Editorial: Yucca not just hazard to Nevada

Wednesday, March 6, 2002 | 8:40 a.m.

Yucca Mountain wasn't in the vocabulary of most Americans a month ago, but that began to change in a big way on Feb. 15. That was the date of President Bush's belated Valentine's Day gift to Nevada, when he designated Yucca Mountain as the nation's nuclear waste dump. Prior to Feb. 15 Nevada's congressional delegation and local and state officials hadn't encountered great success in their efforts to get other cities and states concerned about the possibility that the nuclear waste transportation routes would come close to their neighborhoods and businesses. But nothing seems to focus the mind like the specter of trucks or trains hauling nuclear waste through a lawmaker's district or state.

One of the most prominent opponents of Yucca Mountain outside Nevada -- and who isn't a Johnny-come-lately to the issue -- is the House minority leader, Richard Gephardt, D-Mo. Last weekend Gephardt did the kind of thing that will help Nevadans significantly as they try to garner enough votes in Congress to override Bush's decision. Gephardt spoke at an anti-Yucca Mountain rally held at a train depot in Webster Groves, a city in the metropolitan area of St. Louis. Gephardt said that unless the waste stays on site at the nuclear power plants where it now is safely kept, nuclear waste would soon be lumbering through Webster Groves and other cities across the United States. The Utah Legislature, meanwhile, is considering a resolution to oppose the dump. Utah is concerned about transportation risks and is worried that some nuclear waste could be temporarily st ored on an Indian reservation in the state until Yucca Mountain was ready to accept the waste.

The fight for Nevada over Yucca Mountain won't be easy, though, because Republicans in the House will be reluctant to rebuff their congressional leaders who are ardent dump supporters, such as House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. And Republican senators -- even Democrats for that matter -- may be unwilling to cross the president. Still, that shouldn't deter Nevada's congressional delegation from looking everywhere for votes. For example, pockets of opposition can be found in Southern California's Inland Valley, which includes portions of San Bernardino County. "I've got a huge problem with it," Rep. Gary Miller, a California Republican from Diamond Bar, told the Los Angeles Times on the day Bush chose Yucca Mountain. "All I see is a huge risk," Miller said, referring to the dangers of transporting nuclear waste through rural areas of California. Miller als o isn't sold on the Department of Energy's assurances that the canisters holding the nuclear waste would be invulnerable to! an accident. "Space shuttles are pretty safe, too," Miller said sarcastically, noting the space shuttle Challenger explosion.

It's been said that all politics is local. Well, if Nevada can just peel off enough like-minded members of Congress such as California's Gary Miller, then it just may have a shot at pulling off an upset over the nuclear power industry and its influential friends in Congress.