Editorial: Showdown coming on Yucca vote

Friday, July 5, 2002 | 3:39 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: July 7, 2002

This week the U.S. Senate will likely vote on a bill that could affect Nevada and the nation for the rest of time. If at least 51 senators vote yes on President Bush's plan to bury the nation's high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, all that's left will be the thin hope of victory in the courts. If the courts, too, find no fault with Yucca, trucks, trains and barges carrying the world's deadliest material will begin their mission within the next 10 or 15 years. For decades they would take their place alongside regular traffic as they transport 77,000 tons of spent fuel rods from nuclear plants to Southern Nevada.

It was 20 years ago when Congress bowed to the nuclear power industry and ordered that a site be found to bury their waste, which must be sealed off from human contact for at least 10,000 years. It was 15 years ago that Yucca Mountain was selected as the only site the federal government would study. In February, breaking a promise he made as a candidate to approve Yucca Mountain on the exclusive basis of sound science, President Bush approved his Energy Department's recommendation that Yucca be opened. In April, Gov. Kenny Guinn vetoed the approval, setting in motion congressional votes to sustain or override the veto. In May, the House handily overrode Guinn's veto. This week, all eyes are on the Senate, where Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has gained commitments from about three dozen Democratic senators to vote against Yucca.

In a more sane world, procedure and politics could wait until after the risks to human life were fully and publicly evaluated. But Congress is bound by law to vote within 90 days of Guinn's veto and it will do so, even though anti-Yucca momentum is building as people and members of Congress begin to learn more about the issue. Just in the last two weeks, for example, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Sen. Jean Carnahan, D-Mo., announced they would vote against Yucca after learning about transportation risks.

Stabenow earned her seat in the Senate by defeating Spencer Abraham, who became President Bush's energy secretary and recommended Yucca to Bush in February. Stabenow's announcement is remarkable for a couple of reasons. First, there are four nuclear power reactors in her state, making her position a courageous one. Second, she earlier said she was for Yucca Mountain but now says she worries about nuclear-waste laden barges endangering Lake Michigan, which holds one-fifth of the world's supply of fresh water.

And Carnahan is in the Senate seat previously occupied by John Ashcroft, Bush's attorney general. She said she worries about Missouri becoming the nation's "nuclear waste super highway." The two senators' announcements are evidence of the growing knowledge among voters and office holders concerning the dangers associated with Yucca Mountain. Adding to the evidence are the strong anti-Yucca resolutions just passed by the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce, the Salt Lake City Council and a committee of the St. George, Utah, Chamber of Commerce. They are appealing to Utah's two Republican senators, Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett, to change their positions and vote against Yucca Mountain.

And the momentum is continuing. ABC News, on a recent Nightline show, pointed out that transportation of waste to Yucca Mountain will likely never end, as nuclear plants will be producing thousands of tons of waste during the 25 years that it will take for the 77,000 tons to get buried -- meaning that Yucca will likely be expanded and the trucks, trains and barges will likely never stop. Because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission itself says nuclear waste could be stored safely on site at the power plants for decades to come, we ask: Why the rush to approve Yucca? If Yucca isn't defeated, it will be tragic but true -- we didn't lose the argument, we just ran out of time.