Reid lashes out at report, denies softening his stance on Yucca

Benjamin Grove and Mary Manning

Friday, Sept. 10, 1999 | 11:19 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., strongly denied Thursday a report in CongressDaily that he is becoming soft on opposing a high-level nuclear waste repository for Nevada.

CongressDaily, a twice-a-day Capitol Hill newsletter circulated to members of Congress, lobbyists and other Washington insiders, reported Thursday that Reid would "no longer staunchly oppose" a bill that outlines how the nation's nuclear waste would be brought to Nevada.

Reid, along with Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., has long been among the state's most powerful and active opponents of the bill that would bring the deadly waste to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

In the article, Reid was quoted as saying he was "not going to throw himself in front of a train on this (bill)." The printed quote shocked Reid and other Nevada lawmakers.

Reid, a powerful voice in Congress because he is the Senate's Democratic leader, responded quickly that the story was "inaccurately reported."

"For the record, I remain steadfastly opposed to the permanent storage of nuclear waste in Nevada," Reid said in a written statement. "I have not and will not back down in my efforts to prevent Nevada from becoming the nation's nuclear burial ground."

In an interview with the Sun Thursday night, Reid added, "My position hasn't changed at all." He said he spoke with the CongressDaily reporter for only a few moments as they strode through the hall at the Capitol.

This morning, the editor of the CongressDaily, Louis Peck, speaking by phone from Washington, said, "As editor of CongressDaily I stand by the material in the story and I stand by the reporter."

Reid and Bryan have long battled in Congress to keep nuclear waste out of Nevada, even though scientists are still studying Yucca Mountain to determine whether it is safe to store at least 70,000 tons of waste there.

Reid and Bryan won a major victory in June when Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, dropped a provision from the nuclear waste bill that would have made the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, a temporary area for waste storage as soon as 2001.

Reid and Bryan have now turned their attention to a newer version of the bill, which would make Yucca Mountain a permanent waste site and bring waste to Nevada as early as 2007, although Yucca Mountain would not be ready to accept waste until 2010 at the earliest.

Reid and Bryan oppose the bill for a number of reasons. Most importantly because the bill would allow the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- not the Environmental Protection Agency -- to set radiation standards for Yucca.

The Nevada senators have had strong support from President Clinton and Senate Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. Although the White House has not taken a position on the latest bill, a spokeswoman said today, the president is concerned about who has authority over radiation standards.

The NRC justified its radiation limit earlier this year to Congress saying its higher radiation exposure level is consistent with its other industry rules. The commission licenses commercial nuclear power plants and would license a repository at Yucca Mountain.

Reid and Bryan say the Environmental Protection Agency is the best agency for the job because the EPA has argued for stricter standards than the NRC. The EPA's standards are so strict they may eventually disqualify Yucca as a safe site for nuclear waste. The EPA included a safe drinking water limit for ground water, which a nuclear repository at Yucca cannot meet.

"(The bill's supporters) are worried that the EPA standards would be too tough -- that's the game here," Bryan said. "That's why the EPA standard is so critical for us -- that could be the deal breaker."

Environmental groups oppose Murkowski's bill for the same reasons and more. The Nuclear Information & Resource Service, a coalition of environmental and public interest groups, said Murkowski's bill is not the last word.

"Anyone who thinks so has forgotten that the House still has the nuclear industry's 'wish list' in the text of its bill HR45 which is still pending," spokeswoman Mary Olson said.

The environmental groups also oppose the bill because it triggers nuclear shipments nationwide, the Yucca site is on unstable ground and the burden of disposing nuclear waste falls on taxpayers instead of ratepayers.

Senators are likely to debate Murkowski's bill by the end of the month. Bryan and Reid jumped on the phone Thursday after the CongressDaily story appeared.

"I was surprised by it," Bryan said, adding that he was relieved it seemed to be a miscommunication. "We all need to turn out a Herculean effort to get these dangers out of (Murkowski's latest) bill."

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., had not spoken to Reid about the article, he said today.

"I remain convinced that our senators are committed to their opposition to nuclear waste coming to the state of Nevada," Gibbons said.

"It didn't sound right," a spokeswoman for Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said. "She has no doubts that Harry Reid is committed to stopping any nuclear waste from coming to Nevada."