Yucca lobby group pushes TV ads

Benjamin Grove

Monday, April 22, 2002 | 11 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- As America celebrates Earth Day -- and as Congress prepares to vote on a Yucca Mountain repository -- the nuclear power industry has launched a national campaign to tout the clean-air benefits of nuclear-generated electricity.

The Nuclear Energy Institute, the top industry lobbyist and a leading advocate of the proposed Yucca dump, began airing an advertisement this week that trumpets nuclear power as a safe and reliable energy source.

The ad will run through May during CNN's "Headline News," "Larry King Live" and "Crossfire;" MSNBC's "Hardball With Chris Matthews" and headline news; and on the Fox News, Discovery and History channels, NEI spokesman Mitch Singer said. The ad began airing during Sunday morning talk shows, popular among the nation's lawmakers.

The spots do not specifically mention Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas that has been recommended as the repository for 77,000 tons of nuclear waste. But the commercials air against the backdrop of a high-stakes lobbying effort in Congress about whether lawmakers should approve Yucca.

President Bush OK'd the project in February, but Gov. Kenny Guinn vetoed that as allowed by law.

Congress is poised to vote on whether to approve Yucca and effectively override Guinn's veto. The House could vote as early as next week. A Senate vote is expected by the end of July.

While anti-Yucca groups are touting the potential dangers of transporting nuclear waste across the country, the NEI is trying to build support for nuclear power. The dump is critical for the industry because power plants need to store spent fuel.

Nuclear power generates about 20 percent of the nation's electricity. Industry officials often stress that nuclear plants emit no greenhouse gases as do coal plants.

Environmental groups counter that nuclear plants generate a deadly byproduct: highly radioactive spent uranium fuel rods that are piling up in waste areas at the nation's 103 operating nuclear reactors.

"We have been around this a number of times before," said Lisa Gue, an analyst with Public Citizen, an environment and consumer group.

In past years, Public Citizen has goaded the Better Business Bureau and Federal Trade Commission to stop NEI advertisements that argue nuclear power is good for the environment. The bureau's request that NEI cease such advertising was never enforced, Gue said.

"NEI faces an uphill battle trying to convince consumers that nuclear power is not dangerous and dirty," Gue said. "But if you throw enough money at a national advertising campaign, you stand a chance of swaying public opinion."

NEI officials would not disclose how much their ad blitz cost.

"They've got a lot of money, and they will be able to outspend the coalition against Yucca Mountain 10 to 1 if not more," said Nathan Naylor, spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. "The reason they are talking about nuclear being clean for the environment is because they know they can't win on the transportation and terrorism angle."

NEI's commercials contrast with a much smaller, more targeted campaign waged by Nevada officials and environmental groups. So far they have launched just one 30-second, anti-Yucca commercial on NBC and ABC network affiliates in Burlington, Vt. The ads began airing last Tuesday and are expected to run through this week.

In response, the pro-Yucca group Alliance for Sound Nuclear Policy plans to run a television ad of its own that stresses that nuclear waste transportation is safe. That ad will run in Vermont beginning late this week, Director Sherry Reilly said.

The Washington-based alliance, which represents pro-nuclear groups that include the NEI, also paid for an ad in four Vermont newspapers Friday and today that makes a reference to Nevada's television spot. It runs under the heading: "Safe used nuclear fuel transportation, Fact vs. Fear."

"It's an old trick: when you can't win a policy argument on the merits, try scare tactics," it says. The ad goes on to argue that shipping nuclear waste has a 30-year record of safety and is conducted under state and federal oversight.

"The general message (of the TV ads) is the same as the newspaper ads, that transporting nuclear fuel is safe," Reilly said.

Nevada's anti-Yucca TV commercial, narrated by actor Ed Begley Jr., urges Vermonters to call their senators, independent James Jeffords and Democrat Patrick Leahy, and tell them to oppose Yucca Mountain.

That ad is designed to spark concern about the dangers of shipping nuclear waste through Vermont on its way to Nevada, including the risk of a terrorist attack.

Leahy and Jeffords support a Yucca repository. The state relies on the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to produce two-thirds of its energy, according to NEI.

Nevada officials are planning to buy television time for an anti-Yucca ads in another state, possibly this week, but details were not available today.