DOE

CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval sent a letter to U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu today making it clear that he does not support any type of nuclear waste disposal or interim storage at Yucca Mountain.

CARSON CITY – Former U.S. Sen. and Nevada Gov. Richard Bryan today described Rep. Mark Amodei’s recent comments about Yucca Mountain not being dead as a site to dispose of the nation’s nuclear waste was as “unfortunate.”

A doe mule deer takes life easy on a lazy, sunny afternoon on Sunday, January 15 near Davis Lake, Calif.
The doe should be aware that area should be covered with several feet of snow by now. But that is set to change as a weather pattern is expected to settle into Northern Californ, Western Nevada and the Sierra beginning Thursday.
— Photo by Elaine Quilici

CARSON CITY – Speakers at the fifth and final public hearing to comment on a draft environmental statement that seeks to map the future of the former Nevada Test Site expressed a variety of concerns Wednesday, including a failure to adequately address contamination of groundwater at the site.
Another concern focused on an indication in the document for what is now called the Nevada National Security Site that a previous agreement with the state of Nevada to avoid metropolitan areas in the transportation of low-level radioactive waste to the site for burial will be abandoned.

CARSON CITY – The state of Nevada has been approved for a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) competitive grant to assist in energy retrofits across the state.
The grant will help commercial buildings develop energy efficient retrofit projects, making it easier for businesses, contractors and energy suppliers to undertake these efforts.
The $765,000 grant will be augmented with a $250,000 in-kind match from NV Energy.

In a long awaited ruling, the federal nuclear safety agency has said Nevada can close down Yucca Mountain once and for all.
The Obama administration had asked Congress to zero out the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) work on Yucca as a follow up to the prior  termination of funding at the Department of Energy (DOE) project. The NRC has directed that all project casework be wrapped up by the end of the month.

By Don Quilici
After a record-breaking year of many major-sized snowstorms this last winter, the Davis Lake area, just north of Portola, California has some spectacular displays of colorful wildflowers blooming at the present time.

Beginning Wednesday, May 18 and ending on Sunday, May 22, Elaine and I took her 82-year-old Mom, Mary Bottoms, on a six-day tour of rural Nevada. It was her first-ever trip to all kinds of interesting places.

She has been a permanent resident of this state for the last 3.5 years, and prior to moving here from Greeley, Colo., she had visited us in Carson City a number of times. Those visits had been made by either train or bus and were always along the I-80 corridor from Wendover to Reno. That was all she had ever seen of the State of Nevada until this particular trip.

News Release — The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Nevada Department of Public Safety — Division of Emergency Management (DPS-DEM) are collectively working to address the public’s concerns surrounding the potential impact to the State of Nevada and the rest of the United States from the Japanese nuclear reactor crisis.

Eric Matus, Radiation Physicist for the Nevada State Health Division, has compiled an overview of information addressing the concerns and speculation that continue to linger.

A Lake Tahoe area public-private energy organization and the U.S. Energy Department have teamed up to make renewable energy more commercially available.

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Incline Village-based Nevada Institute for Renewable Energy Commercialization today announced their collaboration to accelerate the commercialization of a clean technology innovation owned and developed by the Laboratory.

CARSON CITY – A federal appeals court today lifted a stay on cases challenging the U.S. Department of Energy’s authority to withdraw its licensing application for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

CARSON CITY – A representative of a group seeking to turn Yucca Mountain into an energy park said a ruling earlier this week halting the withdrawal of the application to license the site as a nuclear waste dump is a huge opportunity for Nevada.
“We are thrilled with the ruling,� said Randi Thompson with Nevadans 4 Carbon-Free Energy. “It’s huge for Nevada.�

CARSON CITY – A representative of a group seeking to turn Yucca Mountain into an energy park said a ruling earlier this week halting the withdrawal of the application to license the site as a nuclear waste dump is a huge opportunity for Nevada.
“We are thrilled with the ruling,” said Randi Thompson with Nevadans 4 Carbon-Free Energy. “It’s huge for Nevada.”

CARSON CITY – A representative of a group seeking to turn Yucca Mountain into an energy park said a ruling earlier this week halting the withdrawal of the application to license the site as a nuclear waste dump is a huge opportunity for Nevada.
“We are thrilled with the ruling,” said Randi Thompson with Nevadans 4 Carbon-Free Energy. “It’s huge for Nevada.”

CARSON CITY – A representative of a group seeking to turn Yucca Mountain into an energy park said a ruling earlier this week halting the withdrawal of the application to license the site as a nuclear waste dump is a huge opportunity for Nevada.
“We are thrilled with the ruling,” said Randi Thompson with Nevadans 4 Carbon-Free Energy. “It’s huge for Nevada.”

CARSON CITY – A representative of a group seeking to turn Yucca Mountain into an energy park said a ruling earlier this week halting the withdrawal of the application to license the site as a nuclear waste dump is a huge opportunity for Nevada.
“We are thrilled with the ruling,” said Randi Thompson with Nevadans 4 Carbon-Free Energy. “It’s huge for Nevada.”

CARSON CITY – A representative of a group seeking to turn Yucca Mountain into an energy park said a ruling earlier this week halting the withdrawal of the application to license the site as a nuclear waste dump is a huge opportunity for Nevada.
“We are thrilled with the ruling,” said Randi Thompson with Nevadans 4 Carbon-Free Energy. “It’s huge for Nevada.”

CARSON CITY – A ruling by a panel of federal judges saying the U.S. Department of Energy does not have the authority to withdraw its licensing application of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository will be appealed, a Nevada official said yesterday.

Two Nevada-based programs have been recognized by the federal government for having led the nation in efficiently using at least $18 million in federal stimulus money for energy projects, the Governor's Office has reported.
The Nevada State Office of Energy and the Nevada Housing Division have received letters from the U.S. Department of Energy commending their efforts at leading the nation by quickly and efficiently infusing federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds within Nevada communities. 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) this morning voted to overturn the U.S. Atomic Energy Safety and Licensing Board’s order to suspend the Yucca Mountain administrative hearings.
The NRC has ordered the licensing board to make a decision on the Department of Energy’s (DOE) motion to withdraw the license for Yucca Mountain with prejudice by June 1.

According to the executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, Bruce Breslow, this week saw some unexpected and interesting new developments in the ongoing litigation process related to the Yucca Mountain License application.
“The matter is becoming increasingly complicated,” said Breslow.
Nevada had been in the middle of the Yucca Mountain License Application hearing process when on March 3, 2010, the Department of Energy (DOE) made a motion to withdraw the license with prejudice.

Nevada is preparing to compete in round two of the federal Race to the Top grant program. Only two states that applied, Tennessee and Delaware, received funding from the first phase of the competition.

CARSON CITY – Five members of Congress representing the states of Washington and South Carolina have sent a letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu protesting a decision to reallocate $115 million budgeted for work on Yucca Mountain and discontinue licensing of the site as a nuclear waste repository.

A source inside Governor Gibbon’s office today said Gibbons will not veto the Race to the Top education bill passed Wednesday evening by the state Senate and Assembly during the special session of

After President Obama announced his plan to eliminate funding for the Y