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twitter$10 million approved to continue fighting Yucca
Official says funding needed because nuclear waste dump fight still not over
Published Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 | 12:33 p.m.
Updated Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 | 4:01 p.m.
Sun Coverage
A state board approved spending $10 million during the next two years to continue the battle over Yucca Mountain, despite Congress and President Barack Obama slashing funding to pursue the proposed nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams said Yucca Mountain is "not dead yet."
Gov. Jim Gibbons raised the issue of the contract because, he said, media reports indicated that the project was killed.
He said the law firm of Egan Fitzpatrick and Malsch, has, since 2002, received $27 million from state and federal money to represent Nevada in its fight against Yucca Mountain.
"Why pay $10 million more if the project is dead," Gibbons asked, taking a shot at President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who have promised to kill the project.
"We're hoping for the best," Adams responded. "There's still another shoe to drop."
She said that until the U.S. Department of Energy withdraws its license application or the application is rejected by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal process is moving forward and the state has to continue to fight.
"The NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Agency) is not aware it's dead," she said.
She did note that without funding, the federal governments push for the location is crippled.
"Federal agencies can't function without funding," she said.
Gibbons, as well as Secretary of State Ross Miller and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, who make up the Board of Examiners, approved the contract.
"We have a great deal of hope the process is dead," Gibbons said.
Masto said if the project is finally killed, the state would not be on the hook for the $10 million. The $10 million is federal money.
Jon Summers, a spokesman for Reid, said in a statement, "It's unfortunate the governor doesn't seem to understand that pro-Yucca forces are still trying to make Nevada the nation's nuclear dumping ground and that the state needs to fight on all fronts."
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That's so weird! Yucca has more lives than a cat. I can't tell you how many times I've seen some variation of "Yucca is dead thanks to Harry Wussy Reid" in a headline.
oh henderson henderson henderson...
my poor poor terribly misguided republican friend...
you know what harry is doing...
he is helping to establish a mind set that yucca is dead...
brilliantly i might add...
and...
you also know that it is not officially dead until legislation is passed to strike the law that is already on the books...
got that skippy...
you know what we need buddy...
a bill...
hee hee hee...
imagine that...
we need a bill...
here's a thought...
would you do me a little favor...
could you give us all a little primer on bills...
thanks buddy!!!
who keeps getting all these millions to fight yucca mountain!!!! somone's pocket is real fat!!
Is anyone fighting for the taxpayer who ultimately gets the shaft no matter which way it goes?
$10 million to help kill an already dead project (that is if you believe Boss Reid)? And at a time when our severely disabled can't even get a visit to the eye doctor let alone new eyeglasses.
Nevada needs a complete new leadership that neither party can deliver: http://texexforgovernor.blogspot.com/
"Federal agencies can't function without funding." Wow, that's brilliant!
Birdie,
That's how dumb you are. All Reid has to do is
repeal Nuclear Waste Policy Act and rescind the liscense application.
He and Obama have already said they're willing to kill Yucca...pull the trigger already.
oh henderson henderson henderson...
my poor poor terribly misguided republican friend...
exactly how do you repeal a law???
hmmm???
you know what we need buddy...
we need a primer on bills...
what do you say champ???
"The NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Agency) is not aware it's dead," Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams said.
"She did note that without funding, the federal governments push for the location is crippled.
"Federal agencies can't function without funding," she said."
Just last week Chu and Harry Reid said they had stopped all funding for Yucca Mountain.
Now Harry needs $10 million of my money to spread around to the goofballs pretending for fight Yucca. This is like another campiage slush fund for Harry to give to his friends.
Let's be clear about Harry Reid, Bruce Breslow, and Nevadans capability to address the technical issues.
$10 million will pay for a lot of trash talk.
After the Yucca Mountain License Application was docketed September 8, 2008, Nevada was embarrassed on 12-19-2008 with the unprofessional quality of the 200 plus questions submitted by confessed crook and Lobbyist Bob Loux and Nevada State Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto. Only 18 questions were accepted by the NRC staff for which the Yucca Mountain project will provide a sound science response.
Since then confessed crook and Lobbyist Bob Loux has quit and the lobbyist job has been replaced by former Sparks mayor, television sports broadcaster, and baseball card trading business mogul Bruce Breslow.
All of the points raised by Bruce in his USA Today article are being answered as part of the adjudication of the YMP License Application and allows science to make the case on the merits.
Opponents, like Reid and Breslow, if they present their positions on technical facts of the program, have should have nothing to fear from a quality review process.
Bruce says "let science catch up and find a permanent solution." Well Bruce the science is here and now and if Bruce Breslow would actually read the LA he would know that.
But wait I thought Harry cut all the funding. Boy are we confused. Help me out here Harry. Be honest. What is happening
I think Yucca is a good idea, but if the majority leader of the Senate and the President cannot stop this then wasting $10 million in state funds sure cannot do it.
Stop wasting money! It's a done deal, they are going to finish it and nuclear waste is coming here. There is no solid proof that it would endanger anyone in Nevada and the gov't was actually going to pay for major infrastructure improvements (which we really need) until Reid started medaling. Reid is a terrible representation of this state and he could care less about the people that live here. Please don't vote for this bozo again! $27 million we have already wasted and another $10 million, thats $37 million that would have gone a long way to improving our school districts which are among the worst in the nation. Just one wasy this money would be better spent..
and the corrupt system of our gov't continues to grease itself....fund itself unnecessarily....
change....the ONLY thing to change is the color of the skin of the idiot we now call president....
we need a revolution....by the people, for the people.
lets not fight it let accept it. take the money and run with it
Where is repeat where is Birdie? The world wonders. Oh, here's Birdie. He may become a new adviser for Reid and will get his share of the 10 million. He's worth it you know. Nobody knows more about "waste repository" then our friend Birdie.
Why doesn't the Sun mention that until the Nuclear Waste Policy Act is changed that Obama is failing to follow and enforce a federal law?
The last time I checked this was grounds for something, like impeachment, criminal prosecution, jail, or some such.
Why does Obama, unlike Clinton or Bush, not have to follow a federal law?
Why does the Sun not ask this question? Are you for selective enforcement of laws you don't like? What's next - equal rights, the freedom of the press?
This is just one reason why America has finally had enough of the "change" administration and Democratic Congress. I would forecast that the next elections will dramatically go against the majority incumbents!
davelv, you can't be seious. The Sun criticize Boss Reid or Obama? Seriously?? This paper will shill for those two goons until it runs out of paper.
getalife and davelv hit the nail on the liberal media head.....
heaven forbid the Greenspun's, who have personally spent MILLIONS in support of Reid, Obama, et al would EVAR say anything against them in print.
for shame Greenspun media, for shame!
Let's be honest, articles like this are exactly why the Sun has been reduced to a 3 page democratic pamphlet inside the LVRJ.
If it wasn't included in the RJ, nobody would buy it.
Funny how the same limited cast of characters always appears for these stories, myself included.
Birdiedreamin is little more than a condescending windbag who seems to equate snark with substance; he/she embodies the "apocalypse now" for rational political debate, which apparently has been reduced to name-calling and assertions without proof. It would be nice if such tactics could be dismissed without comment, but because they are of a piece with the breathtaking ignorance behind the recent healtcare town hall disruptions, one is left to wonder if reason has finally been vanquished by a kind of pridefully intentional stupidity or "magical thinking" or "faith-based worldview" of the sort that put Galileo in prison for insisting that the earth orbits the sun, rather than the other way around.
In any event, the false binary of "Republican versus Democrat" is equally tiresome. The Yucca Mountain Project has always enjoyed bipartisan majority votes in Congress, which the record clearly demonstrates to anyone who can be bothered to look at it. I happen to be a Democrat who supports the repository, and it is just as easy to find a (Nevada) Republican who opposes it. So leave off the silly argument by party affiliation.
Other points, for the record:
Future: You are right that NRC Staff only accepted 19 of the State's contentions. However, the NRC judges presiding over the hearings disagreed with the Staff's (and DOE's) evaluation and ended up admitting nearly all of Nevada's contentions. These will be adjudicated if NRC is allowed to do its job.
Finally, I find it especially depressing that Cortez-Masto's underling, Marta Adams, would say, "The NRC is not aware it's dead."
The NRC is an independent regulatory agency that is obligated to follow the law. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act (as davelv frequently reminds us) is the law of the land and requires NRC to evaluate the Yucca Mountain Project license application and either grant or deny a construction authorization -- based on the scientific, regulatory, and technical merits. End of story. (Unless, of course, you are Harry Reid and are willing to circumvent law through budget manipulation, like de-funding the NRC's statutorily mandated review.)