“Our freedoms can
only
be maintained by the advancement of technologies that serve mankind—
not
advancing technology puts Freedom at Risk and
our freedom is
threatened because we
don't take the time to
participate in it” GJD
Unfortunately our world does not recognize "superstar scientists" as they do entertainers.
Our country needs a new PROGRAM . . "The Annual Academia Awards" Identifying Americas scientists to Americas Citizens!
Our hats are off to
our
Contributing Scientists for their
"superstar science"!
The Media, What they say, and what we say!
Through our travels in the past couple years and attending a couple nuclear industry conventions we have come to the conclusion that there is a disconnect between science and the media. The excerpt below is part of a more extensive NOTE at the bottom of our mission statement page.
"There is a major need for a great expansion of "scientific editors" throughout the entire "world media" to "report" science and engineering related to this industry not the sensationalisms of the past".
Our letters to editors are an effort at providing accurate representations of nuclear science to citizens. In numerous cases, editorial comments concerning nuclear energy and waste repository science are sometimes misunderstood or misleading when presented to the public by media sources. Our interest is to try to balance the science with the media presentation.
To the Editor, Nevada Appeal, Carson City, Nevada
01/03/08
Dear Sirs:
I would like to respond to an article published in the Nevada Appeal on December 27th by Bob Loux, Executive Director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. Having pointed out that he has been “intimately involved” with the Yucca Mountain Project since 1984 seems rather astounding that he and the state have not been able to disprove the science applied to Yucca Mountain . Instead, they have simply been throwing “political roadblocks” based on “nonsensical” scenarios for transportation attacks, water rights, 10,000 and 100,000 year no-fault tolerance scenarios, etc.
To say that Nevada should not be the repository state because it does not have any nuclear power plants is shortsighted. Nevada imports about 50% of its electricity and 10% of that is generated by nuclear plants. But beyond that, the energy problem is a national one and Nevada is one of the 50 states; it is part of the problem and it must be part of the solution.
Nevada should be looking at The Yucca Mountain Project as a source of high-paying jobs, at the cutting edge of science and technology and as a stimulus for the development of its educational system moving toward science and engineering which, in turn, will help attract high technology companies to the state.
Mr. Loux asks the question “what price can and should Nevada's leaders put on agreeing to accept a facility that they know will fail and eventually cause great damage to the environment and to public health and safety for future generations of Nevadans and Californians” . The answer is that the State leaders must, with the advice of appropriately educated scientists and engineers, assess the risks versus benefits of the Yucca Mountain project and come to an agreement with the Federal Government. The State leaders must abandon the present policy which is ‘stop this project, period, by any means’ and evaluate Yucca Mountain objectively based on a scientific safety assessment and an economic benefit to Nevada and its citizens.
The main worries about the risk from the repository are (a) transportation issues, and (b) possible leak of radioactive materials in the biosphere in the very distant future [~10,000 years and beyond]. Transportation issues are not serious and can be resolved in such a way that the transportation of the nuclear fuel [mostly by rail] will pose equal or even less risk than the hazardous materials transported routinely every day through our cities and the countryside. Regarding the radiation risk it is important to mention that the regulatory agencies demand that the expected above background dose be in the range of 10-25 mrem per year (this extra dose at ~10,000 years; until then the extra dose will be essentially zero; the natural background is in the range of 200-300 mrem/year). The 10-25 mrem per year is within the variation of our normal background radiation. Those who live in Reno, receive about 30 mrem per year more than people living in Los Angeles because of Reno’s higher elevation. If the Government and the state of Nevada believes that that 25-30 MREM per year is harmful (i.e. it causes harm that can be measured), they should evacuate Reno and Denver and all the other cities equal to that elevation or higher.
I am not a college graduate; I am not a scientist either. I am Joe Citizen who is concerned about the future of our state, the nation, my grandchildren and my purpose is to provide factual information to my fellow Nevadans. I am very certain that if our citizens have the correct information they can make an informed decision.
You can find some valuable data on many pages of our website, www.usnuclearenergy.org . Check out find this link on our home page, Radioactive Waste Disposal: Nature’s Way vs Government’s Way Dr. Bernard L. Cohen, University of Pittsburgh. Tab to, PDF Library, Yucca MT, Yucca PR. In lieu of media editing this entire text will be posted on our website.
Gary J. Duarte, Director,
US Nuclear Energy, a non-profit 501(c)(3) foundation:
To the Editor, Las Vegas Review Journal, Las Vegas, Nevada
01/03/08
Is Nuclear power on the comeback; could be, should be, and overdue.
Please, let’s not let our politicians slow down America’s desperate need for cost, effective carbon free, electrical power! At least our citizens are beginning to listen and learn about nuclear energy from the science perspective and not the politics. When you say to someone nuclear, their first thought is bomb. “This is unfortunate and our fellow citizens must be educated to think about the (20% US) supplied to millions of homes and the major contributions in medicine and research in every scientific field. Nuclear science contributes much more to our world than just explosions. Can we suggest logical non-partisan reasoning?
Let’s talk about the science. “Invention and innovation come about through constant failure”! Chernobyl happened because the operators violated their own procedures. However, a Chernobyl-type reactor will never receive an operational license anywhere in the world (except Russia, maybe) After the Three Mile Island accident, the plant performed as it was designed, the reactor was shut down and the containment building sealed, some radioactive gases were released, non ever proven to cause any deaths. Both these accidents provided scientists with invaluable data toward new research which has been applied to most of the 2nd generation plants.
Let’s leave “my backyard” out of this and consider another perspective? Yucca Mountain could be viewed as America’s foremost spent nuclear fuel “research facility”. As a repository the stored material can be removed at a later time. America’s 2nd generation nuclear plants were only 50 to 60% efficient at their fuel “burn cycles”. This means that commercial spent fuel destined for Yucca contains 40 to 50% “remaining energy” which makes it a very valuable The State of Nevada should request that the [title] of the Spent Nuclear Fuel going to Yucca Mountain pass to the State. The SNF still contains a considerable amount of energy [as a nuclear fuel] it is highly likely that it will be used in the future, our state and our citizens reap that future energy revenue, when generation IV “reprocessing plants arrive. And what an infusion for the technical and engineering future or our university system!
We need Yucca to come online for a permanent location for our military spent fuel. Also very important and seldom discussed is our current plant installations, several are being updated with newer safer designed components, as these retrofits go online they need to remove their temporary spent fuel inventory to provide room for their extended operating production cycles.
The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” Albert Einstein.
Ms. Phoebe Sweet, reporter, Las Vegas Sun, Las Vegas, Nevada
12/11/07
The following is a response by Gary J. Duarte, Director, US Nuclear Energy Foundation to a story published in the Las Vegas Sun on December 4, 2007 by Phoebe Sweet.
Dear Ms. Sweet:
I reviewed a copy of your article in the Las Vegas Sun concerning the DOE/EIS meeting held at the Cashman Center.
I’m not an editor or a journalism student but I question a writer’s dialogue when resorting to “Clap, clap, clap. Cheer” and Boo, hiss, boo at a public hearing concerning a rather serious topic, the transportation and storage of nuclear material.
I have taken the time to respond to your “story” in hopes that you will review these comments objectively. I have written my response in the Arial Narrow font, blue type to distinguish our differences in “perception”.
Yucca forum gets loud,
rude, does little
Both sides of issue stick to their guns, use silly rhetoric
Phoebe
Sweet
Las Vegas Sun
Ms. Sweet: Picture this: A train carrying 60 tons of deadly nuclear waste through Las Vegas is the target of a terrorist attack. In store for the 100,000-plus Las Vegans who live within half a mile of the train's route are fire, explosions and nuclear holocaust - death within two minutes from radiation poisoning.
G. Duarte: This is completely misleading, you start the paragraph, “Picture this” instead of “doomsday scenario” which would predicate a fictional “picture” of the “comment”. 1) In all of history, a terrorist attack has never penetrated a nuclear waste transportation cask being transported by a train. 2) “If” such a penetration could occur, it is impossible for the fuel rods or pellets to explode as the fission reaction process in an atomic “bomb”. 3) A nuclear holocaust is generally accepted in reference to the detonation of an atomic bomb, NOT the open exposure of a nuclear waste “containment” cask. 4) The most damage would be the physical result of a train derailment.
Ms. Sweet: That was the doomsday scenario painted by opponents of plans for a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Depository during a hearing Monday in Las Vegas.
Clap, clap, clap. Cheer.
G. Duarte: It is a repository not a depository, a repository is: “A place where things may be put for safekeeping, (in the case of Yucca MT monitored 24/7) a warehouse, a museum, a burial vault; a tomb”. DUMP: “To release or throw down in a large mass to empty (material) out of a container or vehicle to empty out (a container or vehicle), as by overturning or tilting It”. These are online dictionary definitions, so, every time the media refers to the Yucca Mountain Repository as a DUMP they are using improper English and grammar by using the word DUMP!
Ms. Sweet: Then the nuclear energy industry got its turn to describe waste storage casks designed to withstand a 120 mph train crash, 400-degree fires, terrifying falls onto concrete or metal spikes, immersion in water.
Boo, hiss, boo.
The hearing at the Cashman Center gave more than 200 people a chance to comment on environmental reports filed by the Energy Department, including one on plans to transport spent fuel to Yucca by truck and train. And though many legitimate concerns about the safety of transporting nuclear waste by train and truck through 43 states were raised, at times the gravity of the situation was lost amid the bluster and booing.
G. Duarte: I think if you review an audio version of this meeting you will find that those interruptions were relatively minor. In reality the “gravity of the situation” was diminished by the blustering and booing.
Public meetings have too often become an opportunity for people to make statements that incite other people to shake their fists and stomp their feet.
G. Duarte: In general scientists and engineers rarely find it necessary to shake their fists and stomp their feet, they normally present data for assessment. There is a logical disconnect between scientists and people who shake their fists and stomp their feet, and you may wonder why a scientist may have little interests in trying to bridge this gap.
It's the Jerry Springerization of public debate.
This meeting preceded a hearing by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission board today on a state challenge to the Energy Department's certification of document collection for its Yucca license application. And it follows years of political, environmental and health debates over the plan to dispose of the country's nuclear waste in our back yard.
G. Duarte: Most of the road blocking of this project has been the result of “not in my backyard misunderstood politics”. The site, environment, health and transportation safety “data” researched and made available has been proven safe by the “majority” of scientists and engineers involved. The accusation of Yucca Mountain being “junk science” infuriates me, there are many more “political representatives” incompetent then our scientists . . . and where does the “proof” of incompetence exist? Now, “if” our government scientists are incompetent, it is our “politicians” who are the blame!
So it is no wonder that people are worked up. But some of the behavior and rhetoric - the tales of death and destruction, accusations of environmental racism and Nazi tactics - potentially undermine otherwise sound arguments.
On the other side, the industry portrays nuclear waste as as (typo) safe and wholesome as apple pie.
From 3,000 to 4,000 shipments of nuclear waste have gamboled safely through the countryside while citizens peacefully slumbered, Rodney McCullum of the Nuclear Energy Institute told the crowd. He touted the power of "robust" and "vaultlike" casks in which nuclear waste destined for Yucca will be encased. Then, urging the public to do its own research and not rely on his data, he offered this inadvertent gem: "I'm from the nuclear energy industry. You shouldn't believe me." Indeed.
G. Duarte: The industry does not portray nuclear waste as safe as apple pie. The industry presents data and demonstrates extreme measures to protect the material being transported likening it to apple pie is far from reality. Funk & Wagnall Standard (a dictionary) gamboled = to skip or leap about in play, frolic, skipping about in sport. It is not very likely that ANY people involved in the transportation of nuclear material would apply this word to their job! “From 3,000 to 4,000 shipments . . .” the way you have “written” this sentence infers that it could be a quote . . . he told the crowd. I challenge you to research the actual public record of his statement and he does not state gamboled safely . . . while citizens peacefully slumbered.
Also high on the unintentional comedy hit list was Gary Duarte, director of U.S. Nuclear Energy, who claimed Yucca would become a tourist destination for scientists and nuclear engineers. Throughout the world.
Just like Chernobyl.
Audience: Yuk, yuk, yuk.
G. Duarte: Here we are again with the Kid Nation 10 year old response, actually I think those from the Kid Nation would have been much more attentive! Also, you neglected to mention that the meeting moderator had to remind those who responded with Yuk, yuk, yuk, that due respect for my time was required. I was surprised at the number of 10 years olds in the audience. Also scary, are people like you who consider such a meeting a “comedy hit list”.
It would even increase gaming revenue, he claimed, which is all we Nevadans care about anyway.
G. Duarte: Once again, this sentence infers that you “quoted” the complete statement . . . I did not say “which is all we Nevadans care about anyway”. Your misrepresentation failed to mention my statement, “This repository with proper stewardship and an informed citizen understanding . . . can bring Nevada into a 21st century technology, business diversification and inspire a technological future for Nevada’s education system”.
Not so, Gary. We care about rhinestone bustiers, poker as a sport and the authenticity of celebrity look-alike lounge singers, too.
G. Duarte: Mr. Sweet, any logical Nevada business person will tell you that in order to improve our educational system Nevada must diversify its business economy. No so, Phoebe, Nevadans care about quality of life as do I, and using rhinestone (bustiers /sp) poker and celebrity look-alike lounge singers to attract tourists to Nevada. I will stay with my high probability estimates that a few thousand income levels of scientists, engineers and labor in the nuclear industry will do more to support casino entertainment than you, or they may realize. You would be hard pressed to prove that the majority of the university system curricular is NOT centered around hotel management, entertainment and guest services studies. Science and engineering are making some strides . . . but need a lot more in order to provide a talent pool for high technology companies toward industrial diversification.
There were comedians on both sides of the aisle.
G. Duarte: and also in the media! Gee, you seem to have a problem with completing and misleading sentences!
One former employee at the Yucca project offered a smaller, more personal view from the inside.
She said the public could not trust that officials would protect thousands of Las Vegans because they couldn't even protect her.
She wasn't talking about radiation poisoning or cancer from exposure.
She was talking about carpal tunnel syndrome. G. Duarte: Admittedly, this one threw me too!
Phoebe Sweet can be reached at 259-4127 or at ps@lasvegassun.com.
Ms. Sweet, I have responded because your article made light of me, misrepresented my effort at providing logical comments and my non-profit foundation. I would recommend that you could find a wealth of authenticated information on our website. In my DOE message . . . our state government and the media are NOT telling you that within 30 years current “designs” of IV generation nuclear plants will re-process up to 96% of the “waste” planned for Yucca Mountain which make it an ENERGY gold mine! Ms. Sweet, accept it or not, this IS where nuclear engineering is going, our foundation is simply trying to bring this science to the citizens so that they can make “better informed decisions” concerning these issues, not based on “political or media misrepresentations”. The note below is copied from our mission statement page on our website. It is very important that you understand this statement. We’re not interested in battle, we’re interested in truth.
NOTE: Some say that this mission is the responsibility of the nuclear industry itself. We have found that world politics and media misrepresentation about nuclear science have been so extensive over the past 50 years that an outside entity such as ours is needed to champion this cause. We are disconnected from direct influence of the industry but focused to bring the science DIRECTLY to the public not filtered by the media and not slanted by political partisan politics. There is a major need for a great expansion of "scientific editors" throughout the entire "world media" to "report" science and engineering related to this industry not the sensationalisms of the past. We would challenge the media to assess the entire worldwide loss of life caused by the nuclear industry against the entire coal mining industry loss of lives over the past 100 years, and then generate a "safest industry report" from those facts, applied logic and common sense.
Ms. Sweet, thank you for your interest,
Gary J. Duarte, Director, US Nuclear Energy
12/11/07
Ms. Sweets reply to this email:
Dear
G.
Duarte,
Thanks for reading. As a reporter I always enjoy hearing from readers.
Best,
Phoebe Sweet
--
Phoebe Sweet
Reporter
Las Vegas Sun
702-259-4127
ps@lasvegassun.com