Nuke-waste bill appears veto-bound

Mark D. Preston

Thursday, April 22, 1999 | 11:15 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A bill that would bring the nation's high-level nuclear waste to the Nevada Test Site as soon as 2003 was approved 39-6 Wednesday by the House Commerce Committee.

"This is the same sequence of events that we have seen time and time again as the nuclear power industry tries to shove the nation's nuclear waste down Nevada's throat," Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., said

The committee's vote does not mean Nevada is any closer to becoming the nation's dumping ground for highly radioactive waste piling up at nuclear power plants.

A high-ranking White House official repeated President Clinton's threat to veto any interim waste legislation that crosses his desk in a letter dated April 20 to Rep. Thomas J. Bliley, Jr., R-Va. Bliley is the Commerce Committee chairman and supports moving nuclear waste to Nevada.

The bill is not yet scheduled to come to the House floor, where it is expected to pass with enough votes to withstand a veto.

In the Senate, however, proponents of the bill appear to be shy two or three votes of overriding the promised veto.

"You have heard of DOA, dead on arrival," Senate Minority Whip Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. "Well this bill will be VOA, vetoed on arrival at the White House."

The legislation calls for the Department of Energy to assume responsibility of used nuclear fuel stored at 72 commercial power plants. In 2003, the used fuel would be shipped to the Nevada Test Site, where it would be stored until the DOE determines if Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is a suitable permanent repository. If chosen, Yucca Mountain would begin accepting nuclear waste around 2010.

During the debate, a handful of congressmen questioned certain aspects of the bill, such as provisions that would help end lawsuits brought by nuclear utilities against the DOE for failing to take title of the nuclear waste.

Other lawmakers questioned the deadlines outlined in the legislation that would require the DOE to remove the used fuel from the nuclear plants. But when the final vote was announced the legislation easily passed.

The Office of Management and Budget sent a letter to the committee noting that the temporary repository would bust the nuclear waste fund's budget.