LVCVA to vote on opposing nuke dump

Thursday, Jan. 11, 2001 | 11:33 a.m.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will follow the lead of the business community and formally join the fight against a nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain, the Sun has learned.

County Commissioner Mary Kincaid, chairwoman of the 13-member LVCVA board, said Wednesday she has requested an agenda item at next month's meeting to discuss a resolution opposing the storage of high-level nuclear waste at the Southern Nevada site.

"I think it's time that we fell into step and supported the effort," Kincaid said.

LVCVA, the public agency charged with promoting tourism, has stayed out of the fight for two decades.

Kincaid's request follows a Sun story Wednesday, disclosing that the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, which also has been silent on storing nuclear waste at Yucca, planned to discuss a resolution opposing the project at its Jan. 31 board meeting.

LVCVA President Manny Cortez said his board will consider the Yucca Mountain resolution on Feb. 13.

"I'm sure it will pass," Cortez said. "I don't know anyone who's going to stand there and argue against it."

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who announced Tuesday that he wants the city to sue the Energy Department to stop the dump from being built at Yucca, said he supports the resolution.

"It's necessary for everybody to stand up and be counted now to show a united front," said Goodman, who is the LVCVA's new secretary-treasurer. "We have to show that there's no weakness on the part of Nevada in our effort to fight the repository."

Talk of the anti-dump resolutions comes as Strip executive Stephen Cloobeck was to hold a meeting today to organize a communitywide campaign against a repository at Yucca Mountain.

Business, labor and elected leaders were expected to attend the 1 p.m. meeting at the Clark County Commission chambers.

Cloobeck, president and chief executive of Diamond Resorts International, a company that runs several time-sharing condominium projects on the Strip, said Las Vegas stands to lose billions of dollars if a nuclear waste accident were to occur along the routes leading to Yucca Mountain. Those routes travel through the heart of city.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is leading the fight in Washington, today hailed the latest developments on the home front.

"The more people we have on board, the better," he said. "Not only does it bring solidarity to the fight, but it brings credibility because the business community, which has been silent so long, is speaking up.

"The opponents are no longer going to be perceived as a bunch of tree-huggers."

In recent weeks the battle has intensified amid a federal investigation into alleged bias on the part of the DOE and its chief Yucca Mountain contractor, TRW Environmental Safety Systems Inc.

The DOE has been accused of favoring the project against the wishes of Nevadans, as it gears up to decide whether to recommend the Yucca Mountain site to President-elect George W. Bush.

Yucca Mountain is the only site under study to accept 77,000 tons of deadly radioactive waste from nuclear plants around the country.

A team of investigators from the DOE's inspector general's office are expected in Las Vegas next month to probe whether federal laws were broken during the site selection process.

The investigation is the result of a Dec. 1 Sun story disclosing a two-page TRW memo, which suggested the DOE could help the nuclear industry promote the Nevada dump to members of Congress.

The DOE is prohibited from taking sides in the process, but documents obtained by the Sun last month showed the agency might have been collaborating behind the scenes with the nuclear industry.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has disavowed the memo.