Senators claim nuclear waste vote victory for Nevada

Angie Wagner

Thursday, Feb. 10, 2000 | 5:15 a.m.

LAS VEGAS - The Senate may have voted to dump the nation's highly radioactive nuclear waste in Nevada, but the state's senators said Thursday's decision is a major victory because they have enough support to sustain a promised veto by President Clinton.

"Good public policy triumphed over politics, and Nevada can breathe a little easier," Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., said.

The bill requires that nuclear waste from power plants around the country be shipped to Yucca Mountain as early as 2007 once a permanent burial site in Nevada is licensed.

The Senate passed the bill 64-34, short of the 67 votes needed to override a promised veto by President Clinton if all senators vote.

The measure has yet to be considered by the House.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the bill was "designed to prop up the profits of the nuclear waste industry at the expense of the health and safety of millions of Americans."

"We are finally putting people's safety ahead of the nuclear power industry's bottom line," he said.

Congress has struggled for six years over what to do with the more than 40,000 tons of highly radioactive used reactor fuel that now sits at commercial power plants in 31 states.

The permanent facility being proposed for Yucca Mountain, 90 miles from Las Vegas, is still under scientific review, but is scheduled to be opened in 2010 if it is found technically suitable and gets a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Under the bill passed Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency, not the NRC, will set radiation standards for Yucca Mountain. Reid and Bryan said this is significant in the fight against Yucca Mountain because many experts believe the EPA's tougher standards will ultimately prevent the site from ever being licensed as a nuclear waste dump.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., praised Reid and Bryan for securing enough votes to sustain a presidential veto.

"The nuclear power lobbyists may have won today's battle, but our delegation will continue to fight this war," he said.