Editorial: Yucca should concern the state’s voters

Monday, Oct. 11, 2004 | 9:03 a.m.

The results of a statewide poll last week showed that a majority of Nevada residents who are very likely to vote oppose the federal plan to permanently bury the nation's high-level waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The poll, commissioned by the Las Vegas Sun, Channel 8 Eyewitness News and KNPR Nevada Public Radio, also revealed, however, that 57 percent of those who are very likely to vote say Yucca Mountain will not be important in affecting who they support for president.

We share the opposition to Yucca Mountain that a majority of voting Nevadans expressed. In hundreds of stories researched by our reporters over the past decade, we have pointed out its multiple safety hazards. The geologic features of the mountain are not sufficient to protect the underlying ground water and surrounding air and soils from radioactive contamination. And neither are the man-made casks in which the waste would be sealed before being entombed. So if Yucca Mountain opens, we'll have two barriers, the mountain and the casks, both unable to safely protect against contamination. Adding to the risk of Yucca Mountain is the need to transport the waste there from all over the country.

We do not, though, share the view of so many Nevadans who see no correlation between the presidential race and Yucca Mountain. President Bush has done everything in his power to expedite the mountain's opening, despite promising Nevada during his 2000 campaign that he would support the project only if "sound science" proved it would be safe. There never has been such proof and there never will be. In a second term, he would continue using all of his power to squelch Nevada's opposition. John Kerry, on the other hand, has a record of voting against Yucca Mountain and of speaking strongly against it on the campaign trail. "I'll guarantee you, if I'm elected president, Yucca Mountain is not going to happen. Nevada can take that to the bank," Kerry said last week in Reno.

Compare that to Bush's remark in Las Vegas during an August campaign stop, and his administration's follow-up. He said he would "stand by the decision of the courts" regarding Nevada's legal challenge to the project. This sounded good, because in July a federal appeals court had ruled that the design of Yucca Mountain was based on containing radiation for only 10,000 years, when a much longer, and likely unattainable, period was needed. But in September, Bush's Justice Department filed notice that it was reserving the right to challenge that ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court. Then late Friday afternoon, the Justice Department flip-flopped, announcing it wouldn't challenge the appeals court decision after all. Was it just coincidence the announcement came on the eve of another Bush visit to Las Vegas, and after polls have shown the president's race with Kerr y tightening?

In our view, the issue of Yucca Mountain should be extremely important to Nevadans as they decide on their choice for president.