Where I stand -- Brian Greenspun: DOE's bullying tactics put Nevadan's lives in jeopardy

BRIAN GREENSPUN is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

IF YOU DON'T LIKE the rules, change 'em.

I remember in grade school that the bullies in our class used to make all the rules. When the rest of us finally figured out how to win, the rules were changed. It was a simple and most effective way for the guys with the brawn to stay ahead of the game.

But that was in grade school.

That's not supposed to be the way the world works once you pass the age of maturity, whenever that is. Is it? And if that's still the case in other parts of the globe, does America operate that way? I used to think not.

In fact, one of the great attractions about living in these United States is that people can get ahead, can achieve and can succeed by using their brains. That's because we all operate under a similar set of rules. Rules that can not and will not be changed at the whim of one or two people.

We call those rules the Constitution of the United States, a document that speaks to the equality of all men -- and women -- and sets the standards by which our government is supposed to operate on our behalf.

And now that Congress has just made a major inroad into reforming the Internal Revenue Service so that it will tend to operate within instead of without our precious Constitution, there appears to be only one institution of government left that needs serious attention.

That institution is the Department of Energy. You see, the DOE has a problem. It is called nuclear waste and there is plenty of it building up around the country waiting for a place to call home. Before I go too far, let me assure each of you that I realize that the DOE is not the sole and even the real culprit. The bad guys in this story belong to the nuclear power industry which cares not one whit what happens to the radioactive garbage it produces, only that something happens that removes it from sight.

Enter Nevada and enter the DOE -- which so far has been the puppet played proudly by the nuke industry -- and re-enter the world of the bully.

Years ago, when Congress was making a somewhat reasonable effort to find a place to bury the radioactive poison that was building up across America, the nuclear waste producers decided that studying a multiple number of potential sites was both expensive and time consuming. They prevailed upon their votes in Congress and the Reagan Administration to change the rules so that only Nevada could win the ultimate prize -- the final resting place for the deadliest garbage man has ever created.

The guidelines were set to supposedly protect the health and safety of the few hundred thousand Las Vegans who lived not too far away from Yucca Mountain and the work began. With only one site to investigate it became a foregone conclusion that Nevada was the sweepstakes winner and, conversely, the people who lived and worked here were the losers.

But surprise, surprise, Nevadans fought back. We don't want that poison in our backyards any more than any other citizens of this country want it in theirs. We gathered scientific evidence to refute DOE claims that Yucca Mountain is going to be safe for 10,000 years.

Here comes that bully. One of the big problems with Nevada is water. No, not the lack of it but the fact that the very place the government wants to bury its problem is where the water runs through it and not very deep. Add to those problems the fact that the groundwater practically exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency's standards for radioactive safety, and DOE has a problem.

So what does it do? Like any bully worth his salt, the DOE is proposing to change the rules. After we have long settled on a number that is designed to protect American citizens from health hazards, the DOE wants to change those standards to help it meet the realities of the game it is playing.

In short, if the numbers don't work, change them. And if changing the rules of the game -- in this case it is a game of life and death -- makes you a winner or allows the radioactive garbage to be buried in our desert, then that justifies the action.

Hold on a minute. That doesn't make sense and it just isn't right. DOE has an obligation to meet the standards required -- as if we had a clue today -- for safe storage for the next 10,000 years. It is a bit too fast and far too loose with the facts to allow DOE to change the standards so that it can meet them, regardless of the threat to human and other animal and plant life which hangs in the balance.

If anything, the DOE bully should be sent home with a black eye and a clear loss on its record. To do otherwise is to jeopardize every man, woman and child who will ever grow up in Nevada and millions of Californians and others who eat the food and drink the milk that was nourished by the water that runs beneath Yucca Mountain. For at least the next 10,000 years!

Changing the rules in the middle of the game was always the bully's way. It was no way to run a playground in elementary school and it is, by no means, the way to run a country in which the health and safety of Americans hangs in the balance.

archive