Columnist Jeff German: Yes, we can stop the nuke dump

Tuesday, July 13, 2004 | 11:03 a.m.

We're just beginning to feel the fallout from last week's federal appeals court decision in the battle over Yucca Mountain.

The stakes in the presidential race have been raised, the Bush administration is re-examining its faulty safety standards, appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court are being considered and Congress may be asked to undermine the court's decision.

No one knows how it will all play out.

But the one thing we do know is that the process of sending the nation's high-level waste to Yucca Mountain by 2010 is going to be delayed, which is a victory for everyone in the trenches here.

We also know that, as long as we're willing to keep fighting, we have an opportunity to win this epic war.

If John Kerry, the Democratic presidential challenger who has pledged to kill the dump, is elected in November our chances of prevailing will be even greater.

So those who think Yucca Mountain is inevitable had better think again.

It isn't inevitable, and the court proved that with its decision. The court found that the Environmental Protection Agency violated the law when it ignored the scientific community and devised unsafe standards to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

The decision provided us with the best evidence yet that President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress, who are beholden to the wealthy nuclear industry, are determined to send us the nation's radioactive waste without any regard for our well-being.

The court last week put the evildoers on notice to change their ways.

The truth, it turns out, has become our best weapon in this fight, which makes me wonder why some among us still think we should give up.

I understand why former Gov. Bob List, the spokesman for the naysayers, wants us to raise the white flag and seek benefits for Yucca Mountain.

List is a well-paid consultant for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear industry's Washington-based lobbying arm, which is pushing the multibillion-dollar project. His job is to spread disinformation and help the industry undermine Yucca Mountain opposition on the homefront.

Last week List's reaction to the ruling reminded me of the propaganda-driven Iraqi information officer who boasted that his country was winning the war with the United States as American troops closed in on Baghdad.

While Nevada leaders on Friday were hailing the court decision as a victory, List called it a "very broad and sweeping win for the Yucca Mountain program."

On Monday I gave the former Republican governor a chance to discuss the decision after he had a weekend to think about it. But true to his pocketbook, he said he was more convinced than ever that the dump is coming here.

"This is not a show-stopper," List said from France, where he is vacationing.

The court, he said, shot down the state's biggest legal argument -- that it was unconsitutional to single out Yucca Mountain.

But the minute the court concluded that sound science played no role in choosing Yucca Mountain, it gave us reason to keep fighting -- and to say shame on the Bob Lists of the world.