Sierra Club offers site for waste

Suzanne Struglinski

Thursday, Oct. 7, 2004 | 9:39 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Critics of the Yucca Mountain project want other opponents to tell President Bush where he can stick the nuclear waste.

On his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

The Sierra Club launched a Web site, www.nevadaisnotawasteland.com, on Tuesday encouraging opponents of the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas to send a letter to the president asking him to store the nuclear waste on his ranch and not it Nevada.

"With nearly 1,600 acres of space, it's surely big enough," according to the Sierra Club site. "And since its owner thinks storing nuclear waste is perfectly safe why would he have a problem with it? More importantly, President Bush should not ask Nevadans to do something that he's not prepared to do himself."

Visitors to the Web site are greeted by three smiling little girls of different ethnic groups and a doctored photo of Bush leaning on a fence at his crawford ranch over green, glowing barrels of radioactive waste. Those wanting to send a letter can fill out a form on the bottom of the page.

The President approved the Yucca Mountain site in 2002 allowing the project to move forward, but has said on the campaign trail he will let the courts have the final say on the project.

Democrats say Bush lied to Nevadans when he said he would base his decision on "sound science" because he approved the project despite numerous outstanding scientific questions.

Bush said he listened to scientists and other involved with the project and will let the courts and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission decide what to do.