Ken Moen's recent column ("A strategy
to solve our tax problems," Aug. 12)
suggesting that Nevada can solve its revenue
shortfall problems
by embracing the
Yucca Mountain
high-level nuclear
waste dump badly
missed the point
about why the state
cannot and must not negotiate on this
issue. Here are some of the compelling
reasons behind the state's position:
Yucca Mountain is an unsafe site. No
amount of money or benefits will change
that fact. How do you put a dollar figure
on people's lives, a safe environment, clean
water, the health and safety of future generations?
DOE plans to contaminate the
Amargosa Valley aquifer as part of its
"waste isolation strategy" for Yucca
Mountain, using dilution of the radioactive
waste in the underground water as a
way of making it appear that site is able to
meet the EPA's radiation health protection
standards. The only argument is
when, not if, that contamination will
occur. Yucca Mountain is such a poor
repository site, geologically speaking, that
it would be irresponsible, even unconscionable,
for any state official to entertain
the notion of accepting the facility in
exchange for monetary or other benefits.
The costs and risks to the state far
exceed any benefits of the project. Yucca
Mountain would cost the state billions in
costs associated with dealing with the
direct effects of the program and the tens
of thousands of waste shipments that are
part of it. If there is an accident involving
radiation, the costs to Nevada would be
in the tens of billions of dollars, and the
potential damage to the state's tourism
economy would be devastating. Because
of the way the state's tax and revenue systems
operate, any impacts to
tourism/gaming revenues would dramatically
impact local governments, with long
term effects far exceeding any "compensation"
DOE might offer.
Any negotiation would cripple
Nevada's legal cases. The only reason
DOE and the nuclear industry are trying
to entice Nevada and its local communities
with promises of benefits is that they
realize Yucca Mountain can only be built
if the state drops its opposition. Once
Nevada indicates even a willingness to
talk benefits or compensation, the battle
is over and the state will have capitulated.
That is exactly what the nuclear industry
lobbyists are hoping for.
Nevada has an excellent chance of
defeating the Yucca Mountain program
outright. The state has been preparing to
contest the project in the legal and technical
arenas for almost two decades and has
already engaged DOE in numerous legal
areas. Unlike in the political fight, DOE
is going to be forced to defend its shoddy
science and faulty conclusions in the
courts and before the NRC's licensing
board, where DOE's contentions will be
subject to cross examination by some of
the best attorneys in the country, supported
by Nevada's first-rate scientific and
technical experts. The only thing that can
bail DOE out at this point is for Nevada
to voluntarily give up the fight. And any
negotiations for benefits would irreparably
damage Nevada's legal cases and seriously
weaken the state's credibility in challenging
the project in the technical arena.
You can't trust DOE or the federal
government to live up to any commitments
it might make. People who think
negotiating with DOE or the industry is a
good idea need to understand that, once
Yucca Mountain gets the go ahead and
waste begins to flow, there is no longer
any incentive for DOE or Congress to
live up to any commitments made for
compensating the state or local governments.
For one thing, the nuclear waste
fund that supports the program using a
fee collected on electricity generated by
nuclear power plants is already woefully
inadequate to pay for the cost of constructing
and operating a repository. That
means taxpayers will have to pick up the
tab, and any "benefits" the state might
negotiate for will be competing with all of
the other project costs every year in the
annual congressional appropriation
process. The reality of the federal appropriations
process is that there is no way to
bind one administration or Congress into
a funding commitment made by a previous
administration or Congress. In effect,
any benefits agreement that might be
negotiated is, essentially, unenforceable.
The New Mexico example: One
needs only look at the situation New
Mexico finds itself in with regard to the
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant project, a
repository for transuranic waste and the
only facility that is remotely similar to the
proposed Yucca Mountain repository.
New Mexico early on chose not to contest
the project and negotiated with DOE
to accept the WIPP nuclear waste facility
in exchange for promises of funds for
roads and other things. All New Mexico
ever got was a few million dollars a year
for highway improvements money the
state probably would have gotten anyway
from the federal highway trust fund.
DOE reneged on every other commitment.
In addition, DOE continues to
hold the promised highway funds hostage
whenever New Mexico complains about
health and safety violations at WIPP.
The bottom line is, Yucca Mountain is
unsafe and unacceptable at any price.
Gov. Guinn and all of Nevada's elected
representatives are right to reject any
form of negotiations that would require
the state to accept this project.
???
Norma Conway has worked for the Governor's
Agency for Nuclear Projects since 1985. She is
the agency communications manager and frequently
participates in agency-related speaker's
bureau activities where she provides Nevada's
perspective on Yucca Mountain.
