Clinton hints at Yucca veto

Mary Manning and Benjamin Grove

Friday, Oct. 1, 1999 | 11:13 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton today stopped just short of saying he would veto a bill that would bring nuclear waste to Nevada as early as 2007, following weeks of speculation about where the president stands on the latest version of a nuclear waste bill.

Scientists are studying Yucca Mountain to determine whether it is a suitable site to store the nation's 77,000 tons of nuclear waste, which now sit at various sites around the country.

Before departing Washington for Las Vegas, Clinton said, "Once again, I'm in a dispute with a majority of members of Congress over this Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada.

"And it's my feeling that at the time it was selected, there was some science in there, but perhaps some politics, too, since Nevada is a small state," Clinton said.

"And I have wanted not to see this issue politicized, but to bend over backwards to make sure we do everything we can to deal with the nuclear safety issue before we adopt this course.

"I still feel that way, so I hope we can, I hope that generally all Americans will want us to proceed in every area where we're dealing with nuclear safety."

Clinton made the statement -- his first public statement about Yucca Mountain in weeks -- during a news conference, where he discussed a number of issues, including the nuclear accident in Japan Thursday.

It's likely Clinton will make another announcement today as he sweeps through Las Vegas on a campaign fund-raising trip, Congressional officials said this morning.

Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan could not be reached for comment today as they traveled to Nevada to appear with the president.

"We're feeling very good about the upcoming (nuclear waste bill) vote, as well as the veto from the president," Bryan spokesman David Lemmon said today.

"We never doubted the president's commitment on this issue."

Reid spokesman Jack Pannell today also said that Reid feels very good about the possibility of a presidential veto.

Bryan has been talking with other senators, as well as Environmental Protection Agency chief Carol Browner and the president's chief-of-staff John Podesta to convince them that the current nuclear waste bill contains dangerous provisions.

Most notably, Bryan objects to a provision that would allow the EPA, not the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to set radiation standards at Yucca Mountain. The EPA standards are more strict.

"There is a lot of concern out there about that among the senators," Lemmon said.

Nevada officials and the state's congressional delegation were expected to press Clinton during the Las Vegas fund-raiser to promise to veto the nuclear waste bill.

But the president's answer -- whether positive or negative -- will not change Gov. Kenny Guinn's active opposition.

"We've been proceeding all along as if he wouldn't veto it," Guinn's spokesman Jack Finn said Thursday, the day before the president was scheduled to attend a fund-raiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee at the Paris Las Vegas hotel-casino.

Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, has offered legislation that drops a proposal to temporarily store the nation's nuclear waste at the Nevada Test Site but allows nuclear waste shipments to come to Yucca Mountain in 2007. Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site being studied for a national nuclear waste repository. If it passes scientific muster, it is expected to be ready in 2010.

Murkowski's bill also orders the NRC to set radiation exposure rates, instead of the EPA. The NRC, which would license the repository, has proposed a less strict standard than the EPA has.

Guinn, a Republican, and all of Nevada's congress members -- Bryan and Reid, Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley and Republican Rep. Jim Gibbons -- have fiercely fought proposals to bring nuclear waste to Nevada.

Reid and Bryan have urged Clinton to veto the latest version of Murkowski's bill. It is expected for a hearing in the Senate as early as next week.

Gibbons challenged Clinton on Wednesday to announce his intent on the veto when he visits Las Vegas today.

Berkley earlier asked the president to reconfirm his veto.

Guinn is prepared to launch a public relations campaign in the state to fight Murkowski's bill, as well as battle it in the halls of the U.S. Capitol, Finn said.

"We are prepared to fight it that way, but we would hope we could stop it at the Capitol level," Finn said.

Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, a Democrat, said Thursday "We are always ready to go to court. But I can't believe the president wouldn't veto the bill."

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has said he will ask Clinton to veto the bill, Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams said. She is handling the legal work on the state's opposition to Yucca Mountain.

Under current law the EPA would set standards for how much radiation an average person outside the repository boundary could be exposed to from the mountain The EPA has proposed to limit that radiation to 15 millirems a year -- the amount in about three chest X-rays -- and 4 millirems in ground water.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed 25 millirems -- about five chest X-rays -- and no limit to the radiation in ground water. Many radioactive elements travel in water.

NRC Chairwoman Greta Dicus, interviewed for the Nuclear Energy Institute's newsletter, said there was no danger to people or the environment from the commission's proposed radiation standard.

"There is virtually no difference between 25 millirems (the NRC's standard) and 15 millirems," Dicus said. "At extremely low levels of radiation, there is great uncertainty about actual health effects.

"I'm very comfortable with the 25-millirem limit for dose to the public from a decommissioned nuclear facility or from a possible waste repository at Yucca Mountain," Dicus said. "The public is well protected."

Senate Republicans maybe edging closer to forcing debate on a proposal regarding nuclear waste storage in Nevada.

Officials in the office of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., today said debate on the latest version of the nuclear waste bill is likely next week.

"We're ready for debate, Bryan spokesman Lemmon said.

Lott will be watching Clinton closely today to see if the president makes an outright promise to veto the bill.