CARSON CITY – Gov. Brian Sandoval today appointed Robert Halstead as executive director of the Agency for Nuclear Projects, the agency responsible for oversight of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. He will start in the job Sept. 19.

Halstead will replace Joe Strolin, who has been serving as acting director since January.

Robert Halstead will take over as executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects in September.

“Bob Halstead brings over 30 years of experience dealing with federal radioactive waste programs and activities,” Sandoval said. “His extensive, first-hand knowledge of the issues and key actors at the state, federal and local levels will make for a seamless transition in this extremely important position as we continue Nevada’s fight against bringing high-level nuclear waste to our state.”

Halstead was selected from a list of candidates submitted to the governor by the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects, as prescribed under state law.

The proposed high level radioactive waste dump at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is in limbo. President Obama has declined to fund its ongoing construction and has called it dead. But South Carolina and Washington, two states that have stored nuclear waste, are suing the federal government in an effort to get the project moving forward again.

Halstead, in a phone interview Thursday from Wisconsin where he is currently located, said he believes Nevada is in the strongest position it has been in to permanently block the project since the push to build at Yucca Mountain began almost 25 years ago. This is because of the defunding of the office and the pulling of the license application, he said.

“Those two things, clearly, are a very bad thing for the people who want Yucca Mountain to go forward,” he said.

Even so, Nevada has to remain vigilant, Halstead said.

“It is wait and see,” he said. “On the one hand it would be premature for us to say that we’re off the hook. There are powerful, powerful forces that want to reopen the Yucca Mountain licensing proceeding.”

Halstead said the president’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future said Friday in a draft report that the better short-term policy is to rely on a temporary storage solution. The country can continue to rely on dry storage of the waste on site, which is safe enough for the next 60 to 100 years, or develop some other consolidated interim storage site, he said.

The commission will be meeting with representatives of the western states in Denver in early September to discuss the report, which calls for a “consent-based” approach to siting future nuclear waste facilities.

“I think the biggest error with the current program is that Yucca Mountain was not only a questionable site technically, but it was clearly a site in which the state was strongly politically opposed,” Halstead said.

Halstead has served as transportation adviser to the Agency for Nuclear Projects since 1988, serving in a consulting capacity. In addition to reviewing the U.S. Department of Energy Environmental Impact Statements for Yucca Mountain and preparing contentions for the Yucca Mountain licensing proceeding, he has managed studies on transportation feasibility and cost; consequences of sabotage, terrorism, and severe accidents; and risk management and impact mitigation.

Halstead has also represented Nevada in complex technical proceedings with the U.S. Departments of Energy and Transportation and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; testified before congressional committees, National Academy of Sciences boards, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, the NRC Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste, Nevada legislative committees and Nevada county commissions; and advised affected individuals, community organizations, and Indian tribes.

During his career, Halstead has worked as senior policy analyst for the state of Wisconsin Radioactive Waste Board and as a consultant on nuclear waste transportation and storage for the states of Minnesota, Tennessee, and Texas.

Halstead holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware and a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has also completed required course work for a Ph.D. degree at the University of Wisconsin. He and his wife, Margaret, who is currently an executive with the International Monetary Fund, have two grown children.

Aerial view of Yucca Mountain. / Photo: U.S. Department of Energy

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Audio clips:

Newly appointed Nuclear Projects Executive Director Robert Halstead says Nevada still faces powerful forces who want Yucca Mountain to go forward:

080511Halstead1 :20 Mountain licensing proceeding.”

But Halstead says the defunding of the office and pulling of the license application puts Nevada in a strong position:

080511Halstead2 :27 to be considered.”

Halstead says the biggest error with the current program was that it was pushed on Nevada despite strong political opposition:

080511Halstead3 :15 strongly politicially opposed.”