Posted on 06/12/2011 1:37:51 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON In the two years that Gregory Jaczko has led the nation's independent nuclear agency, his actions to delay, hide and kill work on a disputed dump for high-level radioactive waste have been called "bizarre," `'unorthodox" and "illegal."
These harsh critiques haven't come just from politicians who have strong views in favor of the Yucca Mountain waste site in Nevada. They've come from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's own scientists and a former agency chairman.
An inspector general's report released last week exposed the internal strife under Jaczko. The internal watchdog said he intimidated staff members who disagreed with him and withheld information from members of the commission to gain their support.
The tactics disclosed in the investigative report are just the latest in a saga unfolding since President Barack Obama put the former aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who is Yucca's leading opponent, at the helm of the agency in May 2009. Less than a year after Jaczko was named chairman, the Energy Department sought to pull back its application to construct the dump.
[snip]
Emails and documents gathered by investigators on three House committees and reviewed by The Associated Press, along with interviews with NRC staff members, paint an even more damning portrait of the NRC leader. They also raise questions about whether the agency's independence and scientific integrity have been compromised to advance a political agenda.
"He was put there to stop Yucca Mountain, and that is what he is doing," said former NRC chairman and commissioner Dale E. Klein. Klein was appointed chairman in 2006 by President George W. Bush and left in March 2010.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
People who keep talking about burying nuclear waste are quite short-sighted. Nuclear waste of today becomes energy resource of tomorrow. Robotic mining and robotic fuel and waste processing is in its infant stage.
Does one sincerely believe that our technology and science will freeze up for the next 100 years? 1000 years?
Scrap the Yucca dump = GOOD!
It was a stupid idea and obsolete from conception!
1. Reverse the Jimmah Cartah policy preventing reprocessing.
2. Take the Yucca money for Thorium reactor research/construction funding.
3. “Burn” the spent fuel from the old reactors in the Thorium reactors.
Oh, no, can’t do that, it would be an actual SOLUTION, no endless revenue stream for studies and lobbying!
I’ve a better idea, we just dump it in YOUR yard!
Screw the Yucca dump, and the authors of the “Screw Nevada” bill that initiated it.
Yucca is a dumb idea that never should have gotten off the drawing board.
Sorry. You'll have to move. But, that'll teach you for letting Harry Reid get into office.
“The money” is a MYTH!
The fed. unconstitutionally claim ownership of the Yucca site, they were never going to pay Nevada or it’s citizens a damn dime.
Once the construction was complete Nevada would get nothing more.
I’m disgusted that the media/Nuc. Ind. myth of benefits to Nevada has been so persistent.
Yucca was imposed on us back when we had very little representation (power) in Washington, now we decide the result of presidential races, the people of Nevada never wanted Yucca.
Yucca is in MINERAL TREASURE TROVE, not far from the most populous city in our state, not a desolate wilderness.
How generous of the residents of other states to be so willing to export their garbage to their neighbors!
You made it, YOU keep it, or find a rational way to deal with it that does not entail screwing over the citizens of other states.
[My impression was that Nevada was fine with it as long as the money came in.]
Nope. The verrrry crazy left is involved. Go here http://www.yucamountainexpose.com
It will be on Amazon in about a month.
Turnabout is fair play.
So, ours is a tad hot and it'll roast the hide off a stone dinosaur, but garbage is garbage.
The federal government owns most of Nevada. It’s all Constitutional.
If the CEO, public spokesman or the guy who answers the phone while everyone is at lunch of any publicly traded corporation they would be in DEEP trouble.
I am quite certain that Nevada has ZERO interest in sending any type of our garbage to Virginia!
So the fair play would be to keep yours.
You really believe that?
And, you are a conservative?
You support the constitution as written?
Have you ever heard of the “Equal Footing Clause” or our U.S. Constitution?
Are you aware of exactly how the Fed. took Nevada’s public lands?
Would you be willing to allow Nevada to argue the point before SCOTUS, without any preliminary trials beforehand, and would you be happy to abide by the result?
In other words, are you certain you are qualified to make that statement?
I can assure you that several conservative constitutional scholars vehemently disagree!
For a good long while virtually the whole place was up for sale under a federal homestead act.
There were few buyers.
BTW, there's this water problem ~ but I guess you know about that.
Regarding Lake Tahoe and that area ~ Reno, Henderson, etc., your first permanent settlers were all relatives of mine ~ and you?
You may well be the first person I've ever encountered on Free Republic who is of the impression their current occupation of a barren wilderness necessarily negates all prior history of ownership in that part of the country.
The interstate transport and disposal of garbage was declared fully Constitutional.
That was an area of immense wealth. Later on it was organized in whole or in part as the states of Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.
So, yeah, "equal footing".
Whatever did you imagine that meant?
The former Spanish territory of Carolana entered the Union in whole or in part as North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The unincorporated territory, including a Sea to Sea territorial claim, was handed over to the United States of America.
After some difficulty with Mexico, who had a competing claim, much of the former Carolana (Carolina) land claims became California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, parts of Florida, Arkansas, and Utah.
So, yeah, "equal footing".
Exactly who did you think you people were?
So I am correct, you do NOT support the constitution as written, for you it’s a “Living Document” subject to interpretation as you see fit for your advantage of the moment (situational ethics).
Henderson is nowhere near Lake Tahoe.
You did not answer my specific questions, a simple yes or no is all I ask.
BTW, the homestead act was repealed the year I was born.
I am not old enough to have been able to argue against our short sighted territorial legislature ceding our public lands to the Fed. as an UNCONSTITUTIONAL requirement for statehood.
Nice way for Lincoln to reward us for funding the Union side during the “Civil War”.
So Yucca is not the first time the Fed have set out to screw us.
No matter how desperate you or anyone else may be to make Nevada your dumping ground, Yucca is already obsolete and way too small to hold all the nuke “Waste” even it were opened today.
Next saturday I will be in Reno, as a central committee member of many years standing I will be voting to select out new congressman.
I can assure you that anyone pushing acceptance of Yucca is very unlikely to get past the first round.
According to the chart at this site Virginia has only 8.940% of it’s lands owned by the Fed.
http://www.blm.gov/natacq/pls98/98PL1-3.PDF
I know the list is out of date as they show Nevada at only about 80%, while I know it is now closer to 87%!
The Fed keep taking more, despite claiming to already own nearly all of it to start with.
So Virginia has lost only a tiny fraction of the land in it’s current boundaries to the fed compared to Nevada.
Lose/give up another 70% and lets see how YOUR economy fares!
I’m sick of east coast hypocrites dictating policy from three thousand miles away to placate their “Business interest”, liberals and eco-nuts.
Turn your own state into one big “Wilderness reserve” or Fed waste dump, and leave Nevada the %%%% alone!
Since Spain was an ally of the United States in the Revolutionary War we did not subsequently assert those rights and claims against Spain.
That didn't mean they disappeared, just that any such territory was passed on to the United States by the several colonies that had been erected earlier in that same territory (to wit, the Carolinas and Georgia).
That's one of the reasons Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia have a WESTERN BOUNDARY ~ that's generally along the lines drawn by the Spanish ~ we even have several of their survey stones still in place around here. I believe the Indians ate the surveyors who were doing the work down in South Carolina, but the principal border is the same as set forth after the Treaty of London in 1604.
The Western land claims of our Southeastern states didn't disappear ~ they were transferred to the federal government. Later on it became necessary to assert them against Mexico, and you'll notice Mexico didn't even exist in the 1700s ~ they weren't there when all the meridians were established and baselines drawn and treaties arranged.
Frankly, when Nevada was admitted to the Union on an equal footing with Virginia, it was pretty darned equal, and included some of the same territory that'd been claimed by North Carolina in 1775.
My Constitution is hard and fast, and it says "equal" and it means "equal" ~ besides, a neighboring state just down the road has a more ancient, and superior claim to all the land in Nevada than do you if you want to argue it from that standpoint.
Claim jumpers got no call to argue the point! That "living document" stuff doesn't allow you to just steal stuff.
So, whach youtalkin' 'bout?
“All states shall be admitted into the union on an equal footing”.
The fed. do not get to change the rules of admission at their whim, the “Requirement” that Nevada cede it’s public lands to the Fed. as a condition of admittance as a state is hogwash.
You go too far back in an attempt to confuse the issue, the discussion is the admission of the Nevada territory as a state and the scandalous special punitive conditions the Fed. (Lincoln) placed on that admission.
Strict adherence to constitutional doctrine would require ALL the public lands that were not BOUGHT by the Fed. as specified in our constitution to be returned.
This would include the Yucca Mountain site, “Area 51”, several military bases, ammo dumps, “Wilderness”, “Public lands”, etc, in excess of 80% of the total state land area.
We are supposed to receive PILT funds per Fed. law, of course they are always late, and incomplete.
Thank you for hardening my position, I will do all I can next Saturday to guarantee that anyone even remotely sharing your view does NOT become our next congressman.
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