State hopes site boosts Yucca fight

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, June 12, 2002 | 11:11 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nearly 39 percent of the nation lives within five miles of proposed truck and train routes that could be used to haul high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, according to a research organization website launched Tuesday.

The website, www.mapscience.org, unveiled by the Environmental Working Group, allows users to pinpoint exactly how close their homes are to waste routes. The Washington-based nonprofit group opposes the Energy Department's attempt to seek congressional approval for Yucca.

Energy Department and nuclear industry officials say the website is merely a final-hour plot by anti-Yucca forces to kill the project in a Senate vote expected this month or next.

But Nevada officials say the interactive website is the first close-up look people have been given that shows where waste would travel. They hope the website generates a new debate about the risks of shipping nuclear waste, especially given news reports Monday that the government had thwarted a radioactive "dirty bomb" plot in its early stages.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the website on Tuesday focused more media attention on Yucca than on any single day he could recall.

"I'm not sure how many people have seen it up here (in the Senate), but if there is enough of a buzz back home, there will be a buzz here," Reid said.

Still, Reid said he wasn't sure whether there was enough time for the website to affect a Senate vote. "We'll find out," the majority whip said.

About 100 newspapers across the nation ran stories Tuesday about the website, Environmental Working Group spokesman Mike Casey said. At least a dozen local radio stations, including stations in Gainesville, Fla.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Minneapolis; and Columbus, Ohio, called Tuesday for interviews, he said.

Casey said users at 29,126 unique computers had visited the website as of 7 a.m. today, 34 hours after its launch. Some of the website hits had come from Senate office computers, Casey said.

About 1,000 users had sent e-mails to their senators from the site.

Former National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall, now a hired consultant for Nevada, plugged the website during an appearance on Fox's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren." Hall told Van Susteren that waste would pass near the Fox studio as it traveled on a rail line that runs through the heart of the nation's capital.

"Some 200,000 people (in Washington), over a hundred schools, and three hospitals are within a one-mile distance of the transport of this, of the nuclear waste on this rail line," Hall said.

"We have never looked at moving this volume of nuclear waste over this distance," he added.

Hall noted the terrorism threat, calling the proposal to send 77,000 tons of nuclear waste on the country's highways and railroads the "ultimate dirty bomb."

"After 9/11 I think that is irresponsible," Hall said.

Several Senate aides said the website had not created an immediate stir in their offices.

"We haven't heard about it," said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., spokesman David DiMartino. Staffers for Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., read about the website in a Capitol Hill publication, a spokesman said. DiMartino said Nelson is undecided about voting on Yucca Mountain.

Connecticut Democratic Sens. Joseph Lieberman and Christopher Dodd are among those senators who have not publicly said how they intend to vote on Yucca. Staffers in the two senators are aware of the website, their aides said today. Dodd "continues to study the issue," spokesman Tom Lenard said.

In Illinois, Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin, has sided with ally Reid in opposition to Yucca in previous votes, but he and Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, this year have been under intense pressure from nuclear power plant operators to approve Yucca. Illinois has 11 nuclear reactors, more than any state. Utah Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett are expected to approve Yucca.

According to the website, the states with the highest population of people within five miles of proposed transportation routes are: Utah (79.5 percent); Connecticut (67.2); Nevada (66); Illinois (62.5); and Nebraska (61.5).

Nevada officials are hoping the website starts a grassroots effort to build opposition to the dump.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Clark County Commission Chairman Dario Hererra held a joint press conference to encourage use of the site.

Hererra said he hopes the information on the site will spark a "grass-roots, word-of-mouth campaign" among U.S. families of the grave dangers of transporting nuclear waste.

"When people are made aware of the dangers of transporting nuclear waste they will be as opposed to Yucca Mountain as we are," Hererra said. "It's time for a grassroots, kitchen-table, word-of-mouth campaign."

Hererra urged the public to call their friends and families in other states to use the site and then lobby their delegation to oppose plans for Yucca Mountain.

Peggy Maze Johnson, executive director for Citizen Alert, called the web site "the most important tool to come out of this fight."

The website cost between $400,000 and $450,000 to build. The site was paid for by contributions to the Environmental Working Group's project fund as well as a $200,000 contribution from Sun Editor and President Brian Greenspun.

The group compiled reams of data, to show the potential dangers of shipping nuclear waste, such as: the nation has 14,510 schools and 933 hospitals within one mile of a route, according to Environmental Working Group; Nevada has 144 schools and seven hospitals within that distance.

Nevada had 201 truck accidents from 1994 to 2000, according to the website. The state had 200 train accidents between 1990 and 2001, the website said.

Ensign, who has yet to convince more than one other Republican senator to vote against Yucca, remains on the offensive this week and is hammering his message that waste transport is dangerous.

Ensign argued the topic with nuclear industry lobbyist John Sununu on CNN's "Crossfire" Tuesday night.

"When (waste) is shipped, that is when it is most vulnerable," Ensign said. Ensign argued that waste is more secure stored as it now sits at nuclear plants in concrete-encased waste containers, away from terrorists looking for dirty bomb targets.

Sununu argued that burying the nation's waste in one highly secure, underground repository makes more sense. Nevada officials say waste shipping containers are vulnerable to accidents and terrorist attacks, but Sununu stressed that the containers are "virtually impregnable."

Ensign, who has met privately with 35 GOP senators in the last few months, today planned to make his arguments at the Republicans' weekly policy luncheon, held in the Capitol and typically attended by about 40 of the Senate's 49 Republicans. Ensign planned to argue that Yucca is a financial boondoggle and that waste transportation is unsafe.

Ensign also planned to urge his GOP colleagues not to call for a vote on Yucca, which would break a long-standing Senate tradition of allowing only the Senate Majority Leader to call for votes. Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., has vowed not to call for a vote.

Sun reporters Diana Sahagun and Mary Manning contributed to this story.