BOWDEN: The Nevada Desert is part of Americas nuclear history. Since the 1950s its been the primary location for the testing of atomic bombs. Now, beneath this hot desolate land, authorities plan to store seventy thousand tons of radioactive nuclear waste.
PAUL GUNTER: Yucca Mountain was chosen by Congress in 1987 what has come to be known as the Screw Nevada Bill which essentially narrowed the site selection process to a single site.
MICHAEL VOEGELE: I happen to think they picked the technically right program when they made the decision but you cant deny that it was a political decision to pick Yucca Mountain as the one site the US are studying right now.
BOWDEN: Politics is influencing the fate of Yucca Mountain and its also driving the biggest changes in the US nuclear industry in a generation. One hundred and three nuclear power plants now supply 20% of the nations electricity but the government wants more, declaring that nuclear power has a key role to play in solving the countrys energy crisis and reducing greenhouse gases.
No nuclear power plants have been built here in the United States for almost thirty years but the President wants to change all that. He says nuclear energy is clean, affordable and safe and with huge financial backing from the government, the big power companies want a piece of the action. But what does this nuclear renaissance mean for people who live near the plants?
Port Gibson on the mighty Mississippi River in Americas deep south, home of the blues. The music of Bobby Rush has its origins in this regions history of slavery and discrimination and the people here are still doing it tough. Eighty-three per cent of this community is African American and more than thirty per cent live below the poverty line. Since 1985, Port Gibson has been home to the Grand Gulf nuclear power plant, run by the Entergy Corporation.
GARY TAYLOR: It is the only real non-emitting source of power thats really available to our country in any kind of scaleable size.
BOWDEN: The head of Entergys nuclear division, Gary Taylor, wants a second plant up and running and in Port Gibson within a decade. It will be the first nuclear plant commissioned in the US since the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979 an event which shattered public confidence in nuclear power and put the industry on hold.
GARY TAYLOR: I think nuclear power in this country is inevitable. Its going to happen. Its going to expand. I think the issues of global warming, the issues of energy security are so large that we have to come to a way to deal with the issues that do concern people.
MAYOR AMELDA ARNOLD: [With residents] This power plant is going to be sending power to everybody in the entire United States of America, not just to Mississippi. Its going to everybody.
BOWDEN: For Mayor Amelda Arnold the economic benefits of a second power plant are the big selling point.
MAYOR AMELDA ARNOLD: [With residents] Now see this power plant here, the new one is going to be different than the one we have right now.
This community we dont have a lot of jobs here. Energy is probably one of your highest paying you know, companies here, you know in the Claiborne country area, it is the highest lets not say not one, it is the highest in this area and you know they offer good service. Its a very, very efficiently safe run plant and you know we just, are just excited you know to have them here.
LENORA DOTSON: We didnt know what a nuclear power plant was until one came here.
BOWDEN: Lenora Dotson whos lived in Port Gibson all her life doesnt share the Mayors enthusiasm.
Do you remember what people thought about it when it was new?
LENORA DOTSON: No they were interested in getting a job and what we thought, we thought when the plant came in here, it was more for the citizens of Claiborne County instead of outside people but it seem as though more people outside the county have better jobs down there than the citizens here in Claiborne County.
BOWDEN: AC Garner runs a small farm in Port Gibson but he has strong links with the power plant.
Do you think the community has much say in terms of the power plant?
AC GARNER: The community does not really have a whole lot to say. The government of Claiborne County, the State of Mississippi and the Federal Government are the ones who have a say so of whether or not a nuclear power plant comes here.
BOWDEN: For fourteen years AC Garner was Director of Emergency Management at Grand Gulf and he has real concerns about what would happen if something went wrong at the plant.
AC GARNER: When you take for example at one time we had five fire stations operating here in Claiborne County. Now we only have one okay? Once upon a time we had the Claiborne County Hospital that was operating and really functioning and so forth. Its not functioning very well out there now. Thats with one plant. With the second plant coming in, you could have twice as many problems and concerns as you have now.
BOWDEN: The Assistant Chief of Police, Terrance Watson, agrees. In an emergency he would be relying on a staff of eight people.
Would you like more people here?
TERENCE WATSON: Yes I would. Yes I would.
BOWDEN: Have you asked for more?
TERENCE WATSON: Weve asked, but being a rural department its just not feasible at this time. You know moneys not there to hire extra people right now you know but its something that needs to be looked into because of the plant itself.
BOWDEN: Officer Clinton Robinson says he worries about an accident every day.
CLINTON ROBINSON: Yes, I think about it all the time when Im out patrolling because of the radiation you know? It can go off you know. Some of the people are not aware of the situation, are not educated on it and everything. It could be a big disaster at any time.
PAUL GUNTER: Environmental racism is alive and well in Claiborne County.
BOWDEN: Paul Gunter from the Nuclear Information and Resources Service believes the people of Port Gibson are being taken advantage of.
PAUL GUNTER: Theyve clearly chosen Claiborne County because of the political sway that they can hold over that very weak government and very vulnerable financially government, rather than going up to say Westchester County where the people have political savvy up there.
BOWDEN: Westchester County on the Hudson River in New York State is a very different community with a much stronger voice. The Indian Point Power Plant, also owned by Entergy, is less than fifty kilometres from Manhattan. Locals want it closed down and have the funds and the knowledge to launch a concerted campaign.
MARK JACOBS: Were very well organised. We have a coalition, the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition which has seventy groups working together in harmony to close down the Indian Point nuclear power plant.
WOMAN: It is disgraceful that we are handing on this toxic legacy to our children.
MAN: Maybe it is safe, I mean by their standard but you know I dont think its safe from an attack or safe from just the ravages of time and whats going to happen with the waste.
BOWDEN: The aim this weekend is to gather five thousand signatures on a petition to present to Congress, calling for the closure of Indian Point.
PHIL MUSEGAAS: It was built in the early 1970s so its close its over thirty years old now. All three reactors now are at least thirty years old.
BOWDEN: Lawyer Phil Musegaas works for the Hudson River environmental group, Riverkeeper. Its seven thousand members are funding a series of legal challenges.
PHIL MUSEGAAS: We think its very dangerous. There are security issues, there are safety issues with the operation of the plant. Theres problems with the emergency evacuation plan it simply will not work so I think all these things in combination make it a really high level of risk and we have three hundred thousand people living within ten miles of the plant, we have twenty million people within fifty miles so we think its a risk we just shouldnt be taking.
BOWDEN: On September the 11th, 2001, one of the hijacked planes heading for New York City flew directly over this area. The Commission into the attacks found that Al Qaeda was investigating nuclear power plants as possible targets.
PHIL MUSEGAAS: Indian Point is you know is the most highly visible plant in the country so, I mean you have to consider that they would have, they were thinking of targeting it and theres no reason to think theyre not still targeting it now.
BOWDEN: As far as Entergy is concerned, its a non-issue.
GARY TAYLOR: If you look at it from a security point of view, its the most hardened facility youll find in that area. In addition to that, the State has National Guard there as well as patrols on the Hudson River. Its probably the most defended asset in the State of New York, if not in the whole United States and I just dont see that as a problem. I really dont.
BOWDEN: No doubt the US wants to reduce its dependence on oil and cut down greenhouse gas emissions but the question is why nuclear and why now?
US PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: [Addressing conference] Nuclear power abundant and affordable. In other words if you have nuclear power plants you can say weve got an abundant amount of electricity. Nuclear power helps us protect the environment. And nuclear power is safe.
PAUL GUNTER: There are far safer, cheaper, cleaner, more secure ways of generating electricity in the 21st century rather than going back to an antiquated and failed system of the 1950s.
BOWDEN: Paul Gunter believes the nuclear revival is more about politics and money then finding an answer to environmental and energy needs.
PAUL GUNTER: The nuclear power industry is one of the most influential political action committees on Capitol Hill and in the White House today. Decisions are being influenced by money more than they are by a sound technology.
BOWDEN: The US Governments 2005 Energy Bill provides billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks to the nuclear industry. Companies which build the first plants, will have fifty per cent of their costs covered by the public purse.
GARY TAYLOR: If you look at the issues that weve had in the past - long delays because of intervention, rising interest rates, many things that destroyed a great deal of shareholder value - well we are told the government, in order to have access to the capital market, to allow us to go borrow money, that theyre going to have to have some certainty of how we deal with those risks, at least for the first few plants.
PAUL GUNTER: This industry would not even be thinking about new construction were it not for the US Government pulling the US taxpayer out underneath these projects as a safety net. In fact our taxpayer dollars are the only thing that promotes the concept of new construction.
MARY QUILLIAN: Subsidies for nuclear are no larger than subsidies for any other source of electricity generation in the United States.
BOWDEN: Mary Quillian from the industrys lobbying arm on Capitol Hill, the Nuclear Energy Institute, defends its technology and its politics but the fact is in the last five years, the nuclear power industry has contributed more than fifty million dollars to political campaigns.
MARY QUILLIAN: All energy sources in the United States have lobbying firms in Washington and do their part to ensure that their type of energy is fairly treated and considered in the political system in the United States and I think politicians are savvy enough to know that they have to be able to support any decisions they make with strong economic numbers as well as scientific numbers.
BOWDEN: But as the talk focuses on building more power plants, the industry still hasnt resolved the problem of what to do long term with the waste its already created. At the Grand Gulf plant in Mississippi the pool is near capacity so the company must build a dry storage facility.
Would you prefer to store that waste away from here?
MAN AT FACILITY: Of course. I mean if you were to ask any of the executives across the country, they would prefer to store the waste in the long term facility that we all expected to be ready by now.
BOWDEN: So whats happening at Yucca Mountain, the site selected in 1987 as the best location for the permanent underground storage of nuclear waste?
MICHAEL VOEGELE: We are on the Nevada test site, which is the location where the United States has tested its nuclear weapons. Were about right now were about eighty-five miles from Las Vegas.
BOWDEN: Our guide is technical engineer Michael Voegele, whos been part of this project from the beginning.
MICHAEL VOEGELE: We are about thirty metres deep right here, about one and a half to two kilometres down the track is where the actual repository area would start.
BOWDEN: The project is way behind schedule. After twenty years and seven billion dollars all thats been built is an access tunnel to allow scientists to study the site. An application hasnt yet been lodged to start work on the storage areas.
And when was it expected to be ready? When was the industry promised if you like?
MICHAEL VOEGELE: Yeah the promises if you will, the dates in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act was 1998 for the first repository to be operational.
BOWDEN: And youre talking now about 2016?
MICHAEL VOEGELE: Thats what it comes out to be unfortunately, about ten years from now.
BOWDEN: And this city is one of the reasons for the delay. When Yucca Mountain was first proposed, Las Vegas was a small town with little political clout. Now its a thriving tourist attraction with a lot to lose and the State of Nevada is waging a spirited legal battle to stop the development.
STEVE FRISHMAN: Last year there were thirty nine million tourists who came through the airport in Las Vegas. Anything having to do with nuclear waste and Las Vegas is an immediate downturn in the economy with absolutely no way to predict what the recovery might be. And thats just way too much of a risk to take when we dont have to take it.
BOWDEN: Geologist Steve Frishman is an advisor to the State of Nevada. In his view, the main problem with Yucca Mountain is that its porous.
STEVE FRISHMAN: Yucca Mountain is incapable of isolating the waste because its so fractured up, water moves through it and water will transport the waste to water that is already, that is now being used for humans agriculture.
MICHAEL VOEGELE: We did not encounter water when we excavated this tunnel. The difficult issue is projecting whats going to happen ten thousand years in the future, a hundred thousand years in the future, several hundred thousand years in the future.
BOWDEN: Both sides in this debate will get the chance to have their say in the next stage of the process, when the Department of Energy applies for a licence to build the underground storage area. Russia may provide an alternative waste depot for the United States but the search is on for other sites, Australia says it wont be a dumping ground but Paul Gunter has a word of warning.
PAUL GUNTER: If you go down the atomic path by generating nuclear waste at nuclear power stations, Australia could very well find itself being the Pangea for nuclear waste from all over the world that threatens, not only current generations but generations far, far, far into the future with this toxic legacy.
PAUL GUNTER: Yucca Mountain was chosen by Congress in 1987 what has come to be known as the Screw Nevada Bill which essentially narrowed the site selection process to a single site.
MICHAEL VOEGELE: I happen to think they picked the technically right program when they made the decision but you cant deny that it was a political decision to pick Yucca Mountain as the one site the US are studying right now.
BOWDEN: Politics is influencing the fate of Yucca Mountain and its also driving the biggest changes in the US nuclear industry in a generation. One hundred and three nuclear power plants now supply 20% of the nations electricity but the government wants more, declaring that nuclear power has a key role to play in solving the countrys energy crisis and reducing greenhouse gases.
No nuclear power plants have been built here in the United States for almost thirty years but the President wants to change all that. He says nuclear energy is clean, affordable and safe and with huge financial backing from the government, the big power companies want a piece of the action. But what does this nuclear renaissance mean for people who live near the plants?
Port Gibson on the mighty Mississippi River in Americas deep south, home of the blues. The music of Bobby Rush has its origins in this regions history of slavery and discrimination and the people here are still doing it tough. Eighty-three per cent of this community is African American and more than thirty per cent live below the poverty line. Since 1985, Port Gibson has been home to the Grand Gulf nuclear power plant, run by the Entergy Corporation.
GARY TAYLOR: It is the only real non-emitting source of power thats really available to our country in any kind of scaleable size.
BOWDEN: The head of Entergys nuclear division, Gary Taylor, wants a second plant up and running and in Port Gibson within a decade. It will be the first nuclear plant commissioned in the US since the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979 an event which shattered public confidence in nuclear power and put the industry on hold.
GARY TAYLOR: I think nuclear power in this country is inevitable. Its going to happen. Its going to expand. I think the issues of global warming, the issues of energy security are so large that we have to come to a way to deal with the issues that do concern people.
MAYOR AMELDA ARNOLD: [With residents] This power plant is going to be sending power to everybody in the entire United States of America, not just to Mississippi. Its going to everybody.
BOWDEN: For Mayor Amelda Arnold the economic benefits of a second power plant are the big selling point.
MAYOR AMELDA ARNOLD: [With residents] Now see this power plant here, the new one is going to be different than the one we have right now.
This community we dont have a lot of jobs here. Energy is probably one of your highest paying you know, companies here, you know in the Claiborne country area, it is the highest lets not say not one, it is the highest in this area and you know they offer good service. Its a very, very efficiently safe run plant and you know we just, are just excited you know to have them here.
LENORA DOTSON: We didnt know what a nuclear power plant was until one came here.
BOWDEN: Lenora Dotson whos lived in Port Gibson all her life doesnt share the Mayors enthusiasm.
Do you remember what people thought about it when it was new?
LENORA DOTSON: No they were interested in getting a job and what we thought, we thought when the plant came in here, it was more for the citizens of Claiborne County instead of outside people but it seem as though more people outside the county have better jobs down there than the citizens here in Claiborne County.
BOWDEN: AC Garner runs a small farm in Port Gibson but he has strong links with the power plant.
Do you think the community has much say in terms of the power plant?
AC GARNER: The community does not really have a whole lot to say. The government of Claiborne County, the State of Mississippi and the Federal Government are the ones who have a say so of whether or not a nuclear power plant comes here.
BOWDEN: For fourteen years AC Garner was Director of Emergency Management at Grand Gulf and he has real concerns about what would happen if something went wrong at the plant.
AC GARNER: When you take for example at one time we had five fire stations operating here in Claiborne County. Now we only have one okay? Once upon a time we had the Claiborne County Hospital that was operating and really functioning and so forth. Its not functioning very well out there now. Thats with one plant. With the second plant coming in, you could have twice as many problems and concerns as you have now.
BOWDEN: The Assistant Chief of Police, Terrance Watson, agrees. In an emergency he would be relying on a staff of eight people.
Would you like more people here?
TERENCE WATSON: Yes I would. Yes I would.
BOWDEN: Have you asked for more?
TERENCE WATSON: Weve asked, but being a rural department its just not feasible at this time. You know moneys not there to hire extra people right now you know but its something that needs to be looked into because of the plant itself.
BOWDEN: Officer Clinton Robinson says he worries about an accident every day.
CLINTON ROBINSON: Yes, I think about it all the time when Im out patrolling because of the radiation you know? It can go off you know. Some of the people are not aware of the situation, are not educated on it and everything. It could be a big disaster at any time.
PAUL GUNTER: Environmental racism is alive and well in Claiborne County.
BOWDEN: Paul Gunter from the Nuclear Information and Resources Service believes the people of Port Gibson are being taken advantage of.
PAUL GUNTER: Theyve clearly chosen Claiborne County because of the political sway that they can hold over that very weak government and very vulnerable financially government, rather than going up to say Westchester County where the people have political savvy up there.
BOWDEN: Westchester County on the Hudson River in New York State is a very different community with a much stronger voice. The Indian Point Power Plant, also owned by Entergy, is less than fifty kilometres from Manhattan. Locals want it closed down and have the funds and the knowledge to launch a concerted campaign.
MARK JACOBS: Were very well organised. We have a coalition, the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition which has seventy groups working together in harmony to close down the Indian Point nuclear power plant.
WOMAN: It is disgraceful that we are handing on this toxic legacy to our children.
MAN: Maybe it is safe, I mean by their standard but you know I dont think its safe from an attack or safe from just the ravages of time and whats going to happen with the waste.
BOWDEN: The aim this weekend is to gather five thousand signatures on a petition to present to Congress, calling for the closure of Indian Point.
PHIL MUSEGAAS: It was built in the early 1970s so its close its over thirty years old now. All three reactors now are at least thirty years old.
BOWDEN: Lawyer Phil Musegaas works for the Hudson River environmental group, Riverkeeper. Its seven thousand members are funding a series of legal challenges.
PHIL MUSEGAAS: We think its very dangerous. There are security issues, there are safety issues with the operation of the plant. Theres problems with the emergency evacuation plan it simply will not work so I think all these things in combination make it a really high level of risk and we have three hundred thousand people living within ten miles of the plant, we have twenty million people within fifty miles so we think its a risk we just shouldnt be taking.
BOWDEN: On September the 11th, 2001, one of the hijacked planes heading for New York City flew directly over this area. The Commission into the attacks found that Al Qaeda was investigating nuclear power plants as possible targets.
PHIL MUSEGAAS: Indian Point is you know is the most highly visible plant in the country so, I mean you have to consider that they would have, they were thinking of targeting it and theres no reason to think theyre not still targeting it now.
BOWDEN: As far as Entergy is concerned, its a non-issue.
GARY TAYLOR: If you look at it from a security point of view, its the most hardened facility youll find in that area. In addition to that, the State has National Guard there as well as patrols on the Hudson River. Its probably the most defended asset in the State of New York, if not in the whole United States and I just dont see that as a problem. I really dont.
BOWDEN: No doubt the US wants to reduce its dependence on oil and cut down greenhouse gas emissions but the question is why nuclear and why now?
US PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: [Addressing conference] Nuclear power abundant and affordable. In other words if you have nuclear power plants you can say weve got an abundant amount of electricity. Nuclear power helps us protect the environment. And nuclear power is safe.
PAUL GUNTER: There are far safer, cheaper, cleaner, more secure ways of generating electricity in the 21st century rather than going back to an antiquated and failed system of the 1950s.
BOWDEN: Paul Gunter believes the nuclear revival is more about politics and money then finding an answer to environmental and energy needs.
PAUL GUNTER: The nuclear power industry is one of the most influential political action committees on Capitol Hill and in the White House today. Decisions are being influenced by money more than they are by a sound technology.
BOWDEN: The US Governments 2005 Energy Bill provides billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks to the nuclear industry. Companies which build the first plants, will have fifty per cent of their costs covered by the public purse.
GARY TAYLOR: If you look at the issues that weve had in the past - long delays because of intervention, rising interest rates, many things that destroyed a great deal of shareholder value - well we are told the government, in order to have access to the capital market, to allow us to go borrow money, that theyre going to have to have some certainty of how we deal with those risks, at least for the first few plants.
PAUL GUNTER: This industry would not even be thinking about new construction were it not for the US Government pulling the US taxpayer out underneath these projects as a safety net. In fact our taxpayer dollars are the only thing that promotes the concept of new construction.
MARY QUILLIAN: Subsidies for nuclear are no larger than subsidies for any other source of electricity generation in the United States.
BOWDEN: Mary Quillian from the industrys lobbying arm on Capitol Hill, the Nuclear Energy Institute, defends its technology and its politics but the fact is in the last five years, the nuclear power industry has contributed more than fifty million dollars to political campaigns.
MARY QUILLIAN: All energy sources in the United States have lobbying firms in Washington and do their part to ensure that their type of energy is fairly treated and considered in the political system in the United States and I think politicians are savvy enough to know that they have to be able to support any decisions they make with strong economic numbers as well as scientific numbers.
BOWDEN: But as the talk focuses on building more power plants, the industry still hasnt resolved the problem of what to do long term with the waste its already created. At the Grand Gulf plant in Mississippi the pool is near capacity so the company must build a dry storage facility.
Would you prefer to store that waste away from here?
MAN AT FACILITY: Of course. I mean if you were to ask any of the executives across the country, they would prefer to store the waste in the long term facility that we all expected to be ready by now.
BOWDEN: So whats happening at Yucca Mountain, the site selected in 1987 as the best location for the permanent underground storage of nuclear waste?
MICHAEL VOEGELE: We are on the Nevada test site, which is the location where the United States has tested its nuclear weapons. Were about right now were about eighty-five miles from Las Vegas.
BOWDEN: Our guide is technical engineer Michael Voegele, whos been part of this project from the beginning.
MICHAEL VOEGELE: We are about thirty metres deep right here, about one and a half to two kilometres down the track is where the actual repository area would start.
BOWDEN: The project is way behind schedule. After twenty years and seven billion dollars all thats been built is an access tunnel to allow scientists to study the site. An application hasnt yet been lodged to start work on the storage areas.
And when was it expected to be ready? When was the industry promised if you like?
MICHAEL VOEGELE: Yeah the promises if you will, the dates in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act was 1998 for the first repository to be operational.
BOWDEN: And youre talking now about 2016?
MICHAEL VOEGELE: Thats what it comes out to be unfortunately, about ten years from now.
BOWDEN: And this city is one of the reasons for the delay. When Yucca Mountain was first proposed, Las Vegas was a small town with little political clout. Now its a thriving tourist attraction with a lot to lose and the State of Nevada is waging a spirited legal battle to stop the development.
STEVE FRISHMAN: Last year there were thirty nine million tourists who came through the airport in Las Vegas. Anything having to do with nuclear waste and Las Vegas is an immediate downturn in the economy with absolutely no way to predict what the recovery might be. And thats just way too much of a risk to take when we dont have to take it.
BOWDEN: Geologist Steve Frishman is an advisor to the State of Nevada. In his view, the main problem with Yucca Mountain is that its porous.
STEVE FRISHMAN: Yucca Mountain is incapable of isolating the waste because its so fractured up, water moves through it and water will transport the waste to water that is already, that is now being used for humans agriculture.
MICHAEL VOEGELE: We did not encounter water when we excavated this tunnel. The difficult issue is projecting whats going to happen ten thousand years in the future, a hundred thousand years in the future, several hundred thousand years in the future.
BOWDEN: Both sides in this debate will get the chance to have their say in the next stage of the process, when the Department of Energy applies for a licence to build the underground storage area. Russia may provide an alternative waste depot for the United States but the search is on for other sites, Australia says it wont be a dumping ground but Paul Gunter has a word of warning.
PAUL GUNTER: If you go down the atomic path by generating nuclear waste at nuclear power stations, Australia could very well find itself being the Pangea for nuclear waste from all over the world that threatens, not only current generations but generations far, far, far into the future with this toxic legacy.