The application on CD arrive several months ago but the ACTUAL Paper application arrive today at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission simultaneously. The application filled a semitrailer truck for each agency and took a chain of workers to unload the boxes. This is not getting off to an environmentally start is it? I wonder how many trees they killed to make the application.
So I thought we would take this day before Weird Bird Friday to catch up with the old “hole in the ground” in the Nevada Desert.
Here is what the what the current female Editor of the Magazine RadWaste puts it:
http://www.ans.org/pubs/magazines/rs/docs/2008-3-4-2.pdf
“Isn’t ironic? While the nuclear reactor sector is beginning to boom….In the area of high-level waste, the proposed Yucca Mountain/spent fuel repository project is expected to submit its license application to the NRC this year. But Congress, thanks to efforts of Yacca Mountain opponent Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev), the Senate majority leader, cut more than 100 million $$$ from the fiscal 2008 appropriation for the project, putting the the license application at risk and ensuring that continuing research….
The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s trade group, is so excited about the nuclear renaissance that it’s willing to put waste issues aside for now.”
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That doesn’t sound good.
http://www.republican-eagle.com/articles/index.cfm?id=50783§ion=News
Others seem more hopeful – the Natives re restless:
City and tribal leaders hail Yucca
Mountain progress
Mike Longaecker The Republican Eagle
Published Thursday, June 05, 2008
A major step toward building a national nuclear waste repository has been met with support from Red Wing leaders.
The Department of Energy on Wednesday submitted its license application to build a facility at Yucca Mountain, Nev., where proponents hope to store spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste.
If accepted, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will undertake what officials estimate will be a three-year licensing process.
Prairie Island Indian Community Tribal Council President Ron Johnson called the application submittal “a giant step.”
“I hope it goes further than that,” he said.
The tribe has long been a supporter of the project, which proposes to store 77,000 metric tons of nuclear waste inside the remote, tunneled-out mountain.
Both the tribe and the city of Red Wing are members of the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition.
City officials have also backed Yucca Mountain in hopes of moving the waste out of the Red Wing area.
“As neighbors to a nuclear power plant, it is vital to the community to move Yucca Mountain forward and create a permanent repository for this waste,” Red Wing City Council President Carol Duff said in a statement.
“It cannot continue to be stored in the backyards of communities like Red Wing, creating a risk of exposure.”
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In fact it’s all tied up in the new Carbon Capping Bill though the good thing is that the Global Warming as a hoax arguement disappeared from the debate:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0605/p02s05-uspo.html
On Tuesday, the Department of Energy (DOE) submitted a long-awaited license application to build a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada – a move that supporters say is essential to revive the nuclear-power industry.
Nuclear-power advocates hope to use the global-warming bill as a vehicle for reviving the industry. They make the case that without a significant increase in nuclear power, it will be impossible to lower carbon emissions without a blow to US living standards.
“It’s time we begin the nuclear renaissance in America and Yucca Mountain is a vital step,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (R) of South Carolina, in a statement after the announcement. “If Congress is serious about reducing carbon emission, nonemitting nuclear energy must play an even larger role than it does today.”
Many Democrats are wary of risking the support of some environmental groups over nuclear power. Majority leader Reid, a longtime opponent of a nuclear-waste dump in his state, charged that DOE filed the application with only about 35 percent of the work done to justify it.
“Yucca Mountain is as close to being dead as any piece of legislation could be,” he said on Tuesday. Republicans say they are holding out for a wide-ranging debate over the global-warming bill, including many amendments. Democratic leaders worry that some amendments, including those over nuclear power, could undermine support for the bill.
Commenting on the diverse coalition of lawmakers now supporting the bill, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) of California said: “They need a certain amount to stay on it. I need a certain amount not to get off it. We’re looking for that sweet spot.”
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Of course, the Energy Hogs are screaming VICTORY:
http://blog.heritage.org/2008/06/05/morning-bell-the-lefts-nuclear-nightmare/
Morning Bell: The Left’s Nuclear Nightmare
Posted June 5th, 2008 at 9.18am in Energy and Environment.
The U.S. Department of Energy officially submitted the license application to build a nuclear waste facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada earlier this week. A strong supporter of the Lieberman-Warner carbon-capping bill, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was incredulous, telling reporters: “Yucca Mountain is as close to being dead as any piece of legislation could be.” However, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) both recognize that their bill will not pass without more nuclear power.
Far to Warner and Lieberman’s left though, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) thinks their bill does not need to reform the nuclear industry: “Already in the bill there’s a whole funding stream for these low-carbon, noncarbon energy sources and that’s sufficient. I don’t think you need more.” It is nice that Boxer believes this–but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Energy Information Administration (EIA) sure don’t.
Throughout the debate on Lieberman-Warner, activists such as the Environmental Defense Fund have quoted selectively from EPA and EIA studies to minimize the ruinous effects the bill would have on the U.S. economy. For example, this press release celebrates the fact that under Lieberman-Warner the economy will grow by 80 percent by 2030.
What the EDF doesn’t tell you is that the same report says Lieberman-Warner would raise energy prices by 44 percent in the same time frame. But the real kicker comes when you look at the assumptions the EPA made to come to its conclusions. Despite the fact that the U.S. has not built a new nuclear reactor in two decades, the EPA assumes that the U.S. will build 50 new reactors in the next 25 years.
Without these new power plants, which the Environmental Defense Fund no doubt will oppose, the U.S. economy will be 650 gigawatts of electric power short of its needs. That will send the price of energy through the roof — and kill many more jobs than the EPA currently estimates.
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If you want to take a look at the site you can go here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wl
But trust me it’s pretty boring!
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