Hearing highlights danger of taking waste to Yucca

Kirsten Searer

Monday, March 8, 2004 | 9:44 a.m.

Reps. Jon Porter and Shelley Berkley said they were heartened Friday by the reactions of congressional members who heard testimony about the dangers of shipping nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain.

The members of a congressional subcommittee on railroads heard testimony Friday from experts about the proposed rail route that would go through the Caliente corridor.

"They were shocked at what they heard in the testimony," Porter said. "That's a goal of mine."

More and more congressional members who voted for the Yucca Mountain projects are seeing problems with it as information about the project gets out, both Porter, R-Nev., and Berkley, D-Nev., said.

The Energy Department now favors transporting the waste mostly by rail, and an administrator said Friday he hopes to have more firm plans on the routes through the nation in a month or two. The current plan would put most of the waste on an extensive new rail line that would run through Caliente, northwest around the Nevada Test Site and south to Yucca Mountain.

But the routes also would transverse the country, and many have said the rail cars carrying nuclear waste would be a prime target for terrorist attacks.

Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., a member of the subcommittee, said she voted for the Yucca Mountain Project but was upset to hear testimony Friday.

Now, Brown said, she is "having second and third thoughts" about her vote.

"I made a mistake," she said. "I certainly am going to push that we do something immediately."

Richard Bryan, former senator and governor of Nevada, Richard Bryan testified that the proposed rail routes would pass through 44 states and near 51 million Americans. He said there is no immediate need for the project, but people in the administration are trying to push it through.

Robert Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, testified that the Energy Department has mapped out a potential rail route without consulting leaders in Nevada or the private property owners whose land would be affected.

The department has planned out a route based entirely on "political expediency," he said.

Stephen Cloobeck, chairman and chief executive of Diamond Resorts International, testified that the entire Nevada economy could be wiped out if any sort of leak occurred near Las Vegas and tourists were afraid to visit here.

"The effects would be devastating to this community," he said. "You can kiss the state's economy goodbye."

Jeff van Ee, who represented the environmental Sierra Club, also testified that the proposed rail route would cut through three designated wilderness areas and another area that the Nevada Wilderness Project soon hopes to protect.

The testimony heard Friday might not be new to people who have heard the ongoing debate in Nevada, but Porter said he wanted to get the message out to other people in Congress and have the information on the record.

"This has traditionally been a battle of us against them," Porter said.

By alerting congressional members to the dangers that exist in transporting the waste around the nation and in their districts, Porter said he hopes he can win allies in fighting Yucca Mountain.

Berkley said several times Friday that she does not believe that Yucca Mountain will ever open.

"When more and more of my colleagues become educated on the problems surrounding nuclear waste and the follies of this project, it will not be built," she said. "This hearing was spectacular."