Tourism decline cited in Yucca proposal

Thursday, April 28, 2005 | 9:19 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Nevada's tourism business will "suffer greatly," especially in Las Vegas, if the federal government opens the nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain, an assemblywoman said Wednesday.

Assemblywoman Genie Ohrenschall, D-Las Vegas, urged the Senate Committee on Natural Resources to approve a resolution asking the Energy Department to junk the proposed repository.

Her Assembly Joint Resolution 4 gained the support of the Nevada Resort Association, the Nevada Conservation League, Eagle Forum and the Sierra Club.

The resolution said the decline in tourism would result in a loss of $91 million a year in tax revenue to local governments. And the location is just 90 miles northwest of one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation. It said 70 percent of Nevadans are against Yucca Mountain.

Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, the chairman of the committee, said he has had people tell him while on airplanes that they would not come back to Las Vegas if the repository is opened.

Sen. Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, said tourists ask about shows, transportation and other things in Las Vegas. But they also want to know about the possibility of the nuclear dump. "We hear that question a lot," she said.

Ohrenschall detailed all the problems the Energy Department has run into in constructing the project. The most sensible way to handle high-level nuclear waste is to leave it on-site at the power plants, she said.

She said most of the nuclear materials will be shipped from the eastern part of the country. One truck contains enough waste to make a dirty bomb, she said.

Morgan Baumgartner, a lobbyist for the Nevada Resort Association, said it initially opposed the project in 1991 and in 2002 contributed $250,000 to help the state with its legal fight against the Energy Department.

Yucca Mountain, she said, would result in a "decline in tourism."

Lynn Chapman, representing Eagle Forum, said, "We don't need to give the federal government any more power. We need to take it away."

Bob Loux, chief of the state's Office of Nuclear Projects, said the "project is failing" but another resolution by the Legislature helps in the effort to stop Yucca Mountain.

The Legislature in past years has passed a number of resolutions opposing the repository. Loux said this resolution "is more focused" on the shortcomings of siting the dump in Nevada.

The committee did not take any action on the resolution which passed the Assembly.