And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Source: <A HREF="http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/1999/Feb-24-Wed-1999/news/10674293.html ">http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/1999/Feb-24-Wed-1999/news/10674293.html ======================================================== February 24, 1999 Hostile crowd greets Yucca Mountain dump report Associated Press RENO -- Energy Department officials planning a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain met a hostile crowd that was skeptical Tuesday of their claims the radioactive dump would be safe. "You guys are tough here," said Wendy Dixon, the Las Vegas-based manager of the agency's environmental review at the site, after repeated interruptions. A crowd of about 75 attended the hearing at the University of Nevada, Reno's Lawlor Events Center. "You ain't seen nothing yet," shouted Bob Fulkerson, state director of an anti-dump group, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. Dixon and Russell Dyer, the Energy Department's project manager, spent about an hour presenting an update on the status of the proposed storage facility and the environmental impact statement that was expected to be released in draft form July 31. Government scientists so far have found "no show-stoppers" as they moved forward with the proposal to bury the waste in casks deep inside the basalt mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Dixon said. Tim Sullivan, an Energy Department geologist, did not address the crowd. He said in an interview earlier Tuesday that a recent series of earthquakes near the site caused no concern. "The earthquakes were no surprise to us," he said. "It does not change things." Several in the crowd became upset when they were told they would be given two minutes each to make a statement after the formal presentation. "Is this America? How come Americans aren't allowed to speak?" said Glen Wasson, chairman of the Western Band of Shoshone Nation of Indians in Winnemucca. "Two minutes is not enough time to save a life or your children's life." "There are a lot of questions that need to be answered," added Lee Dazey, director of the environmental group, Citizen Alert. Wasson said later that the proposed site belonged to his tribe -- not the federal government -- as the result of an 1863 treaty covering the Ruby Valley northwest of Las Vegas. Dazey said the Energy Department should disqualify Yucca Mountain as a potential site because of recent research that showed water infiltrating the site from the ground surface is traveling at a much more rapid rate than the Energy Department had previously acknowledged. That meant a much higher risk of ground water contamination existed, she said. One woman in the audience shouted that the Energy Department officials were providing no new information only their version of why the site should be built. "As the lady points out, most of this is not new," Dyer said. "Since the dawn of the nuclear age back in the 1940s, we have been trying to figure out what to do with the waste." Public comment will be accepted on the draft environmental impact statement before it is finalized in the year 2000 and forwarded to the secretary, who will determine in 2001 whether the site is suitable. The secretary will make a recommendation to the president, who will decide whether to forward it to Congress. Dixon said a "no action" alternative -- in which all waste would remain spread out across the country at 77 sites and no repository would be built -- was being given a much more thorough examination than in most environmental impact statements. She said Congress determined that the study would not consider the need for a repository, alternatives to geologic disposal and alternatives to Yucca Mountain as the site. "Congress, when they gave us the road map for the EIS, made a lot of decisions for us," she said. Dixon said Congress proposed Yucca Mountain for the waste dump because it "decided it didn't want to leave the problem to future generations." Fulkerson shouted, "That's a lie." "Congress doesn't care about us," he said. Nine people showed up at a similar information meeting last week in Nye County. Another meeting is scheduled next week in Las Vegas. ====================================================== Comments: One must check the characature at the top of the page on the Nevada State site today---------<A HREF="http://207.12.87.1/nucwaste/whatsnew.htm"> http://207.12.87.1/nucwaste/whatsnew.htm Don't forget to look for the people...... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ New hobbies? New interests? Sign up for a new ONElist community. http://www.onelist.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DOEWatch List --- Subscribe online: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/doewatch Quote from Truman's diary July 25, 1945: "We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world. It may be the fire destruction prophesized in the Euphrates Valley Era, after Noah and his fabulous Ark. Anyway we think we have found the way to cause the disintegration of the atom." "The Doctor of the future will give No Medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease." -Attributed to Thomas Alva Edison &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
