Editorial: Placing a bull’s-eye on Nevada

Thursday, June 17, 1999 | 9:50 a.m.

When it was announced that an influential GOP senator would no longer advocate a so-called "temporary" nuclear waste repository in Nevada, it initially seemed this state may have turned a corner. Further scrutiny of the plan hatched by Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, reveals something much different, though: It actually is a cynical plot to make it easier to build a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

On Wednesday the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed Murkowski's proposal that would have the government assume title of the radioactive waste, but not move it to Nevada unless a construction permit is provided for its permanent disposal. This plan was hailed by some as a "compromise" since Murkowski has been advocating that Nevada become a temporary storage site for nuclear waste (the reality being that a "temporary" repository would become a "permanent" one in short order).

The fact is this is no compromise. The Senate didn't have enough votes to override President Clinton's promised veto of legislation sending the waste to a "temporary" repository. What Murkowski did get the committee to pass, by a 14-6 vote with all 11 Republicans signing on, was a proposal that would strip the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to establish acceptable radiation exposure levels at a permanent repository -- if one is even built at all in Nevada. Instead this power to set standards would be transferred to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which already has demonstrated its willingness to relax safety standards in other areas regarding Yucca Mountain.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., the ranking Democrat on the committee, opposed giving the NRC additional power. "That's a show stopper with the (Clinton) administration and me," Bingaman said. Once the entire Senate considers this plan, it should reject Murkowski's proposal. It is just one more effort to weaken the government's scientific investigation to determine whether Yucca Mountain is suitable as a high-level nuclear waste repository.