Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire: Party leaders of the United States Senate

Showing posts with label Party leaders of the United States Senate. Show all posts

Monday, November 15, 2010

GOP, Reid headed for more conflict over Yucca, nuclear waste

WASHINGTON -- A new Republican majority in the House is poised to assert itself on nuclear waste matters in the upcoming Congress, with newly re-elected Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada set to guard again that the Yucca Mountain repository plan is not revived.
President Barack Obama with strong direction from Reid, the Senate majority leader, shut down the Nevada program once envisioned for burying 77,000 tons of highly radioactive used nuclear fuel and waste materials into the Nye County ridge, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

A blue ribbon commission that Obama established to study alternatives is expected to release a draft report next summer, with a final version due early in 2012. But there still is a twitch in the Yucca corpse. Two years ago the Department of Energy under President George W. Bush sought permission from government nuclear safety regulators to build out the Nevada site. Despite the change in White House leadership and policy, that application remains alive for now, if only on paper.
A variety of state leaders, congressional officials, energy consultants, environmental advocates and industry lobbyists said the ultimate fate of the Yucca program might be decided in the courts.
But in the meantime, they said, a stage is being set for low-grade conflict over the two years of the next congressional session, with a possible window for change opening when the blue ribbon commission issues its recommendations.
By the 2012 elections, the Nevada repository plan could be doornail-dead and long gone if a new nuclear waste management strategy emerges and gains consensus, or it could be poised for an attempted resurrection if one does not.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/gop--reid-headed-for-more-conflict-over-yucca--nuclear-waste-107602518.html?ref=518

Monday, October 25, 2010

Yucca's future rides on senate race

Yucca Mountain's fate could be decided in midterm election
Should Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., lose his re-election bid next month, Nevada's congressional opposition to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository would be significantly weakened, according to Bruce Breslow, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. "Our entire Nevada delegation has opposed Yucca, but we had no clout until Senator Reid became majority leader," said Breslow. "Without a majority leader from Nevada, other states would have built an expressway to Yucca Mountain." Reno Gazette-Journal (Nev.)/Gannett News Service

Friday, October 8, 2010

States protest 'end run,' urge Nuclear Regulatory Commission to restart Yucca Mountain work Washington, South Carolina want Nevada site as possibility

WASHINGTON -- Officials from states that are storing millions of gallons of nuclear waste urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday to put its scientists back to work evaluating Yucca Mountain as a potential disposal site.
Attorneys for Washington state and South Carolina filed a formal motion with the agency alleging that Chairman Gregory Jaczko acted improperly in directing the staff to "begin an orderly closure of high level waste activities."
The states were joined by Aiken County, S.C., where the federal government stores 36 million gallons of highly radioactive waste at its Savannah River complex. In Washington state, more than 53 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste are at the Hanford site.
The parties argue that the NRC commissioners have yet to rule on an Obama administration request to close out the license application for Yucca Mountain. And until they do, the evaluation cannot be ended, they argued.
The NRC confirmed receipt of the motion. Spokesman David McIntyre said the agency, as its usual practice, would not comment.
Neither Jaczko nor any of the four other commissioners has commented on the guidance, which staff said came in the context of a budget memo for the new fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
Amid the silence, unconfirmed rumors swirled of palace intrigue at the top levels of the agency that otherwise has a reputation as a by-the-book body whose focus is on regulating the safety and security of nuclear power plants and the handling of nuclear materials.
Agency spokesmen moved Thursday to dispel whispers among attorneys and lobbyists of some significant and impending development in the commission's handling of Yucca Mountain, perhaps an announcement in some form of a vote.
McIntyre said the commission has no meetings scheduled on the topic, and two of its five members are out of town this week.
The Yucca issue is seen as politically sensitive among policymakers as it touches on Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate majority leader who is up for re-election.
Reid contends the nuclear waste burial in Nevada is unsafe and unsound, and has made its termination a part of his career and his campaign. Through the Obama administration, he has engineered the shutdown of project offices and all but buried decades of government drive to locate a nuclear waste site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Before he joined the NRC in 2005, Jazcko was a top aide to Reid handling appropriations and nuclear matters. An NRC ruling that allows the Yucca Mountain construction application to be withdrawn "with prejudice," meaning it could not be refiled, could amount to a final nail in the coffin.
Nevada leaders who have opposed the program say they are hopeful of a final ruling to kill the program for good, although some unconfirmed reports suggest the commission is split and could come down either way.
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., said Thursday Jaczko's decision to halt the staff review in the meantime was "a sound decision."
"I will continue to work with my colleagues to ensure that this misguided project never sees the light of day," Titus said.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Yucca project review halted NRC chief tables viability study of nuclear waste site By STEVE TETREAULT

NRC's Jaczko Orders End to Review of Yucca Mountain Application

NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko has issued an order for agency scientists to cease reviewing DOE's application for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported today. NRC said the order followed a previously established commission policy "that directs a transition to begin an orderly closure of high level waste activities" at Yucca.

NRC spokesman David McIntyre said commissioners planned no comments on the instructions. The Nuclear Energy Institute contended that the NRC was obligated to review DOE's petition to withdraw its application for Yucca before commissioners voted on the petition. The group noted the "general principle, that as long as an application is pending, which it is, the agency is under an obligation."

Nevada politicians applauded Jaczko's order, with Meredith MacKenzie, spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid quoted as saying: "Why would anybody want the federal government to continue wasting time and valuable resources working on a license application for a project that has no money, no staff, and no chance of ever being built?"

Las Vegas (Nev.) Review-Journal, Oct. 7.http://www.lvrj.com/news/nrc-chairman-directs-stoppage-of-yucca-review-104458878.html

Monday, September 20, 2010

Haley Slams Reid's Rejection of Yucca Nuclear Waste Site

S.C. candidate criticizes Reid's campaign against Yucca Mountain
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is squandering billions of dollars in trying to terminate the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste project, said Nikki Haley, a gubernatorial candidate in South Carolina. About $20 billion has been invested in the repository, including $1.2 billion from South Carolina, Haley said. "President Obama and Harry Reid are willing to shut down Yucca and make South Carolina a permanent dumping ground to save Harry Reid's Senate seat," she added. FoxNews.com (9/19) http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/19/haley-goes-nuclear-yucca-waste-site-shutdown/