House nuke bill draws wrath of Nevada figures

Friday, Aug. 1, 1997 | 11:41 a.m.

"The evidence which has been presented clearly demonstrates the disastrous effects that could result from designating Yucca Mountain as an interim nuclear waste storage facility," Gibbons, R-Nev., said Thursday.

Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., said the bill, approved 21-3 by the House Commerce Committee's panel on energy and power, guts environmental safeguards.

"Today's famous Las Vegas Strip may become tomorrow's Cancer Alley," he said.

President Clinton has promised to veto similar legislation, which passed the Senate.

Gibbons charged that the legislation is being promoted by the nuclear power industry "so that they can literally dump their problems in someone else's back yard."

He said the decision to push the bill forward was announced two days ago, leaving members of Congress little time to study the issues involved, including the critical question of transporting the waste across the country.

"This decision, made in the dark of night, will not go unchecked," Gibbons said.

"By informing and educating our colleagues in Washington, D.C. on the massive environmental, health and safety dangers of this proposal, we hope to persuade these legislators to vote against this disastrous bill," Gibbons said.

The bill calls for construction of a temporary nuclear storage facility at the Nevada Test Site until an underground burial site is completed at nearby Yucca Mountain, 100 miles north of Las Vegas. The temporary site would accept commercial nuclear waste by Jan. 31, 2002.

Billions of dollars has been spent on the study of Yucca Mountain as a permanent site.

Sponsors of the bill say the Energy Department is committed by law to begin accepting radioactive waste from the nation's nuclear power plants next year, but the government says it has no place to store that waste.

"This assures the government will keep its word sooner rather than later," said Rep.Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

Opponents of the bill say it would undermine efforts to qualify Yucca Mountain as a permanent site.

Markey said the temporary site would become permanent because Congress would not want to spend billions of dollars to finish Yucca Mountain.

The action by the House energy and power subcommittee moves the bill closer to final passage, but the measure faces a presidential veto.

With Congress preparing to adjourn until Labor Day, the bill is not expected to reach the House floor until this fall at the earliest.

On April 15, the Senate passed similar legislation 65-34, two votes shy of the margin needed to override a presidential veto.

If Nevada lawmakers maintain enough support to sustain a veto in either the House or Senate, the nuclear waste legislation will fail.

"Our strategy will be to focus on anti-nuclear members and those who have concerns about the transportation of the waste across their districts," Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., said Thursday.

Ensign and Gibbons face a tough task in gaining the 146 votes needed to uphold a veto in the House.

The House bill is not as favorable to the nuclear power industry as the Senate bill, Ensign said, and will be harder to stop.