Yucca Mtn. and Sen. Reid In the News again....

["HP Dean" <RadConDean@comcast.net>]

Et al, the following two articles were noted in the Reno news paper today. 



The deal about the silica dust would be common to any mining operations in Nevada and there are plenty.  It seems Reid should be questioning Nevada's OSHA policy for silica dust control more several years ago.



I always new we should have extended BART to Reno or at least to Vallejo.



Dean Chaney, CHP

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Top official of scientific panel echoes concerns over Yucca leaks



By SCOTT SONNER 

ASSOCIATED PRESS

2/19/2004 02:05 pm 



New data the past year substantiates decade-old concerns an independent U.S. panel of scientists has raised about potential for leaks at a proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, the board's top administrator said Thursday.



The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board documented the new evidence of potential dangers in a report to the Energy Department in November and is still waiting for DOE's formal response, said William Barnard, the board's executive director.



(snip)



Craig told the AP on Wednesday that the November report "says in ordinary English that under the conditions proposed by the Department of Energy, the canisters will leak."



Later, he told about 100 people at a Sierra Club forum in Reno Wednesday night that the 11-member board Congress created in 1987 to independently monitor the science used at Yucca Mountain "is an institution that turns out to know more about Yucca Mountain that the Department of Energy does."



The November report said "Hey guys, the metal canisters you guys are proposing to use to sequester the waste, they're going to rust, they're going to rot, they're going to leak," Craig said.



The Energy Department is still preparing a response to the board's report in November. DOE spokesman Allen Benson said from Las Vegas on Wednesday that the agency stands by its design but had no further comment.

(Snip)

-------------------------------------------------

Another article about Sen. Reid's concern with Yucca Mtn has appeared:



ASSOCIATED PRESS

2/19/2004 12:11 am 



LAS VEGAS - U.S. Sen. Harry Reid called for a federal investigation into safety practices at Yucca Mountain Wednesday after the Energy Department acknowledged it had been aware of the potential for silica-laden dust to become airborne during mining operations at the planned nuclear waste site.



"Yucca Mountain workers contracted a fatal illness because DOE wasn't concerned with safety precautions," said Reid, D-Nev. "Silicosis is a terrible, deadly disease. It is also 100 percent preventable."



In a letter sent Wednesday, Reid urged Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to investigate the possibility of silica exposure at the Yucca Mountain site, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.



"The DOE's policy of self-regulation, to the extent it enforced worker health standards, has apparently failed to 

ensure the proper safety of its contractor work force," Reid wrote in the letter.

<snip>

A Labor Department spokesman said he could not immediately comment on Reid's letter, which follows former workers' claims they contracted chronic lung ailments after inhaling silica during tunnel excavation between 1994 and 1997.

Joe Davis, a DOE spokesman in Washington, D.C., said Reid was referring to events that happened a decade ago at the site under the helm of a contractor who had safety measures in place but "were not adequately enforced in our opinion."



He emphasized the DOE has been in compliance for the past five years "with all state regulatory requirements with respect to air quality at Yucca Mountain" and has set up a silica-screening program to address health concerns of past and current employees.



Davis said the DOE welcomes an investigation. He said recent inspections by the Nevada Environmental Protection Division did not find any violations of the federal or state Clean Air Acts.



Both articles can be accessed at:  http://www.rgj.com/news/

-------------------------------------------------------





Et al, my questions are:  Did DOE ever say the canisters were not going to corrode away, and isn't silica dust a problem with all hard rock mining/tunneling operations in Nevada?



Seems that the litigation always starts after the first lay off notices are sent out.  



Dean Chaney