No fear: Tourists say nuclear waste stored at Yucca Mountain won’t limit LV visits

Ed Koch and Jace Radke

Friday, Feb. 1, 2002 | 9:55 a.m.

The mere designation of Yucca Mountain as the dump site for nuclear waste will keep gamblers and other tourists from visiting Las Vegas, right?

Don't bet on it.

Lisa Madley, who was in Las Vegas on Thursday night from Phoenix, said that a nuclear repository about 90 miles northwest of the Strip won't stop her from visiting.

"As long as there aren't people running around with three arms in the casinos, I doubt anyone will know it's there," Madley said as she waited to watch the fountain show at the Bellagio. "It might bother me if I was living here, but I don't think it will bother tourists."

The lure of blackjack tables and maybe the world's most famous stretch of neon-lit highway can overcome any stigma attached to the repository, say tourists and longtime Southern Nevadans such as former District Attorney Rex Bell.

"When I was a kid at the 5th Street Grammar School, we used to watch mushroom clouds from above-ground nuclear tests -- and that never kept people away from the city," said Bell, now a local attorney. "I don't want that stuff (nuclear waste) buried here, but if you're asking me if it will hobble us, I don't think so. I don't think tourists will even think about it unless they put it on a marquee: 'Watch out for nuclear waste.' "

Bell and others are critical of a new Clark County study that says Las Vegas' economy will be immediately harmed if Congress approves Yucca as the site of the nation's nuclear waste repository.

A Clark County study examining the economic impact of a Yucca repository reports that property values and gaming revenues will immediately drop because of the stigma attached to nuclear waste.

The study also reports that, even without a nuclear accident, 11,294 would leave Clark County.

"I don't see Las Vegas' population dropping -- I see it continuing to grow until it has to be cut off because there won't be enough water," said Bell, the son of late former Lt. Gov. Rex Bell and the late actress Clara Bow.

"I see people continuing to move here and continuing to buy homes. I don't think it will do anything to the economy."

Don Stauffer, 45, who lives in Norco, Calif., is in town for the Super Bowl. He joked that he was reconsidering a move to Nevada because of the proposed dump.

"Well, I guess I won't buy that house on top of Yucca Mountain now," Stauffer said as he left Bally's Thursday night. "Seriously though, who cares? I mean, I'm not going to drink the groundwater here anyway."

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said he didn't think President Bush's recommendation on Yucca Mountain would immediately drive away tourists.

"Yucca Mountain is the furthest thing from their minds when they come to Las Vegas," Goodman said. "I'm more concerned with the community, the people who live here."

Bell said residents appear to be more concerned about transporting the waste than the dump itself.

Longtime Las Vegas news reporter Myram Borders said the repository would affect residents more than tourists.

"I think property values will go down initially," said Borders, who grew up in Las Vegas in the 1950s and worked for United Press International and recently retired as director of the Las Vegas News Bureau.

"I believe, however, the designation will have no impact on tourism because it will take about 10 years before they start hauling the waste. Once that happens we can look at the tourism issue and re-evaluate it."

Kilmer Porter, 25, of Burbank, Calif., was sightseeing on Las Vegas Boulevard Thursday night. He said Las Vegas will always draw tourists.

"When you're down here looking at all these amazing places, you're in a different world," Porter said. "That supersedes everything else when you're here."