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June 9, 2006
NUCLEAR WASTE OFFICE Commissioners turn aside bids for no-bid contractsCOUNTY MAKING OFFER FOR ON-SITE OVERSIGHT
By MARK WAITE
"I do have concerns with this. The person didn't want to be manager, they were leaving the area, now we're going to enter into a high dollar contract," Nye County Commissioner Patricia Cox said. Cox added the only way to build the local economy is to have people living in the community. Hammermeister's firm, GeoSystems Analysis Inc., is based in Reno. "It'd be pretty difficult for us to competitively bid this piece of work because of Dr. Hammermeister's unique knowledge about what needs to be done," said Dave Swanson, acting director of the Nye County Nuclear Waste and Federal Facilities Office. "We're over a barrel because we have no one overseeing the science in this program," Commissioner Joni Eastley said. Cox said the county should go out for proposals. If no one else applies, commissioners can hire Hammermeister's firm, she said. A $60,000 non-competitive bid by his wife Susy Hammermeister for nuclear oversight was also denied. "To say no one is qualified in the United States is stretching it," Cox said. "It's not just handing over a cushy contract to an inside firm." Eastley said county officials should consider hiring a manager for the office to fill Hammermeister's place. Swanson said the county is making an offer to an individual to be the on-site representative for that job. In addition, Swanson assured Eastley, "We have a talented group of scientists to assist us." The county has received applications from 13 individuals interested in the Nuclear Waste and Federal Facilities Office manager position, which have been forwarded to a committee consisting of Interim County Manager Ron Williams, Interim Assistant County Manager Rick Marshall and Swanson. But Nye County Commissioner Gary Hollis, the county commission's liaison on nuclear waste, recommended Swanson not be part of the review committee. After the request was turned down, Swanson told commissioners, "Dale could've completed this work a lot more efficiently." Swanson's memo stated Hammermeister had been instrumental in defining the roles and objectives of the Independent Science Investigation Program for the past five years. The program is in the last year of a five-year cooperative program with the U.S. department of Energy. Swanson said Hammermeister had also been working on several technical projects. Some of Hammermeister's work would have included technical reports on groundwater impacts in the Lathrop Wells area, plans for alternate sources of long-term funding of scientific work to assess Yucca Mountain impacts and a technical review of strategy AND planning documents. Susy Hammermeister would have edited documents to meet industry and agency standards on the Community Protection Plan, Amargosa Desert Village concept plan, public safety cooperative agreement, and the economic benefits study of the proposed Nevada rail and other work. While the Hammermeisters' bids weren't approved, Nye County Commissioners approved a contract not to exceed $250,000 with the Nevada Environmental Monitoring and Research Institute, or NEMRI, to study impacts to the county's nuclear waste repository program from President Bush's proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. The president's proposal would promote nuclear energy to meet growing electricity demands by having nations with secure nuclear capabilities provide fresh fuel and recycled fuel to other nations who agree to use nuclear energy for generating power. The emphasis on recycling nuclear fuel may delay the Yucca Mountain program, according to Swanson's memo to commissioners. "There's a lot of people who think the recycling of nuclear fuel makes Yucca Mountain obsolete, and it doesn't," said Don Baepler, founder and director of NEMRI. Baepler said a demonstration project on recycling nuclear waste in Pahrump would be a 20-year project. He said 98 percent of the energy in the spent fuel rods is still available for recycling. The radioactive material has a 300- to 500-year half-life, Baepler said. "This process does not produce pure plutonium. So it would be very difficult for anyone to convert it into weapons grade," Baepler said. |
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