Group gathered inside Yucca Mountain

View of the tunnel into Yucca Mountain

Publications

April, 2008 - Soceoeconomic Baseline Report for 2007 - This baseline report contains updated information about socioeconomic factors, natural resources, and land uses in Esmeralda County and its communities. The report will be used to measure potential changes to Esmeralda County as a result of the high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain and associated transportation activities.

April 8, 2008 - Board of County Commissioners Comments on the United States Department of Energy’s (DOE) Application of Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to the Surface Transportation Board Finance Docket No. 35106. (DOE – Rail Construction and Operation – Caliente Line in Lincoln, Nye, and Esmeralda Counties, Nevada)

January 2008 - Comments on the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statment for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada (SEIS) DOE/EIS-0250F-S2D and Comments on Draft Environmental Impact Statment for Rail Alignment for the Construction and the Operation of a Railroad in Nevada to a Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada, DOE/EIS-0369D (the DIES).

January 3, 2008 - Under Section 180(c) of the NWPA, DOE shall provide technical and financial assistance for training of local public safety officials to States and Indian Tribes through whose jurisdictions the DOE plans to transport spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste to a facility authorized under Subtitle A or C of the NWPA (NWPA-authorized facility). The training is to cover both safe routine transportation and emergency response procedures. The Department of Energy (DOE) published a notice of revised proposed policy to set forth its revised plans for implementing Section 180(c) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (the NWPA) with a deadline for stakeholders to comment ending in October, 2007. Esmeralda County Commissioners comments to the 180(c).

December 8, 2006 - Esmeralda County Board of County Commissioners Comments on U. S. Department of Energy Supplemental Yucca Mountain Rail Corridor Rail Alignment Environmental Impact Statement.

It is particularly important to Esmeralda County that to the extent practical, the actual alignment of the railroad be done in a manner that minimizes the impact on present and future mining and geothermal related activities and property rights. Before DOE considers moving any sections of the alignment, the businesses and residents should be thoroughly polled to get an even consensus of the impact upon the Esmeralda communities. (click on above link to read the commissioners comments)

2006 - Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy

This is a study conducted for Esmeralda and Nye Counties to assist in planning and strategies to develop the local economies. This study looks at historic data and addresses past and current economics and recommends implementation of strategies to plan for future development.

2004 -Esmeralda County Impact Mitigation Plan The Long Haul to Equity

Esmeralda County has spent more than a decade working to develop a strategy to mitigate potential economic, environmental, and public health impacts associated with the Yucca Mountain repository and the transportation of high-level radioactive waste through the County.

After years of evaluating both the study and the political process supporting Yucca Mountain, the people of Esmeralda County recognize the national need for and the inevitability of a repository. Esmeralda County prepared this strategy to offset many of the local impacts associated with the repository and to suggest measures for equity compensation.

It is important to recognize that many impacts are difficult, if not impossible, to quantify. Esmeralda County stands prepared to work constructively with the Department on this matter. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that the Department rely on a negotiated process to address impacts. It is essential that the Department addresses these issues at the highest level and that bureaucratic obstacles to success be circumvented.

2004 - Esmeralda Board of County Commissioners Comments on the Scope of the Environmental Impact Statement for the Alignment, Construction, and Operation of a Rail Line to a Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada

Current Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) operations provide relatively high-wage employment to the Nevada economy and constitute an economically stable proportion of the total gross state product (GSP). If the YMP were discontinued, economic losses, relative to the current economy, would be substantial. In 2000, the YMP contributed $195.7 million to the Nevada economy and an additional $188.6 million in 2001. The YMP was responsible for 3,650 jobs in 2000. This translates into a real disposable income of roughly $131 million earned each year in the state of Nevada. If the YMP is approved, future economic impacts will occur as a result of constructing the facility and transportation routes, transporting the waste, and operating the storage facility. At present, the methods and route for transporting the waste to YMP are not finalized. However, the ‘mostly rail’ scenario is the preferred alternative according to the Department of Energy Repository Final Environmental Impact Statement (DOE EIS). This scenario assumes that most – if not all - of the waste will enter Nevada via existing rail lines. There is the assumption that once inside Nevada, waste will continue traveling by train over a new rail spur. There are five alternative new rail spur impacts considered in this report: the Caliente Rail Alternative, the Caliente-Chalk Mountain Alternative, the Carlin-Big Smokey Alternative, the Valley Modified Alternative, and the Jean Alternative.

2001 - 2002 - Esmeralda County Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy

Over a period of approximately one-year, Esmeralda County and its unincorporated subdivisions have conducted an update of a previously prepared Overall Economic Development Plan (ODEP) prepared by Economic Development of Esmeralda and Nye County (EDEN). This current update was conducted primarily to include a more recent series of individualized public hearings in all communities of Esmeralda County in order to provide the following:

• Offer all citizens a chance to participate in the review of previously developed strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, goals and plan implementation for their communities.
• Offer all Esmeralda County citizens the chance to participate in developing new goals and strategies for the communities, and
• To address drastic changes in the County’s economic conditions resulting from a downturn in gold mining since 1997 that were not included in the first version.

1995 - Risk Analysis for Spent Nuclear Fuel Transportation through Esmeralda County - Highway Route

The objective of this study was to perform a risk analysis for the potential transport of Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) by highway through Esmeralda County. Specifically, for the risk analysis, the current version of RADTRAN, a computerized risk assessment tool, has been used to evaluate the radiological impacts for shipments of radioactive materials along the highway routes through Esmeralda County. The analyses were performed using data reflecting local conditions with respect to population and highway operating characteristics.

1994 - Final Preliminary Characterization of Environmental Issues Associated with Construction and Operation of Radioactive Waste Transportation Systems within Esmeralda County, Nevada

This report is a preliminary assessment of the issues that might arise in Esmeralda County, due to impacts or conflicts between the existing environment and the construction and transportation of spent nuclear fuel through Nevada, specifically Esmeralda County.

1993 - Emergency Services and Cooperative Arrangements for Esmeralda County

This study was conducted for the Esmeralda Repository Oversight Program Office, and examines the feasibility of increasing regional hazardous materials and radioactive materials emergency management and response capacity. A series of interviews was conducted with over ten state and local key actors throughout the state to help determine the current and future direction of programs funding emergency management in Nevada. In addition to these interviews, a variety of materials and legislation impacting or evaluating the potential for increasing regional emergency management capacity were analyzed. As the report suggests, there is a clear move by state agencies, and perhaps the State Legislature, to increasingly give priority to local programs which have some regional component. Such movement is indicative of the realization that, especially in rural Nevada, the hazardous materials issue requires more than just local resources or attention.

1993 - Final Characterization of Potential Socioeconomic Impacts of the Yucca Mountain Repository Program in Esmeralda County

The purpose of this report is to examine the various situations surrounding the Yucca Mountain project and to characterize possible impacts to Esmeralda County.

1992 - Emergency Response Capacity to High-Level Nuclear Waste and Hazardous Materials Transportation Incidents in Esmeralda County

This study was conducted for the Esmeralda County Repository Oversight Program Office, and focuses on the emergency response to the munitions truck explosion of November 21, 1990 on U.S. 95. Using the munitions truck emergency response by Esmeralda County as an example, along with other data on the emergency response capacity of the County, an analysis of the ability of the County to respond to both hazardous materials and radioactive emergency incidents is provided.