Vote on Yucca Mountain bill postponed

Tuesday, Oct. 5, 1999 | 10:16 a.m.

In the face of a certain presidential veto, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., has postponed consideration of a nuclear waste bill Nevada until the end the month.

Sen. Frank Murkowski's bill was expected to be voted on this week but with President Clinton promising on Friday to veto the Alaskan Republican's bill, Lott has decided to try and retool the measure, the National Journal's CongressDaily reported on Monday.

In previous attempts to soften his bill, Murkowski has already removed plans to temporarily store highly radioactive commercial and defense wastes at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. He sought to allow the Nuclear Regulatory Commission instead of the Environmental Protection Agency to set the radiation limits.

The commission issued a 25-millirem limit for Yucca Mountain in February. That amounts to about five chest X-rays. In August the EPA offered a 15-millirem limit and a 4-millirem cap on radiation in ground water.

"Upon reviewing (the bill) -- regarding potential nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain, I have determined that it would not adequately ensure the protection of public health and safety," Clinton said. "If this bill is presented to me in its current form, I will veto it."

The public announcement is a major victory for the two Nevada senators, who say they have the 34 votes to uphold a presidential veto.

"It is vital that (the EPA's) -- authority be preserved," Clinton said.

Lott has decided to work on unfinished appropriations bills before trying to tackle the nuclear waste issue. Murkowski's bill also allows the Department of Energy, which is studying Yucca Mountain 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas as the only site for a national nuclear waste repository, to begin shipping the wastes in 2007. The DOE has said no repository will open at Yucca Mountain, even if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves it, until 2010 or later.