Editorial: Nuke report serves only as a pacifier

Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2003 | 8:41 a.m.

On the surface, a report released last week by the General Accounting Office prompts a feel-good response to the issue of transporting high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. The conclusion -- "little risk of public harm" -- is wonderful, unless the reader delves a little deeper into the report. Then it is discovered the report is not based on new information or new tests. It is, in fact, simply a report based on a review of existing federal reports. Not surprisingly, then, the conclusion amounts to a pacifier for the American public. Nevada has been warning for years about all of the overly optimistic reports emanating from the federal government, which is under extreme pressure from the nuclear power industry to license Yucca Mountain as a burial site.

The true value of the report is the GAO's admission that worst-case scenarios have not been evaluated. Will casks containing the waste stand up to rocket attacks or planes crashed into them? Would they stand up to a tornado or remain sealed if the train or truck carrying them plunged off a bridge? These elemental questions still have no answers. The truth is, there can never be an honest feel-good report on this subject -- as no one will ever know until the day a shipment is caught up in such a scenario.