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Slippery Science Raises Concerns About Nuclear Waste Disposal

By TChris, Section Misconduct
Posted on Sat Apr 02, 2005 at 11:17:48 AM EST
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by TChris

Government employees, apparently seeking to further the government's plan to bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, acknowledge in emails that they made up facts and withheld data in reports to quality assurance inspectors. A subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Reform released redacted copies of the emails yesterday.

The chairman of the panel that released the messages, Representative Jon Porter, Republican of Nevada, pointed out that the Energy Department and the White House had repeatedly said that their recommendation of the Yucca Mountain site was based on "sound science."

"If the project has been based upon science, and the science is not correct, it puts the whole project in jeopardy," said Mr. Porter, a longtime opponent of Yucca Mountain plan. "I believe these e-mails show science is not driving the project; it's expedience to get the job done."

The subcommittee plans to hold a hearing on the Yucca Mountain plan on Tuesday.

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    Slippery Science Raises Concerns About Nuclear Waste Disposal | 12 comments (12 topical)
    Re: Slippery Science Raises Concerns About Nuclear (none / 0) (#1)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Apr 02, 2005 at 02:50:27 PM EST
    Making up facts and withholding data, huh. I've generally been led to believe that doing that gets you fired, and yet nobody will be punished for this. Can any Republicans explain how this works?

    Re: Slippery Science Raises Concerns About Nuclear (none / 0) (#2)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Apr 02, 2005 at 02:51:47 PM EST
    ...and reconcile it with Bush's famous (and oft-touted by Republicans) vision of a "ownership society" in which everyone is held accountable for their own actions?

    Re: Slippery Science Raises Concerns About Nuclear (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Apr 02, 2005 at 06:23:03 PM EST
    Reminiscent of the intelligence push leading to the Iraq invasion and occupation. When you know the results you want and you have enough clout, you get the results you want. The facts are not on your side and that may become apparent at some point, but maybe some convenient family tragedy can be manipulated to take the heat off til the story goes away. I think we have finally found the weapons of mass destruction. They were not in Iraq, that sly Saddam hid them in our administration and government bureaucracy.

    Re: Slippery Science Raises Concerns About Nuclear (none / 0) (#4)
    by Johnny on Sun Apr 03, 2005 at 12:38:46 AM EST
    Typical American thinking... Store nuje waste "out of sight, out of mind"... as if people in a thousand years or a hundred years, or ten years will be delighted to find it and take care of it. When will we learn that the more we decide that tomorrow will fix what we fuk up today is a wrong and seriously stupid way to live? We are stupid, ignorant dumbasses who put a dollar in front of my childs future. We rape our surroundings to perpetuate our vision of how people whould live, and piss and moan when it backfires. Nuke power is just plain ignorant, it will only cause major grief and harm in the long run.

    Re: Slippery Science Raises Concerns About Nuclear (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Apr 03, 2005 at 07:20:19 AM EST
    Johnny, you said it, man. I can't see an upside to nuclear anything for exactly the reasons you refer to. We are ill-equipped to produce anything toxic that requires careful handling beyond one or two election cycles.

    Re: Slippery Science Raises Concerns About Nuclear (none / 0) (#6)
    by pigwiggle on Sun Apr 03, 2005 at 07:48:56 AM EST
    “Can any Republicans explain how this works?” I’m not a R but I’ll give it a try. These are government jobs and as such incompetence is, at best, ignored but otherwise rewarded; irrespective of the party affiliation of the executives/legislative majority. But if you need one more thing to blame on the president, stretch away … “I can't see an upside to nuclear anything for exactly the reasons you refer to.” As scary as potential contamination is, the environmental impact is significantly less than current energy delivery methods. The US is lagging behind other industrial nations in our development of safe nuclear technology. For example, the Dutch have developed a N power plant which will safely run without coolant. The waste problem is complicated by our willingness to purchase waste from countries that are viewed as potential security threats. We are dealing with a great deal more waste than we generate.

    Re: Slippery Science Raises Concerns About Nuclear (none / 0) (#7)
    by Sailor on Sun Apr 03, 2005 at 02:21:18 PM EST
    PW, it's only economically feasible if you don't factor in safe storage for 10k years. If we can't figure out better methods for the nuclear waste we have now we don't have any business making more of it. To be fair about Yucca Mtn, the cooked science has been going on under dem and repub admins. They always put the most rosy take on the stats and refused to release the raw data their stats were produced from. They were caught several times by watchdog groups.

    Re: Slippery Science Raises Concerns About Nuclear (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Apr 03, 2005 at 02:54:53 PM EST
    et al - Since most of you are so ready to buy into the "science" of the Kyoto treaty, why don't you ask France and the EU since they are getting a very large percentage of their electrict power fron nucelar plants. Surely they have a plan on what to do with the wastes.

    Re: Slippery Science Raises Concerns About Nuclear (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Apr 04, 2005 at 09:23:25 AM EST
    Making up facts and withholding data, huh. I've generally been led to believe that doing that gets you fired,
    I dunno - ask George Tenet - Medal of Freedom winner!

    Re: Slippery Science Raises Concerns About Nuclear (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Apr 04, 2005 at 09:27:45 AM EST
    LOL - PPJ thinks that the Kyoto Treaty is unscientific and apparently compares it here to Yucca Mtn. info. provided. PPJ - Still waiting for Terri Shiavo to wake up from the dead and drink a cup of water. WHEN ARE WE GOING TO HOLD OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS ACCOUNTABLE??? I'm ready to start a website called voteoutcongress.com Dems and Repubs. Let's just start with a whole fresh batch! Senate next!

    Re: Slippery Science Raises Concerns About Nuclear (none / 0) (#11)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 04, 2005 at 09:48:56 AM EST
    Good idea mfox. In the last election, for every state/local post I voted for the challenger regardless of party. Just say no to incumbents. My reasoning was, and this applied to Kerry as well, it is physically impossible for them to do worse.

    Re: Slippery Science Raises Concerns About Nuclear (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Apr 04, 2005 at 11:29:23 AM EST
    kdog, we really are kindred spirits :)

    Slippery Science Raises Concerns About Nuclear Waste Disposal | 12 comments (12 topical)