New head of Nevada nuclear agency appointed
Gov. Brian Sandoval on Thursday appointed Bob Halstead as the new head of the Nevada agency that leads the state's opposition to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project.
He will become executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, responsible for monitoring proposals to create a repository at Yucca Mountain to entomb 77,000 tons of highly radioactive defense waste and used fuel from the nation's nuclear power reactors.
It's a project Nevada officials have fought for more than two decades after lawmakers in Washington singled out Yucca in 1987 as the only site to be studied.
Halstead, 62, a Wisconsin resident, said he will move to Northern Nevada and start work in September. He replaces Joe Strolin, acting director since January. He also will oversee other nuclear activities in Nevada.
"Bob Halstead brings over 30 years of experience dealing with federal radioactive waste programs and activities," Sandoval said in a statement.
"His extensive, first-hand knowledge of the issues and key actors at the state, federal and local levels will make for a seamless transition in this extremely important position as we continue Nevada's fight against bringing high-level nuclear waste to our state."
Halstead was chosen from a list of candidates submitted to the governor by the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects.
In a telephone interview from Portage, Wis., Halstead said he is delighted that Sandoval and the commission are giving him the opportunity to oversee the end of the Yucca Mountain Project as funding is terminated on Sept. 30.
"I'm honored to be given the responsibility for carrying the ball in what I hope is the endgame," he said.
While Nevada's fight against the project is in "the best shape" since it began in 1987, Halstead said, it's important to stay on top with the leverage that Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has provided as Senate majority leader to persuade President Barack Obama to chart another course for dealing with the nation's nuclear waste.
State scientists and Nevada's delegation have labeled Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, a flawed site.
"There are some challenges that are going to come in the congressional appropriations process. And, next year there will be another election. So I can't say we're off the hook, but we are in the strongest position since we started and I've been in this a long time," he said.
Reid welcomed Halstead's appointment, saying in a statement that Halstead "has worked for many years to keep Nevadans safe from the threat of nuclear waste."
"He understands as well as anybody what the ill-fated Yucca Mountain Project could have done to the safety of Nevadans, our economy and our state's tourism industry."
Halstead has been a transportation consultant to the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects since 1988.
He has been involved in reviewing the Department of Energy environmental impact statements for Yucca Mountain. He also has managed studies on transportation and costs of storing nuclear waste at Yucca and on what would happen in cases of sabotage, terrorism and accidents.
Most Nevadans have opposed the Yucca project because of concerns about the stability of the site and fears of an accident near the state's population center near the Strip.
Polls since the 1990s have shown that the majority of Nevadans oppose the Yucca Mountain Project. During the presidential campaigns in August 2008 an independent firm that conducted a telephone survey for the Las Vegas Review-Journal -- Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. -- found that most Nevadans, 58 percent, opposed the government's plans to dispose nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain. The result mirrored the 58 percent in June 2008 who said they wanted to fight the Yucca Mountain Project.
Contact reporter Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal
.com or 702-387-2919. Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.
