SUN EDITORIAL:

A foolhardy suggestion

Assemblyman should withdraw absurd resolution to store nuke waste at Yucca Mountain

Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009 | 2:08 a.m.

We can now add Assemblyman Ty Cobb, R-Reno, to the small list of shortsighted Nevadans who believe the state would be better off striking a deal with the federal government to accept the nation’s high-level nuclear waste at a proposed Yucca Mountain dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Cobb offered a fresh wrinkle to his argument that would have made us double over in laughter if not for the fact that there is nothing remotely funny about playing host to deadly radioactive waste.

The assemblyman said Wednesday he believes Yucca should be used not as a long-term dump but rather as an interim one that could also have an energy research facility that would employ hundreds of scientists and technology experts. In a resolution submitted to the Nevada Legislature, he also recommended that Nevada’s Nuclear Projects Agency request from the Energy Department “iron-clad guarantees of safety, infrastructure improvements, energy advances and annual compensation.”

But asking the Energy Department to guarantee the safety of nuclear waste storage would be like asking a bank robber to guarantee that he won’t touch the neat stacks of $100 bills in the vault. Nevadans also should be reminded that “interim” storage is a misnomer because the reality is that once nuclear waste is in Nevada, it will never go away.

The Energy Department has come up woefully short in its scientific research at Yucca Mountain, a fact widely documented. Never mind that the federal government has yet to prove it can safely transport the waste to Nevada without causing a catastrophic spill or avoiding a terrorist act at all costs.

Furthermore, the waste can be safely stored at the power plants where it is produced — there’s no need to rush to judgment. The nonsense Cobb is spouting is what we’d expect to hear from a nuclear power executive, not from a Nevada lawmaker who should be protecting this state’s residents from a public health hazard.

Discussion: 15 comments so far…

By Future2012

2/15/09 at 6:12 a.m.

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The LV Sun says "The Energy Department has come up woefully short in its scientific research at Yucca Mountain, a fact widely documented."

The LV Sun editorial staff has clearly never read the YMP License Application.

In the run up to Harry Reid's 2010 election race, Harry has declared that with Obama complicit help that he has killed Yucca Mountain, without eliminating the NWPA, and without challenging the science.

Is the LV Sun worried that Harry Reid will fail in the run-up to his election and that the LA process will continue to establish the suitability of the Yucca Mountain site, based on the science of the five supporting national labs and the USGS.

Why is the LV Sun afraid to permit adjudication of the YMP License Application docketed September 8, 2008 and allow science to make the case on the merits. Opponents, if they permit their positions on technical facts of the program, have should have nothing to fear from a quality review process.

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 calling for the "licensing of the Yucca repository as a long-term measure."

The LV Sun believe thats there is a conspiracy by the National Academy of Sciences, DOE Secretary Steven Chu, the ten national labs, the USGS, and the NRC, national and international peer reviewers.
By pmmart

2/15/09 at 7:46 a.m.

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I read a short article a while back [don't remember where] that stated approx. 98% of the nuclear waste destined for Yucca mountain could be utilized .... but .. Jimmy Carter got a bill passed during his adm. that limited the processing of nuclear fuel.
By Metman

2/15/09 at 8:48 a.m.

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'A lie told often enough becomes truth.'
Vladimir Lenin

"The Energy Department has come up woefully short in its scientific research at Yucca Mountain, a fact widely documented."

The only place that keeps saying things like this is the Las Vegas Sun.

The NRC has not made any such determination.

Neither has the scientific community.

Only your editorial board and, of course, Senator "Hands Up"!

(You know which one, "The war is lost", "bring on Senator Caroline", "I'll never seat a Blogovich appointee"

...Yeah...that guy.
By getalife

2/15/09 at 11:27 a.m.

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Metman, excellent post

The Sun loves to carry Harry's water, too bad his canteen of thoughts and reasons for anything helping Nevada has sprung a big leak.

Go Yucca.........Goodbye Harry.
By bag

2/15/09 at 1:38 p.m.

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MR. Cobb is to be commended. His ideas are completely on target and consistent with the views of Nevadans. The Sun and Sen. Reid need to get out a bit and talk to leaders and citizens. They just don't buy the fearmongering and misinformation.
By davelv

2/15/09 at 6:28 p.m.

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So many lies and distortion in this op-ed piece it is impossible to respond to it in less that 100 pages.

The really sad thing is that the Sun staff actually believes the stuff they print about Yucca Mountain. Obviously they are all non-scientific liberal arts Berkley educated.

If you want to know about how to fly a plane, you usually ask a pilot. If you want to know about medicine, you ask a doctor. Why is it that if you want to know about Yucca Mountain you don't ask sicientists and nuclear engineers?
By bag

2/16/09 at 12:58 a.m.

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Dave hit the nail on the head. These people really believe the nonsense they say. They have to -- no one could lie so much. They are wrong on essentially every issue of fact having to do with nuclear technology. I understand they are journalist, but there should be some requirement for these people to research issues and base stories on scientific fact. The Sun has used Loux as their source on nuclear for years -- he's a history teacher and a poorly informed one at that. Speaking of history do you think the Sun reporters even know that the Sun once adamantly supported Yucca? I bet they don't believe that and I bet there isn't a reporter in town that knows that virtually every government body in the State also supported it and wanted the Feds to not study other sites around the country.
By GoWest

2/16/09 at 9:14 a.m.

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The article states, "The waste can be safely stored at the power plants where it is produced -- there's no need to rush to judgment."

So onsite fuel pool storage is safe? Then how does one ignore this tidbit of information:

"If two or three private planes loaded with plastic explosives flew into the (Oyster Creek) plant, they could collapse the pool, precipitating a fire that even the NRC concedes would take days to extinguish. It could take less than an hour for the radioactive material contained in the spent fuel pool --- five to 10 times greater in volume than that in the reactor core --- to be released into the environment."

One permanent storage site is the best protection regarding terrorist threats against spent fuel pools.

http://www.app.com/article/20090215/OPIN...
By jhv

2/16/09 at 10:17 a.m.

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To all the chicken littles who believe the sky is always falling, for example Yucca and Oyster Creek...Come on now!!! I am sorry but, it appears the anti's are running out of excuses and are now using additional scare tactics that are almost to the point of being cartoon-ish.
By desertratvegas

2/16/09 at 2 p.m.

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The Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires any waste in a repository to be retrievable, a requirement that supports the possibility of reprocessing. Yucca Mountain is designed for retrievability. Many states are fighting for a reprocessing plant with a multibillion cost and over a thousand well paid and highly trained employees. Wouldn't it be nice if our senior senator fought to bring these type of projects to Nevada! I thought that was why we voted for him, maybe a new senator that remenbers that he is from Nevada is what we need.
The NWPA also provides for benefits to the state that takes the waste, it has been federal law for 25 years. How about our governor and congressional delegation bringing those benefits(money and jobs) back to a state that reallyneeds them.
By boftx

2/16/09 at 2:52 p.m.

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The ONLY factor that is relevant now was mentioned by (GASP!) Brian Greespun in his article when he brought up the potential impact on Las Vegas tourism if YM were opened.

Personally, I doubt very much that there would be any impact at all. All the other arguments against YM are just so much smoke and mirrors.

Here's a question, how does Reid benefit if YM is closed down? I'm sure he'd be fighting tooth and claw if he could benefit from YM being opened, therefore I believe he thinks he can gain more by opposing it.
By boco

2/17/09 at 7:36 a.m.

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As I understand it, an editorial can make whatever statements the editor/publisher wishes and the reader can take it or leave it. In this example, the editors assert:
"The Energy Department has come up woefully short in its scientific research at Yucca Mountain, a fact widely documented." Pardon me, but would you please cite an example of an objective scientific publication that documents the purported shortcomings.

Then, the Sun says: "Never mind that the federal government has yet to prove it can safely transport the waste to Nevada without causing a catastrophic spill or avoiding a terrorist act at all costs." How exactly is the government supposed to prove it can do something without causing a "catastroshic spill?" The accident history to date of similar shipments is that there have been ZERO radiation leaks from any transportation accidents with nuclear waste. As for somehow being able to prove that a terrorist act will be avoided, the history of such occurance is zero and the probablility of a future occurance is unknown, notwithstanding some of the imaginative assertions about high-power weaponry that some opponents of Yucca Mountain would have us believe are "out there."
By Impeach_Harry_Reid

2/17/09 at 10:07 a.m.

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Ty Cobb is the ONLY Nevada politician with his head not firmed planted in Harry's butt! I hope he will challenge Hary in 2010!!!

Why aren't you and the other media outlets sharing the recent RGJ Yucca Mountain Poll results with the public???? The poll show 66% of Nevadans IN FAVOR of Yucca Mountain; so where's the story for the public to see???? Why is Reid against the popular opinion of his constituents????

We need to campaign against Reid's fear mongering insanity that has this state completely hoodwinked.

Dirty Harry has done NOTHING to help the Nevada economy and now he's trying to kill a $100 Billion income stream from the Yucca Mountain Project; some thousands of jobs now and in the future; the only job in Nevada for highly educated, highly trained workers; and put enough homes on the market in Summerlin to quickly turn it into Slummerlin...

If the public was properly informed about the Yucca Mountain Project, I'm sure more and more people would be for it. Let's put it on a Ballot for a vote!

Reid should have worked with the Government to make Yucca an advanced center for Nuclear Power, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing, and even solar and wind farms.

But no, the monster ego of this truly little man is single handedly destroying Nevada while he lines his pockets from his shady dealings...

And then there's his infuriating recent commercials... Every word of them is a lie as he tries to gain our votes once again....

Just say "NO" to Harry in 2010 !!!!!
By joecitizen

2/17/09 at 4:12 p.m.

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The author of this article is an uninformed fear-monger. The Yucca site has been studied to death and the decision is in the able hands of the NRC, who are charged with evauating the safety. I don't often speak kindly of Republicans, but from the reports in this editorial, Assemblyman Ty Cobb (R-Reno) seems to be a visionary who can see the potential for jobs in NV as an energy state. IF NRC deems this project to be safe, it would be foolish to turn away from the 100 Billion plus dollars this project would bring to a very stressed NV economy.
By patt

2/17/09 at 4:16 p.m.

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The article states: The Energy Department has come up woefully short in its scientific research at Yucca Mountain, a fact widely documented. Not true; the NRC has only just begun reviewing the scientific research, and won't make a decision on the validity of the research for a few more years.
The article also states "the federal government has yet to prove it can safely transport the waste to Nevada without causing a catastrophic spill or avoiding a terrorist act". DOE wouldn't start shipping the waste till sometime after 2020 - - more than 11 yrs. from now - - Still enough time for transportation planning.
Of course the Sun can oppose the DOE's plans, but why not use logical and/or truthful arguments? Instead you appear be goofy and uninformed in your opposition. I doubt that goofy and uninmormed is the best way for a newspaper to portray itself.
Of course, that's your choice......