Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Benjamin Grove: These anti-Yucca activists are driven

THE LIFE of an anti-Yucca activist is never glamorous, and sometimes it's smelly.

Consider Indiana activist Chris Williams, who last week had been on the road for 11 days hauling a 20-foot, gray wooden mock version of the steel containers that would be used to haul nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. Unwashed, unshaven and exhausted, the director of Indiana's Citizens Action Coalition was nevertheless in good spirits.

"Please forgive my grubby appearance," the disheveled Williams joked with reporters and bystanders at a Capitol Hill press conference last week.

Williams and five other drivers have been hauling mock casks on U.S. highways and interstates in recent weeks. Their mission: draw attention to the risks associated with the federal plan to transport high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain.

The six casks, based in different U.S. regions, met up Monday night outside Washington, in the parking lot of a warehouse owned by an environmental group. The activists crashed there. They seemed grateful for the shelter; the warehouse had a shower.

On Tuesday they made a high-profile appearance on the interstate beltway around Washington, at times slowing the early morning rush-hour traffic.

Commuters shot the caravan various looks -- of annoyance, curiosity, empathy. A few honked in support. The activists are used to seeing thumbs up -- and middle fingers.

The "wagon train" eventually made its way into the city for a press conference in front of the Capitol. I was riding along in one cask-toting sport utility vehicle. In a last-minute shuffling of crews, I ended up in the GMC of North Carolina activists and retirees Bonnie and Claude Ward. ("They call us Bonnie and Clyde," Bonnie said with a chuckle.) Joining us was Williams, riding shotgun. Packed in the back seat were Reno anti-Yucca activist John Hadder; Bonnie; the Wards' 11-year-old Shih Tzu, BJ; and me.

Each of the six crews had tales of woe from the road, including bad weather and breakdowns. Hadder's cask-toting pickup, donated for the trip by a sympathetic benefactor, gave out in South Bend, Ind. Hadder rented a U-haul to continue his journey to Washington.

Mostly the activists want to talk about the responses they get from people they meet. Most people still haven't heard about Yucca Mountain and are hungry to learn more, the activists said.

"First they are dumbfounded," Williams said. "Then they are angry. They can't for the life of them understand why the government wants to do this."

The activists speak out at protests, "teach-ins" at colleges, town councils, at stoplights and gas stations. They pack everything they need into the back of their tow vehicles: food, gear, piles of anti-Yucca brochures and posters.

The activists also pack an unwavering optimism.

They are not naive. They understand the political momentum Yucca Mountain has gathered in Congress. They know industry lobbyists have outspent and outmanned them in recent months. They know the odds are stacked against them -- that the Senate will likely approve Yucca next month. After that, only the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or federal courts can stop it.

Still, the activists are undeterred. They cling to the belief that they can eventually help defeat the federal plan. Their deep, personal belief that Yucca Mountain is a hopelessly flawed project drives them.

Hadder, with his long, blond pony tail and bushy mustache, had been on the road for 23 days. He had a long trek back to Nevada ahead. He had to deal with that pickup in South Bend. He missed his wife. He was tucked next to a tired dog with flaky skin.

But throughout the morning Hadder's focus rarely strayed from what he considers the utter folly of burying waste at Yucca Mountain for 10,000 years.

"This project is so immense and complex that it is beyond the DOE's capabilities, and that is going to become more evident over the life of the project," Hadder said, as the Wards' SUV poked along in traffic. "It's difficult for people to get their minds around the scale of this. The magnitude of the hazard is just something people don't have a handle on. We're talking about 500 generations."

As the anti-Yucca activists were circling their wagon train Tuesday, a group of nuclear industry executives had assembled a conference to showcase the long history of safe high-level nuclear waste shipping in America.

The conference, held just blocks from the anti-Yucca press conference, was convened by several waste shipping leaders, including Jack Edlow.

Washington-based Edlow International Co. has been shipping waste worldwide since the 1950s. The company was started by Edlow's father, Samuel, and Edlow's voice swells with pride when he mentions him. Edlow is also proud of the fact that more than 2,700 shipments have been made in the United States dating back decades -- some managed by his company -- and none have resulted in accidents that released radiation.

Edlow said the conference was designed to show the public that anti-Yucca forces were generating pure myths that waste shipping is risky.

The event was held in an ornate, air-conditioned hall, a setting in contrast with the warehouse where the anti-Yucca activists bedded down the night before. The industry executives wore expensive suits, not T-shirts and jeans.

They may not suffer modest trappings, but the industry officials are equally committed to their message that waste transportation is safe, and can be just as passionate as slogan-shouting Yucca protesters.

A day earlier, Edlow had called on Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to stop "throwing rocks" at the waste transportation industry. Reid responded by saying that industry officials were being "deceitful" by downplaying risks. Edlow seemed genuinely hurt by that, saying he was surprised "someone of a senator's stature" would call him a name.

When Edlow talks, it's clear he truly believes the United States can safely launch thousands of shipments of waste to Yucca Mountain without a serious accident.

As Edlow exited the conference, some of the anti-Yucca activists were there to heckle him and the other industry types, to Edlow's apparent surprise.

"I do not understand how they can say that there is something wrong with transportation. There isn't," Edlow said. "They cannot say that it cannot be done safely. It can."

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