Editorial: Location, location, location

Monday, Oct. 6, 2003 | 8:34 a.m.

No state has chosen to stand up and be counted as Nevada's staunch ally in opposing the burial of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Nevada has been left alone to fund its legal battle against a powerful federal government bent on sending the deadly material here by way of trucks and trains whose daily processions across the country will last for decades. We are without allies because none of the other states want the poison within their borders -- not because they have put their trust in the Energy Department.

This much is becoming clear as Congress moves closer to a decision on an Energy Department request that would likely affect most states and which would have an immediate affect on nuclear waste in Idaho, South Carolina and Washington. The department asked to have the sole authority over classifying the waste at former nuclear weapons plants in those three states. A classification of the waste as low level would mean it would stay on site. A classification as high level would mean the waste would ultimately be destined for Yucca Mountain, providing the government overcomes Nevada's legal fight and opens a repository there.

Suddenly, states are not so willing to go along with a DOE plan. There is no appetite among senators or representatives for giving the Energy Department that kind of sole decision-making authority in their states. They are hemming and hawing and mewling and stewing and we can see where it's all going to end -- with a decision to reject the Energy Department's request and preserve the right of states to share in the classification decisions. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said last week that House-Senate conference members considering the request "had no intention" of granting it.

We don't blame them a bit for not trusting the Energy Department. We've been telling the country all along that its decisions about Yucca Mountain are dangerously flawed. The other states' reaction to this Energy Department request is a good indication that they would be fighting Yucca Mountain as hard as Nevada is -- if it were within their borders.