Ensign: Bush’s Nevada win holds him to Yucca rulings

Benjamin Grove

Monday, Dec. 20, 2004 | 11 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said President Bush's victory in Nevada empowers the state to hold Bush to his promise that he will respect the rulings of the courts on Yucca Mountain.

Bush's 2-point Election Day victory in the state did not signal a waning support in Nevada for the state's fight against Yucca, Ensign said.

Ensign and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., have released a new poll they commissioned that shows 70 percent of the state opposes the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository and that 57 percent said Nevada officials should continue fighting it.

The Nevada senators wanted hard data to show lawmakers in Congress in the coming year that a Bush victory did not equal a softening on Nevada's anti-Yucca stance.

"We knew our opponents in Congress were going to use (the Bush win) in that regard," Ensign said today in a phone interview from Nevada. "We needed some ammunition. Proponents of Yucca will use anything they can back there. This election was not about Yucca Mountain for Nevada voters."

Bush's victory in Nevada gives the state leverage to hold Bush to his vow to allow court rulings to stand, Ensign said.

"Nevada was key to his victory," Ensign said. "We delivered Nevada."

A federal appeals court this year ruled that the 10,000-year radiation safety standard for the project is not in compliance with a much stricter standard advocated by the National Academy of Sciences, one that Yucca likely could not meet. Nevada officials are wary that lawmakers in Congress in the next session -- perhaps goaded by Bush -- may simply try to set a standard that Yucca could meet, effectively an end run around the court ruling.

Reid said Bush's victory in Nevada did not give the state's delegation in Congress a bargaining chip with Bush. "I don't think we need to bargain with them on anything" related to Yucca, Reid said.

Nevadans elected Bush even though he approved the project to construct a high-level nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Bush's victory would have been much larger if opponent John Kerry had not clearly stated he opposed Yucca, Reid said.

The survey commissioned by Reid and Ensign showed that voters made their vote for president based on these top four issues: Iraq, "moral issues," the economy, and the war on terror.

Fewer people than those surveyed for a January 2002 poll believe that Yucca is inevitable, according to the latest poll.

Thirty-eight percent said Yucca "is inevitable and nothing can be done about it" -- down 5 percentage points from the January 2002 poll. Fifty-eight percent believe "there are still political or legal ways to stop it" -- up 7 percentage points.

Still, 36 percent said nuclear waste would be stored at Yucca within two to five years and 24 percent expect waste at Yucca within six to 10 years. Eleven percent expect waste within the next year. Only 8 percent said waste would "never" be stored at Yucca. The Energy Department is striving to open Yucca by 2010.

The poll surveyed 600 registered voters between Nov. 30 and Dec. 2, It was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican pollster. The survey cost about $20,000, paid for with money in a state-administered fund established to fight Yucca, Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said.