Yucca backer: Probe a waste

Thursday, Feb. 1, 2001 | 11:31 a.m.

A federal investigation into the Energy Department's possible bias toward the selection of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository is a disservice to the public, a proponent of the dump said Wednesday.

"We think it's a waste of the taxpayers' money, but they'll do a thorough job," said Henry Osterhoudt, manager of government and community relations for TRW Environmental Safety Systems Inc., the outgoing chief contractor at Yucca Mountain.

Osterhoudt said he understood the Department of Energy's inspector general has sent a dozen or more agents to Las Vegas to examine Yucca Mountain documents compiled by TRW and the DOE.

He said he expected the agents to remain in Las Vegas for another month and that his company is not worried about the investigation.

Gov. Kenny Guinn, who has set aside $5 million in his budget to fight Yucca Mountain, said this morning that he doesn't share Osterhoudt's opinion.

"It's absolutely not a waste of taxpayer money," Guinn said, before leaving for a conference in Portland with Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and other Western governors. "He's trying to spin it in his direction."

Guinn said he was anxious to see a report on the inspector general's investigation.

The probe, which got under way earlier this month, was prompted by a Dec. 1 Sun story suggesting the DOE was collaborating with the nuclear industry to win approval for Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The Sun reported that it had obtained a 60-page draft of a DOE overview declaring Yucca Mountain suitable for high-level nuclear waste storage, even though scientific studies haven't been completed.

Attached to the draft was a two-page memo that argued the overview could be used to help the nuclear industry sell Yucca Mountain to Congress.

Federal laws prohibit the DOE from taking sides in the selection process.

Former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has disavowed the memo and encouraged the inspector general's investigation.

Osterhoudt talked about the inquiry outside a meeting of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, which passed by an overwhelming voice vote a resolution opposing Yucca Mountain for the first time ever.

The resolution was recommended by the chamber's chairman, William Wells, and its president, Pat Shalmy.

"It's the right thing to do," Wells told his fellow board members.

Osterhoudt, whose company no longer will be Yucca Mountain's chief contractor after Feb. 12, spoke out against the resolution at the meeting.

"We're opposed to the business community taking a political stance on our business," he said afterwards.

The one-page resolution refers to the state's key arguments against Yucca Mountain.

It describes Southern Nevada as "one of the world's leading tourist destinations" and says millions of visitors might choose to stay away if the valley is seen as unsafe because of the storage of the deadly waste.

Just one accident involving the transportation of the waste could "create fears and hysteria" among the public and further harm the multibillion-dollar tourism industry here, the resolution says.

The "mere threat of a nuclear waste accident," the resolution adds, also could decrease property values in the country's fastest-growing community.

"Whereas, there is no clear scientific consensus that storage of nuclear waste less than 100 miles from Las Vegas will not result in any adverse health impacts to the region in the long term," the measure concludes.

"Now therefore be it resolved, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce expresses its strong opposition to the storage of nuclear waste in Nevada."

The chamber, which stayed out of the Yucca Mountain fight for nearly 20 years, decided to take its stand as part of Strip executive Stephen Cloobeck's grassroots campaign against the dump.

Cloobeck was to hold another organization meeting today.

The DOE had been preparing to make a recommendation on Yucca Mountain's suitability in June, but the decision was delayed because of the inspector general's investigation.