Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Why be surprised?

Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2000 | 9:59 a.m.

Brian Greenspun is the editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

EXCUSE ME, but, like ... duh!

If I sound like one of those valley girls or spaced out boys who have lost their ability to communicate, it is because in this instance that may be exactly the case. I speak, of course, of the one issue that is destined to doom the boom that has been Las Vegas for the past few decades.

Nuclear waste. Heard of it? It's that high-level stuff that glows in the dark, contaminates everything it almost comes into contact with for, let's say 10,000 years or so, and causes all sorts of medical damage to plants, children and other living things. It also could have a deleterious effect on the Entertainment and Tourism Capital of the World. Let's see, have I left anything out?

Oh, yeah, our good governor, Kenny Guinn, is "stunned" that the Department of Energy and the nuclear power producers in this country are in cahoots to shove all the nuclear garbage in America up our Yucca Mountain and down our throats whether we like it or not. Is there anyone else in Nevada who has been blindsided by the Sun's copyrighted story last week that placed the DOE in bed with the power companies?

I'm not just picking on our governor. I know his intentions are noble but his naivete is alarming. So is the head-in-the-sand attitude of other Nevadans who have continued to defend the DOE, the GOP and everyone else who has made it their mission in life to make sure Nevada gets the nation's radioactive garbage just so the nuclear power producers can get on with business.

The price tag has climbed from $36 billion to $58 billion in the past few years, but that is of little consequence to a Congress fat with surpluses and a power industry knee deep in desire to build more plants and serve more ratepayers. The next president of the United States will select the dumpsite and, assuming the DOE and its powerful puppet masters in the power industry get their way, Nevada will be the only state under consideration. Check that. Nevada is the only site under consideration.

I guess there is good news in what seems more and more like the election of Gov. George Bush to the White House. Gov. Guinn, Sig Rogich and others equally well-intentioned helped convince Nevadans that the Texas governor felt their pain and understood our concern about nuclear waste coming to our state. Since our four electoral votes were clearly the margin of the governor's almost apparent victory, it should be easy for Kenny, Sig and the others to prevail upon the 43rd president to reject any recommendation from the DOE that puts Nevada in the sights of the dumpsters.

They now have the ammunition they need to prove that this entire effort at site selection was a fraud and was designed only to prove a foregone political conclusion. That's not the good science that Gov. Bush committed to follow. And since Nevada played such an important part in what looks like his victory, it shouldn't be difficult for Kenny to prevail upon him to do the right thing for our state.

The right thing, of course, is to send the DOE back to page one so it can do a proper job of choosing among many sites for eventual selection. And while that is going on, the next president can direct science to find a solution more in keeping with 21st century technology that doesn't rely on a transportation and burial system that places millions of people along the way at risk and the million-plus people who live in Clark County in the middle of harm's way. According to both of the candidates, the U.S. treasury will have a trillion dollars or so ... more than expected ... to use to better the lives of Americans. Why not spend a few drops of that bucket of benefits to find a scientific answer to the nuclear waste problem and leave the people of Las Vegas alone?

The wrong thing, of course, would be for the next president to allow for one more moment the unholy alliance between the DOE and the nuclear industry to exist. When the nuke waste kings are aided and abetted by the DOE in their quest to "sell the Yucca Mountain Project to Congress," any semblance of impartiality and scientific endeavor is out the window.

When DOE contractors say, "The overview provides information that potential supporters can use in expressing support for a site recommendation," it is abundantly clear to all who can see, hear and think that the DOE has been corrupted by the millions and billions of dollars hefted aloft by the power producers. The DOE is not supposed to be the least bit concerned about helping those for or against the nuclear waste dump. The agency is supposed to be interested only in following the law and following science. So why is it doing the bidding of the power producers?

I can think of millions of good reasons, but that would be too simple because money can't be the only reason the Congress and the Department of Energy have gone in the tank, can it?

OK, OK. I sound as naive as Gov. Guinn and the rest of the politicians who are dismayed at this turn of events. What on earth did they think the DOE has been doing all these years? Acting in Nevada's best interests?

The DOE minion's note says further, "In fact, the technical suitability of the site is less of a concern to Congress than the broader issue of whether the nuclear waste problem can be solved at an affordable price in both financial and political terms." There you have it. Our health, safety and state of mind have been subjugated to a political and financial price tag. Retiring Sen. Dick Bryan said it even clearer. "Those words trivialize the years of technical work done at Yucca Mountain ... That is in fact saying the public and the health and safety of Nevada be dammed."

So much more for the obvious. Now the question is what is our governor going to do about this outrage? Gov. Guinn wants to file a lawsuit. That's a good idea. Another good idea, Kenny, is to get political like the DOE. Call in those favors Nevada has earned with the Bush camp. And by the way, trade in those rose-colored glasses for some long lenses.

That may be the only way you'll see them coming!

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