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Index01/12 Provo Senate Minority leader goes on ‘red states’ tour01/11 KSL Senator Reid in Utah, calls for change01/11 NEI Bush approves nuke-blocking wilderness area01/05 Moab Utah, Nevada join forces to stop East dumping nuke waste on the West01/11 KIFI Republicans react to Reid’s visit to Pocatello01/12 LVRJ Radioactive waste recycling criticized01/11 PVT DOE shuts down Yucca Mountain01/11 Arroyo Supervisors support the study of nuclear waste storage01/11 PVT Tri Cities contain tough Yucca lessons01/11 PVT Letter: Nuke classes01/11 PVT Letter: Let’s incorporate01/12 Hartford NRC reports on soil testing01/11 Times Nuclear safety record mixed01/12 SL Trib Rogue lobbyist had ties to Utah01/12 City Wkly Whose mine is it?01/11 U of U ‘Primetime’ exposes U’s nuclear reactor security 01/12 City Wkly MISS: Hustling Reps

Senate Minority leader goes on'red states' tour

JIM GRAHAM - The Associated Press DAILY HERALD, LVS, KUTV January 12, 2006

SALT LAKE CITY -- Democrats can win in Republican-dominated states such as Utah by fighting what Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid characterized as GOP corruption in Washington during a stop here on his "red state" tour Wednesday.

Reid, D-Nev., visited Salt Lake City on the tour, which also includes stops in Phoenix, Denver, Pocatello, Idaho, and Omaha, Neb., in an effort to lure rural voters back to the Democratic Party.

He was accompanied in Salt Lake City by U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, Utah's only Democratic member of Congress. The senator said the Democratic Party lost the 2002 presidential election because it didn't campaign hard enough in rural areas.

"The Democrats became convinced that they could win the general election in the last several decades by campaigning in big cities," Reid said.

Reid also took aim at what he called a Republican "culture of corruption" in Washington, citing the indictment of former House Majority Leader Tom Delay on money laundering and conspiracy charges and lobbyist Jack Abramoff's guilty pleas to charges in a congressional influence-peddling investigation. Republican Party officials, however, noted that Reid accepted $61,000 in contributions from Abramoff's clients, and they demanded Reid return the money.


"It's the height of hypocrisy for Senator Reid to point to this issue when he himself has accepted money from Abramoff's clients," said Tucker Bounds, spokesman for the Republican National Committee in Washington, D.C.

Reid said he did nothing wrong by accepting the money. The money was mostly from American Indian tribes for his work in promoting federal programs important to tribes in Nevada.

He said he carefully reviewed the contributions and found nothing amiss. He accused Republicans of trying to share blame in the Abramoff lobbying scandal.

"Jack Abramoff has been a Republican operative for 30 years," Reid says. "He did not give a single penny to a Democrat."

Reid plans to introduce a series of anti-corruption measures next week in Washington. Although he is withholding details, Reid said the proposal would ban all gifts from lobbyists to members of Congress, require monthly reports listing when lobbyists and federal officeholders meet and increase penalties for members of Congress convicted of corruption.

Such measures, he said, would help restore voters' faith in government, and lure voters to the Democratic Party.

He noted that in the 2002 presidential election, several rural states, including Nevada, gave narrow margins of victory to President Bush. He said Democrats can win key congressional seats in those states in 2006, and score victories in the 2008 presidential race, by talking about honesty in government and about rural issues.

Reid angrily denied a report in The Washington Times newspaper Wednesday that said he is one of five congressional lawmakers whose offices are being probed by the Justice Department in connection with the Abramoff investigation. He criticized the paper, which was founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church.

"You have to really stretch things to call it a newspaper," Reid said.

Reid also raised some eyebrows when he noted a Salt Lake Tribune poll Wednesday that showed 58.6 percent of Utahns approve of how President Bush is handling the war in Iraq, compared with 39 percent nationally.

"It's just backwards from the rest of the country," Reid said. He later clarified his remarks, saying he didn't intend to imply that Utahns are backward in their thinking, but only that the majority of Utahns differ markedly from the rest of the country on the war in Iraq.

Reid tried to allay fears that Utah will become home to a temporary nuclear waste storage facility, proposed for the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation, about 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City near the Utah Test and Training Range. Private Fuel Storage, a group of utilities, wants to store 44,000 tons of nuclear waste on the site.

But key rail line access to the area was blocked last week when President Bush signed a bill creating the 100,000-acre Cedar Mountain Wilderness Area.

Reid took credit for pushing the measure through Congress, and said the proposal is dead in the water.

"It's not going to happen. ... There's no way the American public is going to allow the most poisonous substance known to man to be transported on our railways and highways, past our businesses, our schools, our homes," he said. [back]


Senator Reid in Utah, Calls for ChangeRichard Piatt Reporting KSL- TV 1/11/06

Nevada Senator Harry Reid had strong words about what he calls a 'Culture of Republican corruption' in Washington. Reid was in Salt Lake City today for a Democratic fundraiser.

Senator Reid didn't mince words, and he's doing the same thing in seven 'Red', or conservative, states this week, clearly a tactic to help Democrats in this election year.

Senator Reid plans to continue his campaign throughout the nation. Today he also addressed the nuclear waste issue. He claims at this point that there is no way that waste will get transported to either Nevada or Utah, ever. [back]

Bush approves nuke-blockingwilderness area

Nuclear Engineering International 11 January 2006

A new US defence policy bill signed by President Bush is set to challenge the development of a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Utah’s Skull Valley with the creation of a wilderness area in Utah's west desert.

The bill includes a provision to establish a 100,000-acre Cedar Mountain Wilderness Area near the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation which prevents the development of a railway line that would have been used to transport the material to the storage facility.

Developers Private Fuel Storage, an alliance of utility companies, has said that other options are available for transport, including trucking the waste down the Skull Valley Highway. [back]

Utah, Nevada join forces to stop East dumping nuke waste on the West

House Bill introduced by Matheson, Berkley

The Times Independent 01/05/06

Congressman Jim Matheson and Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley have legislation mandating that nuclear waste be stored on-site where it is produced. The measure requires the federal government to take responsibility for possession, stewardship, maintenance and monitoring of the waste.

Mathesen and Berkley are joined on the bill by Nevada Congressmen Jim Gibbons and Jon Porter, as well as Utah Congressmen Chris Cannon and Rob Bishop.

Companion legislation has been introduced in the Senate by Senator Harry Reid, Senator John Ensign, Senator Robert Bennett and Senator Orcin Hatch.

"The West – whether it is Utah's Skull Valley, or Nevada's Yucca Mountain -is not the de facto dumping ground for this lethal material;” said Matheson. "Storing nuclear waste on site is the safest, most reasonable and most effective way of allowing nuclear power plants to continue operating while we search for an appropriate long-term storage solution."

Congresswoman Berkley said, "This legislation will keep radioactive garbage out of Nevada, out of Utah and off of America's roads and railways. That is good news for


Nevadans and for the millions of families living along nuclear waste .transportation routes that face the threat of an accident or terrorist attack involving one of these shipments.”

Matheson said that under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the government has focused only on the proposed Yucca Mountain site as a central repository for spent nuclear fuel rods. As scientific, falsified documentation, transportation and other problems with Yucca Mountain have raised doubts that Yucca will open, companies have proposed a private storage facility on the Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah's west desert."

“Dry cask storage – the method proposed by Private Fuel Storage in Skull Valley -is currently being used at 33 nuclear power plants around the country. As approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, dry cask containers can safely store waste for at least 100 years. We should not subject citizens to the dangers posed by transporting it through their communities when it can remain where it is,” said Matheson.

"Yucca Mountain is far too dangerous and far too expensive to ever be completed. Dry cask storage is a proven technology that is already in use, and all sides agree that waste can be securely isolated in these containers for the next century,” Berkley said. "Dry cask storage also eliminates the need for decades of nuclear waste shipments that would be required under the Yucca Mountain scenario. Once enacted, our plan will increase national security, decrease the risk to public safety and Will save billions of dollars that are now being wasted on efforts to turn Nevada into the nation's nuclear garbage dump."

Summary of the Spent Nuclear Fuel On-Site Storage Security Act of 2005 Amends the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 as follows:

Requires commercial nuclear utilities to transfer nuclear waste from spent nuclear fuel pools into dry storage casks within 6 years after enactment or6 years after the waste is produced. whichever comes first.

Requires the Department of Energy (DOE) to take title to all spent nuclear fuel currently in on-site dry cask storage within 30 days of enactment.

Requires the spent nuclear fuel on-site storage sites and storage casks to comply with NRC regulations.

Requires the Department of Energy to take title to, and full responsibility for, the waste at the reactor sites after it has been transferred to dry cask storage in compliance with regulations-

Expenditures from the Nuclear Waste Fund will compensate utilities for expenses associated with transferring and storing the waste. [back]

Republicans React to Reid's Visit to Pocatello

KIFI - News Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Blackfoot, Jackson

January 11, 2006

United States Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D- Nev.) is in Pocatello Wednesday night.

The Neveda Democratic Senator's stop is part of a "red-state" tour. He is mainly talking in states that have a strong Republican hold.

His office says his message is intended to make the case to voters that Democrats will restore honest leadership to Washington, D.C.


However, his message may not be well received because of his connection with Jack Abromoff, the lobbyist that pleaded guilty to several federal charges.

In a letter released today by the Idaho Republican Party, Chairman Kirk Sullivan says that Senator Reid is coming to our state to peddle his culture of obstruction.

A member of the Bannock County Republican Party agrees with Sullivan’s opinion of Reid.

“He talks about a culture of corruption within the Republican Party,” said Craig Parrish. “You know, he got over $60,000 from Mr. Abramoff, and he's not giving it back. So talking about other peoples' corruption – you better clean your house first.”

Parrish also criticized Reid's stance against the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository. He says failure to open that site will severely impact jobs at the Idaho national laboratory. [back]

Radioactive waste recycling criticized Yucca Mountain needed, industry officials say

By TONY BATT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU Jan. 12, 2006 Las Vegas Review-Journal

WASHINGTON -- Reprocessing and other alternatives to the storage of nuclear waste may be a diversion, and the Department of Energy should remain focused on developing a repository at Yucca Mountain, nuclear industry executives were told Wednesday.

"We can't allow long-term technology to divert us from our goal for central storage," said Steven Kraft, director of used fuel management at the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Kraft said prospects for new nuclear power plants are improving and he would not be surprised if the United States has 20 new plants by 2025. There has not been an order for a new nuclear power plant in the United States since December 1978.

Even if reprocessing is successful and the amount of nuclear waste is reduced, permanent disposal of some spent fuel still would be necessary at Yucca Mountain, northwest of Las Vegas, Kraft said at an annual meeting sponsored by the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management.

Jay Silberg, an attorney representing nuclear power utilities, said recycling nuclear waste is attractive to Congress because it's still uncertain when Yucca Mountain will begin storing radioactive spent fuel.

"There's not much you can do for recycling (nuclear waste) on $50 million," Silberg said, referring to $50 million in the $450 million budget for Yucca Mountain in 2006.

Chris Kouts, an Energy Department analyst who works on the Yucca Mountain project, said the department plans to submit a recycling plan to Congress by March 31.

Kraft and Silberg criticized legislation introduced last month by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., that would explore alternatives to Yucca Mountain.

Among other things, the bill would require utilities to move spent fuel into above-ground steel and concrete reinforced casks within six years after the waste is removed from reactors and placed in cooling pools.

Silberg said it would take money away from Yucca Mountain. "Hopefully, it will die a short, painless death," he said.


Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said the bill is a realistic alternative to Yucca Mountain and would update security at nuclear reactor sites.

"The cost of Yucca Mountain is approaching $100 billion, and Senator Reid believes too much money has been wasted on the project," Hafen said. [back]

DOE shuts down Yucca Mountain PARTIAL WORK STOPPAGE AT NUCLEAR WASTE

REPOSITORY REFLECTS SAFETY CONCERNS

By STEVE TETREAULTPahrump Valley Times WASHINGTON BUREAU 01/11/06

WASHINGTON - The Department of Energy has suspended work on key segments of Yucca Mountain after whistleblowers reported more problems with nuclear waste repository design and engineering, officials confirmed.

The work stoppage is the latest illustration of persistent weaknesses in how blueprints and complex analyses are compiled, documented and woven together, potentially affecting licensing and safety at the Nye County nuclear waste site.

It also suggests new lengths that the Energy Department is undertaking in trying to get its arms around shortcomings, while providing critics with more bullets to fire at the proposed repository that they contend will be unsafe.

DOE issued an order on Dec. 19 telling management contractor Bechtel SAIC (BSC) not to move forward on safety-related aspects of the repository until a newly formed review team could assess whether the work meets current requirements.

Department spokesman Allen Benson said Thursday the order covers most key facets, including technical work on new designs for an above-ground industrial complex where nuclear waste-bearing canisters would be handled at the site 50 miles northwest of Pahrump and 20 miles east and north of Beatty and Amargosa Valley, respectively.

Benson said the work suspension could take weeks or longer. The Yucca project has missed self-set deadlines in recent years and DOE has not identified a new schedule for when a repository might be opened. Outside experts have said a repository may not be completed until 2015 to 2020.

In a Dec. 14 e-mail to employees, Yucca Mountain deputy director John Arthur said DOE was "suspending BSC's authority to approve design and engineering-related technical products subject to our QARD (Quality Assurance Requirements and Description) document."

Critics noted DOE has been criticized repeatedly for shortcomings in work documentation and quality controls that are important elements of nuclear projects. They maintained the latest development is more of the same.

"This is a stop work order, plain and simple," said Steve Frishman, a full-time technical consultant for the state of Nevada. "It's back to a problem they have had for years and years, which is design control. This is a chronic screw-up in this program."

DOE officials defended their action, saying the work suspension was a tougher response than to problems in the past. They maintained it reflected a drive by new managers installed by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to fix problems once and for all on the embattled project.


"This is a tough response, when you tell a contractor they no longer have the authority to submit work they are contractually required to submit because they are not following procedure," Benson said.

Bechtel SAIC spokesman Jason Bohne said there was shared responsibility between the government and the contractor.

"The feds direct us through the contract as to what the requirements are," Bohne said. "This is more of a 'Let's hold on and collect where we are, complete our review and move forward on the right path.'"

On another front, the Energy Department and Bechtel SAIC are talking about extending the company's Yucca Mountain contract that expires in March, representatives of both parties confirmed this week although they would not discuss the negotiations.

According to federal documents and government and nuclear industry officials, the problem was that Yucca requirements management guidelines and databases were allowed to become outdated. The guidelines, which are a staple in nuclear projects, are the root-level rules that lay out in detail how scientists, engineers and analysts need to document their activities in meticulous detail so they can be traced back at later times for safety, effectiveness and consistency with federal regulations and industry practices.

Several repository workers who have not been identified filed internal complaints with the Yucca Mountain employee concerns program starting in August 2004. Complaints also were filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A follow up DOE investigation substantiated the claims, according to John Arthur.

The investigation "revealed that our project has not maintained and properly implemented its requirements management system, resulting in inadequacies in the design control process," Arthur told workers by e-mail.

DOE issued 14 corrective actions in November on the topic, Benson said. Arthur reported on the matter at a Dec. 7 meeting in Las Vegas that was attended by DOE managers and staffers from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

NRC officials expressed concern. "It appears to be a significant issue," said Elmo Collins, an NRC licensing and inspection official. The NRC is poised to evaluate a repository application whenever the Energy Department finalizes one.

"We believe strong actions are required to address the current situation," Arthur said. "It just didn't get the proper management attention." [back]

Supervisors support the study of nuclear waste storage

Diablo’s spent fuel prompts concernBy April Charlton / Staff WriterArroyo Grande Times Press Recorder Wed, 11 Jan 2006 12:21 PM PST

The County Board of Supervisors will support a recommendation by the California Energy Commission to study the long-term effects of storing radioactive waste at nuclear power plants.

The CEC recommended the state study the financial and safety implications of accumulating and storing spent nuclear fuel at operating nuclear power plants in California, including Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.


Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which owns and operates Diablo, was given the green light last year by both the county and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a temporary spent-fuel storage facility at Diablo.

Highly radioactive waste from the nuclear power plant situated on the coast between Avila Beach and Morro Bay was never supposed to be permanently stored at the plant.

However, ongoing issues with the yet-to-be-built Yucca Mountain facility — a proposed nuclear waste repository in Nevada — suggest Diablo could become a permanent waste storage facility.

A stop-work order was recently issued for Yucca Mountain, and resolving issues with the proposed repository don’t seem to be anywhere on the horizon.

“I’ve always found it — temporary storage — amusing,” said 2nd District Supervisor Shirley Bianchi, who requested the board write a letter supporting the CEC’s recommendation for the study. “I often wonder what ‘temporary storage’ is, no matter (what the material is).”

With a unanimous vote Tuesday, the supervisors endorsed sending a letter to the CEC offering the county’s support for the commission’s recommendation.

“We need to plan,” Bianchi added. “We need to know what we’re dealing with.”

The Legislature needs to pass a bill in order for the study to go forward. If the study were done, it would also analyze, on a case-by-case basis, the public’s safety and the cost to ratepayers of on-site storage versus transporting spent fuel off site for temporary storage. [back]

Tri Cities contain tough Yucca lessons Against the Grain - Dennis Myers Pahrump Valley Times 01/11/05

COLUMBIA VALLEY, Wash. - One section of this valley, where Lewis and Clark camped in October 1805, is called the Tri Cities.

The cities so designated are Kennewick, which is the most charming and interesting; Pasco, whose heritage includes a storied early airmail route that ran from here to Elko(see, for instance, the Christopher Reeve movie "The Aviator"); and Richland, the least interesting of the three.

Truth to tell, there are four cities in the Tri Cities - West Richland gave up the names of Enterprise and Heminger City to adopt a name that made it sound like an adjunct.

Anyway, news from this area would seldom intrude on the nation's consciousness if it were not for another local place name - Hanford.

The Hanford federal reservation on the bank of the Columbia River takes up almost 600 square miles of land. It has been used for a variety of nuclear purposes. In the 1940s a reactor here produced the nuclear material for the first and third atomic bombs exploded during the war, in New Mexico and Nagasaki.

For forty years after the war a lineup of reactors cranked out plutonium for nuclear weapons exploded in Nevada and the Pacific. Wastes were kept on site.

The reservation also operated a dump for low-level wastes, one of only three in the nation. The other two were at Barnwell, South Carolina and Beatty.


All three dumps are closed now - though U.S. Ecology still operates a low-level dump 11 miles south of Beatty - and all three states are exempt under federal law from having to accept any more low-level wastes.

In 1986 three sites were designated as candidate sites for a high-level nuclear waste dump. They were Deaf Smith, Texas, Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and Hanford. The three sites were supposed to be studied for their scientific suitability for the dump.

Hanford's very presence on the list was a strong tip-off that science had little to do with the search for a site. It existed on the list as a straw man. While Hanford had been used for many nuclear purposes, it was never suitable for them, and by 1986 that was widely recognized. In fact, the next year, its sole remaining mission of producing plutonium was halted and its new mission became cleanup.

In the early days of atomic research, Hanford and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission enjoyed considerable political protection under the guise of national security.

Accountability was subverted and the AEC abused the situation. It was once described by Washington journalist I.F. Stone as the most deceptive agency in Washington.

By the time plutonium production ended in Hanford, the place was a mess. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent in the past two decades to try to clean it up.

On top of those problems was the area itself. Although technically described as a desert valley, in fact the place is drenched in water. A system of canals and wells, along with the Columbia, Yakima and Snake rivers, crisscross the area. It's as though the place were designed to be a poor location for a nuclear waste dump. Hanover was obviously on the list of three solely in order to be eliminated.

As it turned out, no such thing was needed. The state of Washington had Tom Foley in the House of Representative, the state of Texas had Jim Wright in the House of Representatives and the Elder George Bush in the vice presidency, and soon Congress had taken the two states off the list altogether with enactment of an amendment to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act that became known as the Screw Nevada Bill.

Meanwhile, little has changed in the behavior of the Atomic Energy Commission, which eventually evolved into other agencies that became part of today's Department of Energy. The performance ethic of the AEC is still present in DOE. The Hanford cleanup, which is costing billions of dollars, has been plagued with engineering problems, broken promises, and deception, with no end in sight.

There's a private organization, Hanford Watch, which monitors and publicizes the grotesquerie.

It's a great lesson for Nevadans who think they can trust DOE.

Myers is a veteran capital reporter. His column, "Against the Grain," appears here on Wednesdays. [back]

LETTER: Nuke classes Pahrump Valley Times 01/11/06

In the past few months, Nye County has conducted four classes on nuclear waste. Three were held in Pahrump at the Pahrump Valley Fire-Rescue station. The last of the classes was held in Beatty on Nov. 16.


These are the first classes for Nye County residents to help them understand the subject of nuclear waste, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and waste management.

I have a B.S. degree in Radiological Technology Nuclear Medicine from UNLV and work at the Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Project Office. I taught the class.

The course presented information on the types of nuclear waste, the burial process of each of them and where the waste comes from. Yucca Mountain was discussed during the presentation of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.

These discussions were lively at times and participants asked many questions about the Yucca Mountain facility and transportation.

Some participants wanted reassurance that the facility would be safely operated. Most participants wanted to be informed and to stay informed on what activity is going on at Yucca Mountain before, during and after closure. The first responders in each class were concerned about safety issues, training needs and communications.

The final concern expressed was if a transportation accident occurs, what would the government's response be and how quickly would they respond?

Class participants indicated that the class was very informative and given at a layperson's level for all to understand.

The NWRPO is considering expanding the material to Nye County residents from all backgrounds.

SUSAN MOOREADMINISTRATIVE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR [back]

LETTER: Let's incorporate Pahrump Valley Times 01/11/06

My wife and I attended a meeting at the Test Site Museum (recently). Senator Reid, Rep. Jim Gibbons, and Lt. Gov. Hunt all gave talks on the Yucca Mountain project.

Their opinions all came to the same conclusion that Yucca Mountain is a complete failure and it's only a short matter of time that it will be gone.

After seeing the problems reported in the (Pahrump Valley) Times about the (Pahrump) Senior Center running out of money, I wonder what the Nye County Commissioners have in store for the rest of us when the PETT funds dry up.

I would think that all of their paid study plans would be the first things to go and would have to be followed by their love affair with the builders and developers who are not paying their share of infrastructure costs.

The whole north side of the valley is under construction to beat the impact fees. When will the public wake up that Pahrump City needs to be incorporated and have things like other cities, like police, a fire department, and someone to take charge and be responsible like a mayor?

RICH BROWN [back]


NRC Reports On Soil TestingStudied Possible Contamination From Spent Nuclear Fuel

Pool Leak

January 12, 2006 By GARY LIBOW, Hartford Courant Staff Writer

HADDAM -- Soil, concrete and bedrock near a suspected spent fuel pool leak at the decommissioned Connecticut Yankee nuclear power plant do not exhibit dangerous levels of contamination, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported Wednesday.

NRC inspectors on Nov. 7 took samples for testing at the Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education in Tennessee. Connecticut Yankee officials also took samples for independent testing.

NRC official Marie Miller said it remains inconclusive whether the pool that housed spent nuclear fuel rods ever leaked, but it is certain there is no active seepage.

Connecticut Yankee has said contamination was limited to a 4-by 4-foot cube on the east side of the spent fuel pool building slated for demolition this year.

Miller said soil samples from an excavation outside the spent fuel pool wall have "no detectable" levels of tritium and strontium-90.

The soil contained low levels of cesium-137, most likely from fallout from nuclear testing decades ago, Miller said.

Those radioactive isotopes in high doses may cause cancer.

Of the three crushed bedrock samples tested, the NRC found one sample with slightly higher levels of cesium and strontium - in line with nuclear bomb testing in the desert decades ago.

The NRC hasn't received the test results for tritium yet, though Connecticut Yankee's testing found no detectable levels, Miller said.

There is also no cause for concern with two boring samples taken from the concrete spent fuel pool wall, Miller said.

Low levels of strontium, tritium and cesium were found on the outer wall sections, and in decreasing levels in sections closer to the fuel pool, she reported.

The NRC, noting that Connecticut Yankee's findings were consistent with the Oak Ridge Institute readings, said independent groundwater testing would continue at the plant site.

As of early January, Connecticut Yankee had excavated 15,000 tons of soil and bedrock from the plant site.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the agency would release a full report on the Connecticut Yankee findings later this month, but wanted to release the information Wednesday to allay public concerns.

Connecticut Yankee spokeswoman Kelley Smith said the NRC test results confirm the company's earlier finding that the contaminated soil adjacent to the spent fuel pool was confined to a small area on the plant site, which has been cleaned as part of ongoing decommissioning activities.


"We will also be conducting additional tests on the spent fuel pool concrete to determine if any further cleanup is needed prior to the demolition of the spent fuel pool building this year," Smith said.

Connecticut Yankee permanently shut down in 1996, after producing 110 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity over 28 years. [back]


Nuclear safety record mixedStephanie WaiteBeaver County/Allegheny Times Business Editor 01/11/2006

SHIPPINGPORT - As executives of FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. spoke Tuesday about how they're improving performance at the company's three nuclear power plants, a question occurred to Marc L. Dapas, deputy regional administrator for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Do the people at the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport ever resent getting suggestions for improvement from the people at the Davis-Besse plant, near Toledo, Ohio, and the Perry plant, near Cleveland?

"I'd be lying if I didn't tell you some of that was going on," said Jim Lash, vice president at Beaver Valley.

The NRC came to Shippingport on Tuesday to get an update on FirstEnergy's fleet of three nuclear plants, plants with histories about as different as the Ohio River is from Toledo's Maumee River.

While Beaver Valley has operated safely and quietly for years, Davis-Besse was the center of what Dapas described as a "watershed" event for both the NRC and FirstEnergy.

Last year, the NRC fined FirstEnergy $5.45 million, the agency's largest-ever single fine, for violations that led to reactor vessel head damage at Davis-Besse and for misleading the NRC about the cleaning and inspection of the reactor head in 2000.

Davis-Besse was shut down for two years as the reactor vessel head was replaced and other safety improvements were made. Then, just last week, four former Davis-Besse employees were banned from involvement in any NRC-regulated activity, three of them for five years and one for one year.

Does the Davis-Besse incident reflect at all on Shippingport, and should it concern the people who live near Beaver Valley Power Station?

It's a valid question, Dapas said. But not one with a simple answer.

One thing he knows, Dapas said, is that FirstEnergy does not want another costly incident like that at Davis-Besse. FirstEnergy "is leveraging all its resources ... so that it doesn't go down a similar path with another part of the organization," he said.

In examining the problems at Davis-Besse, the NRC would have questioned whether any of the issues were "generic" - for example, if a procedure that contributed to the problem was also in use at Beaver Valley.

FirstEnergy has been held accountable, and all three plants are currently operating safely, Dapas said.

One who's happy with Beaver Valley's performance is Beaver County Commissioner Joe Spanik, who spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting and noted that FirstEnergy is now training people for new jobs at not only the nuclear plant but the nearby Bruce Mansfield coal-fired plant. With coal and nuclear energy expected to see growth in the coming years, Spanik told the FirstEnergy executives that "we would entertain any addition to the fleet in Beaver County." [back]


Rogue lobbyist had ties to UtahEnvirocare: The N-waste firm did business with a former

Abramoff company

By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune January 12, 2006

Envirocare of Utah mounted a $4 million Washington lobbying effort in recent years and used Jack Abramoff's former firm as part of it. Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds was one of 14 firms the Utah radioactive and hazardous waste company hired to push for contracts, funding and legislation. The effort included changes needed for the company's failed attempt to bring highly concentrated radioactive waste from government cleanups in Fernald, Ohio, and Niagara Falls, N.Y., to Utah. Based on federal lobbyist disclosure reports, Envirocare had the help of roughly four dozen lobbyists, including five former congressmen and more than a dozen professional persuaders who had previously held high-ranking government positions. Company officials emphasize that Abramoff, who was with Preston Gates from 1994 to 2000, never worked for Envirocare. "We have absolutely no relationship with him, and we never have," said Tim Barney, Envirocare's senior vice president. Once a super-lobbyist working for one of Washington's top firms, Abramoff has pleaded guilty to fraud and faces several other corruption investigations. The scandal surrounding him has left Washington reeling, even top firms like Preston Gates, which counted Envirocare as a client between 1998 and 2003. It is no surprise Envirocare sought expert help in Washington to build support for its mile-square radioactive and hazardous waste business. The company has looked to the federal government - the U.S. Energy Department, the Defense Department and the Environmental Protection Agency - for most of its business since its creation in 1988. The company was on track to see 2005 as its busiest year on record, with roughly 4 million cubic feet disposed of at its Tooele County landfill in the first six months of the year. "It's very hard for a small Utah company to navigate the federal bureaucracy," said Barney, who calls his company the most-regulated in Utah and among the most regulated nationally. "It's a business expense, but it comes with the territory to work with these federal agencies." Sheila Krumholz, research director for Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, the Center for Responsive Politics, noted that companies find it invaluable to have lobbyists who can gain access to the nation's decision makers. "It opens doors that might otherwise be closed to them," she said. "It's those relationships clients are paying for." The Center for Public Integrity, another watchdog group, ranks Envirocare's lobbyist spending at 490th nationwide, several notches below the much larger Huntsman Chemical Corp., another Utah-based company. Envirocare, a private company that does not release revenue estimates, spent about $3.8 million on its Washington lobbying between 1998 and 2004. Huntsman, which had $11.5 billion in revenues last year, spent $4 million, according to the center's tally. Envirocare has spent more with Miller & Chevalier than any other Washington lobbying organization. Since 1999, the firm's Leonard Bickwit, onetime counsel to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has received more than $1 million from the Utah company. Some years, Bickwit visited the House and Senate on Envirocare's behalf, pressing such causes as "legislation to encourage rapid nuclear waste disposal" or U.S. policy toward Iran, the homeland of former company owner Khosrow Semnani. Other years, the efforts were more targeted. In 2003, Bickwit reported tracking "waste disposal in Iraq, and disposal of Fernald silo waste." That fall, Congress passed legislation reclassifying the highly contaminated waste so that it could go to Envirocare, but public


uproar in Utah prompted the company to withdraw its bid for the disposal job. Bickwit declined to comment for this article. So, too, did former Texas Rep. Jim Chapman, another Washington-based Envirocare lobbyist, and Tim Peckinpaugh, the lead D.C. lobbyist for Envirocare at Preston Gates. The five onetime lawmakers who have worked for Envirocare include Arkansas Republican Ed Bethune, Idaho Democrat Larry LaRocco, and Texas Democrats Bill Sarpalius, Ron Coleman and Jim Chapman. Under new management for the past year, the company has put new emphasis on Washington, according to Barney. Among those who have been hired are state GOP Chairman Joe Cannon, a former Environmental Protection Agency official, and Greg Hopkins, a former Utah Republican Party director and the onetime chief of staff for Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah. Envirocare has reported spending $290,000 on lobbying Washington in the first half of last year. "It was nothing more than a commitment by our new ownership that we needed to strengthen our ability to work with these government agencies," said Barney. [back]

Whose Mine Is It?A new uranium boom may threaten Navajos in the Four

Corners region.by Ted McDonoughCity Weekly January 12, 2006

There isn’t any more gold in them thar Utah hills, but there is still plenty of uranium. A recent run-up in uranium prices has prospectors gearing up to mine while those still suffering ill effects of the earlier uranium booms in the Four Corners region try to stop them.

The Utah office of the federal Bureau of Land Management currently lists 18,000 active mining claims on its books. That’s nearly double the 9,200 listed in October 2004. Filers don’t tell the bureau what mineral they hope to find, but BLM spokesman Don Banks said it’s a near certainty most of the today’s prospectors are looking for uranium.

Uranium-ore prices rose sharply last year on reports that demand for nuclear-power-plant fuel is outstripping supply and predictions the imbalance will grow with 60 new reactors planned or under construction.

Frank Bain, geologist with the BLM’s Moab field office, said uranium exploration has been nonexistent since the mid-1980s, when Utah mining petered out and prices hit $7 per pound. In the past four months, with uranium reaching $36 per pound, six exploration applications have been approved or are in progress. Officials predict a jump in those numbers if International Uranium Corporation, as rumored, reopens its White Mesa mill to process ore near Blanding.

All the activity has the Navajo at the Four Corners thinking it’s only a matter of months before someone begins mucking about on Navajo land. Leaders are going all out to stop it.

In April, the Navajo Nation Council banned uranium mining on Indian land, citing illness caused by earlier mining booms. The Navajo insist the ban applies to all Indian country, including portions outside the 1880 reservation boundaries where land owned by the federal government is intermixed with Navajo communities. The mining ban hasn’t stopped some large uranium companies from nosing about inside Navajo Nation.

“They are acting like the Navajo Nation has taken no action that affects them,” said activist Chris Shuey, who monitors uranium for the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque, N.M.

Canadian company Strathmore Minerals and Michigan’s Quincy Energy have acquired mineral leases in the Eastern Agency, land east of reservation boundaries where ownership of both land and mineral rights skips in a checkerboard pattern from state to Indian to federal to private. Some of the land is within Navajo communities where residents fear mines will contaminate groundwater.


Shuey said another company, Hydro Resources, is trying to bolster its claim to mining privileges using an antiquated agreement executed between the tribe and a defunct railroad dating back to a period when railroads were given mineral rights on either side of the tracks.

George Hardeen, communications director for Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr., fears companies will get around the ban by lobbying the federal Interior Department for permission to mine in Indian country.

He noted that the federal government has spent millions cleaning up after old uranium mills on Navajo land, and the tribal government is still working to close abandoned mines. “The Navajo people are just scratching their heads wondering how in the world can these guys come back and continue mining when the old guys never cleaned up what they left,” he said.

To preempt the miners, President Shirley has lobbied Congress, hoping it will back up the Navajo Nation in an expected attempt by mining companies to assert the federal government, and not the tribe, should decide who gets to mine where. Hardeen said the tribe received favorable receptions from Utah’s delegation, particularly Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, who has previously campaigned for compensation of radiation-exposure victims. A spokeswoman for Matheson would not comment.

If Congress won’t support the Navajo, the issue will likely play out in court. If courts won’t uphold the ban, Hardeen isn’t sure how it will be enforced.

“When the Navajo signed the Treaty of 1868 with the federal government, they agreed to lay down their arms, so it’s not as if the Navajo Nation can pick up rifles and defend its own land.” [back]


'Primetime' exposes U's nuclear reactor security

By: Jed LaytonThe Daily Utah Chronicle Year in Review 1/11/06

In October, an ABC News broadcast described security measures at the Merrill Engineering Building to be inadequate for housing a nuclear reactor.

The "Primetime" report was part of a nationwide investigation to test security at 25 university reactors by 10 ABC interns. It accused the U's reactor of being vulnerable to terrorists.

The report was strongly disputed by university officials, who described it as inaccurate and appalling.

The investigative team, comprising two student interns, Traci Curry and Michelle Rabinowitz, claimed they found no guards, no metal detectors, no background check, no ID check and open tours at the reactor.

According to the report, the interns scheduled a tour giving them access to the reactor pool and control room. They were able to bring cameras on the tour.

The interns also came back on a return visit at 12:30 a.m. to find a basement entrance to the building unlocked. They were then able to videotape in the hallway at night unchallenged.

The report quoted Ronald E. Timm, a veteran in security consulting, as saying that security for the reactor was "very poor risk management."

U professors and students were surprised by the report, especially by the claim that the reactor could be used as a bomb.

They asserted that since the reactor was specifically built for student use, it was physically impossible for anyone to make a bomb out of it.

U officials said that although the interns were able to enter the Merrill Engineering Building, they were unable to get through four locked doors to reach the actual reactor.

U officials also maintained that security checks were run, that they were aware of the two interns filming at 12:30 a.m. and that the security plan worked.

ABC has continued to stand by its story and has refused to retract any part of it. [back]

MISS: Hustling Reps


Hits & Misses - by Ted McDonoughCity Weekly January 12, 2006

Pay the lady at the door, go inside and pick from a lineup who you’d like to “talk” to for the evening. It’s not a Nevada brothel, but a night out with the Utah House Republicans who in a recent “speed dating” fund-raiser took on any and all lobbyists for three-minute sessions and collected an estimated $20,000 for the night’s work. At least they’re honest. The House Republicans “dating” practices make no pretense about what’s really going on: If you’ve got the dough, you can meet with a legislator. A darker side of the professionalizing of money in Utah politics came with formation of the Conservative Caucus PAC, Utah’s first-ever political-action committee started by lawmakers. Radioactive-waste importer Envirocare promptly donated $10,000. [back]

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