Thursday, Oct. 12, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Republicans and Democrats are trading barbs on whether GOP Vice Presidential contender Dick Cheney blew off the nuclear waste storage issue during his visit earlier this week to Las Vegas.
Democrats say Cheney faltered on questions about nuke waste storage in Nevada, while Republicans say Democratic Presidential hopeful Al Gore's views on the issue vary little from that of George W. Bush.
"(Cheney) left without a single word about health and safety standards for Yucca Mountain or the role of the EPA in protecting Nevadans from deadly radiation," Nevada Democratic Party Chairman Rory Reid said in a news release.
Rep. Jim Gibbons, Nevada's lone Republican in Congress said, "The Democrats in Nevada have got more spin cycles than my washing machine on this issue. The Democrats are in a state of panic because they can no longer misrepresent Bush's stance on this issue as being any different than that of Al Gore."
John Ensign, the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate, says despite the rhetoric, both presidential candidates want a permanent storage facility for the nation's nuclear waste, and that means Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, most likely would be that location.
During a meeting with the Sun Editorial Board on Wednesday, Ensign said the long-term solution to nuclear waste is not to bury it but to recycle it through transmutation.
"The process gets the uranium out and bombards what is left (of the nuclear waste) with neutrons to provide clean-burning energy," Ensign said, noting that if he is elected he can push for this alternative with the many members of his party who currently favor storage as the only alternative.
Ensign said that with transmutation, nuclear waste can be stored on site in casks then be transported to a facility such as the Savannah River Plant on the Georgia-South Carolina border, to develop nuclear waste into energy. And, Ensign said, research for that process can be done at the Nevada Test Site, bringing more jobs to the state.
Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn, Bush's most visible supporter in the state, declined comment because he didn't attend the Cheney visit. But Guinn spokesman Jack Finn said "of course, we disagree" that Cheney flubbed on the waste issue during his Las Vegas visit.
Democrats charge that Cheney ducked several key questions about a proposed plan to bury the nation's nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Cheney did not mention Yucca at several public campaign stops.
Democrats said Cheney did not answer whether he thought the Environmental Protection Agency or Nuclear Regulatory Agency should set health and safety regulations for Yucca.
Democrats firmly back the EPA, and they say Gore does too. But Bush and Cheney previously have dodged the issue -- once during a Bush visit to Lake Tahoe and in two separate statements issued by the Bush campaign, Democratic leaders said.
"As far as Nevadans are concerned, it's 'four strikes and you're out' for Bush-Cheney on nuclear waste," Reid said.
The issue of whether the EPA or NRC sets the standards is important because the EPA radiation emission standards may be so strict as to disqualify Yucca as a nuclear waste site. Nevada leaders hope those standards keep high-level waste out of the state.
Current law dictates that the EPA set the standards. The nuclear power industry, eager to see Yucca established as soon as possible, logically supports the more lax NRC standards.
But Nevada Republican Party director Ryan Erwin said Democrats were overblowing the standards-setting issue.
Other Republicans agreed.
"We're talking about different shades of gray," said Michael Dayton, chief of staff for Nevada's lone Republican in Congress, Rep. Jim Gibbons. "The Democrats are over-reaching saying there is a major difference between their (Gore and Bush) positions. Gore is exaggerating his position on nuclear waste when they are almost identical (to Bush)."
State Democrats also hounded Cheney on another topic: temporary waste storage at the Nevada Test Site. Nuclear industry officials have pressed Congress to establish a temporary storage facility at the Test Site near Yucca Mountain and Clinton vetoed that plan.
Sun reporter Ed Koch contributed to this report.
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