Babbitt backs plan for Yucca repository

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, May 23, 2001 | 11:02 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, on Tuesday embraced the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, giving the dump a rare endorsement from a noted environmentalist.

Babbitt in an interview after a speech stressed that his former department had no direct dealings with the scientific studies led by the Energy Department at the proposed site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. But based on his knowledge of the project, Nevada is the best place to permanently bury the nation's nuclear waste, Babbitt said.

"There's not much left to quarrel about out there," Babbitt told a pro-nuclear crowd. "It is a safe, solid, geological repository."

Babbitt, long considered a stalwart environmental advocate, is in private practice at Latham and Watkins, a Washington law firm. He was speaking at the Nuclear Energy Institute's annual conference, a gathering of about 400 officials from the nation's nuclear power utilities, this week in Washington.

The comments were a striking departure from statements made by many politicians, and even former politicians, who urge caution and a close look at the scientific studies at Yucca, where the government wants to store 77,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste for thousands of years.

The DOE has not issued a final recommendation that the site is a safe place to store waste.

Many officials, even some Yucca supporters, typically stress that "science, not politics" should determine whether waste is buried there, and do not outwardly endorse the plan.

Babbitt also said Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign were a notable, bipartisan political team that stand in the way of the project winning political approval, especially since the Senate is evenly divided with 50 members in each party. Reid is a Democrat; Ensign is a Republican.

The Yucca proposal is "a political problem, period," Babbitt said.

Babbitt in his speech said increasing nuclear power was necessary to meet the nation's rising energy needs. Most environmentalists blindly oppose nuclear power, without considering the role it plays in producing emissions-free electric power, he said.

As be began his speech to the mostly Republican crowd, the former Clinton Cabinet member said he sensed a question in everyone's head: What is Bruce Babbitt doing here? But he pleased the crowd with clear support for Yucca.

"You can tell I'm not in politics anymore," Babbitt said at one point during his talk.

In an interview after his speech, Babbitt again confirmed his belief that Yucca is the "appropriate" place to bury nuclear waste.

"I really believe that," Babbitt said.

Babbitt said he was still friends with Reid and former Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., who bitterly oppose a nuclear dump at Yucca. Babbitt clearly has "differing opinions" with them on the Yucca issue, he said.