NRC comes up with $2 million for Yucca groundwater study
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is planning two public hearings in Nevada this fall as it freshens up an environmental study of groundwater at Yucca Mountain.
The agency is eyeing September for the public sessions, a few weeks after a report draft is expected to be completed.
The report, a supplement to previous impact studies on the onetime nuclear waste site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, was announced formally Thursday in the Federal Register.
The Department of Energy assembled massive environmental impact reports on Yucca Mountain in 2002 and 2008 when it was bidding for a nuclear waste repository license.
But the DOE, which no longer is interested in the site, declined to perform a full groundwater update as requested by NRC analysts. So the NRC is doing the work itself.
Analysts plan to update the potential for radioactive material to seep into groundwater beneath the mountain where 77,000 tons of decaying nuclear plan fuel would be buried in corrosion-resistant canisters. While the odds that the Yucca site will be developed into a repository might be growing long, scientists say there is still much understanding that could be gained from the exercise.
The study also will serve another purpose: To help burn off what little money remains in NRC coffers for the Yucca program.
The agency is under court order to keep moving forward on the project, at least until its money runs out or until Congress approves more spending, which hasn’t happened for the past several years.
The NRC estimates the groundwater study will cost around $2 million. Coupled with administrative wrap-up and science reports that were finished and released in the fall, NRC documents show it will have spent $12 million or $13 million of the $13.5 million in its Yucca fund.
When the money runs out, and if Congress declines to spend more, the Yucca Mountain Project finally might get put on the back shelf to gather cobwebs — until it is resurrected.
— Steve Tetreault
HELLER AMENDMENT READY TO GO
If the U.S. Senate ever untangles a bill to combat human trafficking, Sen. Dean Heller has an amendment ready to go. It would require the Department of Homeland Security to provide trafficking-awareness training to airport security agents and border patrol personnel.
In a Senate speech Thursday, Heller, R-Nev., said the measure could provide a layer of security at ports of entry, “to ensure that victims of human trafficking and perpetrators of this crime will not be able to pass through such places without additional law enforcement awareness.”
The amendment is noncontroversial, and a similar one passed the House unanimously in January. But the underlying human trafficking bill has hit an impasse in a dispute over an abortion-related provision, and its fate is uncertain.
— Steve Tetreault
FILIPINO IMMIGRATION BILL REVIVED
An immigration bill specific to the adult children of Filipinos who fought alongside the United States in World War II was re-introduced Friday by U.S. Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii.
About 26,000 Filipino fighters were given U.S. citizenship in a 1990 law signed by President George H.W. Bush. But the benefit did not extend to their children, who have had to apply for family-based green cards subject to annual immigration limits and who might have to wait decades for permission to enter and stay in the country.
The new legislation would exempt the sons and daughters of the Filipino veterans from the visa limits, enabling their applications to be moved to the front of the line. The bill has been introduced in the past four Congresses and came closest to final passage last year, but no cigar.
The bill would affect about 20,000 individuals, many of whom already are waiting for visa applications to be processed.
“No service member should be prevented from reuniting with their families because of our antiquated immigration system,” Reid said in a statement. “This legislation will right that wrong and provide for the reunification of aging Filipino WWII veterans and their families.”
— Steve Tetreault
TAX TALK THIS WEEK
Gov. Brian Sandoval will be the star witness this week when he presents his business license fee proposal to Nevada lawmakers.
Sandoval, a second-term Republican, is scheduled to testify Wednesday before a joint meeting of the Senate Revenue and Assembly Taxation committees on Senate Bill 252, his plan to raise $250 million a year to fund education priorities.
All members of the 21-member Senate and 42-member Assembly are expected to attend as other regularly scheduled afternoon hearings were canceled.
Sandoval’s plan would impose annual business license fees ranging from $400 up to $4 million based on gross receipts, though no Nevada business currently takes in an amount to warrant the highest threshold.
Under existing law, all businesses pay a flat fee of $200.
SB252 is the cornerstone of the governor’s $7.3 billion general fund budget proposal and legislative agenda to enhance Nevada’s education system.
Senate Majority Leader Michael Roberson, R-Henderson, has said he hopes to pass a tax reform package out of the Senate by the end of March.
— Sandra Chereb
WHATEVER HAPPEN TO …
Former Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller, who lost a 2014 campaign for attorney general, has started a boutique legal practice with two prominent Las Vegas attorneys, Dominic Gentile and Michael Cristalli.
“I interacted extensively with both Dominic and Michael during my tenure as criminal prosecutor and as secretary of state, and have great respect for both men,” Miller said in a statement. “I look forward to working with such a high powered team of attorneys.”
The firm will focus on “business transactions, privileged licensing and disciplinary matters, commercial litigation, and the representation of individuals and entities involved in government investigations,” the company said.
It will be located in Tivoli Village in Summerlin, a far different world than Carson City, where the secretary of state’s main office is headquartered. Miller served two four-year terms.
Miller has lived in both Northern and Southern Nevada, where he worked in the Clark County district attorney’s office.
Although the Democrat lost the attorney general’s race to Republican Adam Laxalt, Miller isn’t expected to give up politics. He has long had the ambition to follow in the footsteps of his father, former Nevada Gov. Bob Miller.
— Laura Myers
Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760. Contact Sandra Chereb at schereb@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901. Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.
