Nevadans hope to spread anti-Yucca message nationwide

Erin Neff

Friday, March 29, 2002 | 5:25 a.m.

Nevada's fight against the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump is playing out in a chain of official processes -- Gov. Kenny Guinn's expected veto, a congressional vote to overturn the veto, and the courts in which the state is suing the government over the issue.

But Yucca opponents believe their best best is in the court of public opinion, with a proposed $10 million television campaign highlighting the dangers of transporting nuclear waste.

Public sentiment is the grass fire of the Yucca Mountain battle. Right now the opposition is mostly limited to Nevada, but elected officials are fanning the flames in hopes of spreading the message far enough to reach those who have the next crack at the state's fate -- the U.S. Senate.

Nevada officials believe they have a chance to block the dump by convincing enough senators to vote against it. To do that, Nevada leaders are asking for a $10 million public relations campaign that would target key states through which nuclear waste would be transported on the way to Yucca Mountain. The campaign would include television commercials and grass-roots efforts to try to stir opposition and put pressure on the state's politicians.

The campaign is already under way with Nevada officials using polls, the national news media and even the popular television drama "The West Wing" to make Yucca Mountain a household name from the heartland to the heart of the nation's government.

Last week two polls took center stage, with one suggesting it is possible to reach out from Nevada with a message that will resonate and another saying Nevadans support spending money for such a campaign.

A nationwide survey of 1,000 adults, conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, found Americans evenly split over the proposed nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"As people become more informed on the issue we will find polls reflecting greater opposition," said Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams, a staunch dump opponent.

The Ipsos poll bears that out well. Initially, 53 percent of respondents said they did not know enough about Yucca Mountain to give an opinion. But after hearing three statements in favor of the project and three against, the public was split with 47 percent in favor and 47 percent against.

A Las Vegas Sun poll commissioned last week found support within Nevada to go after the fence sitters. The poll, conducted by UNLV, found 68 percent of Clark County residents support a special session of the Legislature to appropriate $10 million to the dump fight.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said he knows a targeted public relations campaign can work because letters he has written to Speakers of the House in other states have raised concerns.

"Some of them just weren't aware," Perkins said. "When you give them a little bit of information they begin to understand how dangerous it will be to transport waste through their states."

Clark County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera said he found similar response when touting Nevada's dump opposition to the National Association of Counties.

"Just talking to people outside Nevada helps spread the message," he said.

Guinn is using the Fourth Estate the same way and said he has gotten tremendous response from appearances on the McNeil-Lehrer Newshour and C-SPAN.

"Everything we're looking for now is publicity," Guinn said. "Not with the Las Vegas Sun, not with the Review-Journal, but with the rest of the nation.

"Every time we get on a national television program it helps," Guinn said.

On Saturday Nevada's message was in The New York Times. On Wednesday it will subtlely reach 17.7 million viewers of The West Wing when one of the drama's story plots involves the crash of a truck transporting spent uranium fuel rods.

The transportation issue is slowly coming into focus nationwide as newspapers from Los Angeles to northern Indiana report on how waste would trek past seacoasts on barges and through bedroom communities on railcars.

The Ipsos poll found that 61 percent of Americans surveyed objected to transporting waste through their backyards.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said each Nevadan has a responsibility to phone friends and relatives around the country with the same message.

"They're talking about 96,000 shipments of waste," he said. "Just think about 96,000 anything. You don't need a bin Laden -- all it takes is one accident."

U.S. Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., think the message can trickle up from concerned citizens to Congress.

"We feel that with the right effort, we can prevail," Reid said.

That effort could begin as early as this week in select newspapers nationwide where readers might see an ad telling them to watch The West Wing on Wednesday to see how dangerous it can be to transport waste.

But ultimately it will be television ads in targeted states that Reid and Ensign hope can cause a big enough groundswell to be felt in Washington.

"When Sen. Reid and I have been going to the senators, most of them haven't given it much thought," Ensign said. "But when we keep talking about it they see the bigger picture."

If their constituents are seeing that same picture, Reid said, it could make it easier for some to vote with Nevada.

In addition to the planned television campaign, Nevada hopes to spread the word in a daylong House Transportation Committee hearing scheduled for May 9.

"I think it will help us pick up votes," said state Sen. Jon Porter, who will be one of several Nevada officials testifying at that hearing. "If we can pick up one more vote in the Senate it will help."

Guinn is expected to veto President Bush's recommendation that Yucca Mountain store the nation's nuclear waste sometime within the next two weeks. After his veto, Congress will have 90 days to either override him or sustain the veto.

Nevada's best chance to block the dump is by getting 51 votes in the Senate to sustain Guinn's veto.

"We want to do everything we can to get the message out," Guinn said.

One of the ways Guinn thinks he can do that is with the veto. Whether hand-delivered in Washington or highlighted here in Nevada, Guinn said he hopes to gain national media attention with his objection.

"It's the first time in history a governor can veto the president," Guinn said. "We think that's newsworthy, and we think it will draw attention to the fight."