Senator triggers nuke waste debate in Congress

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2000 | 11:15 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., on Monday fired the opening salvo in the debate over shipping nuclear waste to Nevada for permanent storage.

Lott filed a motion that triggers several Senate procedures, which likely would set up debate on a nuclear waste bill next week.

"In my opinion, this is one of the most important environmental problems that we face as a nation," Lott said on the Senate floor. "We have got to deal with this problem."

Sens. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., staunchly oppose the bill, which outlines plans for the eventual shipment of 77,000 tons of the nation's nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Trucks and trains would begin shipping the waste from nuclear power plants across the nation as early as 2007, according to the bill.

Lott said the nation's nuclear power plants were "filling up" with waste.

The Senate still has to vote on "cloture" rules that would limit debate on the bill to 30 hours for each side.

Reid and Bryan said they were ready. Reid took to the floor with Lott on Monday.

"The nuclear power industry, which has created this fiasco, wants someone else to clean up their mess," Reid said.

Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, are expected to be the bill's chief defenders.

Together they received more than $140,000 from nuclear-industry related political action committees between 1994 and 1998.

Nuclear waste from military warships is piling up in Idaho, and Craig wants it shipped out of state. Murkowski has no nuclear industries in his state.

Bryan and Reid are anxiously waiting to see if Murkowski will make significant changes to the bill.

Murkowski in recent days has contacted Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson about changing the bill so that President Clinton would agree to sign it.

Clinton has threatened to veto the bill because of a provision that would make the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, not the Environmental Protection Agency, responsible for setting radiation release standards at Yucca Mountain. The NRC's proposed standards are not as strict as the EPA standards.

Bryan and Reid also say the NRC is too closely tied to the nuclear power industry.

"That is literally the fox guarding the hen house," Reid said on the floor.

Reid said he couldn't predict how he and Bryan would attack the bill if Murkowski removes the NRC provision.

"There are still some unanswered questions, so it's difficult to see where we are going to fight," Reid said after appearing on the floor.

Lott predicted the bill would pass the 100-member Senate with "an overwhelming majority." But Reid and Bryan say they are confident they have rallied 34 votes.

"As the Majority Leader knows, we have enough votes to sustain a veto," Reid said on the floor.

Reid and Bryan on Monday sent a "Dear Colleague" letter to the other senators outlining their objections to the bill.

"There is no room for error in protecting Americans from the devastating effects of nuclear pollution," the letter read.

"We urge you to join with us in opposing this latest effort to make a monumental environmental mistake; one that we would all regret for countless generations to come."

The nuclear energy industry's powerful lobbying arm, the Washington-based Nuclear Energy Institute, issued a written statement Monday, praising Lott.

"Continued inaction on this important issue is not acceptable," said NEI president and chief executive officer Joe Colvin. "Consumers of nuclear power since 1983 have committed $16 billion (in special utility taxes) for the environmentally preferable solution of safely isolating used fuel (nuclear waste) from commercial power plants at one location, where it would be easier to monitor and regulate."