Columnist Jon Ralston: Yucca doing wonders for Nevada pols

Wednesday, April 26, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

Jon Ralston, who publishes the Ralston Report, writes a column for the Sun on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or by e-mail at ralston@vegas.com.

Transmutation, n.: the conversion of atoms of a given element into atoms of a different isotope or of a different element, as in radioactive disintegration or by nuclear bombardment.

Transmutation, n.: the conversion of an important public policy and environmental issue into a mass of partisan mush by politicians concerned most about self-preservation or ambition.

The politics of nuclear waste, always an elemental game of rhetoric and fingerpointing, has in recent days produced an alchemy whose end product looks very much like pyrite. Just as Senate contender John Ensign has latched onto transmutation as the pot of gold at the end of the dump's political rainbow, so, too, has congressional contender Jon Porter seized on President Clinton's veto as a worthless nugget as Democrats pan for political riches.

Meanwhile, Democrats Shelley Berkley and Ed Bernstein, running for Congress and the Senate, posed with President Clinton this week as if he, or they, have actually changed the basic policy set in motion in 1987: to put nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

So to what end are their veto ceremonies, Democratic radio ads and Republican rhetorical shields? Only one: getting elected. None of this political theater during the new millennium distracts from what happened in the old one -- the law of the land is that Yucca Mountain is the only site being studied and the project is already $3 billion old.

Changing its mind now is an expensive proposition for Congress.

So what's a tiny delegation to do? Give up? Not an option -- politically, it's a killer, and the waste still isn't due to be shipped until the middle of the decade. Delay, delay, delay is a tactic, perfected by Sen. Richard Bryan, that could still pay off, long odds notwithstanding. But can they really keep obstructing what seems like the inevitable? Maybe.

But how about working together in the even-numbered years, too, not just the ones where no one is up for election. (Anyone think that maybe one of the reasons Bryan decided to retire is that he sees the train leaving the station?)

Here's the plain truth: None of the four candidates running this time can make a difference in this fight. Only Sen. Harry Reid, should there be a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate, would have any chance to have an impact because he is the second-ranking member of his party.

And none of these campaign horses is clean on the issue.

Ensign can tout transmutation and looking for alternatives. But no one should believe he is doing what he's doing for any other reason than he lost to Reid partly because of the senator's pummeling him on the issue and because the GOP congressional leadership and Bush are the answers to the nuclear industry's dreams.

Bernstein can claim all he wants that another Democrat is just what the state needs. But no one should believe he will have any clout, or that Reid needs his help to put Democrats together.

Porter can claim outrage that Clinton tacitly has signed off on the permanent dump by putting the project out to bid. But he has to live with consorting with, and being beholden to, national GOP leaders who came to the state to say: "Vote for Jon Porter and, by the way, we will still build Yucca Mountain."

And Berkley can pound Porter all she wants over being tethered to Speaker Dennis Hastert & Co. But if she expects anyone to believe that a Speaker Dick Gephardt would stop the dump from coming here, she's fooling herself.

Any united strategy to combat the dump is long since gone. This is all about self-interest and electoral politics. For all of them. And as they seek political advantage by transmuting this into a partisan issue, that noise you hear is those turbines turning at Yucca Mountain.