Reid, Bryan appeal to colleagues in bid to defeat Yucca Mountain bill

Robert Macy

Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2000 | 12:34 p.m.

Nevada's senators sought support from colleagues Tuesday while the author of a nuclear waste bill moved to make the measure more palatable to the White House.

Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan sent letters to fellow senators seeking support in efforts to derail a bill designating Yucca Mountain as the nation's nuclear waste dump.

The appeal came as Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., began action on the bill and Sen. Frank Murkowski huddled with key Democrats and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on a compromise that could pass presidential muster.

Murkowski, R-Alaska, is chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The bill could face a vote in the Senate by the middle of next week.

Reid and Bryan have been assured by the White House that President Clinton would veto the bill in its present form.

A key provision in the current bill calls for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to set radiation exposure safety standards. The two Nevada Democrats argue that the Environmental Protection Agency has always had jurisdiction over setting such standards, and should continue to do so.

The bill in its present form died in the last session of Congress when it became apparent there were not the 66 votes needed to override a presidential veto.

"It's fair to say that we would have the votes (34) to sustain the presidential veto if the bill remains in its present form," Bryan said Tuesday. "There is some speculation that Murkowski may offer an amended version."

Bryan said it appears Murkowski "doesn't have the votes to override a presidential veto and is furiously working to develop an alternative."

Reid said it was too early to speculate what changes Murkowski might present, and whether a revised bill would clear Clinton's desk.

"It's a moving target," Reid said of the bill. "We'll have to see what else they try to do.

"As long as they play games (with the EPA vs. NRC), we will have the president's veto," Reid said.

Reid said if sponsors omit the provision calling for NRC oversight, "the bill is not nearly as egregious."

Bryan said even if the Senate bill is approved, Yucca Mountain faces another hurdle in the House.

The House version includes a provision that Nevada would be tabbed for interim nuclear waste storage until a permanent site is opened. That provision was deleted from the Senate bill last year.

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only location being studied for a repository to store 77,000 tons of radioactive waste collecting at the nation's nuclear power plants.

The bill in any form remains "bad public policy," Bryan said. "It shifts the burden from the ratepayers to the taxpayers."

In addition to the EPA monitoring issue, Reid and Bryan said there are other concerns such as transportation and "the health and safety of hundreds of thousand of Nevadans."

"We should leave this lethal garbage at the plants where it was generated, and not expose millions of Americans to a potential rolling dose of deadly radiation," Reid and Bryan said in their letter to colleagues.