Clinton: Look at nuke sites other than Yucca

Jeff German and Ed Koch

Friday, Aug. 24, 2001 | 11:54 a.m.

Former President Bill Clinton said today the country should consider alternatives to burying nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

The former president, in an exclusive interview with the Las Vegas Sun, questioned whether Yucca Mountain is the best and most remote site to store the waste.

"The last time I looked at the map, the Texas site was farther away from any populated area than the Nevada site," Clinton said.

Deaf Smith County, Texas, and Hanford, Wash., were the other two sites under consideration for the dump when Yucca Mountain was selected by Congress in 1987.

Clinton said Congress should think about revisiting whether other sites may be safer.

"If the administration believes so strongly that it ought to be done, why not put it in a place that's farthest from a populated area," he said. "I just think it's a good talking point."

Nevada's "strongest and best chance" of derailing efforts to make Yucca Mountain the site of the nation's nuclear waste dump rests with the opposition mounted by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate's majority whip, Clinton said.

"I'm not in Washington now. I'm not up on all of the latest developments," Clinton told the Sun this morning. "But I think if there is a chance to avoid this being done now it lies with whatever Sen. Reid can do. He's your strongest and best hope."

Reid, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, is leading the fight in Washington against Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Clinton, who has been a friend to Nevada in the nuclear waste battle, said Reid has a lot of influence on Capitol Hill.

"Certainly he might be able to delay it until the latest inquiries about what alternatives exist are fully exhausted," Clinton said.

A preliminary report released this week by the Department of Energy, which is overseeing the scientific studies at Yucca Mountain, said the burial of 77,000 tons of nuclear waste there would pose no public health threat for at least 10,000 years.

The report is considered a major step in the DOE's efforts to recommend Yucca Mountain to President Bush.

Nevada officials, preparing to spend up to $4 million to fight efforts to bring the deadly waste here, have criticized the DOE for showing bias in favor of Yucca Mountain, even though the federal agency now insists its decision will be based on science.

Clinton was given a tour this morning of the new Las Vegas Sun building and state-of the art newsroom at 2275 Corporate Circle Drive in Henderson. He posed for photos with Greenspun Media Group executives and chatted with Sun reporters and editors.

Clinton and his 21-year-old daughter, Chelsea, who is headed to Oxford University for graduate work, spent five days in Las Vegas this week doing what his good friend Sun Editor Brian Greenspun called "stuff typical tourists do." The Clintons stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel on the Strip.

Clinton also spoke of his longtime and ailing friend Dr. Elias Ghanem, saying, "If everyone followed his lead (in health care management) in the '80s, we would have saved billions of dollars."

Clinton visited Ghanem at MountainView Hospital during his Las Vegas stay, and was impressed at how the cancer-stricken physician and preferred provider organizations innovator talked as if everything was all right.

"It was a wonderful visit -- he did not say a word about himself or his condition," Clinton said. "He is one of the most generous, loving, good people I have ever known."

Outside Ghanem's room, Clinton said he ran into a crying nurse and asked if she knew Ghanem, and she told him that Ghanem helped put her and many others in town through nursing school.

When Ghanem, who is chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, was diagnosed with cancer in 1998, Clinton invited his longtime friend to the White House.

"Since 1992 he has given much of his time to talk with me about health issues ... (and) how to minimize costs and maximize care," Clinton said. "He has a legion of friends who love him very much."