Analysis: Yucca dominates Nevada politics

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Jan. 11, 2002 | 4:26 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

WASHINGTON -- Former Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., remembers well the year that Nevada got screwed.

It was 1987. Bryan, then governor, watched from Carson City as Congress, pondering a short list of potential sites to construct a national nuclear waste burial ground, picked Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The legislation, soon dubbed the Screw Nevada bill, marked a milestone in the storied history of the Yucca Mountain project and changed the face of politics in the state. From then on Nevada politicians of every stripe were bound together by their fight against the Department of Energy project.

"The Department of Energy was touting the wonders of Yucca Mountain," even in those early days, recalls Bryan, now a Las Vegas lawyer. "Very quickly, it became pretty clear where they were coming from."

Last week Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham notched another historic mark on the Yucca Mountain project's timeline, which stretches back to nuclear power's early days in the 1950s. After nearly two decades of research and controversy, Abraham told Gov. Kenny Guinn that he will recommend to President Bush that Yucca Mountain is a suitable place to forever entomb 77,000 tons of high-level waste -- among the nastiest substances on earth.

Abraham's decision likely will earn him at least a footnote years from now when the history of the Yucca Mountain project is written. To review, here's how we got here:

1954 -- Congress passes the Atomic Energy Act to promote peaceful atom use.

1957 -- The first large-scale U.S. nuclear plant opens in Shippingport, Pa. Also, scientists have foreseen a waste pile-up and the National Academy of Sciences recommends burying it in salt-dome caverns. Influential congressmen from salt-dome states later scrap the idea.

1964 -- Congress passes a law that allowed private companies, as opposed to the government, to take control of nuclear materials, clearing the way for corporate ownership of commercial nuclear power plants.

1979 -- The core of the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania partially melts down. This also is the last year new nuclear plants are ordered. (Today there are 103 commercial nuclear reactors nationwide.)

1982 -- Congress creates a plan to find a suitable site for waste that initially included nine sites in five states. This list is pared to three in 1985 -- Yucca Mountain, Deaf Smith County, Texas, and Hanford, Wash.

1987 -- Powerful lawmakers, among them Speaker of the House Jim Wright -- of Texas -- and House Majority Leader Tom Foley -- of Washington -- steer Congress to choose the Nevada site.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is still slugging it out with the DOE in Washington, in a Dec. 18, 1987, Las Vegas Sun story said, "We were run over." In the story, Nevada Nuclear Projects Director and DOE watchdog Bob Loux delivered the same message he does today: "We're confident we can disqualify the site." And another former governor, then-Nevada Nuclear Commission Chairman Grant Sawyer, mused, "The question is, do the people of the state have the courage to face formidable odds and the strength to win that battle."

Fifteen years later, that's still the question.

Here's what's next: Now that Abraham has made his call and notified Guinn, he must wait 30 days to officially recommend Yucca Mountain to Bush. After that, Bush could delay and do nothing, but he will likely recommend Yucca Mountain to Congress.

Guinn would have 60 days to register an official objection, which he would. Congress then would have 90 days to override Guinn's veto, which the House most certainly would do. The Senate likely would do the same, although Nevada's chances would be better in the upper chamber.

Pro-Yucca Mountain forces hope that if all goes well, Yucca Mountain could open as early as 2010, although a recent congressional audit said the DOE has no accurate way to predict the date.

Lots of other things could happen along the way. For one, the DOE must obtain a license to bury waste at Yucca Mountain from the Nuclear Regulatory Commisison, which could take several years. Nevada officials also plan to tie the project up in court, challenging the DOE on several grounds, including its rush to recommend the site to Bush despite unfinished scientific studies.

Abraham's action this week, while significant, was but a single moment in the Yucca Mountain project's lifetime, which could last thousands of years.

"I always thought we had a good chance to win -- I still do," Bryan said of his early days as governor crusading against Yucca Mountain. "In fact, we have a better chance now, frankly. But I didn't realize at the time that the battle would go on for 18 years. And it may go on another 18."