Tempers flare in Yucca discussion

Friday, Jan. 12, 2001 | 11:33 a.m.

A meeting to organize a communitywide campaign against the Yucca Mountain Project erupted into a shouting match Thursday over a strategy to warn the public about the prolific dangers of storing high-level nuclear waste in Nevada.

State Sen. Bill O-Donnell, R-Las Vegas, who says the state should negotiate benefits for the proposed repository, chastised the meeting's organizer, Strip executive Stephen Cloobeck, for attempting to scare away millions of tourists from Las Vegas.

But Cloobeck and others among the 90 people attending the unprecedented meeting of business and civic leaders, shouted down O'Donnell, who said outside the gathering that he believes the community is being done a disservice.

"I don't want tourism to be on the table," O'Donnell said. "We're going to be shooting ourselves in the foot if we continue this dialogue."

Cloobeck, president and CEO of Diamond Resorts International, earlier had presented figures he obtained from Clark County planners, suggesting the cost of cleaning up a major nuclear waste accident would be $27 billion.

County planners also informed Cloobeck that the Yucca Mountain dump, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, could lead to a 1-10 percent drop in tourism and a $775 million decline in gaming revenues.

Property values along the nuclear shipment routes, which travel through Las Vegas, also likely would drop significantly, Cloobeck said.

At one point during the heated discussion, Cloobeck asked O'Donnell: "I'm willing to lay down in the middle of I-15. Are you?"

As the audience applauded, O'Donnell replied, "No."

"We have to continue the fight," Cloobeck then said.

"For who?" O'Donnell asked.

"For our lives," Cloobeck responded.

Others, such as Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and County Commissioner Myrna Williams stood up and defended Cloobeck's efforts.

"I don't think we give up the fight until the last minute, and I don't see that last minute coming," Berkley said.

Las Vegas Sun President and Editor Brian Greenspun, a longtime opponent of the dump, also responded to O'Donnell.

"We need this meeting to happen 100 times a month all over," Greenspun said.

He challenged O'Donnell to look for ways to persuade his colleagues at the Legislature to join the fight, rather than "throwing up his hands and saying there's nothing we can do."

Cloobeck said afterward that he was pleased with the turnout at the meeting, which took place at the Clark County Commission chambers in the middle of a rainstorm.

He said he plans on having another meeting in two weeks and hopes to create a nonprofit organization to raise millions of dollars to warn the nation about the dangers of shipping nuclear waste to Nevada.

The Yucca Mountain Project, should it be approved by Congress, is slated to receive 77,000 tons of radioactive waste from power plants around the country. The waste is expected to pass through such metropolitan areas as Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Denver and Salt Lake City, before coming through Las Vegas.

Among those on hand for Thursday's meeting were representatives from the offices of Gov. Kenny Guinn, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev.

Representatives from local casinos, UNLV, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority also were present.

The Sun reported this week that both the chamber and the LVCVA planned to consider resolutions for the first time to formally oppose storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, the only site under study.

Both organizations have stayed silent in the fight the past two decades.

The stepped-up activity comes amid allegations of bias in favor of Yucca Mountain on the part of the DOE, as it gears up to decide whether to recommend the Nevada site to President-elect George W. Bush.

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

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 to promote Yucca Mountain with Congress.