Editorial: When less definitely is better

Friday, July 20, 2001 | 10:12 a.m.

It was encouraging that the Senate on Thursday passed the smallest budget for the Yucca Mountain Project in nearly a decade. The investigation to determine whether Nevada's Yucca Mountain is suitable to store high-level nuclear waste has not earned the public's trust because the Department of Energy has not carried out truly objective research. Congress also tipped the scales by designating only one place in the nation to consider as a proposed dumping ground for man's deadliest waste -- leaving out other places that scientists had deemed more suitable for such a dangerous task.

Nevadans should be excused then if they don't share the same sense of alarm that the DOE and some members of Congress have expressed regarding the Senate's smaller funding for the project, which would be $275 million annually instead of the $445 million sought by the DOE. For instance, the DOE claimed that a significantly smaller budget would mean that a repository's 2010 target date to open could not be met. The DOE also said huge staffing cuts would occur, including money for federal staff oversight and independent technical reviews. Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, who is one of the dump's biggest sponsors in Congress, even suggested that lowering the funding would "basically kill" the project.

In an unintentionally hilarious episode during the debate Wednesday regarding the funding request, Murkowski suggested he was shocked -- shocked! -- that politics might have played a role in scaling back the funding for the Yucca Mountain Project. The target of the Alaska Republican's ire was Nevada's Sen. Harry Reid, chairman of the Senate subcommittee that slashed funding oversight for the Yucca Mountain Project. Murkowski's accusations are laughable since they come from a man who has used strong-arm politics at nearly every turn to try to ensure that the repository -- and the 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste that will accompany it -- is built in Nevada.

The Senate's vote is important, but a final budget for the Yucca Mountain Project will have to be worked out among Senate and House negotiators since the House authorized spending $443 million, nearly matching DOE's request. Still, Thursday's vote was an important step that signals it's time for the bloated Yucca Mountain Project budget to go on a much-needed diet. There's no reason to rush this misguided program, and throwing more money at it will only create the likelihood of a hasty decision that ignores the folly of burying such deadly waste in Nevada.