McCain shows obstinacy

Sunday, March 8, 2009 | 3:08 a.m.

When Sen. John McCain of Arizona ran last year as the Republican presidential nominee, he made no secret of his desire to turn Yucca Mountain — 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas — into the nation’s dump site for high-level nuclear waste. That was one of the reasons he was pummeled in Nevada’s November general election by Democrat Barack Obama, who now occupies the White House.

Since his defeat, McCain has continued to assume a lead role as a tool of the nuclear power industry. This was evident Thursday when he grilled Energy Secretary Steven Chu at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on support for scientific research.

While arguing that expanded use of nuclear power was necessary to help combat the buildup of greenhouse gases, McCain expressed his displeasure with the Obama administration’s opposition to the Yucca Mountain project and its vow to pursue a new strategy for nuclear waste disposal.

When asked by McCain what was wrong with Yucca Mountain, Chu responded: “I think we can do a better job.” When Chu later confirmed that Yucca Mountain was no longer an option being considered by the administration, McCain whined: “Now we’re going to have spent fuel sitting around in pools all over America.”

But Chu, a Nobel Prize laureate in physics, stood his ground.

He told the senator that the interim storage of waste at reactors through a process known as solidification “is something we can do today.” Chu also said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission “has said we can do it safely.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was quick to note after the hearing that President Obama and Chu “are holding firm on their commitment to kill the dump.”

In contrast, McCain’s tiresome refusal to give up on Yucca Mountain reflects poorly on Nevadans who supported his presidential candidacy. Those supporters conveniently overlooked the fact that a radioactive dump would pose a lethal hazard to Nevada residents and tourists alike, not to mention the danger caused by transporting waste to this state from reactors throughout the country.

It is time for McCain and like-minded nuclear power advocates to drop their support of the ill-conceived Yucca Mountain project. Instead, they should work with the Obama administration on nuclear waste alternatives that make far more sense.