Gibbons discusses nuke repository with two top presidential advisers

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, Feb. 7, 2002 | 10:55 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Starting Nevada's appeal to the White House on Yucca Mountain, Rep. Jim Gibbons said that President Bush's advisers are struggling with the issues of terrorism and nuclear waste storage.

Meeting with Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, and energy-policy adviser, Andrew Lundquist, this morning for an hour at the White House, Gibbons said a major part of the discussion was related to terrorism.

"They talked about national security issues and about how since Sept. 11 nuclear energy facilities have been put at high risk," said Gibbons, R-Nev., who started his day at the White House.

Gov. Kenny Guinn and Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., were scheduled to meet with Bush this afternoon.

The meetings come as Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham prepares to make his recommendation that Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, become the burial ground for 77,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste. Abraham could make his announcement as soon as this weekend, although a decision is expected Monday.

While reports say Bush will act quickly to approve the decision -- and Guinn on Wednesday expressed concern of a pending decision -- Gibbons said the aides seemed oblivious to speculation Abraham and Bush would act next week.

"I was surprised they weren't aware of the rumors that the decision is going to be made soon," Gibbons said, adding that the two seemed sincere on that point. "I don't think there was reason for them to hedge."

A White House spokesman said this morning that Bush would make his decision after Abraham makes his recommendation. The spokesman declined to describe Bush's position on terrorism and nuclear waste.

Gibbons argued that shipping nuclear waste across the nation from the 103 nuclear plants to Nevada invited terrorist strikes. The White House advisers seemed to be wrestling with whether it is safer to ship waste to be stored in one central location, or to leave it scattered nationwide on-site at power plants, Gibbons said.

He laid out numerous arguments against the Yucca project, stressing that years of scientific study by the Energy Department had not determined that the site is a safe place to store waste. He reiterated recent General Accounting Office findings that faulted the project and recommended delaying it.

Gibbons said that the nation should consider new technologies for reprocessing waste instead of burying it in Nevada. He talked about treating waste through promising but undeveloped, high-tech processes that speed the breakdown of radioactive waste. Rove and Lunquist seemed receptive to that, Gibbons said.

"I was pleasantly surprised that Karl Rove wanted to talk about the science and many of the issues that are related to our concerns," Gibbons said.

During his campaign for president, Bush vowed to let sound science -- not politics -- drive his decision about the nuclear waste repository.

But Reid said political arguments have the most sway now that Bush's decision may be imminent. Reid will push those buttons in his meeting with the president, he said.

"I'm going to go in there and not talk about science, I'm going to talk politics," Reid said this morning. "I'm going to tell the president this is a very big political mistake. The science is awful."

Reid said the decision to advance Yucca will hurt Bush and GOP congressional candidates in Nevada.

At a press conference Wednesday, Guinn said he will deliver to Bush studies by the state, the independent Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, the General Accounting Office and Nuclear Regulatory Commission consultants, which say a repository recommendation is premature.

"It's certainly an uphill battle, because there are 42 states opposing us," Guinn said, referring to states where nuclear reactors are located.

If Bush approves Abraham's recommendation, Guinn would file an official objection, which Congress would likely overrule.

Reid, the Senate majority whip, said he was not ready to release a "whip count" -- the number of senators he expects to vote with him on Yucca.

Longtime supporters of a Yucca repository are eager to advance the project.

"They are prepared to move it out of the House as fast as possible," said Samantha Jordan, spokeswoman for Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, an energy subcommittee chairman and leading Yucca advocate in the House.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she expects both Abraham and Bush will act soon.

"I think it's important for these meetings to take place," Berkley said of today's gattherings. But she added, "I don't think Spence Abraham would be making his recommendation unless he thought the president was ready to accept it."

Sun reporter Mary Manning contributed to this story.

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