House running out of time on nuclear bill

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The House has no plans during its first week back in session to consider a bill to store high-level nuclear waste in Nevada.

House staff said the agenda includes plenty without that thorny topic. There are 33 other bills to consider, plus reauthorization of the Small Business Administration and Defense Department.

"It will take us forever to get through those 33," House Commerce Committee staffer Troy Timmons said.

Although the Senate passed its version of interim storage at the Nevada Test Site before Congress broke for the August political conventions, time is running out for passing the legislation in the House this year.

Congress aims to adjourn by Oct. 4 so many of its members can devote full time to campaigning.

President Clinton has vowed to veto any temporary nuclear waste storage legislation, preferring to wait until studies by the Department of Energy to be completed by 1998 indicate whether Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is suitable for permanent storage.

Another roadblock for nuke storage proponents: The Senate's 63-37 vote on the bill does not give GOP senators enough votes to override a presidential veto.

After a visit to Yucca Mountain on Wednesday, Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., said he doesn't think permanent disposal will ever become a reality.

"Yucca Mountain itself will probably never, ever happen," he said. "It's interim storage, that's the threat."

The bill's passage would result in more than 30,000 tons of spent fuel rods now stored at nuclear utilities crossing 43 states to Southern Nevada after 1998.

If that happened, the Nevada Test Site would lose jobs, potential business opportunities at the Test Site would vanish and Las Vegas tourism could be affected, Ensign said.

"We are working very hard to make sure it doesn't come up," he said. "Right now, I'm about 70 percent sure it won't come up this year."

He said he told House Speaker Newt Gingrich that Nevada's Republican seats could disappear if interim nuclear waste storage passes. Nevada could be the swing state for protecting a GOP majority in the House and for Bob Dole's presidential bid.

Rep. Barbara Vucanovich, R-Nev., has never seen temporary nuclear waste storage high on the legislation list for the GOP leadership, said her spokeswoman, Susan Zimmerman.

"They have never discussed this item as a priority in leadership meetings," Zimmerman said.

The tight schedule for the nuclear waste bill is partly the result of delaying tactics in July by Nevada's two Democratic senators, Richard Bryan and Harry Reid.

"That was very helpful," Zimmerman said.

"It has to be now or never," Zimmerman said of the temporary storage bill.