Editorial: How about us, too?

Friday, April 15, 2005 | 9:08 a.m.

We were glad to learn that the Bush administration will consider the terrorist dangers of shipping 44,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste cross-country and storing it temporarily in Utah versus leaving it at the reactors where the waste is now kept. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. told the Salt Lake Tribune that the commitment to review the situation was made to him by none other than Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. The pledge did surprise us, however, since Chertoff's predecessor, Tom Ridge, two years ago said his office had reviewed a similar plan -- shipping 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste to Nevada and permanently burying it in Yucca Mountain -- and found that it would be safe from a terrorist attack.

At the time we found Ridge's attempt to reassure Nevadans as being ludicrous, especially in light of the fact that sending nuclear waste to Nevada would require thousands of shipments across thousands of miles from other states. It's hard to imagine a more inviting target for terrorists. Although Utah's governor opposes Yucca Mountain, skeptics might speculate that Chertoff's review is more about politics. That's because Utah's two U.S. senators have backed the permanent burial of nuclear waste in Nevada on the condition that the Bush administration would help block any efforts by utilities to temporarily store nuclear waste on an Indian reservation in Utah. We hope, however, that Chertoff actually will take a serious look at the plan to ship nuclear waste to Utah. For that matter, Chertoff should also undertake a comprehensive review of plans to transport man's deadliest waste to Yucca Mountain, a project riddled by mismanagement and the falsifying of scientific documents.