[ RadSafe ] Haley Slams Reid's Rejection of Yucca Nuclear Waste Site

[Kulp, Jeffrey B]

I am somewhat confused; Ms. Haley is slamming Sen. Reid because he does
not want Nevada to become the "dumping ground" for America's nuclear
waste. Her concern is that South Carolina will become a "permanent
dumping ground" for America's nuclear waste. If the east coast had been
able to come up with a viable long term storage area for nuclear
materials, they wouldn't have to worry about sending it to somebody
else's area of the country. Sounds like NIMBY-ism to me

Jeff Kulp
Washington State University
Radiation Safety Office
Pullman, WA 99164-1302
(509) 335-8175

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at agni.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at agni.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Perle, Sandy
Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2010 8:44 PM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Haley Slams Reid's Rejection of Yucca Nuclear Waste
Site

Haley Slams Reid's Rejection of Yucca Nuclear Waste Site
September 19, 2010

(AP) South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley is launching a
new attack-- calling out Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for wasting
billions of dollars by preventing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste
repository from going online.

Haley, whose state contains two nuclear waste processing sites, said $20
billion already has been spent on the facility 100 miles north of Las
Vegas, including $1.2 billion from South Carolina.

"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. That's wrong," Haley said in a statement issued Saturday night.

"We are not interested in investing in any more Nevada real estate when
we get nothing in return. If the feds want to renege on the promise to
keep Yucca open, they must refund the $1.2 billion our state has spent
on the facility. We want our money back," she said.

Reid has made shutting down development of Yucca one of his priorities,
and successfully lobbied the Obama administration to prevent licensing
of the site, which Congress approved in 2002 as the nation's only deep
earth, geologically safe disposal facility.

"Hell no, that won't happen," Reid told the Las Vegas Journal-Review on
Saturday about continuing to develop the Yucca site. "Nevada is not the
nation's dumping ground and it never will be as long as I have something
to say about it."

President Obama has created the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's
Nuclear Future, led by Congressman Lee Hamilton and General Brent
Scowcroft, to look for alternative locations for disposal and recycling
of nuclear fuel.

In March, the Department of Energy asked that its application for a
license with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build the repository
be pulled with prejudice. A subcommittee of the NRC refused the request,
and in a decision expected soon the NRC could announce it will bar a
withdraw of the application. That would enable it to move to deny the
license, effectively sealing off the site, a decision that will likely
lead to a lawsuit in federal court.

On Thursday, while touring the Savannah River nuclear waste disposal
site in South Carolina, Haley said she wants to pursue a coalition of
governors to pressure the administration to continue development of
Yucca.

Unfortunately for Haley, if elected her term would not overlap with
like-minded Republican Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell. Rell, who announced
she is retiring this year, sent a letter to Energy Secretary Stephen Chu
this month requesting that Yucca continue to be developed.

"DOE has spent decades and billions of dollars investigating the
suitability of Yucca Mountain as a geologic repository, determined in
2002 that Yucca Mountain was a suitable location, and even now concedes
that its Yucca Mountain application is neither flawed nor the site
unsafe," Rell wrote to Chu, according to Sunday's New Haven Register.

"To now reverse developing Yucca Mountain as a permanent storage site as
a matter of policy is a disservice to Connecticut rate payers, who
continue to be burdened by DOE's delay in proceeding with its license
application."

Connecticut has two nuclear power plants storing spent fuel rods.
Connecticut gubernatorial candidates -- Republican Tom Foley and
Democrat Dan Malloy -- have not weighed in on the Yucca site. However,
Haley's Democratic opponent Vincent Sheheen has reportedly agreed with
Haley about pursuing the Nevada waste facility.
____________________
Sander C. Perle
President
Mirion Technologies
Dosimetry Services Division
2652 McGaw Avenue
Irvine, CA 92614

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