Senate may hold another vote on president’s veto

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, May 3, 2000 | 11:15 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Like a horror film monster that refuses to die, the bill that would speed up shipments of nuclear waste to Nevada appeared to perish on Tuesday -- again. But it's still breathing.

"I thought we had delivered the silver stake through the issue, but it looks like we might see it again this year," Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., said.

The Senate Tuesday voted to sustain President Clinton's April 25 veto of the bill that by 2007 would launch shipments of the nation's nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Nevada's senators, leading the fight against the bill, needed 34 votes to sustain the veto, which they mustered by 1 in a 64-35 vote. One senator, William Roth, R-Del., who voted for the bill in March, did not vote Tuesday because he is recuperating after back surgery last month.

After the vote, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said several senators would have voted with the Nevadans if he had called on them.

"We're glad to report we had 34 votes," Reid said. "We're glad to report we will always have 34 votes."

For instance, Reid suggested that Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., was on board with Reid and Bryan. But Edwards, after conferring with Reid on the Senate floor, voted to override at the last minute -- he voted last -- when it was clear his vote wasn't essential to sustaining the veto. Edwards' state has 1,400 metric tons of nuclear waste state leaders want to ship to Nevada.

Edwards later said he changed his vote because he got a commitment from Carolina Power and Light to limit its use of temporary nuclear waste storage at its power plants.

"That meant less nuclear waste stored in North Carolina and less waste shipped in the state," Edwards told the Associated Press. He vowed to vote for a nuclear waste bill when it comes up again.

Other senators "will vote with us if we need them," said Reid, who collects Democratic votes as the Senate Minority Whip.

The bill could come up again this year because Republican Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., used a procedural tactic to reserve the right to call another vote.

"It is such an important issue and so close -- just one vote -- keeping this issue open is important," Lott said.

The bill's supporters, including primary sponsor, Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, agreed the war on this bill was far from over.

"This matter still remains to be resolved by the Senate in this session or at a later time," Murkowski said. "We cannot allow the nuclear industry to strangle on its own waste."

The two Nevada senators on Tuesday morning before the vote sent their fellow senators a letter in a final attempt to circle the wagons.

Later Nevada senators, joined by several allies including Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Richard Durbin, D-Ill., traded volleys with bill supporters in debate prior to the vote.

Clinton has no energy policy and is appeasing environmentalists, Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., said.

"(Environmentalists) are calling the shots, and he is heeding their demands," Helms said.

Transporting nuclear waste across 43 states for years by truck and train will not produce any serious accidents, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., argued.

"It's just not that dangerous to transport it," Sessions said.

A frustrated Sessions said, "We are almost at a point of lunacy if we can't choose a place in the desert of this country, where we had nuclear bombs (tested) on the surface ... and then bury it down in the tunnel, secure in the ground there. We can't do this?"

Murkowski said the U.S. government, which had agreed to haul nuclear waste away from nuclear power plants to Nevada by 1998, was now liable for billions in lawsuits brought by nuclear utilities.

"Put this issue behind us once and for all because if we don't, it will come back again at a greater cost to the taxpayer," Murkowski said.

Bryan stressed scientists have not yet determined that Yucca is a safe place to bury waste and therefore it's foolish to ship waste to Nevada at least three years ahead of schedule.

"Shouldn't we as senators, Democrats and Republicans, from the Northeast to the Southwest, from Seattle to Tampa, say we ought to support health and safety standards?"

Nuclear energy officials vowed "This issue is far from over."

"It is irresponsible for policymakers to leave this important policy issue unresolved when the nation relies so heavily on nuclear energy to power the new economy and improve our air quality today and for future generations," said Joe Colvin, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's chief lobbyist.

Nuclear energy accounts for about 20 percent of the nation's electricity, NEI officials say.

Environmental groups praised the Senate.

"The U.S. Senate has once again refused to support the nuclear industry's request for a bailout," said Joan Claybrook, president of Washington-based Public Citizen.

"By not overriding President Clinton's veto of the Yucca Mountain legislation, the schedule for moving deadly nuclear waste from reactors across the country to Nevada will not be recklessly speeded up."

Benjamin Grove covers Washington for the Sun. He can be reached at (202) 628-3100 ext. 269 or by e-mail at grove@lasvegassun.com