What is the status of the plan to open a national nuclear waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain?

R.G. Frano

Jersey City, N.J.

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The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump is way behind schedule and opinions differ as to whether it will ever get built.

The 77,000-ton underground repository, planned for the desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, was supposed to open in 1998. Now supporters are hoping for 2020.

Meanwhile, tons of spent nuclear fuel rods are piling up at reactors around the country.

Some believe Yucca Mountain will get built one way or another because that radioactive waste has to go somewhere.

A major barrier is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. He fervently opposes the dump and has been slow-walking it to death by annually slashing its budget. Reid wants to leave the spent fuel at reactor sites where it already is.

The 2008 presidential election could help determine the fate of the waste dump.

Republican Sen. John McCain supports the dump, while Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama both oppose it.

Erica Werner

Associated Press Writer, Washington

New approach on waste urged

By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU

• Yucca Mountain: Nuclear Waste in Nevada

WASHINGTON -- A Michigan congressman who was an early booster of the Yucca Mountain Project said Thursday "something needs to change" in how the nation manages its nuclear waste.

Rep. Fred Upton, a Republican whose district contains two nuclear power plants, said he still favors building a Nevada spent fuel repository.

But at a House budget hearing, he urged Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman also to explore the "great promise" of nuclear fuel recycling.

When it comes to nuclear power, Upton likened Yucca Mountain to "the 800-pound gorilla in the room."

"We've been talking about a spent fuel repository at Yucca Mountain for years and years," he said. "We have thrown billions of dollars at the problem. Something needs to change."

The remarks show how the landscape has shifted over the years that Yucca Mountain project has been delayed because of internal management problems, legal challenges and opposition from critics.

Where once the Nevada repository was seemingly the only option for disposal of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel, reprocessing technologies that could recycle fuel while reducing the volume and toxicity of the waste have advanced.

Government and industry experts have said recycling processes and facilities that would be sound and economical are decades away. And a repository still would be needed to hold the waste. Nevada officials who contend the Yucca site is unsuitable have said they would hope over time other disposal options could be developed.

"While I am one of the original proponents of creating the Yucca repository, I recognize that Yucca needs to be just a component of our nuclear fuel policies," Upton said. "There is great promise in the recycling of nuclear fuel."

In the mid-1990s, Upton sponsored a bill that would send highly radioactive spent fuel to the Nevada Test Site for interim storage until a permanent repository could be built at Yucca Mountain. A similar bill passed Congress but was vetoed by President Clinton in 2000.

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Van carrying radioactive materials crashes on Creek Road

By DAVID LEVINSKY
Burlington County Times

MOUNT LAUREL — A van carrying radioactive materials crashed on a ramp leading from Creek Road onto Interstate 295 yesterday, but none of the hazardous cargo was released in the accident, authorities said.

The van was from a Hainesport business and was transporting about 20 lead containers of radioactive material used in medical tests and procedures, authorities said.

The vehicle overturned as it was entering a ramp from Creek Road to the southbound lanes of Interstate 295 at 6:55 a.m., authorities said.

The driver suffered minor injuries and was taken to Virtua Memorial Hospital Burlington County in Mount Holly for treatment. The driver's identity was not released. His condition was not available.

A supervisor from a Burlington County hazardous-materials team went to the scene to supervise the cleanup of the wreckage.

The cleanup was completed by 9:30 a.m., authorities said.

Email: dlevinsky@phillyBurbs.com

Consolidated Indigenous Shadow Report to United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination highlights Racism by United States

February 5, 2008 – The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), in coordination with the Western Shoshone Defense Project, submitted a Consolidated Indigenous Shadow Report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) on January 6th, 2008.  The UNCERD is the "Treaty Monitoring Body" for the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).  It monitors compliance of the States (countries) which have ratified the Convention with its provisions, including the United States (US).

Submissions from Indigenous Peoples, tribes, organizations and communities from around the country were included in the report.  It highlights a range of human rights violations and examples of racial discrimination reported by Indigenous Peoples in the US.  These include the destruction of sacred sites, threats to spiritual and cultural practices, environmental racism, violence against Indigenous women, Homeland Security-promoted border and immigration policies, Treaty rights violations, widespread discrimination in education, health and prisoners' rights.  Information was also included from Indigenous Peoples in countries outside the US who are affected by US policy. The report will be considered in the upcoming examination of the US by the UNCERD in February in Geneva, Switzerland.

The UNCERD, during the review, will question US representatives on US compliance with the Convention based on the US official report to the Committee, called the Periodic Report. United Nations guidelines require that governments consult with Non-Governmental Organizations in their counties when they compile their Periodic Reports, but the US has generally ignored this guideline.  The Consolidated Indigenous Report was submitted to ensure that the voices of Indigenous Peoples would be heard during this examination.

Alberto Saldamando, IITC General Counsel, who co-coordinated the development of the report stated, "In compiling this report to the UNCERD, it was clear that the institutionalization of racism and discrimination against Native Peoples is ingrained at every level of US society.  The data and the many inputs we received from Tribes, Native Peoples and individuals vividly demonstrate that racial discrimination thrives in schools, universities, prisons and in the so-called administration of justice in the US, at every level of government and society at large.  Even in textbooks, Indigenous Peoples in the US are reduced to caricatures with little humanity and even fewer rights, particularly those rights recognized by the recently adopted UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We hope that the government and people of the US are willing to correct the highly disproportionate impact of discrimination and poverty on Native Peoples in the US, in keeping with the UN Declaration.  The international arena is one of the few spaces we have to denounce the racial discrimination directed against us.  At some point it has to happen."
Julie Fishel, Western Shoshone Defense Project and co-coordinator of report stated, "We are extremely pleased with the completion of the Indigenous Joint Shadow Report.  As we continue to move forward in this long struggle, we are witnessing more and more native voices coming forth and standing to be counted.  The Report reflects those voices and the commonality of the struggles of the indigenous peoples of this Turtle Island.  The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has been a strong force in the struggle of the Western Shoshone and other indigenous people.  With the information contained in this Report, it is our hope to equip the Committee with the information it needs to hold the United States and its multi national corporations accountable to the rights of the first peoples and respect for their traditional laws, lands and resources."

In recent years the UNCERD has made very important decisions upholding Indigenous Peoples' Human Rights, in particular its General Recommendation XIII which affirms Indigenous Peoples' Free Prior Informed Consent in matters affecting them, and calls upon States to uphold this right.  The Western Shoshone Defense Project served as the co-coordinators with IITC for the development of this Report, and has successfully used the ICERD "Early Warning and Urgent Action procedures" to raise questions challenging the legitimacy of the Indian Land Claims Commission process and the purported "loss" of their ancestral lands in violation of the Treaty of Ruby Valley.  In 2006, the UNCERD issued a full Urgent Action decision stating in part that the "Committee has received credible information alleging that the Western Shoshone Indigenous Peoples are being denied their traditional rights to land, and that the measures taken and even accelerated lately by the State party in relation to the status, use and occupation of these lands may cumulatively lead to irreparable harm to these communities."

Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone Nation elder and spokesperson, stated following the 2006 decision, ""We are very pleased with the UNCERD's decision against the United States.  Hopefully, the United States will begin to address its poor history with the Indigenous Peoples and begin to act in a more honest and good faith manner.  The struggle of the Western Shoshone Nation is the struggle of all Indigenous Peoples.  It is not just about abuse of power and economics – it is about the stripping away of our spirit… The UNCERD decision confirms what the Western Shoshone and other Indigenous Peoples have been saying for a very long time - it is a first step that we can use in our ongoing work and in our corporate engagement and public education strategies.  We also hope this decision and the Western Shoshone struggle can be used to encourage and strengthen other peoples' struggles to protect their spirituality, the lands, resources and their rights as Indigenous Peoples."

The UNCERD has responded very positively to Indigenous Peoples' recent submissions regarding New Zealand and Canada as well.  Alberto Saldamando, IITC General Counsel, and IITC Board member Lenny Foster (Dineh Nation) will attend the UNCERD session in Geneva and present the Report. The Western Shoshone and representatives from other Tribal Nations and organizations are also planning to attend.  Indigenous Peoples around the country are eagerly waiting for the UNCERD's response to their submissions. 

The UNCERD currently has one Indigenous expert member, Francisco Cali, Maya Kaqchikel from Guatemala, who was just re-elected to another 4-year term by the state (country) parties to the Convention at the UN General Assembly session on January 17th. 

The "Consolidated Indigenous Shadow Report to the UNCERD on the United States" can be downloaded at www.treatycouncil.org.

Uranium Exploration Near Grand Canyon

With minimal public notice and no formal environmental review, the Forest Service has approved a permit allowing a British mining company to explore for uranium just outside Grand Canyon National Park, less than three miles from a popular lookout over the canyon’s southern rim.

If the exploration finds rich uranium deposits, it could lead to the first mines near the canyon since the price of uranium ore plummeted nearly two decades ago. A sharp increase in uranium prices over the past three years has led individuals to stake thousands of mining claims in the Southwest, including more than 1,000 in the Kaibab National Forest, near the Grand Canyon.

To drill exploratory wells on the claims in the Kaibab forest requires Forest Service approval. Vane Minerals, the British company, received such approval for seven sites in December.

The Forest Service granted the approvals without a full-dress environmental assessment, ruling that the canyon could be “categorically excluded” from such a review because exploration would last less than a year and might not lead to mining activity.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors in Coconino County, Ariz., voted unanimously to try to block any potential uranium mines. It asked that the federal government withdraw large sections of land immediately north and south of the national park from mineral leasing.

“We have a legacy, which isn’t too good, from the uranium mining in the past,” said Deb Hill, chairwoman of the Coconino board.

Knowledge of the cancers suffered by former uranium workers and their families on a nearby Navajo reservation, worries about uranium-laden trucks and trains on roads and concern about contamination of the aquifers and streams in arid northern Arizona were also factors in the vote, Ms. Hill said.

The Forest Service made its decision after limited public notice to local officials, environmental groups and tribal governments. There was no public hearing.

Bill Hedden, the executive director of the Grand Canyon Trust, said the approvals were the first indications that a new generation of uranium mines might spring up on the Colorado Plateau near the canyon, an area peppered with uranium-rich geological formations called breccia pipes.

Matthew Idiens, the director of corporate development for Vane, said at least seven mines had been located not far from the park in past decades, yielding an average of 3.4 million pounds a mine. The exploratory activity his company plans, Mr. Idiens added, “is somewhat limited — taking in a truck, doing a bit of drilling, but that’s it.” The breccia pipes, he said, “cover a very small area.”

“You put a shaft next to them when you mine them,” he said, “and you take the uranium out and put everything else back in.”

“After four or five years, you reclaim it, put it back the way it was, and no one would ever know you were there,” Mr. Idiens said. “We obviously understand it’s scenic and beautiful there, and we respect that enormously.”

Barbara McCurry, the Kaibab National Forest’s spokeswoman on this issue, said her agency had little choice but to allow the drilling under the 1872 mining law that governs hard-rock mining claims. “The exploratory drilling is pretty minimal,” Ms. McCurry said, adding, “Our obligation is to make sure that any impacts are mitigated.”

The Environmental Working Group in Washington has been tracking the new wave of uranium mining claims sweeping across the Four Corners region of the Southwest and is issuing a report on the claims and their possible effects,

Dusty Horwitt, the author of the report, said the Forest Service’s actions confirmed that House-approved amendments to the 1872 law on mining activity should be approved by the Senate. Congress, Mr. Horwitt said, should give federal land managers the right to balance the desires of mining companies with other values like the protection of national parks and water supplies.

“If uranium mining operations are about to start on the edge of the Grand Canyon and federal officials say there’s nothing we can do, the time is now to reform the 1872 mining law,” Mr. Horwitt said.

Mr. Hedden, of the Grand Canyon Trust, pointed out that several Indian tribes in the Four Corners area, including the Navajo, the Hopi and the Havasupai, had voted to ban uranium mining on their land.

Ms. McCurry, of Kaibab National Forest, pointed out that, if Vane found a cluster of uranium deposits and sought a permit to mine, the decision would require a full environmental analysis and an environmental impact statement.