Editorial: Plan does more harm than good

Friday, Feb. 22, 2002 | 3:43 a.m.

When Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham recommended that President Bush select Yucca Mountain to be the nation's nuclear waste dump, he said it was important for homeland security. Tom Ridge, the nation's director of homeland security, reaffirmed that view when he visited Las Vegas last week, saying that nuclear power plants would be better protected against terrorist attacks if the spent fuel was removed to a single repository in Nevada. Leaving the nuclear waste in the 39 states where it's currently kept creates a greater threat to national security, Ridge contended.

Despite his assurances, Ridge, the former governor of Pennsylvania, knows better. Even if all the spent nuclear fuel is taken away from the nation's 103 commercial reactors, it doesn't mean that a risk has been eliminated. The nuclear reactors stay right where they are, and those reactors still are in jeopardy from a terrorist attack. And don't forget, it was the nuclear reactors -- not nuclear waste -- that were a threat to the public when there were catastrophic meltdowns at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union and at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.

Moving the spent fuel to Yucca Mountain creates an additional terrorism risk -- it does nothing to remove it. It could require 100,000 shipments over three decades to get 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, shipments that would be more vulnerable to a terrorist attack than if they were left on site. At the same time, these reactors will be grinding out even more waste. If the Bush administration really wanted to do some good when it comes to better protecting nuclear power plants from terrorist attacks, they would keep the waste where it is. They also could help matters by endorsing nuclear power plant protection legislation sponsored by Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and James Jeffords, I-Vt.

The senators' legislation would federalize the security workers at nuclear power plants and require beefed-up security, including a more realistic assessment of terrorist threats. Sadly, however, realism isn't something that has been a strong suit for President Bush and his administration as they deal with the very complex issues of nuclear waste storage. They prefer to propose simplistic solutions that end up creating more potential for harm than currently exists.