Saturday, April 13, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
There has never been an issue that has faced Nevadans with such potential for disaster than the ongoing effort by certain politicians in Washington to force the nation's high-level nuclear waste dump down our throats.
Ever since the idea first popped into the Machiavellian minds of the nuclear industry honchos and their stooges in Congress that Nevada, with its small population and limited electoral clout, would be a good place to dump the world's deadliest garbage, there has been a concerted effort to bury the country's mistakes in our desert.
Yucca Mountain is just 90 miles away from the busiest tourist destination in the United States and, perhaps, the world. Yet, in their infinite stupidity and with political malice, certain people in Washington have decided that Nevada's the ideal place to send what everyone else in the country doesn't want.
At first there was some pretext that good science would determine where the very best place to hide the nuclear mistakes of the past would be. What started out as a well-intentioned, albeit shortsighted, attempt to determine the best site for burial of thousands of tons of deadly radioactive garbage, quickly turned into a free-for-all with big state and other powerful senators scrambling to keep that stuff out of their back yards.
Under significant pressure from the big boys in the nuclear power industry to stop spending the billions needed to find an appropriate solution, the Congress led by Sen. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana decided that Nevada's Yucca Mountain was the only suitable site to bury the deadliest substances on Earth.
Science took a back seat to politics and Nevada's families have been fighting an uphill battle ever since. Lately, though, we have attracted some pretty significant allies in our fight to keep the federal government from destroying our health, our lives and our livelihood. Scientists from all over the map have concluded that Yucca Mountain is not safe and should not be the host for the radioactive mess for the next 10,000 years.
The big boys in Washington and their puppet masters in the nuclear industry do not like the handwriting on the wall and have decided to short-circuit the siting process, as flawed as it already is.
In the Senate sits a bill written by Sen. Larry Craig that finally unmasks the political machinations and exposes them for what they are. Sen. Craig wants Congress to make a political decision that Nevada is where a temporary dump site (that's read permanent burial ground in Washington parlance) should be built by 1998. That's less than two years away and that's without any scientific studies to support a finding that Yucca Mountain will safely hold that garbage for 10,000 years!
The good news for Nevadans is that President Clinton, true to his word that science and not politics should drive the answer to nuclear waste disposal, has promised to veto any bill that singles out Nevadans for such a dubious honor. The bad news is that his veto will need the support of 34 senators, senators who come from other states who don't want this stuff either. That's a rather tenuous reed on which to hang the future of our tourist industry and our children's health.
There may be some other good news, though.
It has been widely reported that the gaming industry has thrown its considerable financial support toward Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole. Since the hotel industry would be the first to wither and die on the vine of a nuclear waste accident, it makes sense that the industry execs will counsel Sen. Dole to use his considerable clout to stop any vote on a temporary dump site.
After all, Dole's campaign is centered on family values, and what greater value can any Nevada family have than the health and safety of its children? For some inexplicable reason, Sen. Dole has set a floor vote on the temporary dump site bill for later this month. That's at a time when important measures like welfare reform, balanced budgets and tax reform can't seem to find the light of day in Congress.
Certainly, if Sen. Dole wants Nevadans to consider his candidacy for president, the least he could and should do is cancel any vote on any bill that singles Nevada out for special nuke treatment.
The president's belief that science should be the only determinant of a long-term solution is the proper position. Anything else is pure, muscle politics that has no place in the determination of the health and safety of Nevadans or any other citizen of this country.
Bob Dole can stop the vote. Bob Dole should stop the vote.
As Nevadans, we don't want the country's nuke waste in our back yard. And as Nevadans, we don't want anybody to lead this country who wants otherwise.
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