevitable and potential dangers of this ill-fated project. Just the perception of having the nation's nuclear waste traveling through and buried so close to Las Vegas could cripple Nevada's increasingly fragile tourism-based economy. Imagine the impact on Las Vegas visitation if there was even one truck or train accident near the Strip or in the suburbs, whether radiation leaked from the allegedly safe containers or not.

The sooner the dump dies, the better.

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