Editorial: When will it sink in for them?

Wednesday, May 22, 2002 | 8:56 a.m.

Yucca Mountain's geology alone -- it sits in an active earthquake zone -- should rule it out as a dumpsite for high-level nuclear waste. But 49 other states don't want 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste, so the harm posed by burying the waste in Nevada often is ignored. Nevada's elected officials know, however, that the dangers of cross-country transportation of nuclear waste might swing votes their way.

This week Nevada received a boost in its uphill battle against Yucca Mountain. Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board during the Clinton administration, says the Senate shouldn't decide Yucca Mountain's fate until nuclear waste shipping containers are adequately tested. Hall, a paid consultant for the state of Nevada, says it was irresponsible for the Energy Department to seek congressional approval for Yucca Mountain without detailed plans on how the waste would be shipped, including emergency preparedness plans in the event of an accident or terrorist attack. Hall isn't the only transportation expert to have weighed in on the transportation risks. Joan Claybrook, president of the advocacy group Public Citizen and former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, also has come out against Yucca Mountain.

What is inexplicable is that Nevada has to work so hard to get the attention of the other states' senators about shipping nuclear waste. The Senate should listen to experienced, well-regarded transportation safety experts such as Hall and Claybrook. In the wake of Sept. 11, the U.S. government contends it is doing all that it can to ward off future terrorist attacks, but approving the cross-country shipping of man's deadliest waste would fly in the face of those efforts.