Tourist plans won’t be affected — yet

Wednesday, July 10, 2002 | 11:08 a.m.

Yucca Mountain may strike terror into the hearts of locals, but many of the tourists on the Strip Tuesday hadn't even heard of the proposed nuclear waste site just 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The mere mention of nuclear waste, however, drew raised eyebrows as people questioned whether the approved site approved Tuesday by the Senate would affect their future travels to Las Vegas. "I would have to think about it," Terry Martin of Jacksboro, Texas said.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want to get toxic waste when we come out here," Martin's friend Sherry Hammond agreed.

With tourism driving the Las Vegas economy, industry officials are hoping visitors choose to visit again despite Yucca Mountain's proximity to the city. Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spokeswoman Erika Brandvik declined to speculate on how or if the nuclear waste repository would affect the 35-million-visitors-a-year industry.

"We could think of better things for tourism, but we aren't predicting doom on the destination by it coming here," Brandvik said.

A professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' School for Hotel Management said the nuclear waste site would have a minimal effect on tourism as long as the site remained safe. An accident, however, would be "catastrophic" for the industry, Thomas Jones said.

"The public's memory is rather short-lived, and this should fade from view soon," Jones said. "I don't think it will affect tourism until or unless there is an accident in the transportation of this waste."

The threat of a transportation accident, contamination or radiation leakage into the air or ground water is what tourists said might deter them from planning future vacations to Las Vegas.

For Jim Godwin, a visitor from Marble Hill, Mo., those threats are enough to keep him away.

"I wouldn't come back," Godwin said as he enjoyed the heat outside Treasure Island. "I know (nuclear waste) ain't no good, and that they don't know what to do with it. They should have thought about that when they were making it back during World War II. They know how to make it, but they can't get rid of it."

For other tourists, such as Greg and Stephanie Isaacs of Corpus Christi, Texas, the threat of nuclear waste is something they are already facing with a plant near their home.

"Nuclear waste scares us no matter where we live, so we'll still come to Las Vegas and take our chances," said Stephanie Isaacs, who has visited the city with her husband twice a year for 15 years.

A few tourists said they trusted the facility would be safe, but most took a wait and see approach.

"What are you going to do?" James Lee of New York City said. "The destination is still going to be attractive and they are going to tell you every lie in the book that they are safeguarding this and safeguarding that. It will probably be a deterrent, but they'll find a way to whitewash it."