Nuke waste ads anger Nevadans

Wednesday, Aug. 28, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Nevadans attending the Democratic National Convention are fuming over an advertising blitz funded by the nuclear waste industry targeting the state.

"The nuclear industry is showing their greed in running ads in and around Chicago saying President Clinton should not veto (nuclear waste legislation)," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Clinton has promised to veto pending legislation to temporarily store nuclear waste in Nevada.

Advocates of the dump targeted the Iowa and Illinois delegations and also started a newspaper and radio campaign in hopes of influencing Clinton to sign legislation that would place a dump at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Fliers were circulated Tuesday at the convention in what a Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman described as "a smaller part of a broad national campaign" to influence the president.

Steve Unglesbee said utility ratepayers in Iowa and Illinois have paid millions of dollars over the years into a fund created to help manage nuclear waste, "and they have very little to show for their money."

"I guess you might say this is the dying gasp of the nuclear power industry," said Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev. "This crowd is relentless. They're trying to unload their high-level waste on the people of Nevada. "

"This doesn't surprise me," said state Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, chairwoman of the Nevada delegation. "The industry is desperate to find some temporary storage."

Delegate Phil Grimes of Las Vegas said, "Our legislators and everyone else have fought against this, and we think that they're coming right at us when they're putting this out at the convention."

"The nuclear industry has done all kinds of public relations campaigns over the years," said Gov. Bob Miller's press secretary, Richard Urey. "This is just the latest, just part of the struggle that the governor and other leading Nevadans deal with on a regular basis."

He added that the well-funded industry campaign has sought to "put political expediency ahead of any scientific considerations, but the president has said no to that kind of thing."

The fliers from the institute depict a one-way road sign and states, "Send Nuclear Waste on a One-Way Trip." It says that trip should be to "a storage and disposal facility in a remote, unpopulated part of the country" -- Nevada's Yucca Mountain -- and, "It's time to bring President Clinton on board."

The fliers also say Iowa and Illinois are important to Clinton's re-election and that both states' delegates should "make sure the Clinton campaign team members in your state are aware of the importance of this issue. Tell them you want the president to sign the Nuclear Waste Policy Act."

"President Clinton has threatened twice to veto the bill, and we're just trying to let people know the material is on site in their states, and they have paid for it to be moved and stored elsewhere, and they may end up paying twice for that," Unglesbee said.