Rejection of atomic license plate criticized

Friday, June 7, 2002 | 10:55 a.m.

The Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation is fanning the fallout of the Department of Motor Vehicles' decision to cancel a license plate bearing an atomic mushroom cloud.

Troy Wade, chairman of the foundation, said he believes the decision this week was "nothing less than politics clouding common sense."

The DMV announced Wednesday it would not issue the specialty plate in light of the state's current battle against a proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain and because of current tensions and the threat of nuclear war between India and Pakistan.

But the historical foundation, which sought to net $25 per plate for its planned atomic testing museum, thinks the mushroom cloud is too much a part of Nevada history to scrap.

"No amount of revisionist history will change the fact that the cold war was fought and won on Nevada soil," Wade said in a prepared statement today. "Nothing can change the fact that this state -- its citizens -- toiled tirelessly for this nation's security. Yet politics has found its way into doing just that."

Gov. Kenny Guinn said recently the plate was a setback to Nevada's efforts to block Yucca Mountain.

During the House vote on Yucca, Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., highlighted the plate and said Nevadans are ready to reclaim their nuclear heritage.