Senator sees easy Yucca approval

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, June 18, 2002 | 11:34 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A leading Senate advocate for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain today predicted the project would pass relatively easily with 58 to 62 senators voting for it.

But Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said a procedural vote that would determine whether to hold a final vote on the proposed repository in Nevada should pass, but by a narrower margin.

Craig, who for years has been a tireless Yucca supporter, told a nuclear-industry group meeting today that Republican backers would move as early as this week to set a date for 10 hours of Yucca debate.

Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., are likely to object, setting off a procedural battle, Craig said.

A likely vote on whether to proceed is the most worrisome issue for Yucca backers, Craig said. That's because Reid is quietly lobbying the Senate's other 49 Democrats and asking for their party loyalty on the procedural vote, even if they support Yucca, he said.

"There is no question in my mind that the most important vote is the procedural vote," he told the U.S. Transport Coalition during his featured speech.

Craig urged industry executives to lobby senators in the next few weeks to defeat Reid and Ensign in their procedural maneuvering.

The Senate will hold a final vote as early as the week of July 8 when Congress returns from a one-week break, he predicted.

Reid, who sits on the Appropriations Committee, is offering senators money for home-state projects, Craig said.

"Harry is going to do what Harry is going to do," Craig told reporters. "He doesn't want this in his state, obviously."

Craig assured the nuclear industry that a majority of senators are convinced Yucca Mountain is a suitable site for the national nuclear waste dump.

"If you had ever seen Yucca Mountain, you wouldn't want it in your back yard," Craig said, drawing chuckles from the audience.

Meanwhile today, pro- and anti-Yucca activists exchanged fire in the public relations war over shipping nuclear waste.

As the coalition of advocates was wrapping up its a two-day conference, designed to send a message that waste shipping is safe, environmentalists were arguing the opposite just a few blocks away.

Today's dueling groups underscored the importance of the transportation issue in the broader debate over Yucca Mountain.

It also underscored a palpable urgency, as both sides anxiously await a Senate vote. President Bush and the House have already approved Yucca, and the Senate showdown is the proposed project's final congressional hurdle.

"It's never too late, especially with something as controversial as this," said Chris Williams, an activist with an Indiana environmental group. "A lot of senators won't decide how they'll vote until it goes down to the wire, after they have weighed everything they need to weigh."

Environmentalists from around the nation, including two representatives from Citizen Alert's Las Vegas chapter, made their way around the Capital Beltway in a caravan -- including a Cadillac hearse -- pulling six mock nuclear waste containers this morning. The six casks have been traveling separately on America's highways in recent weeks, spreading a message that the plan to haul the nation's nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain invites risks of accidents and terrorist attacks. The six met at a rendezvous point outside of Washington on Monday.

The six casks, painted gray to resemble the steel containers used to haul waste on trucks, drew stares and a few honks today during rush hour on the busy interstate loop around the nation's capital.

"This is what we were counting on," said John Hadder, Northern Nevada coordinator for Citizen Alert, as traffic slowed to a standstill on the interstate.

The environmentalists then headed for Capitol Hill for a press conference, just as the Transport Coalition was concluding its "Capitol Hill Summit" on waste transportation in a nearby building.

Both groups are vying for the public's attention, and more immediately, the Senate's.

The coalition convened its conference to counter Nevada officials and environmentalists who have increased their anti-Yucca rhetoric in recent months based on the transportation issue.

Coalition co-Chairman Jack Edlow, whose business, Edlow International, specializes in shipping high-level nuclear waste, said the point of the conference was to stress that waste has been shipped safely for years.

On Monday he repeatedly stressed that the nuclear industry had experience in safe waste shipping, while Nevada officials are touting myths about likely accidents.

His co-chairman, Edward Davis, a waste container manufacturer, said the upcoming Senate vote had become a "de facto referendum" on whether it is safe to ship waste.

The environmentalists plan to return to their homes across the United States, but planned to keep the pressure on.

Ron Morrissette, an activist with the Citizen Action Network's Vermont chapter, said environmentalists are still pressuring the state's senators -- independent Jim Jeffords and Democrat Patrick Leahy -- even though the senators have said they support Yucca Mountain.

"Those two are key," Morrissette said. "We're keeping the heat on."