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Old 08-07-2011, 10:31 AM
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Exclamation New head of Nevada nuclear agency appointed

New head of Nevada nuclear agency appointed

By Laura Myers and Keith Rogers
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Posted: Aug. 4, 2011 | 7:41 a.m.
Updated: Aug. 4, 2011 | 4:49 p.m.

Gov. Brian Sandoval on Thursday appointed Bob Halstead as the new head of the Nevada agency that leads the state's opposition to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project.

He'll become executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, responsible for monitoring proposals to create a repository at Yucca Mountain to entomb 77,000 tons of highly radioactive defense waste and used fuel from the nation's nuclear power reactors.

It's a project Nevada officials have successfully fought for more than two decades after lawmakers in Washington singled out Yucca in 1987 as the only site to be studied.

Halstead, 62, a Wisconsin resident, said he will move to Northern Nevada and begin work in September. He replaces Joe Strolin, acting director since January. He also will oversee other nuclear activities in Nevada.

"Bob Halstead brings over 30 years of experience dealing with federal radioactive waste programs and activities," Sandoval said in a statement.

"His extensive, first-hand knowledge of the issues and key actors at the state, federal and local levels will make for a seamless transition in this extremely important position as we continue Nevada's fight against bringing high-level nuclear waste to our state."

Halstead was selected from a list of candidates submitted to the governor by the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects.

In a telephone interview from Portage, Wis., Halstead said he is delighted that Sandoval and the commission are giving him the opportunity to oversee the end of the Yucca Mountain Project as funding is terminated on Sept. 30.

"I'm honored to be given the responsibility for carrying the ball in what I hope is the end game," he said.

While Nevada's fight against the project is in "the best shape" since it began in 1987, Halstead said, it's important to stay on top with the leverage that Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has provided as senate majority leader to persuade President Barack Obama to chart another course for dealing with the nation's nuclear waste.

State scientists and Nevada's delegation have consistently labeled Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, a flawed site.

"There are some challenges that are going to come in the congressional appropriations process. And, next year there will be another election. So I can't say we're off the hook but we are in the strongest position since we started and I've been in this a long time," he said.

Reid welcomed Halstead's appointment, saying in a statement that Halstead "has worked for many years to keep Nevadans safe from the threat of nuclear waste."

"He understands as well as anybody what the ill-fated Yucca Mountain project could have done to the safety of Nevadans, our economy and our state's tourism industry."

Halstead has been a transportation consultant to the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects since 1988.

He's been involved in reviewing the Department of Energy environmental impact statements for Yucca Mountain. He also has managed studies on transportation and costs of storing nuclear waste at Yucca as well as what would happen in cases of sabotage, terrorism and accidents.

Most Nevadans have long opposed the Yucca project because of concerns about the stability of the site and fears of an accident near the state's population center near the Las Vegas Strip.

Polls since the 1990s have consistently shown that the majority of Nevadans oppose the Yucca Mountain Project. During the presidential campaigns in August 2008 an independent firm that conducted a telephone survey for the Las Vegas Review-Journal -- Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. -- found that most Nevadans, 58 percent, opposed the government's plans to dispose nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain. The result mirrored the 58 percent in June 2008 who said they wanted to fight the Yucca Mountain Project.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/new-head-of-nevada-nuclear-agency-appointed-126766978.html
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Old 08-07-2011, 10:32 AM
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EMERGENCY RESPONSE

Bob Halstead, $125,000 per year NWPO transportation consultant, is not a transportation engineer but something of a science historian by training. While not a technician, he has attempted to earn his keep by traveling and photographing nearly every inch of the possible truck and rail routes through Nevada, producing a complete slideshow of potential problems along the highway and rail routes leading to Yucca Mountain. Halstead originally worked in Wisconsin as part of a state nuclear advisory board and has been an active opponent of nuclear energy since the early eighties, in part perhaps because of a belief that a daughter has a disease condition caused by atmospheric testing.

We mention this history not necessarily to criticize Halstead's tenacious study of the issues regarding nuclear waste transportation in Nevada, because he has proven to be a diligent worker. However, when it comes to designing emergency response measures to possible accidents along a nuclear waste shipping route, we are left with the uneasy feeling that political appointees may not be able to produce convincing technical arguments. Indeed, that is why the studies at UNLV's Transportation Research Center have utilized Civil Engineers with PhDs as consultants, at much smaller wages by the way.


http://www.yuccamountainexpose.com/Y63.htm
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Old 08-07-2011, 10:40 AM
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Question Rant

The Governor of Nevada just appointed Bob Halstead to facilitate the final shutdown of the Yucca Mountain Project. Just one more anti nuke working to shut down the only funded nuclear storage site in the country. Not and engineer or a scientist.

Does anyone have an idea where the billion dollars comes from to pay back the money paid in by nuclear operators?
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Old 08-07-2011, 03:11 PM
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Taxpayer Liability for Closing Yucca Mt -- $100 Billion

Yes, that is $100 Billion with a “B”!
  • Nevada has spent millions of your TAXPAYER dollars over 20 years fighting the Yucca Mt. Project.
  • Closing the Yucca Mt. Project already put 2700 Nevadans out of work.
  • Nevada has lost out on $20 million annually by failing to even TALK with the Federal government about the project.

Now, the federal government (translate: all Americans who pay taxes) will pay $100 million to settle a lawsuit with Xcel, a nuclear utility company in Minneapolis, for its failure to store their spent fuel, as required by federal law. The government will pay an additional $100 million as part of another law suit with Xcel.

This is in addition to the $725 million the government has already paid out to settle 11 other lawsuits from utility companies. The government’s liability for ongoing lawsuits is roughly $1.5 billion. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that even if the government starts to accept spent fuel by 2021, the total cost of lawsuits will top $13 billion and could even reach $100 billion now that the administration has withdrawn the application to create a permanent storage facility at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain.

After the American taxpayers paid $14 billion dollars to study the Yucca Mt. site, isn’t it time the government utilized the facility to do what it promised to do in providing nuclear plants around the country a place to store their nuclear waste? The Nevada Energy Park concept at Yucca Mountain addresses not only that challenge, but also would provide a perfect site to reprocess the spent fuel that could be temporarily stored in Nevada. Check out our continually updated website for many informative articles, charts, and videos at http://nv4cfe.org/nevada-energy-park/
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