Columnist Jeff German: Mushroom cloud hangs over state

Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2002 | 11:02 a.m.

The "mushroom cloud" license plate was considered dead and buried in a missile-proof cask six months ago.

But now it may be rising from the ashes of the state's nuclear waste fight in Washington.

The Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation is looking to revive the plate, which features a mushroom cloud from an atomic explosion, to raise money for its Las Vegas museum.

If timing is everything, the foundation last summer picked the worst possible time to push the mushroom design. It occurred during the height of the state's intense battle on Capitol Hill against the high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.

The special edition plate became an icon of the fight over nuclear waste, and few in Nevada officialdom wanted to be associated with anything nuclear as the political conflict raged in Washington.

State leaders, among them Gov. Kenny Guinn, found the design offensive and counter-productive to the fight. To them it looked as if the plate was advocating a weapon of mass destruction right smack in the middle of the nuclear waste battle. That was too much in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

It seemed as though the design, which attracted international attention, was on the verge of sparking nuclear war in Nevada. More effort seemed to go into condemning the license plate than working out the state's real problems.

Nevada leaders went ballistic when a poster of the plate found its way to the floor of the House while Congress was moving to approve sending the nation's radioactive waste to Nevada. A pro-Yucca Mountain congressman displayed the poster during the heated debate in a perverted attempt to show that Nevadans were prepared to accept the nuclear garbage.

That was all it took for Department of Motor Vehicles Director Ginny Lewis to announce on May 31 that she had decided to nuke the mushroom cloud design.

But the state ended up losing the nuclear waste fight in Washington, and with the battle now in the courts, the plate is turning out to have a longer half-life than its critics thought.

"You could make an argument that the interests of the day that tied Yucca Mountain to the mushroom cloud design have gone away," says Troy Wade, who chairs the foundation. "We're not suggesting ... that the weapons program was good or bad.

"We're simply saying that it represents 50 years of a very unique piece of Nevada and U.S. history and that one of the symbols by which the site is recognized is the mushroom cloud."

Guinn press secretary Greg Bortolin says the governor still finds the plate too hot for his tastes, and Tom Jacobs, a spokesman for Lewis, says the DMV director hasn't changed her mind, either.

That, however, isn't stopping Wade, a 40-year veteran of the government's nuclear weapons program, from pressing ahead.

With the help of state Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, Wade plans to rally support for the mushroom cloud design at the Legislature after the first of the year. He says Titus, though she's an ardent opponent of Yucca Mountain, backs the design. Titus was out of the country and couldn't be reached for comment.

But Wade says he's hoping the Legislature will pass a resolution approving the plate so that he can go back to the DMV with a new mandate.

When you think about it, as distasteful as nuclear weapons are to many Americans, there really isn't a better way to visualize the Test Site than by the dramatic footage of mushroom clouds billowing from the above-ground tests of the 1950s and 1960s.

You clearly can see that the plate is promoting history, not advocating mass destruction. The words, "Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation" are written on the bottom of the plate.

But if the critics persist, maybe there's a way to modify the design, such as adding an international symbol of peace to it.

The plate should be seen as a tribute to the thousands of Nevadans who participated in the atomic testing program, especially those who died from radiation exposure, to make the world a safer place to live.

If we look at it that way, then maybe Nevada officials will spend less time worrying about the mushroom cloud and more time solving the real problems of the state.