Outspoken handful of Yucca critics shows up at hearing

Thursday, Dec. 6, 2001 | 8:56 a.m.

Although Department of Energy officials outnumbered the public, most of the 11 people who spoke at the six-hour hearing on a proposed nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain opposed burying 77,000 tons of radioactive waste 90 miles away.

The hearing at Cashman Center was one of three scheduled around the state. Another hearing in Pahrump drew three speakers, DOE spokesman Allen Benson said. No one showed up at a third hearing in Battle Mountain.

The greatest criticism in Las Vegas came from Moapa Band of Paiutes Tribal Chairman Calvin Meyers.

The DOE has never visited the reservation roughly 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas and a half-mile away from Interstate 15, a potential nuclear waste route, he said.

"When are you going to come out to the reservation?" Meyers asked. "When are you going to get us involved?"

Along the transportation routes across the country, more than 500 tribes could be affected if nuclear waste shipments come to Yucca Mountain, he said.

Not only the land, but tribal spiritual rituals will be disrupted, he said. In Southern Nevada the Paiutes believe three roads lead into the next world, one going north, another south and a third west.

"How do we know if we will get to the next world if nuclear waste shipments cross the land?" Meyers said.

For former Nevada Test Site worker Fred Toomey, the land has already been contaminated after more than 1,000 nuclear weapons experiments triggered next to the mountain from 1951 to 1992. "Yucca Mountain is already a dump," he said.

Las Vegas senior citizen Thelma Clark questioned that logic.

"We don't have nuclear power plants in Nevada, so I don't think we should have nuclear storage in Nevada," she said. "It doesn't matter what you say to us, we will still feel unsafe."

Another Las Vegas resident, Frank Ferna, said terrorism and transportation must be considered before Yucca is approved.

"We're not going to sell out our state and our children's future," he said.

State Sen. Jon Porter, R-Henderson, said Nevada cannot sell out for any benefits in exchange for the nuclear waste. The state has already upheld its duty as the nation's nuclear testing ground.

"We have earned the right to be heard, we have earned the right to refuse," he said of the repository.

Nuclear industry spokesman Ron McCollum called recent reports about flaws in the DOE's studies "some of the 10 myths about Yucca Mountain." The repository will not contaminate the ground water, will provide 1,000 jobs for 30 years and has been studied for $8 billion over 20 years by "the best and the brightest scientists."

McCollum said Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham should accept Yucca.

"The water at Yucca Mountain will be safe for drinking," he said. "This site is qualified."