Nuclear Waste:  Nevada Lawmakers Looking to Block House Resolution

Nevada’s congressional delegation is examining procedural ways to block a House resolution in support of a planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported today (see GSN, April 26).

The House resolution, which has already made its way out of committee, would override Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn’s veto of the Yucca Mountain site.  Nevada congressional aides are considering challenging the resolution on the basis that it is an “unfunded mandate,” which would force states to spend funds on highways and emergency response training without reimbursement from Washington, according to the Review-Journal.  If that is so, then the resolution would violate congressional budget rules, according to the Review-Journal.

Representative Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.) raised the unfunded mandate issue when Congress last dealt with Yucca Mountain in 2000 but lost by a 206-205 vote, according to the Review-Journal.

“It’s an option we’re looking at,” Gibbons said yesterday.  “We haven’t had a chance to review it thoroughly.”

The full House is expected to vote on the override resolution next week, the Review-Journal reported.  Nevada will probably receive significantly less support in opposing the vote than in 2000, when 167 representatives voted against Yucca Mountain, said Representative Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) yesterday (see GSN, April 18).

“That (167) is a benchmark for us, but candidly, I don’t think we can get there,” she said.  “Anything over 100 (next week) would be very respectable.”

Instead, it is important for Nevada to obtain as many votes as possible against Yucca Mountain in the House as a show of strength for when the Senate takes up the issue, Berkley said.

“In other words, we’re the dam holding back the water,” she said.

While both the Bush administration and the House Republican leadership are solidly in favor of the override resolution, there is still no consensus among House Democrats on how to vote on the issue, said Brendan Daly, spokesman for House Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

“We know we’re not going to win so we’re not whipping it officially,” Daly said.  “But Congresswoman Pelosi thought (helping Berkley) was the right thing to do because she is very concerned about the transportation of nuclear waste across the country” (Las Vegas Review-Journal, May 2).

NRC Proposes No Double Containment for Plutonium Waste

Meanwhile, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Tuesday proposed doing away with a requirement that nuclear waste containing plutonium be shipped in “double containment” casks, indicating the commission believes the requirement is not needed to protect the public.

“The NRC is unaware of any risk studies that would provide either a qualitative or quantitative indication of the risk reduction associated with the use of double containment in transportation of plutonium,” the commission said in its proposal in the Federal Register.

Eliminating the double containment rule would remove an inner container from waste casks, allowing them to have larger storage capacity, according to Energy Daily.  The double containment requirement was created in 1974 because of safety concerns over the shipments of liquid plutonium waste.  The NRC said it intends to remove the double containment requirement only for solid plutonium wastes.

Double containment has already been waived for shipments of vitrified, or solidified, waste from former nuclear weapons production sites to the planned Yucca Mountain repository (see GSN, April 14).  The rule change, however, could also ease shipping restrictions for nuclear waste shipped to Yucca Mountain from nuclear power plants, which would make up the bulk of the shipments, according to Energy Daily (George Lobsenz, Energy Daily, May 1).

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Radiological Weapons:  U.S. Charity Tied to Al-Qaeda Uranium Purchases, FBI Says

A U.S. charity that the FBI is investigating for alleged ties to Osama bin Laden has connections to two al-Qaeda operatives who may have attempted to purchase uranium, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, March 7).

Mohamed Bayazid, a top bin Laden aide believed to have attempted to obtain uranium for al-Qaeda, listed the address of Illinois-based charity Benevolence International Foundation on his application for a driver’s license, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case of Benevolence Executive Director Enaam Arnaout.  Arnaout has been charged with perjury relating to sworn court statements that neither he nor the charity had helped terrorists.

Another al-Qaeda operative, Mamdouh Salim, traveled to Bosnia in 1998 using documents which were signed by Arnaout and said Salim was a director of the charity, an FBI affidavit said (Mintz/Pierre, Washington Post, May 1). Salim had approved the purchase of uranium by an associate in order for al-Qaeda to be able to try to develop nuclear weapons, the affidavit said (Meyer/Lichtblau, Los Angeles Times, May 1).

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