Pro-Yucca group blasts campaign tactics

Benjamin Grove

Monday, June 17, 2002 | 11:09 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada officials and environmental groups are needlessly scaring people about the risks of transporting nuclear waste as part of their broader anti-Yucca Mountain campaign, several members of a pro-Yucca coalition said today.

The group, the U.S. Transport Coalition, today began a two-day "Nuclear Spent Fuel Transportation Capitol Hill Summit" to reassure senators and the public that shipping nuclear waste is safe.

"We are going to focus on (waste shipping) experience, not myths," coalition co-chairman Jack Edlow said.

Edlow is also president of Edlow International, which specializes in shipping nuclear waste. The company stands to win lucrative contracts if Yucca Mountain -- the plan to bury the nation's high-level nuclear waste at the desert site -- is eventually approved.

The coalition consists of other nuclear industry companies and utility interests that stand to gain if Yucca is approved. About 75 people attended the conference today. The conference features panel discussions with mostly industry officials. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, a leading Yucca supporter, is expected to give the final speech Tuesday.

The group assembled its first conference just weeks, possibly days, before the Senate approves Yucca. The Senate has until July 25 to override Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of the site.

The group was launched earlier this year to quell fear-mongering generated by Nevada officials, Edlow said.

Nevada officials have sought to stress the risks of shipping waste from 131 sites nationwide to Yucca in a massive 24- to 36-year shipping campaign. The plan risks accidents and terrorist strikes, Nevada officials have said.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., today dismissed the coalition's charges of fear-mongering.

"You have to consider the source," Reid said. "The truth hurts and that's why they are out at this particular time."

The nuclear industry, under strict government regulation, has shipped nuclear waste in the United States about 2,700 times with minor accidents and no radiation releases, coalition leaders said. That message was echoed today by opening keynote speaker, Robert Paduchik, deputy assistant secretary of energy.

"It's a tremendous safety record," Paduchik said. "It's one we are extremely proud of."

Paduchik said Yucca opponents were using "incredibly wild numbers" when referring to the number of shipments it would take to move 77,000 tons of high-level waste to Yucca. The Department of Energy's own study said it could take as many as 100,000 truck shipments, but the DOE is committed to using a mostly rail scenario that would involve 3,500 rail and 1,100 truck shipments, Paduchik said.

The coalition today held its meeting near the U.S. Capitol, encouraging members to chat with senators and staff who were invited to drop by.

In his comments, Edlow mocked the celebrities lobbying against Yucca. Edlow also challenged Reid by name for generating fear in attempts to kill Yucca.

"You need to stop throwing rocks at transportation issues," Edlow said, in reference to Reid.

Reid said Nevada officials were stressing valid waste transportation risks, concerns echoed by some of the nation's leading scientists and environmental groups.

"Everybody knows there are going to be accidents," Reid said. "It's a fact, and they should stop trying to be deceptive and deceitful."