Senate eager to debate nuke waste bill before Congress adjourns

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 1999 | 11:09 a.m.

A bill that would bring high-level nuclear waste to Nevada as soon as 2007 may end up a victim of an avalanche of work the Senate has to complete before its session ends for the year.

A move Tuesday by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and Sen. Frank Murkowski, author of the bill, to get a vote as soon as today appeared unlikely to succeed.

The bill would allow nuclear utilities to begin shipping highly radioactive wastes to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, in 2007. Yucca Mountain is the only site being considered as a repository for spent fuel from the nation's nuclear power plants. If it passes scientific muster, it is not expected to be ready until 2010.

Murkowski's bill also would change the agency responsible for setting standards for how much radiation would be allowed to escape from the mountain from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has proposed more lenient rules.

A similar bill is before the House of Representatives, but those lawmakers were waiting to see what the Senate did before considering the bill. Similar nuclear waste legislation has failed to overcome the threat of a presidential veto since 1994.

Late Tuesday Lott's staff expressed confidence that the Senate bill could come up for a vote as soon as today.

"We will have to see," the Mississippi Republican's spokesman John Czwertacki said Tuesday. "We will attempt to bring it to the floor, perhaps as soon as tomorrow. Maybe even by this afternoon."

"I don't think so," countered Tina Kreisher, spokeswoman for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, chairs. At the earliest Lott could ask to move on the legislation by Friday, she said, and it would be Tuesday before Congress would decide whether to take a vote.

The Senate was trying to wrap up its business by next week to end this session for the rest of the year. Normally Congress finishes its yearly business by Nov. 1.

"We find this unbelievable that Lott would bring this up with the amount of work Congress has left to do," Sen. Richard Bryan's spokesman David Lemmon said.

The Democrats and Republicans reached an impasse late Tuesday on the spending bills the federal government needs to operate. Five out of 13 bills are still not complete, and the Senate is mired in a debate on trade with Africa. In addition, senators are planning on attending the pending funeral of Sen. John Chaffee, R-R.I., who died Monday at age 77.

Even the Nuclear Energy Institute, the lobbying arm of the nuclear industry, took a wait-and-see attitude on the bill's likely progress. "By 'soon,' that could go into next week," spokesman Steve Unglesbee said. With such a load of work on the federal spending bills, anything can happen, he said. "We are just watching it."

Nevada's entire congressional delegation stood ready to battle the bill should it surface.

Bryan and Sen. Harry Reid, both D-Nev., vowed to use every legislative maneuver, including a filibuster, to stop the bill. A filibuster could mean tying up the Senate for a week. They said they have the votes necessary to uphold a presidential veto, if it comes to that.

"While the delegation stands opposed to this legislation, we are working to spread the message about its dangers to millions of Americans in other states who would also be at risk from this bill," Reid said, referring to 50 million citizens in 43 states living along nuclear waste routes.

"Simply put, any proponent of gutting already widely accepted radiation health and safety standards is showing nothing but a blatant disregard for the health and safety of the people of Nevada," Bryan said.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., added his voice to the debate. "It's bad for the country and it's bad for the environment," he said of the bill. "It is unnerving to know the nuclear waste lobbyists in Washington would put the 'bottom line' before the safety of our children."

Gibbons, a geologist, noted that a 7.1 magnitude earthquake derailed a 20-car passenger train in Southern California several weeks ago. "That very easily could have been carrying one of these casks containing nuclear waste," he said.

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