Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Yucca lives or dies on Tuesday

Friday, Oct. 29, 2004 | 7:16 a.m.

Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

WEEKEND EDITION

October 30 - 31, 2004

Does Nevada deserve the nuclear waste dump?

I have heard many reasons that try to justify the government's effort to bury 77,000 tons of radioactive waste just a few miles from Las Vegas, and each one of them has been, in the language of our youth, bogus.

That's because there is no reason on Earth why thousands of trucks and trains full of high-level death need to travel through most major cities in this country on their way to Las Vegas and, ultimately, Yucca Mountain. Unless you believe that adding to the profits of the nation's power companies is a good reason or stuffing the already full coffers of President George W. Bush's campaign is sufficient enough reason to jeopardize every man, woman and child in this state for the next few hundred thousand years!

And I don't know anybody in this state who would trade the health, safety and security of his family or his neighbors just so President Bush and his friends can make more money. Actually, I do know a few of those people and I am not talking much to them anymore.

Until now, until this coming Tuesday when Nevada voters go to the polls to help choose the next President of the United States, we have always been victims of the nuclear power industry, the Department of Energy and Bush White House.

When Congress first decided to explore possible sites around this country over 20 years ago, Yucca Mountain was one of many potential places that was chosen to be studied for possible inclusion on a short list of burial candidates. Since Congress had chosen so many to investigate, alarms did not sound to the extent necessary to alert us that we were behind the eight ball. We were victims of neglect.

In 1987 the Screw Nevada Bill quickly made its way to President Ronald Reagan's desk. That legislation short-circuited the scientific pretense of the first law and singled out Nevada as the only site in the entire country to be considered. It called for years of scientific study followed by a decision in 2002 by the then current president. He was to decide, based on all the scientific evidence and the guarantee of a safe geologic site for thousands of years, whether Yucca Mountain was going to be the place for all eternity in which the deadliest radioactive substances on Earth would rest.

That legislative sleight of hand was orchestrated mainly by two senators, one from Louisiana and one from Texas. Both of them were very powerful people and decided, since their two states looked like sure winners for the dubious honor of being chosen the place where all the nation's problems would be buried, that just could not happen!

Nevada was a state with very few people, lots of federal land and virtually no electoral votes. To make matters worse, for some inexplicable reason, Nevada's senior senator, who was a close friend of President Reagan, did nothing to intercede on our behalf. And our junior senator was quick to follow his senior mentor's lead. He did nothing either.

That was a case in which Nevadans were victimized by more powerful, more able and more determined senators from others states, a small population for which nobody cared, two senators who made those who did nothing look busy, and a president who did what he was told, probably not having a clue what he was creating.

In the 1990s the Republican-controlled Congress tried in vain to send the radioactive waste our way years before the law allowed. They did it by trying to change the law. We were to be victims again, but that time we had people with guts, brains and considerable political brawn. Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan joined our representatives, Shelley Berkeley and Jim Gibbons, to outfox the power industry pawns in the GOP. And then they brought out the big guns of President William Jefferson Clinton who threatened vetoes twice before he finally had to exercise that presidential prerogative.

Then came the presidential election of 2000. Believing candidate Bush's promise to accept only sound science in making his decision about sending that deadly garbage to our state, Nevadans chose Bush and, by doing so, provided the margin of victory for his march to the White House.

In a very short time, President Bush reneged on his commitment and selected Nevada, over the objections of every reasonable scientific study. The Senate overwhelmingly caved in to the White House's pressure and the age-old "not in my backyard" syndrome.

Despite science, all rational thought and a complete disregard for the brand new threat of terrorism in our homeland -- and the unthinkable thought of thousands of "dirty" nuclear bombs just waiting to be unleashed on our highways and byways -- the president did what he always intended. He, like the Congress before him, screwed Nevada.

Once again we were victims. This time, the victims of President George W. Bush. That brings us to Election Day 2004. And, for the first time since this nightmare started three decades ago, Nevada has the chance to no longer be the victim. We have a chance to finally help ourselves. The choice between the two candidates is absolutely clear. On the one hand we have a president who has proved his unreliability by promising to follow sound science and, when the first opportunity presented itself, ignored that science and stuck that dump up our Yucca Mountain. And he continues to do all that he can to make sure those trucks and trains are rolling our way as soon as possible.

On the other hand is Sen. John Kerry, who has promised that if he is elected president Yucca Mountain will never open. Instead, he will challenge science to find a 21st century solution to the problem of nuclear waste. Backing him up is Sen. Harry Reid, who not only has confirmed that a President Kerry can stop the dump but that he, Harry Reid, will make sure his friend will do just that.

So there you have it. We can continue to be victims or we can determine our own destiny. We can continue to be the Entertainment Capital of the World or we can re-elect President Bush and risk turning this city into a ghost town.

In 2000, Nevada gave its electoral votes to Bush and made him president. This time we can give them to Sen. John Kerry and, most likely, make him president.

If we do that we will finally stop being victims. If we don't, we deserve the dump!

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