Reid, Bryan ruffled by waste bill changes

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2000 | 11:23 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate was scheduled this afternoon to begin day two of debate on a bill that establishes framework for storing tons of the nation's nuclear waste in Nevada, although the ever-changing bill was amended again Tuesday. A vote is expected this week.

Frustrated Sens. Richard Bryan and Harry Reid, both D-Nev., blasted the bill's sponsors for forcing them to take aim at a "moving target."

Reid took to the Senate floor before debate resumed today and lamented that if further changes were forthcoming, "We're certainly a phone call away."

Reid staffers today added that Reid may introduce amendments of his own.

Bill sponsor Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, in the last week has tinkered with the legislation that sets guidelines for shipping 77,000 tons of the nation's nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, beginning in 2007.

"We feel like Murkowski is playing a shell game with this bill that is designed to keep us guessing," Reid spokesman David Cherry said.

Murkowski introduced another six changes Tuesday after the first day of debate. One of the changes allows the Environmental Protection Agency to set radiation standards for the waste without consulting with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The EPA advocates stricter standards than the NRC.

Murkowski had been adamant that the EPA at least work "in consultation" with NRC and the National Academy of Sciences to set radiation standards. He fears the EPA standards are impossibly strict and may disqualify Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste dump.

"I'm not here to do anything more than to say, is that really in the interest of proceeding with this legislation or is it in the interest of setting an unattainable standard?" Murkowski asked during his Senate floor speech.

Murkowski changed the bill again under pressure from President Clinton who has threatened veto unless the EPA sets the standards. It was not immediately clear today how Clinton might view Murkowski's latest changes.

Bryan strongly argued for EPA-backed standards.

"Our friends in the Nuclear Energy Institute and their allies, treat this standard, shoehorn this standard, so that it fits Yucca Mountain, irrespective of what good science and health and safety require," Bryan said. "Does that make me angry? You bet it does."

Murkowski also axed a provision that would allow the Department of Energy to take title to the waste now stored in pools and above-ground casks at the more than 70 power plants nationwide that produced the radioactive material.

Murkowski produced a letter signed by seven governors who fear that the waste will sit in their states forever if the DOE agrees to take responsibility for maintaining it on site.

The Nevada senators seized their podiums on the Senate floor and took a few early shots at the unfinished bill Tuesday.

"If I speak with some energy, if I speak with some anger, it is because we have been victimized not by a scientific process but by a political process," Bryan said.

The Senate voted 94-3 to begin debate, and Murkowski quickly began arguing that the nation's nuclear power plants are "choking" on their own waste. He said the solution was to ship the highly radioactive spent fuel rods to "remote" Yucca Mountain, for permanent burial.

"It is the obligation of the government to solve this problem," Murkowski said. "This bill is the Congressional solution."

Murkowski outlined several arguments for the bill. He pledged that years of shipping nuclear waste through 43 states to Nevada would be safe, which Reid and Bryan question.

Murkowski argued that some nuclear power plants, which produce one-fifth of the nation's electricity, face closure because they can no longer store their own waste due to costs or state laws.

"If we don't address the nuclear waste issue, you are going to have to make up 20 percent of your power somewhere else," Murkowski said.

"We're either committed, as a body, to resolve this problem and get on with transportation of that waste to a permanent repository, or we're going to be faced with the proposition of putting it off for another day, another administration, and I think that would be irresponsible," Murkowski said.

Bryan took direct aim at the bill's supporters.

"I understand, that in numbers, we are no match for the phalanx of lobbyists of the nuclear utilities, we do not have their financial resources, I acknowledge that," Bryan said. "All we have is our honor, our integrity and what is good science."