Thursday, May 30, 2002 | 11:10 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- The advertising war over Yucca Mountain continues this week with a pro-Yucca Mountain advertising blitz in newspapers in four key states and new television commercials in Wyoming.
The newspaper advertisements, including some full-page displays in Delaware, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington, ran Tuesday, today and will appear again June 2.
The ads were paid for by the Alliance for Sound Nuclear Policy, a coalition of nuclear industry and pro-Yucca groups. The alliance includes the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear power industry's top lobby outfit and a leading Yucca advocate in Washington.
The alliance placed the ads at a key time as the lobbying battle over Yucca continues in the Senate.
The alliance purposely ran the advertisements just days before an expected June 5 vote on Yucca in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, alliance director Sherry Reilly said. The committee vote would set up a full Senate vote, expected in July.
The House earlier this month approved the plan to ship the nation's high-level nuclear waste from 131 temporary storage sites nationwide to a permanent dump in tunnels under Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Among the senators who sit on the Senate Energy panel are four from the states targeted by the alliance: Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Thomas Carper, D-Del.; Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; and Gordon Smith, R-Ore.
"We're just trying to get the message out there," alliance director Sherry Reilly said.
The alliance ran four different ads in the four states, each featuring a different photo image. The Rhode Island ad featured a photograph of Yucca Mountain with the message, "For America's environment and national security, there's only one place for nuclear waste: Yucca Mountain, Nevada."
The four ads feature similar ad copy explaining that Yucca Mountain is a permanent solution to the nuclear waste problem.
"It just makes sense nuclear waste should be permanently disposed at a secure, specially designed facility far away from our waterways, towns and cities," the ads say.
The ads urge readers to call their senators, with phone numbers listed. The ad running in Delaware features sailboats with the message, "Store nuclear waste on the shores of the Delaware River? Or in the remote Nevada desert? It's the U.S. Senate's call." It's not clear yet how effective the advertising might be.
Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., plans to vote against Yucca despite the alliance's pro-Yucca ad, a Biden spokesman said. Carper has not said publicly where he stands on Yucca, spokesman Brian Selander said. Neither lawmaker had seen the ad yet, the aides said. Selander said the ad had generated "a few" calls to Carper's office.
The alliance and anti-Yucca groups have also purchased air time for dueling television commercials in three states: Vermont, Utah, and most recently in Wyoming. The anti-Yucca spots stress the dangers of waste shipping; the alliance commercials argue that shipping is safe.
The dueling ads began airing in Wyoming this week. Physicians for Social Responsibility, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning group that opposes Yucca, purchased the $99,000 air time to run the anti-Yucca commercial through mid-June in several Wyoming markets, said Jaya Tiwari, one of the group's research directors.
The spot is unlikely to sway the Wyoming senators. Republican Craig Thomas, who sits on the Senate Energy panel, has been a vocal advocate of Yucca. Republican Mike Enzi has supported Yucca in past Senate votes.
A Vermont environmental group, in cooperation with Nevada officials, kicked off the TV commercial war in Vermont in April, and the alliance responded with its own spot. Similar ads later aired in Salt Lake City.
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