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Gary Griffith
Former Tooele County Commissioner
Gary Griffith served for twelve years on the Tooele County Commission
until his election defeat in November, 2000. Griffith had supported
the County's agreement with Private Fuel Storage, and many observers
viewed his reelection bid as a referendum on Tooele's perceived
"partnership" with PFS.
Griffith was interviewed in the Tooele County Commission chambers
by program Producer Ken Verdoia.
Ken Verdoia: The governor of the state of Utah is adamantly
opposed to nuclear waste storage in Tooele County. "We didn't
produce it. We don't benefit from it. We don't want it here."
Very popular public official making that type of statement. What
was the Tooele County Commission thinking when it signed a contract
with PFS?
Gary Griffith: Well we were thinking that we didn't want
to make our decisions based on the, on the method that he made
his decisions. Think of those things that you just mentioned.
Let's take them one at time. What you said the first thing is,
what? We didn't generate it. That's an interesting scenario. Don't
I hear our governor saying that California is now causing us problems
because of electrical power and them wanting to steal? How can
they steal Utah power? How can they do that? Think about that.
It's an interesting scenario. All of a sudden there is kind of
a grid system. All of a sudden it is important or it's important
to the governor that California wants our electricity. Well what
happened when this electricity was produced back in wherever he
thinks that this electricity was produced that produced these
spent rods. You know. Isn't it a little bit, I wonder if people
don't see some hypocrisy in the fact, and I know it's politically
popular and that's why he needs to do it because he wants to remain
politically popular and that's why Senators and Congressional
people have not acted on this thing and done what they had promised
they'd do many many years ago. But, but isn't it a little strange
that we say we didn't create the spent rod problem so therefore
let's not do anything about it?
If you wanted a case scenario and I've used the example before,
if you want to consider, take that isolationist point of view,
that because we didn't create it, let's not do anything about
it, I wonder how popular he would be if he went to Kennecott and
said, "Kennecott, you produce just enough copper for the
state of Utah. We don't want you shipping any copper out."
Go to Utah County and tell those computer people, "Now you
just produce enough chips. You just produce enough computers for
Utah because we're an island here. We don't want to be part of
the world." And then you listen to him talk about going to
Silicon Valley trying to attract people here because now we have
to compete globally. Well how can you want to say that we're going
to compete globally and ship the things that we produce here globally
but saying if someone else created a need for spent rods, then
they've got to solve that in their own backyard.
Now the issue is and always should be safety. If the shipment
of that spent rod, and this is what the county commissioners saw
with this thing as we looked at it for six to eight years was
that it's a business. It's purely a business decision by some
electrical producing companies that rather than trying to do this
in several places, to pick one place and do it. And so, therefore
it becomes strictly a business and we believe and I would submit
to you that it probably would be the safest, cleanest business
that we could bring into this county. Because, think about it,
it produces not one thing that goes into the atmosphere, into
the ground, into the water. That storage of that spent rod does
nothing to the environment in any of those three areas.
Verdoia: What about those environmental voices that believe
the risk is so great? This is the deadliest industrial waste man
has ever produced. How do you respond?
Griffith: Pure emotions. Let's look at the risk analysis
and one that the governor uses and I question whether the Air
Force really wants to say that, but he says what happens if an
F-16 with bombs go into that facility? And I think you need to
look at that as a possibility. Those people who live out here
in Tooele County, that needs to be a risk analysis and we need
to look at what that risk is. But if you want to really pursue
the risk of a bomb laden F-16 going into a facility out in the
Skull Valley Indian reservation, I think you better look at the
risk of that same aircraft as it takes off from Hill Air Force
Base, which admittedly is the most dangerous part of a mission,
is the taking off because it's fully loaded with fuel and everything
like that and if something's going to happen, that's probably
when it's going to happen. What happens if this same aircraft,
that potentiality's going to pinpoint this facility out there
to hit, which is practically impossible, but if that same aircraft
before it gets out there to hit that facility generates some kind
of a problem and veers into a school building or something that
it has to take off over there at Hill Air Force Base? Or even
worse, what happens if it gets a little bit farther and veers
into the refinery? Good-bye Bountiful and all of it's people.
Is it any better to die from flaming petroleum then it is from
radiation? I don't think so.
Verdoia: Your point being?
Griffith: My point being that we need to look at the
risk analysis and you need to understand that, okay if this catastrophic
accident happens, be it an earthquake, how can that possibly break
open this spent rod, because that's what you have to do. You have
to go through concrete. You have to go through stainless steel
and then you've got to snap a rod open and then you got to understand,
as it is snapped open, what occurs? All of us have x-rays when
we go to the dentist. Most of us love to go have an MRI so we
can see what's wrong with us, which is nothing more then an nuclear
scanner. Heaven forbid but it is and we all love that because
we think that tells the doctor how we can get fixed because it
can see in there but it's nothing more then nuclear energy being
used for medical purposes.
But, anyway if that aircraft goes into that facility out there
and let's assume that the timings right and the impact is just
perfect and everything, so we break a rod open. If one of the
people who live in this county happen to be going out to Whenever
for a prime rib dinner, is there any risk as they travel down
I-80, as they go westbound? Not so. Not according to the scientist.
Not in your wildest dream. But what happens if you turn and go
down the Skull Valley road and drive pass this facility if your
going to Dugway. Right at the wrong instant, because realize if
it happens afterwards you're going to be barricaded off, you're
not going to be able to get in there, if it happens before you
miss the excitement so you got to pinpoint the exact time that
this catastrophic accident happens. And then you have to be the
one that's there, okay? Would you be in danger if you traveled
down that Skull Valley road? Possibly, but very very doubtfully.
You've got to turn and drive out to the facility because this
radiation doesn't travel that way. It doesn't go in the winds,
if it's up in the air and the wind blows right, there's always
a potential.
But that's the kind of risk analysis, that's the kind of scientific
thing you need to look at. You meaning the people of this county
that really would have any potential. Most people that I've talked
to initially think that if there's going to be an accident out
there, if this earthquake or if this airplane veers into this
facility, what happens is a mushroom cloud appears over the Stansbury
Mountain. That there's an explosion. There's an atomic bomb that
goes off. They don't understand that that physically, scientifically
cannot happen.
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