Columnist Jeff German: Tide may wash away advocates of Yucca

Friday, Feb. 18, 2005 | 4:59 a.m.

Jeff German's column appears Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays in the Sun. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4067.

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February 19 - 20, 2005

There is no doubt in my mind now that the forces pushing the stalled Yucca Mountain project are in a panic mode.

"They're desperate to hold back the tide of public opinion that this thing is dead on arrival," says one Nevada congressional source fighting to keep the nation's high-level nuclear waste out of the state.

How desperate?

Well consider that, for the first time in the history of this 22-year battle, the pro-Yucca Mountain forces felt the need last week to travel into the heart of enemy territory in Carson City to spread their disinformation.

In the face of Yucca Mountain's growing troubles, there was former Gov. Bob List, the nuclear industry's well-paid mouthpiece in Nevada, telling the Senate Judiciary Committee, "the likelihood of this project is greater than it has ever been."

Are you kidding me?

Only two days earlier the Los Angeles Times had published an in-depth story on how Nevada's tenacity in the fight is paying dividends and raising questions about whether the multibillion-dollar project will ever go forward.

List's incredulous words once again reminded me of that Iraqi information minister, known as "Baghdad Bob," who boasted that his country was winning the war with the United States as American troops surrounded Baghdad.

I'll bet List even drew chuckles from his nuclear industry bosses, who are starting to consider alternatives to burying waste at Yucca Mountain, as the project heads toward a meltdown.

"It was like, holy cow, Bob. Give it up," says Peggy Maze Johnson, executive director of Citizen Alert, an anti-Yucca Mountain group. "Even people in the industry are saying it's in big trouble."

Just in case lawmakers had trouble believing him last week, List introduced them to Michael Bauser, a top lawyer with the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's influential Washington lobby, which has been working for 22 years to stick us with nuclear waste.

Bauser reminded the senators that Nevada has lost most of its legal battles to fend off the dump, and he suggested this was as good a time as any to give up the fight.

But Bauser didn't talk much about the legal battle Nevada won that has turned out to be the Achilles heel of the project -- its inability to meet a scientific standard for storing the waste safely.

Ever since a federal appeals court last July tossed out the government's inadequate standard, the project has taken a nose dive.

"It's sort of in a death spiral," says Bob Loux, Nevada's top Yucca Mountain watchdog. "And I don't think there's anything that anyone can do to stop it."

Loux and others in the Nevada camp say there's a growing lack of confidence in Washington in the project's ability to move ahead.

Look at the mounting evidence:

So here's a thought.

Maybe it's time for Bob List and his fellow Yucca Mountain mouthpieces to start waving the white flag.