Guest columnist Stephen J. Cloobeck: Tour yields only a mountain of rhetoric

Friday, March 23, 2001 | 4:33 a.m.

Stephen J. Cloobeck, president and CEO of Diamond Resorts International, is organizing a valleywide campaign against the Yucca Mountain Project through the Save Nevada coalition.

The tourist center is a sight to behold. The government has set up a highly sophisticated public relations machine here in an effort to convince valley residents that nuclear repositories are safe -- as if the government knows this for a fact.

The center is strategically equipped with high-tech displays meant to convince us that radiation is OK. The propaganda is all around us. Models of the nuclear waste transportation equipment are on display, even though the technology is still hypothetical. That's right! It hasn't even been developed, let alone been proven safe. After the video clip -- a purposely benign safety film -- it is time to travel to the Nevada Test Site, which is on the way to the notorious Yucca Mountain. During the bus ride, the head political adviser for the project sits in front of me and ominously tells me: "We know who you are." I momentarily wonder if I should be afraid. Then I reassure myself: This is the government. They are our friends.

As I stare out the bus window, I wonder once again: aren't we the government? As the bus lumbers on, the smooth-talking PR man attempts to sell me on all the research that has been done on this project. Boy, he sure spins an interesting tale. When I question him, he responds defensively, explaining that he only does what he's told. He dodges a direct answer by saying Yucca Mountain is a "political issue," and that it wouldn't matter to him if the government told him to oversee the closure of the mountain. "It's just a job," he admits, seemingly trying to convince himself as much as me.

New name, same place

In less than an hour, our bus arrives at the Nevada Test Site. Armed guards come aboard to verify the passenger list. I note with interest there is a new sign at the entrance to the Test Site. It says: Nevada Environmental Research Site. What a euphemism! I am reminded that this is the place where the government tests all kinds of radioactive substances, and where it tested nuclear bombs above ground for many years.

As the bus ride resumes, our guides point out a 1,600-foot radio tower. This, we are told, is the tower atop which they placed some exposed high-level radioactive plutonium to test the effects of a nuclear bomb on a city. The tower's height is the approximate distance above ground that a nuclear bomb explodes. They placed animals around the base of the tower to observe the effects of the radiation on living beings, the guide says. Very eerie. It never occurred to me until I left the site that during my visit I may have injested the remaining half-life of that plutonium they tested there all those many years ago.

Half an hour later, after passing many nondescript, plainly numbered buildings, we finally arrive at Yucca Mountain. Inside the mountain, workers have dug a 5-mile tunnel that is 25 feet high and 25 feet wide, we are told. Truly a wonder of the world, if viewed strictly for its engineering and construction standards. We then don our protective gear and proceed into the tunnel. We walk 500 feet to the first alcove.

Our guide explains that this is where they have been testing the effects of water movement from the earthquake fault that lies at one end of Yucca Mountain. The other end of the site borders another fault. Not to worry, the officials explain: Even if there were earthquakes along these faults, Yucca Mountain is safe for a repository. None of these seismic events would cause a breach in the integrity of the proposed high-level nuclear waste storage facility. I am not reassured.

Then there's water ...

Then our guides discuss the issue of water. The proposed Yucca Mountain repository is being built 1,000 feet below the ground, and they assure us that the water table is 1,000 feet below that. A question arises: Why is the government now telling us that the safest place to build a repository is below the water table, after having constructed a nuclear testing facility above the water table? Their answer: The water doesn't move that fast in the Yucca area. I scratch my head in disbelief.

We then proceed to the geothermal testing area. We are told that the purpose of the testing is to try to understand how the heat generated from the proposed storage casks will affect the geology of Yucca Mountain. You see, high-level nuclear waste, when placed in these mythical containers, will heat to levels well above the boiling point of water. This will heat the surrounding rocks and cause the absorbed water in the rocks to boil. When the water turns to a gas, the trouble begins.

If the pressure causes the containers to crack, the gas will mix with the high-level nuclear waste and travel back into the rocks. Cooling to its entropic state as it travels, it reforms into a liquid: water. Contaminated water! And yes, it's certainly possible that this water will find its way into the water table, and ultimately into our drinking water. A doomsday scenario? Maybe; maybe not. "Trust us," they say, "We know what we are doing." However, when pressed on the issue of scientifically proved research, they admit that their modeling does not take into account the combined results of all the tests they have run. No scientific model

The reason, they concede, is that the computer modeling does not exist to predict this type of complex scenario. But we should trust them, right?

As the tour nears its end, we are taken to the top of Yucca Mountain. What a gorgeous, pristine view! Nonchalantly, our tour guide concludes our tour by sharing a truly unbelievable fact: Yucca Mountain would handle "only" 70,000 tons of waste due to current nuclear regulatory licensing laws. However, the site has the capacity to handle "eight times" that amount. That's 560,000 tons of nuclear waste -- in our back yard.

As we returned to Las Vegas, I couldn't help but think that every one of us in the valley is being deceived -- by our own government. A government that's telling us one thing while doing another. Advocates of the Yucca Mountain Project accuse me of being biased. If by that they mean biased in favor of the health and safety of Southern Nevadans, I plead guilty. If they mean biased in favor of the long-term future of our economy, again guilty. And if they mean biased in favor of protecting our children's future and the futures of generations of Southern Nevadans to come, I'm guilty as charged.

This is a serious and complex issue that every citizen of this community needs to understand and rally around. The federal government, with its high-sounding rhetoric and slick PR machine, is waging a war for the hearts and minds of all Southern Nevadans. We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and blindly follow their call to "trust us."

I ask -- no, I plead with -- every Southern Nevadan to get involved in the Yucca Mountain fight. Make your voices heard. I urge you to send letters of opposition to the governor, the mayor or the Board of County Commissioners. And by all means, go see Yucca Mountain for yourself. I'm sure the tour guides will be happy to show you around and spout their well-rehearsed speeches. I hope you'll listen with a measure of skepticism, though. And as you enter the "environmental research" site, you might think twice about breathing.

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