Nevadans mindful of nuke power ‘renaissance’

Benjamin Grove

Friday, May 4, 2001 | 11:29 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nuclear power is enjoying unprecedented support in the nation's capital these days as policy leaders search for energy-shortage solutions. Ever wary of waste, Nevada officials have taken notice.

Consider this week:

* On Monday Vice President Dick Cheney gave a speech in Toronto saying the United States should broaden nuclear power generation, which now accounts for about 20 percent of the nation's electricity. Cheney is expected to unveil a national energy strategy this month that includes more nuclear power.

* On Wednesday Reps. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Charles Stenholm, D-Texas, introduced a bill loaded with nuclear industry goodies: tax incentives, funding for nuclear technology and new plant designs, and the renewal of a federal law providing government liability coverage for nuclear plant accidents. Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate. Nuclear power provides 65 percent of electricity generated in Graham's state. Also on Wednesday Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham stressed that the nation needs to tackle the nuclear waste problem so that nuclear power output can be increased.

* On Thursday a congressional panel led by two leading Senate supporters of nuclear energy held a hearing on the industry's brightening future. "We know there is great interest in the (nuclear) industry. We're in a time of enormous change right now," Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Richard Meserve told the lawmakers. Senate Energy Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, agreed, "Four of five years ago, who would have thought we would hear talk of buying and selling (nulcear) plants, and, yes, even building new plants. Today this discussion is happening."

That discussion has the close attention of Nevada politicians. More nuclear power means more nuclear waste. And Congress has designated Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the nation's nuclear waste dump.

If approved, Yucca would eventually be the permanent burial ground for 77,000 tons of radioactive spent fuel rods now piling up at the nation's 103 power plant reactors.

Nevada's congressional members have battled Yucca initiatives on both political and scientific fronts for years. They are backed by public concerns about transporting waste to Nevada and lingering fears about nuclear plant accidents, but they are up against an influential nuclear energy lobby.

America must deal with its waste problem before it increases nuclear power output, Nevada lawmakers say in response to murmurs of a nuclear energy "renaissance."

"Yucca Mountain is not safe, and the industry will not be able to dump its waste there," Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said in a statement this week that criticizes Cheney's pro-nuclear comments. "The administration is proposing to exacerbate a massive radioactive problem, to which there is currently no solution."

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., asserts the push for nuclear energy is "nothing new." He said it was an attempt by Republican leaders to help industry officials who haven't had a new plant commissioned since the 1970s.

Nevada's Republican members said they were not flinching in the face of a new national debate on nuclear energy, sparked by their GOP colleagues.

"I actually think of it as an opportunity for us," Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said. "If the Bush administration wants more nuclear power, then we have to have an answer to the nuclear waste problem that doesn't include burying it at Yucca Mountain."

Nevada lawmakers support spending for research on waste storage options. Those include "transmutation," a process that breaks down waste into a less dangerous substance. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said too much money (about $7 billion) and too much time has been invested at Yucca.

"Once you solve the nuclear waste problem, nuclear energy can be a viable energy source for this nation," Gibbons said. But that could be a long time, Nevada lawmakers said. Gibbons echoed Ensign, saying the waste solution was transmutation, not "burying it in a hole."

Sun wire reports

contributed to this article.