Editorial: This is hardly a renaissance

Thursday, May 24, 2001 | 9:40 a.m.

When the nuclear power industry is jubilant, Nevadans should be worried. And if the giddiness displayed this week by nuclear power executives at their annual meeting in the nation's capital is any indication, this state will have to prepare for an even tougher battle as the industry renews its push to bury its lethal waste inside Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

Vice President Dick Cheney, the architect of the White House's energy plan, was greeted as if he were a conquering hero Tuesday when he spoke before the Nuclear Energy Institute's gathering in Washington, D.C. Cheney, who received two standing ovations from the adoring crowd, reasserted the president's view -- outlined in his national energy strategy last week -- that a repository must be built if nuclear power is to thrive. Since Nevada is the only state under consideration, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand what harm this could mean for Nevada.

In light of the public's previous uneasiness with nuclear power, and the reality that it would be unsafe to store nuclear waste in Nevada's Yucca Mountain, the industry's turnaround is stunning. As the New York Times reported in a Wednesday story about nuclear power's political resurgence, even these energy executives were surprised at how the Bush administration has embraced their controversial industry. Earlier this year, the newspaper reported, the industry was concerned that nuclear power wouldn't play a prominent role in the president's energy plan. In response, many of them in March met with the president's top political adviser, Karl Rove, to push for Bush's advocacy of nuclear power. They weren't disappointed. "In my wildest dreams, when I was over at the White House in March, I couldn't imagine them getting so behind us," said Christian Poindexter , chairman of the Constellation Energy Group.

The Nuclear Energy Institute's adopted slogan for this year's convention is "A Flourishing Renaissance." If a green light is given to nuclear power, and Bush goes forward with storage of deadly nuclear waste inside Yucca Mountain, then Nevadans would have a decidedly different view. For us, the more fitting slogan would be "A Return to the Dark Ages."