North Las Vegas: Few residents attend council meeting on nuclear waste plan

Diana Sahagun

Thursday, Nov. 4, 1999 | 9:45 a.m.

Imagine 70,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste being shipped through North Las Vegas for 25 years.

And imagine if only one resident came to speak out against it.

That's exactly what happened at last night's North Las Vegas City Council meeting, when Kevin Smedley, senior planner for the Clark County nuclear waste division, presented the Yucca Mountain Draft Environmental Impact Statement to the council.

Although City Council members vocally expressed their outrage at the idea of nuclear waste traveling along a North Las Vegas highway, their fears went before an audience of only a scattered few.

"It makes me sad when I look out at who's here in the audience ... sometimes we are so concerned about things like the width of streets ... and if nuclear waste is going to be 200 feet from our homes, nothing else matters," said Councilwoman Stephanie Smith.

In the environmental report one proposed transportation route would be along the Las Vegas Beltway traveling right through 7,500 acres of Bureau of Land Management land the city hopes to turn into a master-planned community.

The land will border the beltway, still under construction, which will link U.S. 95 and Interstate 15.

The statement considers environmental impacts if a high-level nuclear waste repository is built at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. If approved by the president, the repository could be fully operational by 2010.

The presentation was part of the Department of Energy's 180-day comment period, which ends Feb. 9. The state-sponsored workshops are designed to inform the public on the impacts for a proposed high-level nuclear waste site.

If the waste is trucked along the beltway, the city could be faced with a number of issues, Smedley said. Those living along the transportation route could be threatened with radiation as well as declining property values.

Traffic would also be increased, because the trucks carrying waste would have to be escorted.

Smith pointed out that there's no use laying out a master-planned community if nuclear waste is going be trucked right through the land.

"If we are planning for this 7,500 acres, why bother? Who wants to live by this nuclear waste driving through the neighborhood?" she said.

Smedley encourages the public to speak out against the proposal, by sending written comments to the Department of Energy or visiting its website at www.ymp.gov.

There will also be another chance for comment at a public hearing scheduled for Jan. 11 at the Grant Sawyer State Building, 555 E. Washington Ave.

"They need to speak up because every time people speak out, they have a different point of view that we hadn't considered before," he said. "One person's comment can make a difference."