Protest marks Trident anniversary

Protesters will form a 'peace chain' around the base fence

Protesters are forming a "peace chain" at the Faslane submarine base on the Clyde to mark the 40th anniversary of nuclear missiles being based there.

Campaigners assembled at Faslane Peace Camp at 1130 BST before hearing deliveries from SNP, Labour and Green MSPs.

The group then began a march to form a human chain along the base fence.

The date was chosen because it is 40 years since the first Polaris submarine sailed from Faslane on patrol.

In that time, Britain's nuclear submarine fleet has been updated to carry Trident nuclear missiles.

The latest protest has attracted support from across the political spectrum and acting world.

Campaigners have received a message of support from double Oscar winning actress, Emma Thompson.

It is the height of hypocrisy that we ask Iran to obey the non-proliferation treaty yet our own government blatantly disregards it by commissioning a replacement for Trident Gerard Kelly Actor

It said: "The insanity and havoc wrought by war has recently been well demonstrated by the UK Government.

"I hope it makes the insanity and potential havoc of nuclear weaponry crystal clear."

Scottish actor Gerard Kelly also sent a message saying: "It is the height of hypocrisy that we ask Iran to obey the non-proliferation treaty yet our own government blatantly disregards it by commissioning a replacement for Trident.

"Once again, it's do as we say, not as we do."

'Immoral weapon'

Among the MSPs speaking at the event is the SNP member for Glasgow, Bill Kidd.

"After 40 years of weapons of mass destruction in the midst of perhaps the most populated area of Scotland, they still remain unloved and unwanted by our people and our parliamentarians," he said.

"Not only has a majority of MSPs rejected Trident but so have a majority of Scottish MPs.

"Despite this Westminster still imposes Trident on Scotland. Not only is it immoral as a weapon but it is an immoral use of public money."

Mr Kidd was due to be joined in his address by Scottish Green MSP, Robin Harper.

He said: "The fight may have been a long one, and we may have many years to go, but I remain absolutely certain that we will see nuclear disarmament, quite possibly starting right here in Scotland."

Gamble that made tribe millionaires

By Jane Little BBC News, Connecticut

There are now over 300 casinos on Indian reservations in the US

It is hard to believe the scale of Foxwoods Resort Casino.

By floor space, it is the largest in the world.

Its gaming rooms, hotels, theatres and shopping malls tower over thickly wooded forests in this once sleepy corner of New England.

It is a shining city upon a hill, to which 40,000 people a day flock - from New York, Boston and beyond - to play on more than 7,000 slot machines and gamble at hundreds of tables.

But the house always wins - or almost always - and this is the remarkable story of how one tiny Connecticut tribe, all but extinct, became one of the richest in America. By betting on a swamp...

Cultural genocide

During the so-called Pequot War of 1636-37, the English massacred hundreds of Pequot tribe members and shipped women and children off into slavery in the colonies.

"The Pequots have the grim satisfaction of being the first tribe in east USA to undergo cultural genocide by the English," says Dr Kevin McBride, Director of Research at The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center.

Those who survived did so by taking refuge in a swamp.

It was said that every member from the age of 18 was guaranteed at least $100,000 a year for life

By the 1970s Elizabeth George Plouffe was the only person left on the reservation, now reduced to 200 acres.

"My grandmother was a visionary", says Theresa Bell. "If she'd not held on and talked her grandchildren into coming back… it would have been turned into a state park."

Theresa and her brother Skip Hayward were among several grandchildren who answered their grandmother's call to return to the land.

Theresa now lives in a large, detached house, with a luxury sports car and recreational vehicle in the driveway outside.

But when she and others first came, they lived in trailers and tried to earn a living by raising pigs, harvesting maple syrup and even opening a pizza parlour on the highway.

Remarkable come-back

Skip Hayward realised that the businesses could not support the families on the land, who were struggling to survive.

And then he had an idea, bingo! Literally.

With the help of a campaigning lawyer, Thomas Tureen, he established a bingo hall in 1986.

Two years later, the Indian Regulatory Gaming Act was passed.

It intended to pull Native Americans out of poverty by allowing them to open casinos on their sovereign land, if the state in which they were based also permitted them.

A few tribes... have rejected casinos, often on the basis that it is wrong to profit from weakness, or the 'White Man's Sin'

Connecticut did not have casinos and was resolutely against them.

But Thomas Tureen discovered that it did allow so-called "Las Vegas Nights".

"Someone pointed out that Connecticut allows small-scale gambling for fund raising and someone from the tribe says 'well what's stopping us?' Well nothing really," he said.

And so, with money from Malaysian investors, Foxwoods Resort Casino opened its doors in 1992.

They have not closed ever since. It is even rumoured that they have lost the keys.

The tribe has a system to share the profits among its increasing membership, now up to 900.

No-one will say how much the pay-outs come to but it was said that every member from the age of 18 was guaranteed at least $100,000 a year for life.

'White man's sin'

The great wealth has caused problems, with some refusing study or work in favour of drugs and fast cars.

There has also been a rush of claims to tribal membership, igniting ongoing arguments over who is, and who is not, a Pequot.

I really hope [our ancestors] would be proud of what we're doing James Walker 'David Fire Arrow', Pequot tribe

A few tribes - like the Hopi in Arizona - have rejected casinos, often on the basis that it is wrong to profit from weakness, or the "White Man's Sin".

But others have been inspired to follow suit, there are now more than 300 casinos on Indian reservations across the US.

And just five miles away, across the river, stand the gleaming glass towers of the Mohegan Sun, which has become the second largest resort casino in the world.

But while the Mashantucket Pequot are well-off financially, they are poor in other ways.

A wander through the $200 million dollar Pequot Museum is revealing.

One room is devoted to creation myths of different tribes, but the Pequot's is not there.

They have no storytellers left to tell it.

What strikes me most after a few days here is the paradox at the heart of the Pequot's identity - the tribe is inevitably known for its casino, a controversial, capitalist enterprise.

But it seeks validation by appealing to an authentic, native American-ness that is about nature and spirituality.

Lost heritage

His fair skin and reddish hair betray more of his Scottish heritage than his native one, but James Walker- whose native name is David Fire Arrow - is doing his best to recover some of the past.

He holds weekly gatherings at his home, teaching children traditional dance, and adults how to make jewellery and weave baskets.

James thinks his ancestors would be happy with the casino: "I really hope they'd be proud of what we're doing," he says.

"This is allowing us to be here as an extended family: we're all cousins, brothers, and sisters."

But family tensions inevitably surface, and here they have spilled over into an all-out feud.

The man who largely rebuilt the tribe and the casino, Skip Hayward, was ousted as chairman.

The casino can fall into the swamp as far as I'm concerned Theresa Bell

He refused an interview and - depending on who I spoke to - he is either a bitter recluse or a visionary who has moved onto his next project in construction.

His sister, Theresa Bell, has also left the council.

She regrets ever getting into the casino business: "I'd rather have seen the state park and I think my grandmother would have too… the casino can fall into the swamp as far as I'm concerned."

The tribe clearly faces its challenges. Apart from feuds, there is also the economy, which has reduced profits and forced lay-offs.

But it has not stopped the leadership from looking forward. A $700m dollar expansion of Foxwoods has just opened.

The Mashantucket Pequot paid for it, and it is a partnership with Vegas-based MGM Grand.

The tribe is also branching out into other businesses in distant states.

And it is all thanks to a swamp, once a place of refuge from the English, now the aquifer serving a giant casino that is happy to accept English pounds.

‘A fool’s errand’

Nuclear waste company rightly pans feds’ faulty plans for Yucca Mountain dump

Tue, Jun 10, 2008 (2:06 a.m.)

The Energy Department’s plan to build a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is a “doomed undertaking,” a private waste storage company has declared.

In a newsletter sent to customers and suppliers, Holtec International blasted the proposal and singled out the department’s plan to let casks of nuclear waste cool aboveground for years before interring them in the mountain. The Los Angeles Times reported last week that the casks would sit unanchored. A major earthquake, Holtec said, would send the casks flying, creating a “chaotic melee of bouncing and rolling juggernauts.”

“Pigs will fly before the cask(s) will stay put,” the company added.

Holtec, which is well-known in the industry, had bid for work at Yucca Mountain, proposing a plan it said was safer and would anchor the casks. The department turned the company down, turning instead to the lowest bidder. In other words, the Energy Department put cost ahead of safety, which is not a surprise.

For more than two decades the Energy Department has used shoddy scientific work to try to justify its plans to dump more than 77,000 tons of nuclear waste in Nevada.

Holtec said the safety plans are a “fool’s errand,” which is a fitting description of the entire project. The Energy Department has glossed over serious issues, such as earthquakes, in its zeal to try to defend what is indefensible.

The department was tasked with finding a site that was geologically suitable for containing radiation and ended up with Yucca Mountain, a porous volcanic ridge in an area that is seismically active. More than 30 faults run near or under the site. And last year the department had to scramble to try to modify its plans because it had called for letting casks of nuclear waste sit unsecured above an earthquake fault.

Still, the department has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to build the dump. The commission should tell the department: When pigs fly ...

Gas Prices Pinching Tribal Programs

A man stands across the street from a Shell gas station in San Mateo, Calif.AP Photo/Jeff Chiu

Gas Prices Pinching Tribal Programs

VERMILLION, S.D.—Tribal governments on remote and vast reservations are feeling the pain of higher fuel costs because of the transportation services they offer to members and departments.

Many tribes are reassessing driving practices, reallocating funding, or making cutbacks on transportation services for tribal members.

"We're starting to feel the first elements of the [budget] shortage," said Ken Ladeaux, chief executive assistant to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe president.

Higher gas prices are forcing the Rosebud Sioux tribe to reassess how it helps its members with transportation, said Ladeaux. The reservation is located in south central South Dakota on the Nebraska border and is 1,442 square miles.

The tribe is re-evaluating transportation for law enforcement, education, social services, the elderly and nutrition programs, among others, he said. They also offer rides to medical appointments for tribal members who have no other means of transportation. The tribe has more than 100 programs and many rely on transportation, he said.

The Rosebud Sioux tribe is reallocating funds among services to compensate for higher gas prices, Ladeaux said. They may even be forced to cut some program services.

"There's no good answer," said Ladeaux. "No matter what option you take, you're eliminating certain services."

The Crow tribe is also taking measures to make up for high fuel costs. Located in south central Montana and bordering Wyoming, the reservation is close to 3,500 square miles. The tribal government has already begun to limit the use of its tribal vehicles, said Ben Cloud, editor for the Apsaalooke Nation, a tribal newspaper.

"There's really no way around it," said Cloud. "It's getting difficult here in Montana."

With fuel costs at $4.02 and diesel 40 cents more, the tribal fish and game department, which patrols the reservation, is really feeling the pinch, he said. It has the largest fleet of 4-wheel-drives and emergency vehicles, he said.

"It's affecting their operation," said Cloud. "We have a huge reservation and trying to cover it is difficult."

As a response to growing gas prices, Cloud said, Crow tribal officials are "being more aware of how [they] use tribal funds and being more efficient" by limiting travel and prioritizing riders' needs.

The Navajo reservation, the largest in the U.S., spans 27,000 square miles over the Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah corners.

The Navajo Nation has encouraged inter-departmental communication by e-mail, fax and phone to cut back on fuel costs, said Anslen Foster, acting director for central fleet management, the headquarters for the nation's six fuel stations. He also said that departments "should be planning better trips" around the reservation.

Fleet management spent $710,000 for fuel this April, compared to $450,000 the same month a year ago, said Foster. The nation has 2,100 tribal vehicles and fleet management has been absorbing most of the costs, he said.

The nation has an agreement with Arizona and New Mexico to be reimbursed the 18 cents per gallon tax paid to fuel suppliers, Foster said. But the reimbursement often takes about six weeks for the fleet management to be paid by the tribal tax office.

As the Navajo Nation's finance budget committee met this week, the impacts of higher fuel costs were certain to be part of its discussion, said Bronson Peshlakai, public information officer. That sort of talk is spreading as fast as fuel prices are rising.

Said Rosebud's Ladeaux, "Just because we have a rise in fuel costs doesn't mean we get any more money."

Uranium mining: It's not over yet

Howard Williams
Guest Columnist
June 12, 2008



When House Bill 1161 -- the Land and Water Stewardship Act -- was signed into law by Gov. Bill Ritter on May 20, I was relieved for a short period of time.

This legislation places restrictions and qualifications on uranium mining companies that propose to mine groundwater via the in-situ leach (ISL) process. The body of ground that I am most concerned with is the Denver Basin Aquifer System, which supplies drinking water to 500,000 to 700,000 Coloradans.

Any joy I felt with the signing of the new law was short-lived because of a comment by one of the uranium company's officers. He said, "Now Colorado has the world's strictest laws covering this mining method, but we can live with it." He went on to say that he and his company planned to lobby the state regulators who are now charged with establishing rules and regulations to enforce the provisions outlined in HB 1161. He further stated that the company would "work with state mining regulators to develop workable rules and regulations for ISL mining."

When I read this, I immediately made a few calls. I discovered that, indeed, the formulation of these rules and regulations is not a "closed-door" process. Regulators apparently will be looking for input from citizens and industry officials.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For more information on the CARD organization and volunteer your time, go to www.Nunnglow.com or contact CARD, P.O. Box 143, Wellington, CO 80549.

Well, here we go again. Now we need expert witnesses (this may cost a lot of money) to assist Colorado mining regulators to form the rules so the law is regulated within -- and this is important -- the intent of the legislation.

The intent of this legislation can be summed up by a quote from James Miller, a hydrologist from the Denver Water Authority, when testified before the Senate Finance Committee: "We at Denver Water want this body of legislators to understand that we highly recommend that you formulate the strictest laws possible to protect the groundwater in the Denver Basin Aquifer System, which includes the Larimer Fox Hills Aquifer in Northern Colorado." He further said, "Do not place at risk the present condition of this valuable water resource by weakening the law you are making to protect it."

These mining companies have also said they will lobby future legislative sessions to change this law.

This law would not have passed without the heroic efforts of state Reps. John Kefalas, Randy Fischer and state Sens. Bob Bacon and Steve Johnson. We need to ensure that these gentlemen are re-elected this November.

The individual members of Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction (CARD) have spent much of their own time and money in the past year to make the public aware of the historic dangers of ISL mining. Now they need to raise the funds to pay for these "expert witnesses," and they need your support.

Colorado mining regulators, we will be watching for the results of your efforts to produce rules and regulations to enforce the intent of the HB 1161 legislation.

Consider becoming a volunteer for CARD. We cannot lower our guard now!

Howard Williams is a retired federal manager for Veterans Affairs who has lived in Weld County for the past nine years.

No more nuke testing

Public Forum Letter

Article Last Updated: 06/11/2008 05:44:15 PM MDT

I was pleased to see "Curbing the global nuclear threat," by John Bennion and Jake Garn (Opinion, May 25). This important issue sometimes loses prominence to imminent, but no more urgent crises. I single out their suggestion to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
The treaty has been signed by 178 states and ratified by 144. The United States is a signatory, but the Senate has not ratified the treaty.
Since simply obtaining a design for nuclear weapons has, historically, been insufficient for the development of a nuclear weapon, a comprehensive ban on testing would curtail their proliferation.
To be effective, a test ban requires monitoring. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization has begun this effort with 337 monitoring stations worldwide, using seismic technologies to detect sound waves in the earth, infrasound to detect waves in the air, and hydroacoustic technologies to detect waves in the water. Radionuclide stations analyze particles in the air. This information is available to the treaty's signatories and makes concealment of nuclear testing highly improbable.
Our senators should actively support ratification.

Gail Blattenberger
Salt Lake City

What Can I say...

Utah petition filed over Italy nuclear waste

By Stephen Speckman
Deseret News

Published: June 11, 2008

The Utah attorney general filed a petition Tuesday to intervene in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's decision process on whether to allow EnergySolutions to import into Utah waste from old nuclear reactors in Italy.

The NRC also received more than 2,500 responses by Tuesday's final day of a public comment period to weigh in on a proposal by EnergySolutions to process Italian radioactive materials at a site in Tennessee and then store up to 1,600 tons of leftover waste at the company's dump in Tooele County, about 70 miles west of Salt Lake City.

Tuesday marked the last day for Utah to file its petition, which questions the risk to public health and safety and raises the issue of EnergySolutions' apparent appetite for possibly more proposals to import foreign waste in the future. The petition also asks for the NRC to deny the company's license application to import the Italian waste.

"The high public interest in this issue is one reason the Commission should allow the state of Utah to intervene," the petition reads. The document filed with the NRC Tuesday further states that Utah already "struggles" with the perception that it's a dumping ground of radioactive waste and that importing more materials from Italy or other global sources would result in "economic harm" for Utah.

"We want to be a player in the NRC licensing process," Bill Sinclair said about the petition. He is the deputy director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s appointed representative on the eight-state Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management.

The compact last May told the NRC it won't allow EnergySolutions to store up to 1,600 tons of radioactive waste from Italy at the company's Clive facility in Tooele County. EnergySolutions recently filed a federal lawsuit to challenge the compact's authority.

Sinclair said the approach of the compact in the future might be to ask, "Why bother?" if a federal judge ends up in effect telling the NRC that the compact has no authority in regulating EnergySolutions' operations at its Clive site.

"That way any waste from anywhere could go to any facility," Sinclair said.

The next step in the proposal process will be for the NRC to evaluate responses it has received.

"They have been overwhelmingly negative," the NRC's David McIntyre said about the public comments his office received. Some of the responses have been in support of the proposal. "We will review the comments, looking for any technical or legal objections to the proposed license." McIntyre said the earliest the NRC will decide on the proposal is September.

The Utah group Healthy Environment Alliance held a press conference Tuesday at the Utah State Capitol to announce it has 1,300 more comments it is forwarding to the NRC. HEAL's John Urgo isn't swayed — and neither is Sinclair — by EnergySolutions' self-imposed limit on the amount of foreign waste it will accept at its Clive site. Urgo also called for more congressional support to silence the proposal in front of the NRC.

"Utah should not have to take the nuclear garbage Italy does not want," Urgo said. "Utah has been burdened enough."

HEAL has asked the NRC for a hearing, separate from the state's petition, to further discuss the proposal.

The NRC responded June 6 to a letter from Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who expressed concern that the potentially volatile waste would be coming through the Port of New Orleans, then traveling hundreds of miles via inland waterways "before its compliance with our regulations can be confirmed," Vitter wrote. "That seems to me to be a huge risk."

NRC chairman Dale Klein wrote back assuring Vitter that the NRC will not approve the import of up to 20,000 tons of radioactive waste from Italy until the import satisfies all NRC licensing criteria.

"The NRC allows imports of radioactive waste into the country only after it has a clear understanding of the type and composition of the material," Klein told Vitter. The chairman added that anyone transporting radioactive materials must meet all NRC and U.S. Department of Transportation safety requirements.

Klein also noted in his response to Vitter that the NRC is carefully monitoring developments with the federal lawsuit EnergySolutions has filed, asking for a declaratory judgment on whether the compact has the authority to block the company's plan to store up to 1,600 tons of Italian waste in Tooele County.

McIntyre said EnergySolutions will now be given a chance to respond to the comments and as of Monday there was no talk by the NRC to extend the comment period. When the NRC makes its final decision on the proposal depends on whether the NRC actually grants any hearing requests or if the NRC needs more information from EnergySolutions.

Currently U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, is trying to move a bill through Congress to keep foreign-generated nuclear waste out of the country. Matheson spokeswoman Alyson Heyrend said Tuesday space in the U.S. for nuclear waste is limited and that soon EnergySolutions' Clive facility in Utah will be the only low-level radioactive waste disposal site in this country.

"It's about priorities," said Heyrend, adding that handling the materials and waste in the U.S. is not without risk.

Elected leaders in Tennessee and Gov. Huntsman have also expressed their opposition to EnergySolutions' plan. Huntsman spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley said the amount of public reaction indicates a need to develop a new public policy on accepting foreign nuclear waste in the U.S.

"The NRC guidelines clearly indicate that decisions on permits like these should be made based on health and safety considerations," said EnergySolutions' John Ward. "No one has identified any health and safety considerations on this project."

In response to what Ward said has been the only substantive issue raised so far, EnergySolutions has said it will limit the amount of space it uses to store foreign waste at 5 percent of its remaining capacity. Despite that promise, the Utah-based company has been up against an outpouring of opposition.

"When we talk to people and they actually take the time to understand the whole scope of the project, we don't see that same kind of opposition," Ward said. "This is fundamentally a very sound project.

"The question is, would Utahns value having a major international company headquartered in Salt Lake City," said Ward, adding that EnergySolutions brings jobs and tax revenues to Utah. "I think those are all benefits. What is the harm to Utahns by supporting an international business like this growing? We're not talking about taking anything at the Utah facility, any type of waste, that we haven't handled safely for 30 years.

"What is left to object to?" Ward asked. "'I just don't want it.' That's the only objection you're left with."

Yucca Casts Short Shadow On Nevada Presidential Politics

When presidential candidates stump in Nevada, the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain takes center stage. White House hopefuls and the national media zero in on the potential storage site as the state's most pivotal issue. For Nevadans, however, Yucca is not the top political priority.

"Nevada cares so deeply that Yucca Mountain may decide whether President Bush or Sen. John F. Kerry wins the state's five electoral votes on Tuesday -- and with them, perhaps the presidency," wrote Washington Post reporter Evelyn Nieves in 2004, citing Bush's approval of the site during his first term in office as an obstacle to winning a second.

Yet days after the article appeared, voters in Nevada helped push President George W. Bush one electoral vote past the 270 he needed to remain in the Oval Office.

"The media overstate Yucca," said Eric Britton Herzik, the political science chair at the University of Nevada in Reno. "I've argued that this has been going on since Yucca has been in play, particularly in 2004."

Yucca has been in play for more than two decades now, ever since it made the U.S. Department of Energy's shortlist of possible nuclear waste facilities in 1984. The proposed storage site, just 90 miles from the state's population center in Las Vegas, has become a defining issue for state politicians.

"I don't think that Yucca Mountain, at the presidential level, is the determining factor for people," said Steve Fernlund, president of the Red Rock Democrats, a party organization in the suburbs outside Las Vegas. "I'm guessing the sense is our congressional delegation is really our backstop, if you will, with Yucca Mountain."

Democratic Senator and House Majority Leader Harry Reid recently slashed the funding for the Yucca Mountain project and the state has filed multiple lawsuits in the Washington D.C. Court of Appeals. The maneuvers have been so successful that even if the project were approved today, experts estimate it would be another decade before the site was ready to receive spent nuclear energy.

Nuclear waste might not be on its way to Yucca, but the candidates are still using the project as a talking point when they campaign in the state. Presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama are both proponents of nuclear energy, but diverge in opinion when it comes to establishing a permanent repository for nuclear waste.

Sen. Obama has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from employees of Exelon Corporation, an Illinois-based energy company that controls most of the nuclear reactors in the United States. But Obama has consistently denounced the proposed site at Yucca Mountain as both a senator and presidential nominee and maintains that the country needs to find new solutions for disposing nuclear waste.

Sen. John McCain supported President Bush's approval of the project in 2002 and in the beginning stages of his bid for the White House he furthered his stated stance -- until recently.

During a campaign trip in Denver, Colorado, at the end of May, McCain seemed to back away from Yucca as the ideal storage site during a speech about nuclear energy policy.

"I would seek to establish an international repository for spent nuclear fuel that could collect and safely store materials overseas," McCain said. "It is even possible that such an international center could make it unnecessary to open the proposed spent nuclear fuel storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada."

McCain reiterated support for Yucca shortly after the Denver speech -- and after being accused of backtracking by Sen. Reid.

If McCain runs away from his voting record, he "won't hold his already suspicious, conservative base," Herzik said.

Herzik's polling data shows that about 30 percent of Nevadans don't oppose Yucca, 20 percent support the project, and 20 percent not only oppose the repository but consider it a defining issue.

"For the people for whom Yucca is a to-die for issue, they're not going to vote for a Republican anyway," Herzik said.

The real question for Senators Obama and McCain should be whether focusing on Yucca as Nevada's central issue makes sense as a campaign strategy in a state that pollsters say could go either way.

"I'm not even sure most people know where Yucca Mountain is," said Rick Malone, who moved to Las Vegas 45 years ago and says the economy, not nuclear waste, should be the candidates' top priority.

Success for a presidential hopeful in Nevada could hinge on figuring out how to speak to the concerns of residents throughout the state, not just to the anti-Yucca contingent in Clark County.

"For Democrats, Yucca's a convenient club to use on Republicans," said historian and professor Mike Green. "But Yucca Mountain is just not that important as a national, political issue when people go to the polls in Nevada."

The Girl Who Silenced the World at the UN

The Girl Who Silenced the World at the UN

Born and raised in Vancouver, Severn Suzuki has been working on environmental and social justice issues since kindergarten. At age 9, she and some friends started the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They traveled to 1992's UN Earth Summit, where 12 year-old Severn gave this powerful speech that deeply affected (and silenced) some of the most prominent world leaders. The speech had such an impact that she has become a frequent invitee to many UN conferences.

Filing of application gives state something to shoot at

After 25 years of trying to stop it in its tracks, Nevada officials should celebrate the U.S. Department of Energy's Tuesday filing of a license application for the long-delayed nuclear waste repository in Southern Nevada.

For years, the state has been shooting at a moving target in its opposition to the plan to store tons of waste from nuclear power plants, none of which are in Nevada, under Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Now, however, the burden is on the DOE to prove that it has done all of its homework and that the proposed plan will provide a safe and effective place to store the waste. That waste has been piling up around the country while millions have been spent trying to force the repository on a state that doesn't want it.

It is critical to remember that, despite numerous promises by federal officials, including President George W. Bush, to let the science determine whether Yucca Mountain is an appropriate location for the dump, the decision to concentrate on the Nevada site was wholly political.

The process began with three possible sites. The decision to stop studying sites in New Mexico and Louisiana ostensibly was based on science but, in fact, was made under intense political pressure, primarily from the then-chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, Sen. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana. Johnston's effort to force the DOE to focus on the Nevada site became known as the "Screw Nevada" bill.

Since then, Nevada officials have raised countless questions about the process. Contractors have been caught massaging the data to fit the legal requirements for the license application, and, when the data didn't fit, officials have sought to change the requirements so they do fit.

On Wednesday, with the application for a license finally filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Agency and facing a review that could last three years, the state was able to pinpoint further objections. Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto filed the first challenge, arguing that the application lacks an Environmental Protection Agency radiation standard (a court rejected a previous attempt to use a lower standard), is missing important information about transportation and canister design and has other serious flaws.

So the fight goes on.

Most of this could have been avoided. Congress could have stayed out of the fray and allowed the science to go forward as originally envisioned. More important, Congress could have questioned the original premise of storing the nuclear waste underground and out of sight while the rest of the world was going in a different direction -- mostly toward reprocessing of spent fuel. (Elsewhere on this page, John Scire, adjunct professor of political science at the University of Nevada, offers one alternative to the repository.)

Instead, the federal government -- pressed by the nuclear power industry -- has wasted 20 years and millions of dollars on a project that Nevada officials are determined to keep out of their state.

On Tuesday, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said that the licensing application can "stand up to any challenge anywhere." We shall see.

Why the Yucca application should be rejected

Why the Yucca application should be rejected

Catherine Cortez Masto
For the Appeal
June 8, 2008, 4:01 AM


The United States Department of Energy submitted its license application for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 3.

Nevada's experts reviewed the application and quickly concluded that it is neither viable nor complete. Therefore, I directed our state's legal team to request that NRC decline to docket it and return it to DOE until the missing information can be provided and the requisite rules and regulations are fully in place.

The long anticipated license application, filed at the behest of DOE higher-ups and representatives in the commercial nuclear power industry, represents a continuation of the poor quality work and unsound science that Nevadans have been subjected to for far too many years. Some of the more glaring deficiencies include:

• Lack of a final radiation health protection standard against which DOE's proposed repository is to be evaluated. This alone is enough to have the application immediately rejected.

• Lack of final NRC repository licensing regulations.

• Absence of a final design for the repository.

• Absence of final design information for the multipurpose canister system that is intended to store, transport and dispose of spent fuel.

• Reliance on engineered barriers (thousands of titanium drip shields) for meeting health and safety standards that DOE does not intend to install in the repository until 300 years after waste has been emplaced, assuming they can be installed at all given the scarcity of titanium and the staggering costs involved.

DOE continues to try to push this project through without living up to its promise to rely on sound science and protecting the safety of our citizens. Nevadans deserve an honest and more respectful effort from their federal representatives. We didn't get that with this license application. Unfortunately, it appears Nevada will once again not get a fair shake from DOE. Therefore, I will not stand by and acquiesce to a continuing course of conduct that will injure the people of this state.

The license application comes at a time when public distrust of DOE is at an all-time high. Recent surveys undertaken by Clark County and the state show more than two-thirds of Nevadans strongly distrust DOE. After more than 25 years of trying to make Yucca Mountain work by manipulating regulations, covering up flaws, and by even falsifying and manipulating data, this clearly deficient license application only serves to reinforce and further deepen the distrust Nevadans have for this project.

DOE appears to have lost touch with the fact that the nation is moving away from Yucca Mountain and toward more realistic and workable solutions. Formerly ardent Yucca supporters like Sen. Pete Domenici and representatives of the nuclear industry are advocating putting Yucca on the back burner in favor of pursuing interim storage, reprocessing and other approaches. Even former Sen. Bennett Johnston, the architect of the 1987 legislation that singled out Yucca Mountain in the first place, has acknowledged that Yucca was a mistake and the nation should be looking for solutions elsewhere.

NRC should reject the license application submitted by DOE, decline to docket it and return it to DOE. Such action on the part of NRC will avoid unnecessary and wasteful expenditures of resources by NRC staff and other potential parties who would otherwise be required to initiate a full review of an enormous license application that is hopelessly incomplete and cannot possibly be the subject of a complete or efficient review.

Nevada is not a wasteland and its state and federal leaders stand united in this historic fight to block development of the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.



• Catherine Cortez Masto is the Attorney General for the State of Nevada.

US quits Human Rights Council

US quits Human Rights Council

HRT

6 June 08 - There was widespread consternation on Friday at the Palais des Nations in Geneva when the US mission gave up his observer status - a step backwards for human rights around the world, says Human Rights Watch.

Carole Vann/Juan Gasparini/Human Rights Tribune - The news that the US has completely withdrawn from the Human Rights Council spread like wildfire Friday afternoon (June 6) through the corridors of the Palais des Nations in Geneva. There was general consternation amongst diplomats and NGOS. Reached by phone, the American mission in Geneva neither confirmed nor denied the report. Although unofficial, the news comes at a time of long opposition by the Bush administration to the reforms which created the Human Rights Council in June 2006. Washington announced from the beginning that the US would not be an active member but its observer status would mean that it could intervene during the sessions. To date even this has rarely happened.

“We don’t understand the reasons nor the timing of the decision”, said Sebastien Gillioz of Human Rights Watch. “There have even been some positive signs during this Council. For example Belarus was not re-elected as a member in 2007 nor Sri Lanka this year”.

The stupefaction was made greater by the fact the US actively took part in the universal Periodic Review (UPR) process where 32 countries were scrutinized by their peers in April and May. In particular a series of recommendations were made regarding Romania, Japan, Guatemala, Peru, Tunisia, Ukraine, Indonesia and others.

Diplomats are equally concerned. If the current president of the Council, Doru Costea, declined to comment, his predecessor, Luis Alfonso De Alba said that he didnt see any reason to justify such a decision. Several observers mentioned Washington’s growing discontentment with the influence of the Islamic and African countries in the Council.

“It is an aberration”, said Peter Splinter of Amnesty International. “It seems that the government has lost its mind. How could it believe it is going to improve human rights by running away? It is like those who say, ‘I don’t like the way this town is governed so I’m not going to vote’”.

For Human Rights Watch (HRW), the US has shown very little commitment to human rights in general. The working group against arbitrary detention gave up going to Guantanamo last month because Washington would not allow its members to have face to face meetings with detainees. For its part, the Rapporteur against racism, Doudou Diene, has fought for years to be able to pay a visit and only recently got permission.

But Eric Sottas, director of the International Organisation against Torture sees it as a a political gesture. “The US has always clearly shown its opposition to the Council. This is a slightly more public way of putting pressure on it in order to raise the stakes. What is more the Bush dynasty is coming to the end of its mandate,” he said. “It reminds me of the time when the Nixon administration, which backed Pinochet in Chile, chastized the UN for criticising the Chilean dictator. But when Carter was elected in 1977, the American government took the floor at the Human Rights Commission to ask forgiveness. After a presidency like that of Bush, you can expect some important changes in US policy on human right.”

HRW is still worried about the withdrawal. “The message is worrying”, says Sebastien Gillioz. “ Ever since September 11, 2001, the US has constantly interpreted international standards in an “ a la carte” manner that has eroded human rights. Its behaviour has served as an example to a stream of states, including Pakistan, Egypt and other, who are not embarrassed to review human rights standards on homosexuality, abortion, capital punishment. It is a step backwards.”

Translated from the French by Claire Doole