Letter: Senate resolution on nuke waste needs closer look

Tuesday, March 20, 2001 | 9:24 a.m.

I recently read Senate Joint Resolution 4. This resolution requests that the governor ask the Department of Energy to construct a train route that ensures that high-level nuclear waste is not routed through Las Vegas. On the surface the resolution seems reasonable, but when one examines the message, it indicates that some of our leaders of Nevada are splitting with the majority of Nevada citizens. The resolution plays into the hands of the DOE.

Nevada is in the planning stage of informing the citizens of other states on the safety of transporting the waste through their cities. This resolution infers that if a railroad were constructed to remove the safety hazard from the streets of Las Vegas, Nevada citizens would be satisfied. Northern Nevada cities such as Reno are not included. If safety is a serious problem, as the resolution makes it out to be, why are we saying that this Band-Aid approach is the solution? The resolution should state that it supports the governor's approach of putting together a publicity campaign to inform the people of the other states of the dangers of the DOE transportation plan.

Sens. Bill O'Donnell, Joe Neal, Lawrence Jacobsen, Ray Rawson, Mark Amodei, Terry Care, Maggie Carlton, Mike McGinness, Ann O'Connell, Mike Schneider, Ray Shaffer and Maurice Washington, and Assembly members Don Gustavson, Bob Beers, Vonne Chowning, Morse Arberry Jr., Tom Collins, John Marvel and David Parks should reconsider this resolution and join with the entire congressional delegation in spreading the word of the danger of the transportation of the high-level hazard waste material. Our elected officials should not be a pawn of the DOE lobby.

LOU de BOTTARI Carson City