Perkins: Waste safer where it is

Monday, Feb. 11, 2002 | 10:58 a.m.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, returned from Washington, D.C., this weekend hoping that his words will help influence the Yucca Mountain debate.

During a conference of the National State Legislators' National Task Force on Protecting Democracy, Perkins got a chance to tell Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge that transporting nuclear waste would make it more susceptible to terrorists.

Perkins said a legislator from Pennsylvania raised the issue with Ridge, who responded that transportation of nuclear waste was handled instead by the Energy and Transportation departments.

But Perkins, a deputy chief for Henderson Police, said he told Ridge that in his law enforcement experience, "It's better to guard something in place than something spread out all over."

The next meeting of the task force will be next month in New York. Perkins is one of 19 state legislators from around the country serving on the task force.

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