Residents express fears over nuclear dump issue

Thursday, June 28, 2001 | 10:38 a.m.

More than 160 people, most of them opposed to a proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, told Clark County officials to fight the federal project, but some supported it and begged officials to negotiate for benefits.

Clark County's Nuclear Waste Division hosted a meeting Wednesday to hear citizen concerns. The County Commission has opposed the Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain Project unanimously in three votes since 1987, Commissioner Myrna Williams said.

Elected officials from the county, the cities and the state of Nevada have opposed burying 77,000 tons of commercial reactor and defense wastes in Yucca Mountain.

Henderson Councilwoman Amanda Cyphers said she was most concerned about a nuclear repository's effect on tourism.

"One accident, even a small one, could send the message that gambling in Las Vegas is gambling with your life," she said.

One state senator, however, said he believes the nuclear waste will end up in Nevada and the state could receive benefits to help build schools and roads.

Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, who once worked at the Nevada Test Site where nuclear weapons experiments were conducted from 1951 until 1992, said Nevada's congressional votes don't count and the state cannot win a majority vote to keep nuclear waste out of the state.

"One of the things we keep hearing is, 'It's a done deal, it's a done deal,' " said Irene Navis, who becomes county Nuclear Waste Division director on Monday, replacing Dennis Bechtel, who is retiring.

"We're here to tell you there are many steps along the way before a single canister of nuclear waste would arrive at Yucca Mountain in 2010, at the earliest," Navis said.

After all, Navis said, the DOE expected to open a repository at Yucca Mountain by 1998. The DOE is still studying the mountain.

Stephen Cloobeck, a Las Vegas businessman, said major resort owners and the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce have formally opposed the dump and made the fight a top priority.

"And we haven't spent any money yet," he said, referring to $4 million committed to a national education campaign to inform people across the country about nuclear waste shipments that could head toward Yucca Mountain.

Some came to the meeting to learn more about the 20-year-old federal project.

English teacher Alma Rose Mendoza said Nevada is her home and she wants to feel secure, without the threat of nuclear waste.

"Unfortunately, the government doesn't seem to share this acute love that I have for my home state," Mendoza said. "Topless bars, greasy buffets, slot machines, brothels, neon lights and barren, dry, useless deserts are what the government thinks of when it hears the word Nevada. Now they want to add 'waste dump' to that horrid list."

Valerie Aragon, 23, left her children, 2 and 7, with a babysitter to attend the meeting after she finished her job as an office manager with a communications company. In tears, Aragon said she was frustrated after telling friends about the county's effort, but none was interested in learning more.

"I never knew any of this was going on," said the 13-year Las Vegas resident.

The county has scheduled another public meeting for Oct. 31.