Editorial: Don’t waste money to tout propaganda

Friday, Aug. 30, 2002 | 9:31 a.m.

Two years ago Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., used his clout as a member of the Appropriations Committee to put an end to Energy Department ads -- run in the Las Vegas media -- that promoted public tours of the Yucca Mountain Project. But the advertising ban -- on tours that were no better than propaganda -- was only in effect for one year. And now that Congress has given its approval to build a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, the Energy Department has started the ads again.

It's important that people learn as much as they can about an issue, but the Yucca Mountain Project tours are one-sided presentations that mirror the nuclear power industry's gung-ho views on burying its deadly garbage in Nevada. It's like a tour of Cuba: The communist officials only let you see what they want you to see. If the tours presented both sides, including information about the real dangers from nuclear waste burial, that would be a different story. But it's not, and we hope Reid can once again end the waste of taxpayer money to promote the tours, which also are a transparent attempt to soften Nevadans' opposition to the burial of 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste here.