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STEVE MARCUS / LAS VEGAS SUN file
A tunnel inside Yucca Mountain is shown in 1999. The Obama administration announced Friday the formation of a panel to study nuclear waste disposal alternatives.
Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Sun topics
Related stories
- Obama administration: ‘We’re done with Yucca’ (1-29-2010)
- Friday announcement will unveil plans for panel on Yucca alternatives (1-28-2010)
- White House, Energy Department clash over Yucca Mountain cuts (1-14-2010)
- Report: Yucca Mountain costs double other alternatives (12-2-2009)
- Nuclear industry weighs in on nuke dump license (11-16-2009)
- In Nevada, nuclear raises touchy issues (11-14-2009)
- Feds to slash Yucca funds as project maintains life (11-9-2009
- 3 Las Vegans join state Commission on Nuclear Projects (11-5-2009)
After spending nearly 30 years developing Yucca Mountain as the nation’s nuclear waste storage site, Washington is discovering it may take more than one strategic blow to kill it.
The Obama administration announced Friday the formation of a long-awaited commission to study alternatives to burying the waste in the Nevada desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas — a crucial step toward ending the project.
“We’re done with Yucca. We need to be looking at other alternatives,” said Carol Browner, the top White House energy adviser. “The debate over Yucca Mountain is over as the president has made clear.”
Yet even as Nevada’s elected officials who have been fighting the dump welcomed the move from President Barack Obama, who vowed to kill a Yucca repository on the campaign trail in Nevada, skeptics say the fight is not truly over.
Without changing the law or pulling the administration’s pending application, the project will live on, dormant. The election of a president sympathetic with its backers or the unseating of key Nevada lawmakers leading the opposition in Washington — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, chief among them — could set in motion a renewed push for its completion.
“If there’s a change in the political landscape, things can be restarted,” said Bruce Breslow, executive director at Nevada’s State Agency for Nuclear Projects, which opposes the dump.
Most experts believe a Yucca repository is done. The site is shuttered. The staff has largely been let go. Members of the Energy Department brain trust in Washington have given notice of their departure.
The new commission’s chairmen, Lee Hamilton and Brent Scowcroft, both veterans of overheated Washington debates — Hamilton of the 9/11 Commission and Scowcroft as an national security adviser to two Republican presidents — made clear their marching orders are to research anything but Yucca Mountain.
“Nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain is not an option, and the commission will be looking at better alternatives,” said Hamilton, a former congressman. Scowcroft said the commission will be “trying to look forward, not back.”
Yet the details of how they go about their mission are important for opponents of the Nevada repository. The commission comes as Obama has called in his State of the Union address for “building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants.” Waste from those plants would have to go somewhere.
Yucca Mountain remains on the books as the law of the land, singled out in the 1987 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the so-called “Screw Nevada” bill, as the nation’s dumping ground for such waste primarily from civilian reactors. The law states that only if the Energy Department declares the site unsuitable can it be withdrawn from consideration.
Moreover, the Energy Department still has an application to license Yucca Mountain as a repository pending before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Just last week judges met to review the merits of the application. The process that began in 2008 is expected to take three more years. A six-month deposition period begins in February.
If that license application is allowed to limp along, it could come to its conclusion in 2012 — a presidential election year.
Nevada’s lawmakers remain optimistic that Obama has put a Yucca repository on a path to extinction. Obama’s 2011 budget to be unveiled Monday is expected to zero out money for the project.
“President Obama and I have worked closely to stop dumping taxpayer money into Yucca, and I have fought hard to ensure Yucca Mountain is dead,” Reid said. “This panel of experts proposing other options for nuclear waste is the logical next step in that process.”
Yet Reid’s potential Republican challengers have a slightly more tolerant view of nuclear waste in Nevada, one that reflects the Republican establishment’s belief that bringing waste to the state could generate jobs and revenue.
For example, candidate Sue Lowden, the former state party leader, opposes Yucca as a storage site. But she is open to accepting nuclear waste into the state as part of a “state-of-the-art laboratory” on par with Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico or Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California to research energy alternatives.
“There is no reason we should put our heads in the sand in Nevada and be blind to such an opportunity,” Lowden’s campaign spokesman Robert Uithoven said.
Similarly, candidate Danny Tarkanian, a former UNLV basketball star, opposes a Yucca repository, but “is actively consulting with policy experts on a proposal for nuclear recycling,” campaign spokesman Jamie Fisfis said.
“Most people kind of run away from this issue,” Fisfis said. “He’s intrigued by the jobs and revenue that could be a boost to Nevada.”
In some ways the Obama administration’s options are limited. Even though Obama’s campaign said he would withdraw the Yucca application if he became president, to do so now would risk more lawsuits from the nuclear industry. The industry has successfully sued the government to maintain its commitment in the 1987 law to take the waste off their hands.
And although Reid has been instrumental in keeping a Yucca repository from advancing by slashing its budget, he most likely does not have enough votes in Congress to overturn the existing law — leaving the 1987 law on the books.
The 15-member commission will buy Obama time to sort out alternatives while assuring the nuclear industry that he is committed to moving forward with a new generation of civilian nuclear reactors. In fact, Obama announced Friday a massive increase in federal loans for nuclear power development.
Those who have been fighting a Yucca repository for decades remain skeptical.
Kevin Kamps, an anti-nuclear activist at Beyond Nuclear, said several members of the commission “raise red flags.”
Kamps noted in particular John Rowe, CEO of Exelon Energy Corp., an Obama campaign contributor whose “bias and conflict of interest is clear.”
He also questioned including former Republican Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, a longtime champion of nuclear power, and Richard Meserve, a former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, who had been at the helm during a safety incident at a Toledo, Ohio plant.
But the commission also includes veteran academics in the field, including Allison Macfarlane of George Mason University and Ernie Moniz of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s main lobby, welcomed the commission and “looks forward to providing industry input to the commission.”
The commission has been directed by Obama to work for the next 18 months and produce its recommendations within two years, although the chairmen said Friday they hope to finish their work sooner.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the commission would not be looking for specific sites for a repository, but more broadly at the range of options available for handling the nation’s nuclear waste.
Reid and the Nevada delegation have long suggested keeping the waste where it is now stored, at nuclear power plants across the nation.
“Creation of this expert panel will allow us to forever bury plans to turn Nevada into a nuclear garbage dump and ends decades of failed efforts to open Yucca Mountain,” Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley said.
Democratic Rep. Dina Titus called the panel “another critical step forward in the effort to put a stop to Yucca Mountain once and for all.”
I thought Harry Reid saved us from this project. What in the heck is Harry, Shelley and John doing for us in Washington? I guess they are doing for themselves and have forgotten about us Nevadans. VOTE THEM ALL OUT!!!!!!
Lisa Mascaro correctly pointe out "Without changing the law or pulling the administration's pending application, the project will live on, dormant. The election of a president sympathetic with its backers or the unseating of key Nevada lawmakers leading the opposition in Washington -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, chief among them -- could set in motion a renewed push for its completion."
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The Obama/Chu DOE 2011 Budget Request which will zero out Yucca Mountain does an injustice to Transparency, Sound Science, and current Laws and Agreements.
For Energy Security, Sound Science, and existing Laws and Agreements we must fund Yucca Mountain. Nuclear power is key to energy independence.
Obama has repeatedly said about "Sound Science" "It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda and that we make facts, not ideology."
If Obama is truly committed to Sound Science he must allow the Yucca Mountain License Application be adjudicated by the NRC and not conceal the results.
It is abundantly clear that Harry Reid and Obama have a non-transparent cloakroom handshake to support Harry Reid re-election. Yucca is toxic for many in Nevada and Reid is making his bones in the local press based on "killing" the project.
But since it is toxic to local politicians it is up to non-Nevada national politicians to fund Yucca and stop Reid.
Most disturbing is Reid's consistent denigration of the quality science being produce by America's ten National Laboratories and the USGS. These Obama lead organizations are on the forefront of every worldwide scientific endeavor know to man and are being besmeared by Harry Reid and Nevada.
Obama has enough friends (Exelon's John Rowe) and "State" lobbyist in the nuclear industry to know that if the Feds quit on Yucca without changing the NWPA, that the NEI (through the courts) will get their money ($22 billion plus) back and the NEI can complete the job themselves. DOE has lost every court case on this issue. We are currently paying 100s of millions for not accepting Spent Fuel.
In the 2010 budget request "The President, however, has made clear that the Nation needs a better solution than the proposed Yucca Mountain repository." And Reid and Chu promised a blue ribbon committee report before now on high level waste disposal. A BROKEN PROMISE - NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. In 2011 Obama wants to triple the Nuclear Plant guarantee yet can see the need to bury the waste.
In the run up to Harry Reid's 2010 election race, Harry Reid has repeatedly declared that with Obama complicit defunding help that he has killed Yucca Mountain, without eliminating the NWPA, and without challenging the science.
Maybe NOT.
Further, what is not addressed by Obama, Chu, and Harry Reid is the broken DOE/EPA Federal Facility Agreements (FFA) (under the Federal Facility Compliance Act) with several States (SC, TN, WA, ID, etc). These FFAs were made in the Clinton 90's to address Defense High Level Waste from the weapons complex to meet RCRA and CERCLA by putting the waste in Yucca Mountain. We also need to dispose of Naval Spent Fuel.
The nation has spent Billions to develop Yucca and they wont walk away from the investment just because harry took orders from Pelosi all year.
I can see it now..all these people (Nevada population) that tout :We need to diversify", will never like ANY government project that comes to Nevada.
PEOPLE, we had a "nuclear lab" present with the the testing of the bomb..lets start that effort again and find a way to recycle or do what ever with Nuke waste..but at least we'll have scientists here, and other support people, etc and it just MIGHT force the improvement of our schools, bring jobs and improve the economy.. !
Reid deserves the credit.
He has managed to kill good pay jobs.
He has managed to stop billions of dollars from coming to the state.
Reid deserves full credit.
yucca is still alive...
yucca is prone to earthquakes...
yucca will make our children glow in the dark...
harry reid will kill yucca...
stupid pathetic lying republicans always side with big business...
kill yucca...
vote for harry reid...
vegas loves harry reid!!!
Without offering more details having worked at the NTS and being involved in some of the research I have mixed feelings about this project. I have no expertise as many in the comments and media claim for themselves. But like everyone else I have formed many opinions.
On the one hand I worry because of the Gov. history of lying and cheating on compliance and while the State of Nevada has a long history of the same as well as dishonest manipulations of the media and general population. I don't trust either. This whole thing has become so politicized that I think few people really have any clue about what is really going on although everyone has picked sided and dug in.
On one hand I wish this would go through for the many jobs and to make use of the facility already built and already storing waste. Then again I feel states who created waste should find ways to dispose of it within their own waste. I don't like the idea of it shipping across the US but realize they have been doing it for many years without any problems. In fact much has been shipped into UT and NV for decades without most people realizing it.
I honestly think shuttering the NTS was a Clinton era mistake made for political reasons mostly, closing down Yucca ultimately won't solve the problem but it is so political now anything that happens with it will be a waste in the end.
One thing I feel passionately about is the many Federal lands in Nevada if we are not going to let them use for anything or create jobs should be returned to the state so at least our local government can exploit it (which they will) instead of just leaving our resources doing nothing and helping no one.
"...or the unseating of key Nevada lawmakers leading the opposition in Washington -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, chief among them -- could set in motion a renewed push for its completion."
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Harry Reid is NOT essential to the survival of Nevada. NEVER has been; NEVER will be.
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"...he most likely does not have enough votes in Congress to overturn the existing law."
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Harry Reid has NEVER had the votes and he NEVER WILL so holding Nevada hostage to the idea we cannot survive without him is only fearmongering on the part of this "newsperson".
This state has to move on and start solving it problems - including Harry Reid, one of its greatest.
There are a lot of abandoned mines around Searchlight that would made a good depository for nuclear wastes.
If there are leaks, who cares, it would just run down river to California...
Reid deserves the credit.
He has managed to protect the people and economy of Southern Nevada from the possibility of a Nuclear disaster.
Reid deserves full credit.
Nuclear disaster....you do know that Yucca is just located close by the place where many nuclear explosions above and below ground occur.
One would think that would have been a nuclear disaster and stop economnic development in Nevada.
It is silly to have such paranoid.
The disinformation that has been published for years really shows with some of the ignorant "dump" and "leak" comments. Statistically, transporting of nuclear waste, low-level, transuranic or high level has been safer than any other form of regulated hazardous material transport. We are flushing billions of dollars for our state in a time that we are mortgaging the future of children to balance the budget. Take a look at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site in New Mexico. People that live on the well studied and regulated routes are not dying of cancer (as is reported will happen if waste is shipped to Yucca) and there are not accidents. If the drivers deviate from their routes by a matter of miles, they are fired. If you look at the statistics on accidents, nuclear/radioactive waste shipments are the safest. Look back on the headlines, gas truck spills, chlorine spills, all other kinds of injuries and death. The casks that the waste will be shipped in are amazing. The video of them being hit by a LOCOMOTIVE at 88 miles and hour and not breaching are not fake!
It is sad that politics and innuendo replace thinking and sound science. Let the process run it's course and if Yucca is proven to be viable, then maybe some truth and reason could be shown the light of day.
"The law states that only if the Energy Department declares the site unsuitable can it be withdrawn from consideration."
This option is in a section of the NWPA related to site characterization. Once Congress approved the site in 2002, this option ended. Only Congress can now determine that Yucca Mountain be stopped by passing a change to the NWPA.
Regardless of what Obama, Chu and Reid state, they do not have authority to say that Yucca Mountain is no longer an option. It is a law, not a project of the President or Department of Energy. A law. Regardless of whether you want Yucca Mountain to proceed, as an American citizen we should all be wanting our representatives to follow the law or change the law. But to decide unilaterally to stop following a federal law will lead to each administration deciding what laws to follow and which laws to ignore. Civil rights? Maybe not. Environmental protection? Not always. Miranda rights? etc etc etc are now all open to Presidential cancellation.
Additionally, Obama and Reid are opening up the federal government and thus the taxpayer to potentially $500 billion in legal and additional costs by delaying nuclear waste solutions. Depending upon advanced reactors, fusion, or particle accelerators that haven't even been invented much less built is not a solution. Where is the federal decision documented that supports delaying Yucca Mountain - non-existent.
Congress, and only Congress, will decide the future of Yucca Mountain. Not Obama. Not Reid. Not Chu. Not the OMB.
The nuclear reprocessing sites, in Japan, Britain, France, the former Soviet Union and South Carolina have experienced leaks and pollution. All the material can not be reprocessed. Most are also located by the ocean or bodies of water. Tarkanian and Lowden have no major scientists that say that their plans are feasible scientifically or financially.
It is just a way for them to be pro-nukes in a backhanded way.
The nuclear disaster could happen during the TRANSPORTATION of the nuclear material...duh!
If you feel like reading some TRUE facts about this project, go to aBadReid.com.
I agree with a lot of the posts here! If Obama doesn't feel like following the NWPA LAW, what else will his administration not follow?
His arrogance knows no boundries.
http://abadreid.com
"The nuclear disaster could happen during the TRANSPORTATION of the nuclear material...duh!"
The train cars to support the transport have been tested to with stand being slammed into the side by another train going 70 MPH and suffer zero leakage.
Everyday there is dangerous cargo on trains passing through Vegas.
How do you think nuclear fuel gets to the Nuclear sites?
I wonder how they transport those nuclear bombs across country? On the back of a donkey?
Mr ed has experienced his own leaks and pollution. All the material that his mind can not processe, mr ed regurgitates on these discussion forums.
Mr ed says that Tarkanian and Lowden have no major scientists that can say that their plans are feasible scientifically or financially.
Maybe mr ed can hook them up with some of the scientists that made incorrect, wrong, erroneous and dishonest statements in support of Al Gore's Global Warming theories...
lets open up yucca let take the money from the government. let store it here. then when all thing go to hell at yucca. WE CAN SEE WE TOLD YOU SO. LOL. I BE DEAD AND GONE B 4 ANYTHING HAPPEN. SCREW THE KIDS AND GRANDKID LET THEM DEAL WITH IT.
Gee! I wonder how much radiation still exists in the underground caves where they detonated the nuclear bombs. Hmmm! Did that have an effect on our ground water? How about when the nukes were tested above ground and the wind dispersed the radioactive clouds all over the world. Hmmm! did that have an effect on the population. Go ask the down-winders. This stuff is stored in leak-proof casks, not blown up and scattered all over the world.
Reid has only delayed the completion of this project that could benefit Nevada with jobs and revenue. Reid has also stopped the building of coal fired power plant that could have delivered more jobs to Nevadans. This was done in the name of his global warming agenda. This agenda has been proven to be a hoax committed to bilk the world out of trillions of dollars. The main culprit is a filthy politician by the name of Al Gore.
Bring jobs back to Nevada. Complete these projects.
Las Vegas will never be what it was so we should open Yucca Mountain and make some money.
LETS GIVE IT ALL TO THE middle east AFTER WE SUCK ALL THE OIL OUT OF THE GROUND.
Yeah ? What money? if the Feds would've promised the benefits that should be attached to the project, there would be a dump. The Government was trying to shove the dump on us with out any bennys, so effem. I would love to see the dump here if the bennys were part of the deal. Nevada would get stuck with the dump with no fringe benefits if it proceeded in the manner it was heading. We could all use a stronger work force no doubt , but that has to be part of the deal and it wasnt. No bennys no dump.
Nuclear Disaster...WTF... In the good ole days when they were igniting bombs in nuclear testing,, it was not much of a concern...Why build the facility to keep it closed.. What a waste of money,,jobs,,and all that... They got one thing right that it is a waste dump,, but not the waste it was intended for....
During the campaign John McCain visited a nuclear plant to show how safe they are. What most viewers didn't know, that plant was labeled Number Two. Why? Number One had an accident and was closed due to nuclear pollution.
Are Republicans and the fringe right capable of thinking through problem solving? It appears they aren't. Yucca Mountain is a classic example of not understanding the impact nuclear material can have on the environment. It isn't the storage that concerns me; it's the ability to safely transport these dangerous and toxic materials.
A few years ago, in North Las Vegas a person had their car stuck on the tracks. It was the train crossing on Craig Road near I-15. After the car was struck, the entire area was closed for about three hours. Imagine a train carrying nuclear waste being attacked in a manner that would rupture the holding containers. What if a semi hauling that same material crashed and burned on I-15 or I-95?
The French have solved their problem with this waste by recycling the material. Can it be done here? I don't know, but I do suspect, there isn't a profit built into recycling. If there was we would already have a handle on it.
This is good news no matter what the few crazies say. Yucca Mountain is an hour out of Vegas, and it's unsafe. We all owe Harry Reid a big fat thank you!