Nuke PACs hand out $1.9 million

Tuesday, Aug. 6, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Political Action Committees for the nuclear-power industry gave $1.9 million this year to members of Congress.

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, sponsor of the bill to temporarily store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain and the Nevada Test Site (S 1936), is among the top 10 Senate recipients.

Craig received $13,000 and his co-sponsor of the nuclear waste bill, Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, took in $16,500. Craig argues that it is the government's responsibility to assure that used nuclear fuel and radioactive material are stored safely.

The numbers were compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, an independent, nonpartisan group in Washington, D.C., that tracks political contributions.

In the House, Rep. Dan Schaefer, R-Colo., leads the recipients of nuclear industry funds with $43,000 as of July 2. Schaefer is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power, which voted overwhelmingly in favor of the nuclear industry's plan to store nuclear waste in Nevada.

Nuclear interests and utilities have been pushing for a waste disposal facility for several years, claiming their plants are out of storage space. Craig's bill passed the Senate 63-37. If this voting pattern holds, however, the Senate will be unable to override a promised veto of the bill by President Clinton. The Senate needs 66 votes for an override.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., scheduled S 1936 -- known as the Nuclear Waste Policy Act -- for a vote last Wednesday despite opposition from Nevada Democratic Senators Harry Reid and Richard Bryan.

The bill authorizes the above-ground, temporary storage of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in advance of the facility's completion. Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is under study as the nation's only high-level nuclear waste dump. The bill will become effective only if Yucca Mountain is deemed a suitable permanent storage site.

The bill also authorizes above-ground, temporary storage of high-level nuclear waste at the Test Site under emergency circumstances. An example might be if a storage cask at Yucca Mountain needed repairs.

Reid and Bryan fought the storage proposal on behalf of Nevadans who don't want to run the risk of being exposed to radiation. Nevadans, however, would not be the only victims if a cask broke either in storage or in transit. The whole nation is imperiled by the shipping of nuclear waste, the most deadly material on Earth.

Environmental groups say nuclear waste would have to pass through 43 states on its way to Yucca Mountain.

Carol Browner, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, strongly opposes the bill because it not only excludes the EPA from setting environmental standards for the nuclear waste site, but also establishes what she calls a "less protective standard."

Yucca Mountain, the proposed site, is still under study by geologists and engineers who have questions about safety. Under current law, a state under study as a permanent dump cannot host temporary nuclear waste storage.