Editorial: Relentless fight over nuke waste

Sunday, Jan. 16, 2000 | 10:03 a.m.

Congress has a lot on its agenda when it returns Jan. 24 from its holiday adjournment -- a patient's bill of rights, tax cuts and Social Security reform are just a few of the important issues that will confront lawmakers. Although it doesn't dominate the front pages of newspapers elsewhere in the nation, or lead the network evening newscasts, another issue that should get attention is how far the federal government is willing to go to jeopardize the safety of residents of a small state. Powerful interests in Washington will try once more to pass legislation to make it easier to send high-level nuclear waste to Nevada -- despite mounting scientific evidence that shows how unsafe it would be if left inside Yucca Mountain.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., has made no secret of his desire to do whatever it takes to send nuclear waste to Nevada. And Sens. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, are expected to again push for measures to weaken the scientific standards that assess Yucca Mountain's suitability to store man's deadliest waste for thousands of years. "What we want is to make sure that the measuring is under a regulation that allows waste to go to Yucca," Murkowski told the Sun's Washington correspondent, Benjamin Grove, in a December interview. So much for science. Rather than selecting the most rigorous standard, Murkowski lazily is content to rely on the answer he and the nuclear power lobby want to hear -- not the answer that best protects the public.

Nevada's congressional delegation has been able to fend off previous attempts at weakening these standards and other efforts to send high-level nuclear waste to the Nevada Test Site on a so-called "temporary" period until a permanent facility was selected. Nevada's efforts likely would have been in vain if it hadn't been for President Clinton's unwavering veto threats regarding interim storage and the lowering of safety standards. While many in Congress support sending the waste to Nevada, there is a growing number willing to listen to this state's valid arguments against storage.

Although this small state can't match the influence of the nuclear power lobby, especially with the industry's seemingly unlimited supply of campaign contributions it doles out to friendly members of Congress, Nevada importantly does have the facts on its side. And the facts have demonstrated repeatedly that Yucca Mountain would be a geologic nightmare if nuclear waste were stored there. Congress should stop wasting its time on strong-arm tactics involving Yucca Mountain and concentrate its attention on legislation that actually would help -- not endanger -- Americans.