Editorial: No signs of wavering on Yucca

Friday, July 18, 2003 | 10:12 a.m.

A plan in the Republican-controlled House would boost funding for the Yucca Mountain budget from roughly $325 million this year to $765 million in the next fiscal year. Not even the request by President Bush, whose plan to bury 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain was approved by Congress last year, is that high: The White House is seeking a $591 million budget. While the Republican-led Senate wants to increase the Yucca Mountain budget, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is using his influence in an effort to get a budget passed in the upper chamber with $425 million in funding.

It's obvious that the Republicans, who control both the White House and Congress, are determined to bury the nation's high-level nuclear waste just 90 miles north of Las Vegas. The House also is considering plans to make Yucca Mountain an interim dump, even though no final decision has been made yet by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as to whether Yucca Mountain is suitable as a nuclear waste dump. An interim storage dump, of course, is a none-too-subtle plan to make Yucca Mountain a fait accompli.

Then there's the matter of a General Accounting Office report released this week, a report that says a new Energy Department plan to accelerate its cleanup of nuclear waste now stored at U.S. weapons sites could be placed in jeopardy by technical and legal challenges. As reported Thursday, the failure of the cleanup plan could mean that more of that waste could be bound for Yucca Mountain -- which would overload the dump and possibly require it to be dangerously expanded.

The environmental dangers of storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, the hazards associated with shipping cross-country man's deadliest waste and the huge cost overruns at the project all have been well documented. So when a government tries to fast-track a controversial project or promotes its "inevitability," as is the case with Yucca Mountain, it almost always means that deep down federal officials are worried about the project's fate. While the odds seemingly wouldn't favor Nevada, this state needs to stand opposed resolutely to the Yucca Mountain project, fighting it in the courts and during the licensing process. This is a battle in which Nevada can never waver.