Editorial: Going nuclear in Washington

Friday, Oct. 7, 2005 | 8:07 a.m.

At first blush you wouldn't think any Nevadans would be attending a meeting of Yucca Mountain supporters in Washington. But there sat Caliente Mayor Kevin Phillips on Wednesday, raving about the mountain as the perfect site for a nuclear waste dump. The meeting was called by pro-Yucca groups working to get the repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas in Nye County, opened as soon as possible.

"We hear all the bad stuff about 'Yucky Mountain' but that site has great attributes," Phillips said at the meeting. Caliente, population 1,000, is in Lincoln County about 130 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Its most notable feature is a railroad. If Yucca Mountain is granted a license by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Caliente might see some business. A proposed Energy Department transportation plan calls for a new railroad line to be built there so that trains carrying nuclear waste could be switched eastward to Yucca Mountain.

Phillips' support of Yucca Mountain is rooted in his hope that it will mean jobs as the new line is constructed and Caliente becomes a switching point. This is the ultimate in shortsightedness. In January, flash flooding washed out railroad tracks near Caliente. Has the mayor thought about the consequences of a derailed train full of nuclear waste? Phillips should think more about his city, and more about the safety of the whole state, before turning his back on Nevada's long-standing fight against Yucca Mountain.