Actor Cromwell criticizes Yucca dump

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, May 23, 2002 | 11:25 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- In an ongoing effort to draw Hollywood star power into the state's fight against Yucca Mountain, Nevada officials have drafted stars of the upcoming Tom Clancy thriller "Sum of All Fears" into speaking out against the controversial nuclear waste project.

James Cromwell, who plays the U.S. president in the movie, appeared with Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., and anti-Yucca environmental leaders today just before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee began its third and final hearing on Yucca. The full Senate is likely to vote on the project in July.

Morgan Freeman, who plays the CIA director, was scheduled to appear but could not, Cromwell said.

Nevada officials have tried with limited success to recruit Hollywood actors to help draw national attention to the Yucca project, a federal plan to ship the nation's high-level nuclear waste across the nation from 131 sites to Nevada for permanent burial.

Cromwell, citing the dangers of transporting highly radioactive spent fuel across the country to a Nevada dump, said the waste should be left at the nuclear power plants that produce it.

"Since these facilities will have to be protected anyway, keep the waste where it is," Cromwell said at the press conference outside the U.S. Capitol. "The taxpayer will be burdened and at risk if an accident happens."

Freeman, who had to catch a plane, shares his sentiment, Cromwell said. "When I told him about this, he said 'This stinks.' "

The actors were in Washington to attend the movie's premiere Wednesday.

Cromwell was nominated for an Oscar for his role in "Babe" and Freeman was nominated for roles in "Street Smart," "Driving Miss Daisy" and "The Shawshank Redemption."

Reid noted the parallel of the new movie's plot with what he called the real danger of a nuclear accident while transporting waste to Nevada. In the movie, which opens May 31, terrorists get a nuclear bomb.

"It's fiction, but is it really fiction?" he said. "There's a little bit of fiction, but it's mostly fact. We are concerned because if nuclear waste is hauled across America, there will be a lot of stray nuclear bombs."

Joan Claybrook, president of the environmental group Public Citizen, said Hollywood stars help draw national attention to the issue. "The message is getting out there across Hollywood-land."

Nevada officials and environmentalists lauded the hit NBC drama "The West Wing" for an April 3 episode that featured a nuclear waste transportation accident plotline.

Environmentalists also enlisted actor and activist Ed Begley Jr. to narrate an anti-Yucca commercial that ran in Vermont last month, designed to pressure Vermont Sens. James Jeffords, an Independent, and Democrat Patrick Leahy to vote against Yucca Mountain. Both still intend to vote for the project, aides said.