open letter to Govenor Gibbons and Citizens of NV

December 24, 2007




Governor Jim Gibbons
Carson City, NV





Wayne Leavitt

Las Vegas NV


Dear Governor Gibbons,

I am writing concerning the continuing Yucca Mountain situation which faces the state of Nevada. I have a serious proposal I wish to present to you and the other lawmakers of the state.
While I empathize with those who are concerned about the health, safety and security issues surrounding the storage of nuclear waste, I am equally empathetic with the need to keep this long-term radioactive residue in one, relatively safe place.
There is no doubt that Nevada has seen more than its share of the nuclear age. I was born in Las Vegas and have seen home movies, filmed from the heart of the valley, of the mushroom clouds of above ground tests rising over the city. I have seen the effects working at the test site had on my uncle and others. I have lived in Cedar City, Utah and seen the radiation detector station in front of the high school and I have spoken with many of the “Down Winders” who were anxious to tell their stories—recollections of thousands of sheep dying en mass, stories of cancer clusters, etc. As a result, while I am far from a nuclear physicist, I am not unaware of the problems associated with the use of radioactive material. I understand the attitudes of those who wish to keep all such things out of our state, claiming (rightfully so) that Nevada has done its duty to the country and should be spared more involvement. I have little sympathy however for the people who are reacting with the irrational fear of the ignorant; those who know nothing about the nature of the material, of the storage facility, of the actual proposals or the consequences if all the nuclear waste in the country is left where it is.
I submit that the problem of safely storing the waste must take precedence over the concerns and fears of the people of Nevada. While I may not like it personally, this seems to be one of those situations where the common good outweighs personal considerations.
I believe it is time we stop fighting the Yucca Mountain project and take advantage of the reality that it is here. Following are my reasons for this position and a plan to make the situation palatable for Nevadans:
It is time we realize and admit to ourselves that “the fix is in”. As soon as construction started on the facility the fact of its location was a foregone conclusion. The Federal Government is a juggernaut; once the machine starts rolling there is no stopping it and no turning it. Yucca Mountain has been the chosen location for national nuclear storage for years. It should be evident to everyone by now this is not going to change. I realize our politicians and other concerned citizens claim to be fighting Yucca Mountain and I do not doubt their sincerity, but ultimately their efforts will be in vain. I say this because I do not believe the government will simply pull up stakes and move after they have spent years and billions of dollars on the facility. Any reasonable person understands this.
Let us suppose the foregoing is an accurate assessment. Is there anything we can do to mitigate the situation? Is there a way to somehow give ourselves an advantage, assuming that Yucca Mountain is here to stay and that nuclear waste will be traveling through-out the state and city on a regular basis? I believe there is. At this point the Federal Government must be very annoyed and frustrated over all the efforts to close Yucca Mountain down. I’m sure they wish we would all just go away and acquiesce. Why don’t we, as a state, make them an offer to compromise?
Let’s tell the government we will stop the fighting and the court battles, stop the press conferences and the protest marches under the following conditions:

1. When Yucca Mountain is finished 90% of all employees (including management) must be citizens of Nevada.
2. Two independent watchdog groups must be formed besides the normal government oversight. One would be made up of qualified Nevada citizens and the other would be a team of international experts, possibly under the auspices of the UN. Both groups would have regular and unlimited access to the facility and would report directly to the governor and the president.
3. Recommendations which came independently from two (or all three) groups must put into action.
4. The US government must agree to enter into a lease with the state of Nevada for the property and for our willingness to yet again sacrifice for the rest of the country.
5. The money from the lease would be divided in two; one half to the state general fund to be used for environmentally-related projects such as clean up, enforcement and funding state parks and other recreation areas, and one half to state education with the caveat that the money could only be spent on salaries, supplies and equipment. Normal state funding and bonds would continue to pay for other requirements, such as construction of new schools. I don’t know what kind of money this might involve but I suggest a starting bid of three billion dollars per year with automatic increases figured in to reflect inflation, cost of living and other factors. More if we can get it. This would substantially increase the education budget and hopefully bring our schools up to parity with the best in the nation. (Obviously, legislation would have to be in place requiring the state to continue all traditional funding to education or they would simply use that money for something else.)
6. The federal government must agree to build new, restricted access roads to Yucca Mountain which would allow all waste being delivered by truck or rail to bypass the Las Vegas valley. (This would have to be negotiable; I am not a civil engineer and am ignorant of the feasibility of such an undertaking.) I do know this would be an expensive endeavor. To quote Buckminster Fuller; “Nothing that has to be done ever costs too much.” It seems to me if we are willing to accept the risk and the facility which will house radioactive material for several thousand years these compromises are the least the rest of the country can do. A marketing campaign stressing this plan as a willing sacrifice by the state of Nevada and its citizens, for the benefit of the nation, would, if done correctly, turn the hearts of the nation to sympathize, thus causing pressure to accept the proposal.
7. Nevada should immediately apply for the construction of a major, multi-reactor, nuclear power-generation facility at or near Yucca Mountain. We need the energy and could generate income by selling our excess. Yucca Mountain is a logical place for such a facility. The reactor should be one of the new generation designs such as HTR (high temperature reactor, ALWR (advanced light water reactor) or the PBMR (pebble-bed modular reactor). The new designs, based on cutting edge technology, are far more efficient and safer than the old designs.

As citizens personally involved in the reality of Yucca Mountain we Nevadans need to realize there are no guarantees. No system is perfect, no plan can anticipate every possible contingency, and no one gets everything the way they want it to be. At some point we have to trust others to have our best interests at heart; that designers will do everything they can to engineer a safe facility, that construction workers will do their best and not cut corners and that inspectors will find any problems. We can neither ask nor expect more. Those of us whose fear is potent enough to interfere with our daily lives may have to relocate. It is unreasonable at this point (in fact it is irrational) to believe that our fears and apprehension will cause the government to relocate the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Storage Facility. It is important to remember (in light of the anxiety many of our citizens feel concerning the transportation of radioactive materials) that nuclear weapons—or at least components of such weapons—have been stored for years here in the valley at a facility near Nellis AFB. Consequently, we can assume these things have been traveling through our valley unnoticed for at least fifty years.
While I applaud the sentiment of “NO YUCCA MOUNTAIN” being broadcast by so many of our representatives I believe it to be nothing more than political posturing. They know it is inevitable. It is their hope, I suspect, that their protests will stand them in good stead in the future. They need not be successful to achieve their goal of re-election as long as they can say “look at the record; I opposed Yucca Mountain to the end. Alas, the government was just too strong an adversary, but I tried. I fought the good fight!” Their sincerity—or lack thereof—is irrelevant. In the meantime the crisis increases and large sections of the country remain in jeopardy.
I call on all Nevada citizens to take a leap of faith. The science behind the facility is all we have. There is no place 100% safe. And in the end, the waste must be put somewhere. The helter-skelter storage going on now is far more dangerous than the alternative.
It is important to consider that all radioactive materials decay at a steady rate. While these processes are very lengthy in some cases, most take only a few decades. As an example, at the Hanford Washington facility (where enormous amounts are currently being stored in less than optimum conditions) over the last thirty or so years 50% of all the cesium-137 and strontium-90 has decayed into non-radioactive products. 100% of the iodine-131 and 85% of the low-energy radioactive tritium have decayed into non-radioactive materials as well, and all radioactive material continues to decay at a steady rate. [21st Century Science & Technology, summer, 2004 issue]. In other words the radioactive waste will slowly but steadily become less dangerous. We must remember too, that at some point in the future we will learn how to store the material with “total” safety, or render it inert or even find a way to recycle it and make it both useful and benign. We always do. The fear that the waste will always be with us is unfounded. It will decay over time. And we will discover methods of producing energy, medical testing, and other processes that do not require radioactive materials.
There can be no completely positive outcome to the Yucca Mountain debate. This proposal would at least benefit Nevada in meaningful ways, and keep the federal government honest with on-site, independent inspections.

Sincerely,
Wayne A. Leavitt




Cc:
Senator Reid
Senator Ensign
The Review Journal