Nuclear waste measure called budget buster

Tuesday, June 8, 1999 | 11:23 a.m.

The House delayed action on a temporary nuclear waste storage bill today after leaders expressed fears that the cost of shipping the waste to the Nevada Test Site could threaten a balanced federal budget.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., submitted 10 amendments to the bill in the House, criticizing it as "a budget buster" because it could lead to uncontrolled spending.

Gibbons addressed environmental violations, transportation restrictions and private property threats in the current House version of the temporary nuclear waste bill.

The House bill would allow 44,000 tons of highly radioactive waste to come to the Test Site with few environmental or radiation protection, Gibbons said.

The House bill, HR 45, proposes moving nuclear waste storage and disposal off the federal budget, which must be balanced. That would allow the Department of Energy to spend money to create a temporary storage site at the Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, while the agency continued studying a permanent repository proposed at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"This move to take nuclear waste off-budget would open the floodgates for unrestricted, uncontrolled spending," Gibbons said on the floor today.