Ok, maybe a short glass. But I stand by the rest of the header.
Today’s Heritage Foundation Foundry quote of the day. With pic. (Check out the sunglasses on this lunatic. Talk about a Hollywood complex.)
nuclear
Yucca Facts today posts a letter from Ty Cobb, a former Reagan official, to key Nevada decision makers re: Yucca Mountain, as well as a letter Cobb penned to Bruce Breslow, the new executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.
I have long hoped that Nevadans could/would be fully and fairly informed about Yucca Mountain and that the NANP and Harry Reid and others would stop doing their utmost to kill every proposal for Yucca before a detailed debate has been had. Nevada citizens deserve unbiased information on Yucca so we can weigh the real pros and cons of hosting the waste facility - and possibly a reprocessing center. We need to understand the safety issues and consider all the costs and benefits so we can make an informed decision.
I have done some reading and research and I believe safe transportation and storage are possible; that a viable reprocessing center would solve many of the present concerns about volume; that a world-class university R&D center at the plant would be a boon to our higher education system and the state; and that the $100 billion injection into our economy plus an estimated 8,000 jobs during construction would be very good for Nevada.
I sure hope Bruce Breslow will give things a fair shake.
Everything I proposed above is already being done in France and dozens of other nations around the world. The United States is way behind most of the developed world when it comes to nuclear power plants, storage, and reprocessing – because of the fear-mongering and misinformation dissemination that has been allowed to go on for so long.
Posted by E!!
on October 10, 2008
Energy Policy, Global Warming, International, Nuclear Energy, Yucca Mountain / 1 Comment
Energy Policy, Global Warming, International, Nuclear Energy, Yucca Mountain / 1 Comment
This paper is the best, most concise argument for nuclear power I’ve read yet. If you are against or on the fence on nuclear energy, you should read it and consider the facts. If you are already in favor, you’ll be delighted and probably learn a few things.
Be assured, this is not some partisan policy paper. It’s full of hard data and as such is very compelling. It has been entered into the Congressional Record twice (once during Senate testimony for the budget for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, once during a House hearing on environmental benefits of nuclear power).
The paper states that nuclear waste disposal “is a political problem in the United States because of widespread fear disproportionate to the reality of risk” and contends and concludes that nuclear power is in fact “environmentally safe, practical, and affordable.”
It includes facts and citations from the British Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Internationl Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Energy Council, the World Health Organization, the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Geological Survey, MIT, the Harvard School of Public Health, Houston’s Institute for Energy Research, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).
One of the authors, Dr. Denis Beller, recently completed a sabbatical from Los Alamos National Laboratory to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he coordinated university participation for UNLV’s Transmutation Research Program for reducing, reusing, and recycling spent nuclear fuel. Beller is now a Research Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UNLV and a Visiting Research Professor at Idaho State University.
The other author, Richard Rhodes, is a journalist, historian and author. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1986), and most recently penned Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race (2007). Rhodes has been awarded grants from the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He is an affiliate of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University and frequently gives lectures and talks, including testifying before the U.S. Senate on nuclear energy.
Well I guess it’s also Harry Reid Day here on E!!
Here’s the text of an automated phone message Chuck Muth received last week…
Hi, this is Lydia with the Sierra Club. Nevadans have fought long and hard against the dangerous nuclear waste dump in Yucca Mountain. And leading that fight has been Sen. Harry Reid. Last week Sen. Reid continued to highlight the dangers of transporting hazardous nuclear waste across the country and into Nevada. Please call Sen. Harry Reid at (702) 388-5020 and tell him Nevadans are united against the proposed Yucca Mountain project. Again, please call Sen. Reid at (702) 388-5020. Paid for by the Sierra Club.
If Nevadans are truly “united” in their opposition to Yucca Mountain, and if Reid has led that fight, why would the Sierra Club feel it necessary for Nevadans to call Sen. Reid…?
Perhaps they think he is getting senile in his old age.
Or perhaps it’s as Chuck suggests: “the anti-nuke crowd is running scared these days – especially with the licensing process moving full speed ahead and with the head of the Nuclear Waste Project Office, Bob Loux, resigning after being caught with his fingers in the taxpayers’ cookie jar.”
For great, factual info on nuclear energy, visit the Nuclear Energy Institute.
The LVRJ is reporting that Bob Loux has finally resigned. (Go here for a refresher on Loux.)
Loux, age 59, apologized to the commission (and the public) for giving himself and other agency staffers unauthorized pay increases.
Gov. Gibbons has ordered that the salaries in question be corrected to the approved amounts and has asked that the Department of Personnel obtain repayment of the excess.
“This action will ensure that the general fund is reimbursed…and will also ensure that any retirement benefits to employees of the Agency for Nuclear Projects are based on the correct salary levels,” the LVRU reports Gibbons to have said.
Loux’s salary has been rolled back to the 2006 budgeted amount of $104,497 and his retirement will be based on a percentage of his three highest pay years, excluding the unauthorized ones.
Still a pretty good deal for a guy who, according to Stuart Waymire, holds a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Nevada, Reno, did not have credentials for the job, and has done more than anyone to get in the way of a civil, intelligent discussion about Yucca Mountain. (I’ve got excerpts from a book Waymire wrote here.)
Anyway, Loux is out.
As the flight attendants cheerfully say at the end of long, tedious flights, “Buh-Bye now.”
If you’re a Nevada resident who cares, the RGJ has a poll up about Yucca Mountain. The poll question is:
Should Nevada end its opposition to the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain?
As of my own vote (#2 – Yes, there are benefits) the results were:
Yes, it is coming whether Nevada likes it or not. 11% (29 votes)
Yes, there are good benefits that could be negotiated for Nevada. 50% (126 votes)
No, it will discourage tourism in Southern Nevada. 0% (0 votes)
No, transporting nuclear waste to Nevada is too dangerous. 10% (26 votes)
No, states that generate the waste should take care of it. 28% (72 votes)
Total Votes: 253
So…61% of those who responded to the poll say “Yes” to Yucca.
Posted by E!!
on September 15, 2008
Blogs of Nevada, Condescension Squared, Corruption in Politics, Energy Policy, Yucca Mountain / No Comments
Blogs of Nevada, Condescension Squared, Corruption in Politics, Energy Policy, Yucca Mountain / No Comments
Chuck Muth has a funny/interesting little blurb in today’s Nevada News & Views.
Over the weekend, someone faxed him some old copies of the Bullfrog County Times newsletter (circa the late 80s). Apparently this publication tried to tell ”the other side” of the Yucca Mountain issue – which Nevadans weren’t getting from Bob Loux and the Nuclear Waste Project Office (NWPO).
One Bullfrog newsletter mentioned a letter-to-the-editor written by a man from Carson City who had suggested that “Nevada should be receiving financial compensation for the study of Yucca Mountain.”
According to the Bullfrog, Bob Loux of the NWPO “mobilized his office, cranked up the typewriters and copy machines, called in all of his envelope stuffers, and fired off [a]…news release to every newspaper in the state, large and small…” In his missive, Loux insinuated that the original letter-to-the-editor was written by the Department of Energy or someone in the nuke industry, “implying that no right-thinking Nevadan could possibly conclude on his own that our state should be compensated for what’s happening at Yucca Mountain.”
The Bullfrog concluded: “The poor guy in Carson City must be wondering what he did to incur the wrath of an entire agency. We’ll tell you what you did, sir. You dared to think for yourself. You dared to speak the unspeakable. That’s the way it is in Nevada these days. And it appears that no one in any higher position cares what Loux does with his power or budget.”
Twenty years later, it looks the ghosts of Bullfrog’s past can croak with joy as they finally get to see Lady Justice comin’ ’round the proverbial Mountain for Mr. Bob Loux.
Posted by E!!
on September 10, 2008
Blogs of Nevada, Cold Hard Cash, Corruption and Greed, Corruption in Politics, Energy Policy, Fleecing the Taxpayers, Giant Egos, Harry Reid, Moral Bankruptcy, Not Good, Yucca Mountain / No Comments
Blogs of Nevada, Cold Hard Cash, Corruption and Greed, Corruption in Politics, Energy Policy, Fleecing the Taxpayers, Giant Egos, Harry Reid, Moral Bankruptcy, Not Good, Yucca Mountain / No Comments
(NOTE: The word count for this post is greater than usual, but I strongly encourage you to read the whole thing, forward the link to people you know, and contact your assemblymen, senators, and congressmen – both state and federal – in order to make your voice heard.)
Most Nevadans probably don’t even know the NWPO exists (see my post below on Bob Loux), let alone how it came about or what it does. For a little tutorial, here are some excerpts from a history written over ten years ago by author/researcher Stuart D. Waymire (emphasis mine; non-italicized sarcastic comments also mine):
“Nevada’s Nuclear Waste Project Office was created using money set aside from the Nuclear Waste Fund. Under its director, Bob Loux, NWPO has consumed nearly fifty million dollars over the last decade, much of it employed in opposition to nuclear energy…”
So, the Waste Project Office wasted Money from the Waste Fund. Seems logical to me.
“…Robert Loux…has become as notorious in Nevada as a one-man anti-nuclear wrecking ball. A high school teacher with a major in history and minor in psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno, Loux had been involved in state energy and nuclear waste programming since 1976. In fact, except for a few years of teaching high school, this appears to have been the only career he has ever pursued.”
A high school history teacher was obviously the best choice to head up an agency overseeing the largest proposed nuclear project in our nation’s history. “Duh”
“Since becoming executive director of NWPO, Loux’s lack of scientific expertise and technical credentials has become a raw wound in the Nevada technical community which sees him as a political manipulator and engineering dilettante. This hasn’t stopped Loux from gaining carte blanche over what has now grown to more than $5 million dollars per year in funds, in large part distributed to foes of the nuclear industry.”
I think $13,698.63 per day is a very reasonable rate for all the non-expert misinformation we’ve gotten from Loux and his staff.
“As a result of action by the 1985 Nevada Legislature, NWPO became, officially, the Agency for Nuclear Projects – a statutorily established entity responsible for monitoring and overseeing U.S. Department of Energy activities related to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site. In the hands of then-Governor Richard Bryan, it also became part of a political strategy designed to bludgeon political opposition into submission – notably former Senator Chic Hecht in the 1988 senatorial campaign eventually won by Bryan.
“Under the troika of Senator Bryan, director Robert Loux and former governor Grant Sawyer (who was enlisted to head the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects), the Nuclear Waste Project Office became an anti-nuclear propaganda machine.
“Oversight by the Sawyer Commission transformed into show trials masquerading as fact finding. Science conducted by NWPO’s technical and planning division was corrupted by political considerations. The social scientists of the planning division, given lucrative contracts worth $15 million, used their expertise to generate anti-nuclear hysteria in Nevada. Less abusive but no less disturbing was that some of the technical studies were designed to support the party line rather than investigate real technical questions at Yucca Mountain.”
Kudos to ex- Nevada Governors Richard Bryan and Grant Sawyer for administrative efficiency: they ordered skewed technical studies, effectively smeared the Yucca project, and defeated their political opponents using the same agency.
“Nevada’s politicians, notably Senator Bryan and ex-governor Sawyer, looked the other way as Bob Loux awarded millions of dollars of contracts without Requests For Proposals and without competitive bids.
We don’t need no stinking bids.
“Even more problematic was that the Department of Energy, which was supposed to oversee the spending of NWPO, caved in to the political pressure and allowed the state to violate federal laws rather than risk making political waves…
Given a choice between upholding federal law and being called a bunch of Big Meanies, the DOE made the obvious choice.
“For example, NWPO openly violated the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) against using funds to run public relations and lobbying campaigns. Whenever questioned about the legality of these public relations activities, Bob Loux simply claimed the regulations didn’t apply, or that his agency was in compliance because its activities were strictly ‘informational’. The pertinent regulation regarding limits on public relations and lobbying by agencies accepting Federal grants is FAR 31.205-22.”
Loux’ activites were actually MIS-informational, but let’s not split hairs – or atoms, as the case may be.
Twenty-three years later, Loux, Richard Bryan, the NWPO, most of Nevada’s elected officials, and many of Nevada’s citizens are still rabidly anti-Yucca Mountain. And, unfortunately, many well-intentioned people remain completely uninformed about the facts and benefits.
What a shame.
(I’ll collect and post assorted contact info for the appropriate persons and agencies later today, so please stand by.)
Posted by E!!
on September 10, 2008
Balanced Budgets, Blogs of Nevada, Cold Hard Cash, Corruption and Greed, Energy Policy, Fleecing the Taxpayers, Giant Egos, Government Spending, Moral Bankruptcy, Not Good, Yucca Mountain / 1 Comment
Balanced Budgets, Blogs of Nevada, Cold Hard Cash, Corruption and Greed, Energy Policy, Fleecing the Taxpayers, Giant Egos, Government Spending, Moral Bankruptcy, Not Good, Yucca Mountain / 1 Comment
According to the AP, Bob Loux – head of Nevada’s Nuclear Waste Projects Office (NWPO) – took an ex-employee’s salary and gave it to himself and the rest of his staff in the form of double-digit pay increases. In doing so, Loux exceeded his approved budget and raised his own six-figure salary to over $132,000 a year – significantly more than the earnings of many state department heads.
Assemblyman Morse Arberry said Loux could be thrown in jail because “it’s unlawful for any state officer to do what he’s done.” Speaker Barbara Buckley noted that other state employees have received raises of just 2 percent while pulling double and even triple-duty because of a hiring freeze.
With this attempted swindle by Loux, the NWPO’s days of unsupervised slush-funding may finally be coming to an end. A full agency audit is now to take place.
It has been suggested by some that Loux should “pay back” the money. I agree – but first, he should do the other honorable thing and resign.
You can help by contacting the NWPO directly and urging Mr. Loux to quit, or by demanding that the seven members of the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects (Dick Bryan, Susan Brager, Larry Brown, Joan Lambert, Steve Molasky, William Roberts and Paul Workman) give him his walking papers.
Here’s the contact information: nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us or call toll-free: (800) 366-0990.
Posted by E!!
on September 09, 2008
Barbara Buckley, Blogs of Nevada, Economy, Energy Policy, Harry Reid, John Ensign, Yucca Mountain / No Comments
Barbara Buckley, Blogs of Nevada, Economy, Energy Policy, Harry Reid, John Ensign, Yucca Mountain / No Comments
The LVRJ reports that the Department of Energy’s plans for a nuclear spent-fuel repository at Yucca Mountain inched forward Monday when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced it will conduct studies and have safety hearings on the plans. The NRC’s decision to accept a Yucca Mountain application onto its licensing docket is the latest step forward for the project and occurs over the objections of many of Nevada’s elected leaders.
This is a favorite topic of mine. I’m not necessarily “For Yucca” (the jury is still out) but I am for more public discussion while we decide if it is best for Nevada. Here’s a little background and what I know about the Pros for Yucca:
The great state of Nevada currently has a variety of problems: a large budget shortfall, high energy costs, water shortages, a floundering public education system, a lack of quality higher education opportunities, and road construction needs, to name a few. Money is not the sole answer to all, but it is sorely needed.
As recently reported in the Lousville Courier-Journal, uranium is selling for around $73 a pound. Given that We-Have-The-Technology to extract it from all the “worthless” nuclear waste, the recoverable uranium from/at Yucca Mountain would be worth about $7.6 billion. (Budget problems: solved.)
If Yucca Mountain became the site for our nation’s nuclear reprocessing center as well as the storage site for all the “waste,” Nevadans could/would benefit in the form of a lot of highly skilled high-paying jobs as well as lots of cheap electricity from the Nuclear Power Plant (which Nevadans should insist be part of the Yucca deal). (Job and Energy problems: solved.)
Some of the surplus money could be used to build a water pipeline from the Pacific to Yucca Mountain, where the power from the Nuclear Power Plant could be used to desalinate the ocean water in our world-class Desalination Center. This should be part of the long-term plan. And again, We-Have-The-Technology, given the ability to generate enough heat - which a nuclear reactor could easily do. (Water shortage problems: solved.)
Then, as a result of the Repository and with the Reprocessing and uranium extraction center, the Power Plant, and the Desalinization facility, we’d have every reason to establish a world-class Yucca Mountain Nuclear Technology University. And would have plenty of dollars left over for Nevada’s K thru 12 education budget. (Education issues: solved.)
Finally, the facilites at Yucca would likely lead to the necessity for a four-lane super highway connecting Yucca Mountain with Las Vegas and Reno (wouldn’t THAT be nice) plus enough extra money to build enough roads to solve all our other gridlock problems. (Road construction problems: solved.)
Countries like France produce 78% of their electrical energy from nuclear reactors and the EU as a whole gets 30% of its electricity from nuclear reactors…so why does the U.S. get only about 20% of its electricty from nuclear reactors?
Answer: stubborn, unreasoned obstructionism by people like Harry Reid, John Ensign, Shelley Berkley and others in Washington DC who oppose nuclear power (as well as the amazing facilities we could have at Yucca Mountain) despite the facts and possible benefits.
Posted by E!!
on August 27, 2008
2008 Elections, Barack Obama, Blogs of Nevada, Energy Policy, Harry Reid, John McCain, Yucca Mountain / No Comments
2008 Elections, Barack Obama, Blogs of Nevada, Energy Policy, Harry Reid, John McCain, Yucca Mountain / No Comments
From today’s Nevada News & Views:
LETHAL WEAPON NO MORE
Harry Reid declared the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository dead…just before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave a “green light” to move forward with the final stage of the licensing process and dismissing a challenge to it by the state of Nevada.
Then Obama began running ads attacking John McCain on his pro-Yucca Mountain stance, figuring it would do electoral harm to the GOP nominee’s chances in Nevada…just before a new poll came out showing that less than one in four voters saying the Yucca Mountain issue would have a major influence on their votes. And 38 percent of them said the issue wouldn’t effect their vote one way or the other whatsoever.
It’s starting to look like the proverbial “third rail” of Nevada politics isn’t quite so lethal any longer.
SUFFERING FROM YUCCA-SCHIZOPHRENIA
“It seems 58 percent of Nevadans polled oppose the Yucca Mountain project, where the government wants to bury the highly radioactive waste from nuclear plants. But in a different question, 58 percent of Nevadans said they had no problem whatsoever digging up more uranium to refine and use in nuclear power. Thus creating more nuclear waste. Thus creating a greater need for the disposal of said nuclear waste. Thus creating more pressure to build and operate Yucca Mountain. Which 58 percent of Nevadans say they’re against.
Does that make sense to anybody? We didn’t think so.”
- CityLife editor Steve Sebelius, 8/26/08
