Letter: Sandoval missed chance on Yucca

Thursday, Sept. 23, 2004 | 9:11 a.m.

Who said the following?

"Nevada has recently enjoyed important legal victories, but it is incumbent upon everyone in the fight against Yucca Mountain to remain steadfast in our commitment to work together and prove to the world that the project poses unacceptable risks. The final battle over Yucca, at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, will prove that a safe repository cannot be built in the porous volcanic rock that constitutes Yucca Mountain. If the project has not collapsed by then, this final battle will expose it for being the ill-considered project that it is."

If you said Brian Sandoval, Nevada's attorney general, in his Sept. 12 article in the Sun headlined, "Yucca project to fail regardless of politics," you would be right.

But why, then, did Sandoval not take advantage of his speaking opportunity at the Republican National Convention to express these convictions?

He had the opportunity to tell the delegates how wrong the party's platform and president are. He let us down. One has to question Sandoval's commitment to ending this deadly project. Is he merely playing politics while protecting his political flank here in Nevada and in the White House?

There is only one way to ensure we are kept safe from Yucca. Choose the presidential candidate who is committed to ending this deadly project.

RICHARD MILLER