Columnist Benjamin Grove: Nuke waste goes prime time, creates fuss

Benjamin Grove

Friday, April 5, 2002 | 5:18 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada lawmakers and their congressional colleagues return to Capitol Hill this week after a two-week spring break. Here are a few things they missed in Washington, besides the celebrated annual return of the cherry blossoms:

Two leading nuclear waste container manufacturers threw off the gloves and came out swinging last week, making the bout over waste transportation more interesting.

Executives with Atlanta-based NAC International and Washington's Edlow International Co. said they were sick of "sitting on the sidelines" while anti-Yucca Mountain forces bashed their product as vulnerable to terrorists and accidents.

Somewhat oddly, the cask makers jumped into the ring -- after years of blistering criticism from Nevada officials -- because of a TV show. They launched a cask manufacturers "coalition" and held a Washington press conference the morning after the hit program "The West Wing" aired Wednesday, a show that included a plot line about a nuclear waste transportation accident.

Why all the fuss?

The show was full of inaccuracies, said the (self-proclaimed) usually unflappable president of Edlow International, Jack Edlow, who was clearly riled. People consider the topical drama to be realistic, even though the episode was rife with technical errors, he said.

"People have no way to identify what is factual and what is not factual about that show," Edlow said. (Besides common sense, I guess.)

Much is at stake in the public relations war over whether it is safe to ship nuclear waste, and clearly "The West Wing" episode caused a big stir among avid Yucca watchers.

Even New Mexico's Energy, Resources and Natural Minerals Department issued a press release the day before the show, urging viewers to recognize the program as Hollywood fantasy. For the benefit of truly thick-headed couch potatoes, the release stressed, "The scenario described is completely fictional." New Mexico is home to a low-level nuclear waste site commonly called WIPP, and state energy officials did not want the show scaring anyone.

Of course, Nevada officials wanted the opposite, urging people to watch the show and get an education about a real-life danger. Ed Rothschild, who works for Nevada's high-profile, anti-Yucca lobbyist John Podesta, sent out a mass e-mail urging media and a host of other interested parties to watch "The West Wing," contact their members of Congress, and pass the e-mail on to friends and relatives. The e-mail also urged recipients to "Phone or Email NBC and congratulate them on the show."

Rothschild told me he was not surprised to see the cask manufacturers jump into the fray, noting, "They attacked a fictional show for being fiction."

After all this hype, I wonder if Joe and Jane Viewer, who know little of Yucca Mountain, even noticed the waste shipping plot line. If they did, I'm guessing they ranked it somewhat less interesting than Vice President Hoynes' drinking problem and the subplot about online tax filing -- and that all this hype was much ado about nothing.

Results of a new Gallup poll released last week showed that nearly half of Americans do not support an effort in Congress to outlaw betting on college sports in Nevada.

Gallup surveyed 1,009 adults March 18-20 -- between the first two weekends of the much anticipated National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament, one of the busiest times of the year for Nevada sports books.

Roughly $50 million to $70 million was legally wagered on the March Madness tournament with Nevada books, said American Gaming Association president Frank Fahrenkopf, while roughly $5 billion was wagered illegally nationwide.

Respondents were asked: "Do you think gambling on college sports should -- or should not -- be made illegal nationwide?" Forty-nine percent said such gambling should be illegal; 47 percent said it should not be illegal; 4 percent had no opinion.

So do those numbers prove that a majority of Americans support a betting ban in Nevada, the one state where gambling is legally allowed?

Or does the poll show that nearly half of Americans would like college sports betting to be legalized nationwide?

Depending on how you look at it, the poll bolsters both arguments.

Another wrinkle: Gallup may have surveyed dishonest Americans. They were also asked, "Have you placed a bet on this year's NCAA basketball tournament in a pool with friends or co-workers or by some other means?" Just 4 percent said yes.

Fahrenkopf said, "I just don't think that's a valid number," adding that it would be difficult to find an office or factory that didn't offer an NCAA pool.

Another Nevada source said, "Their sample must have either been in a monastery or a kindergarten."

Major League Baseball last week opened another season in which I will have to trek outside Washington to see a game. I pondered this on the hourlong drive home after a Wednesday night game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, a 1-0 Baltimore loss after a pitching duel on a frigid and blustery night. Camden Yards is a beautiful place to experience a game -- Boog's Barbeque stand is worth the trip alone. But like legions of baseball fans in Washington who hike up Interstate 95, I have no connection to Baltimore, except that I root for their woeful O's.

Why doesn't the capital of America have its own baseball team? The answer is long and complex and has much to do with money and politics, just as it does in Las Vegas where city leaders have tried to lure a major league team to town.

The bottom line is that Washington should have its own team. It used to. The city was home to the Senators between 1901 and 1971 (for a period, the team was called the Nationals). Sadly, the team moved to Texas and became the Rangers.

"They won't hear it in Washington next spring when the cry throughout the rest of the land is the joyful sound of 'Play Ball,' the command that remobilizes a million dreams of pennant, however fanciful," wrote Washington Post columnist Shirley Povich the day after the team abandoned the nation's capital. "The Washington Senators are no more."

Washington may be closer than Las Vegas to landing a team someday soon. Washington has flirted with plans to obtain the struggling Montreal Expos. That would be fine. Washington is just as capable as Montreal, or Baltimore, of cheering on its own losing team -- and offering the magic of Opening Day to its hometown fans.

Benjamin Grove covers Washington for the Sun.