buying a pig in a poke

Perspective for your consideration …What does it look like when it’s fixed…?

Scientists question comparing nuclear waste storage costs … Senate Yucca Mountain foes seek figures … Sep. 12, 2008 … Las Vegas Review-Journal…by Steve Tetreault Stephens …WASHINGTON …EXCERPTED… Government analysts are undertaking a study to compare the costs of building a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain against the costs of leaving the waste at power plants, where it is now stored. One thing that is not known is how those economics stack up against Yucca Mountain, which the Department of Energy estimated earlier this summer could cost $96.2 billion to build and operate. Kevin Crowley, the board's executive director, told the analysts. "It reminds me of the discussion that has been going on the last couple of days involving cosmetics and certain farm animals," Crowley said in a reference to debate in the presidential campaign over the phrase "lipstick on a pig."

You “gota” love politics, don’t you…? The aspirant’s words provide us with so many ways to interject their words out of context into any discussion. The … lipstick on a pig…remark is now part of the dialog on the Yucca Mt. Nuclear Storage facility to be built some 90 miles north of Las Vegas, Nevada.

I must admit I find the pig reference to be quite applicable when discussing the long term applicability of this proposed nuclear storage facility. I would invite us to look at this discussion as one would discussions about a “white-elephant” or “buying-a-pig-in-a-poke”…?

This topic invites the use of the idiom made famous by Mark Twain … figures don’t lie, but liars, figure … and you know what, he was correct. As a way for anyone of us to verify for ourselves the salient truth behind his words, simply ask your self when was the last time or the time when any government funded project was not over budget and extremely more costly than originally projected. And secondly, how much over budget, twice, four times, or ever greater…? So, let’s be generous and say the projected current $97 billion dollar price tag for Yucca Mt. Nuclear storage is only 300% over budget. Now “your” initial financial burden is approx. $300 Billion dollars and this does not include the unknown long term expenses associated with the maintenance of this facility. And we have not even begun to discuss any – safety – aspects applicable to a project of this nature.

Overlaying the Yucca Mt Nuclear Storage Facility discussion is a plethora of conflicting data, cost estimates, scientific opinions, think tank studies, legal opinions, financial analysis, political considerations, transportation studies, population extrapolations, weather data, geologic studies, water migration patterns and much more. It is remarkable, I think to note that in his autobiography Mark Twain succinctly encapsulated this dilemma when he wrote…”figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”

I am assuredly NOT expert in the storage of any form of nuclear waste of any nature. I am capable, though, of asking questions, expecting and demanding clear, concise and understandable answers and so should you. The usual and customary “double-talk-governmentese-gobble-de-gook” will not pass muster. Here is but a few of the litany of questions I have respecting this proposed Nuclear Waste Storage Facility:
 The area chosen for this Nuclear Waste Storage Facility has since I was a kid been home base for the testing of atomic/nuclear bombs. Since the early 1940’s many thousands of bombs, above and below ground, have been detonated creating what on the surface and underground resembles – Swiss cheese. In this area, we are choosing to build an underground Nuclear Waste Storage Facility even though no one can provide us assurance leaks or other accidents which happen there will not migrate into the potable (drinking) water supply serving more than 25 million American citizens…?

 It is reported that many of our current “interim” nuclear and weapon storage facilities have been allowed to deteriorate to the point where the contents in many of them can no longer be safely removed, nor in same cases the doors even opened. I refer you to the internet suggesting you Google nuclear and weapon storage facilities, Dugway, Utah, Toole, Utah, Hawthorne, Nevada, Hanover, Washington, etc. Our track record on oversight of these types of facilities is abysmal leaving those living in proximity to them – at extreme risk – and often totally and deliberately unaware.

 It is reported to transport spend nuclear waste now stored in multiple locations throughout our county the current US interstate highway and rail train tracks will be utilized. Against the insufferable backdrop of fear promulgated to support a war against – terrorism – of an unknown and unnamed foe, utilizing such modes of transport only increases the probability of some terrorist act with potentially horrific consequences. Reports have surfaced that the actual trucks and rail cars would be indistinguishable from normal traffic as one consideration to lessen the potential for violent acts. Hello, though I am not a scientist or nuclear expert, it really doesn’t take many brains to watch and scan passing freight with a Geiger counter or any number of far more sophisticated devices to determine the probability there is something out of the ordinary aboard. Moreover, and again I am not a nuclear expert, it would seem quite probably the actual vehicles and rail cars transporting this spent nuclear material would need to have a potentially different physical characteristic, weight, etc. than the more conventional transport giving those in the know something to look for.

 What preparations, if any, are being made when an accident of consequence occurs at this Nuclear Waste Storage Facility…? Please note I intentionally did not say IF, but when an accident occurs…? Trusting that FEMA will step to the plate, as they did so well in the wake of Katrina, or hoping the American Red Cross will be there is a source of little value when one is exposed to the potentially devastating consequences of nuclear waste in the drinking water your water purveyor is providing to you. Moreover, accidents can and will happen – in route – in the middle of Chicago while a train is switching or maneuvering. On a truck as it passes over the Golden Gate bridge. On a truck passing along Interstate 15 through LV in route to this new Nuclear Waste Storage Facility.

Since America has been educated and drank the “kool-aid” provided we are no longer able to think outside the box. That other nations around our globe have resolutions for spend nuclear waste different from that proposed by giant corporate engineering/construction conglomerates, pontificated by their highly paid and skilled lobbyists and RP shill$, who stand to greedily profit at the public trough funding this Nuclear Waste Storage Facility, why do we summarily reject these other options out of hand…? The questions I pose have implications stretching across our nation touching every village and hamlet and they are but a few of the host of questions to which we should be demanding full open complete unabridged answers.

Bottom line, it’s not just our money, it’s our life, they’re playing Russian roulette with.