Columnist Benjamin Grove: Mayor takes anti-Yucca campaign to national stage

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Jan. 25, 2002 | 4:56 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Professional schmoozer and mayor, Oscar Goodman, was in his element in the nation's capital last week, working the hotel lobby and meeting rooms at the winter gathering of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

About 300 mayors were here to talk about homeland security, and Goodman was linking the topic to nuclear waste.

If President Bush and Congress approve the Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain project, thousands of shipments of high-level radioactive waste could someday rumble through your city on the way to Nevada, Goodman told the mayors. And waste shipments are terrorist targets, Goodman said.

Ultimately Goodman's goal is to fan opposition nationwide to the Yucca Mountain project, a federal plan to bury the nation's high-level nuclear waste in tunnels under the desert ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Goodman figures that mayors can lean on their lawmakers. Members of Congress do listen to their city leaders. And lawmakers likely will vote this year on whether to override Nevada's objection to the Yucca Mountain plan.

If mayors urge their House and Senate members to think twice about voting -- in an election year -- for a plan to ship thousands of truck- and train-loads of nuclear waste through their districts, that could change a few minds.

But even chronically optimistic Goodman admits this is no easy public relations battle. Nuclear waste is hardly a pressing issue for anyone outside Nevada -- if approved, Yucca Mountain is likely 10 or 15 years from being completed.

And mayors who don't represent cities with nuclear power plants nearby generally aren't familiar with national nuclear waste policy.

It may be hard to imagine in Las Vegas, where Goodman is a high-profile figure, but some of the nation's mayors have never heard of Goodman -- or Yucca Mountain.

The mayors of Madison, Wisc., and Cerritos, Calif., who dropped by a cocktail party hosted by Goodman last week, knew almost nothing of the Nevada waste dump proposal. Even the mayor of St. Louis, whose city would be among those most affected by waste shipments, seemed relatively clueless about the Yucca Mountain project.

And that's why Goodman was working the room. As promised, the mayor was on his best behavior. He didn't call anyone a "prostitute" or "a piece of garbage," names he has laid on John Sununu and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, respectively. Goodman's most abusive rhetoric came during a short speech at his reception when he said Abraham was "full of baloney."

Goodman played the part of the man who mayors and the media expect to be running Las Vegas -- a former mob lawyer, a gregarious guy with a quick joke.

When National Public Radio needed a few mayors to interview about the conference, Goodman accepted the invitation -- and got in a few comments about the dangers of shipping nuclear waste.

But it may be a longshot bet that Goodman can use mere charm to turn mayors -- and ultimately, members of Congress -- against the Yucca Mountain plan.

He doesn't have much time. A vote in Congress is expected as early as mid-year. Goodman pledged to continue chatting up mayors about nuclear waste, even on the train Thursday to New York City, where mayors planned to visit ground zero.

Goodman is "undaunted" in delivering his message, he said.

The question is: Will the message sink in?