Nevadans lobbying Utah against Yucca

Diana Sahagun

Tuesday, May 28, 2002 | 9:26 a.m.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., are in Salt Lake City today to put pressure on key Utah officials to side with Nevadans in opposing Yucca Mountain.

Goodman, Reid and Las Vegas Councilman Gary Reese were scheduled to hold a news conference today to highlight the risks and costs of transporting nuclear waste through Utah on the way to Yucca Mountain.

They were to be joined by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, who oppose the plan to bury the nation's nuclear waste in Nevada. Matheson earlier this month testified before the House subcommittee on highways and transit against the project.

The tour comes on the heels of a major public relations campaign by Nevada that includes several television commercials airing in Utah. The effort is designed to lobby Utah's senators -- Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett, both Republicans -- to vote with Nevada when the issue goes before the Senate in July.

So far Reid has said he believes he has 35 Democrats to vote with Nevada in opposing Yucca Mountain. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., has one Republican to vote with Nevada. Nevada needs 51 votes to sustain Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of the dump.

Goodman said he hopes the trip gives him the opportunity to spread the message to all mayors about the dangers of transporting nuclear waste.

"I want to get the message out that it's not Nevada's problem, it's the nation's problem," Goodman said Friday. "Until they do adequate studies to show us the transportation is not a critical issue, than we shouldn't even be talking about Yucca Mountain as a site."

In addition to the news conference, Nevada's officials were scheduled to attend a reception with the Salt Lake City Council at the University of Utah. Goodman said he's also hoping to meet with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to gain their support in opposing the project.

Anderson, who testified against the Yucca Mountain project before the Senate Energy and National Resources Committee this week, continues to urge Salt Lake City residents and Utah's congressional delegation to oppose the project.

"Salt Lake City will see more nuclear waste traveling to Yucca Mountain than any other city besides Las Vegas, exposing many of use to daily doses of radiation,"' Anderson wrote in a prepared statement. "Just one major accident or one terrorist attack could devastate our city."