Reid, Bryan insist they have votes to thwart nuke bill

Nevada lawmakers have vowed to stop Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's move to get a floor vote on a bill to build a temporary nuclear waste dump at the Nevada Test Site.

Lott, R-Miss., filed a motion for a floor vote late May 22, as Congress recessed for 10 days. The vote on the motion has been set for Tuesday when Congress returns.

To bring the bill to the floor and cut off a promised filibuster by Nevada's two Democratic senators, Richard Bryan and Harry Reid, Lott needs 60 votes.

Lott then would need 67 votes, if all 100 senators vote, for the two-thirds majority necessary to override an expected White House veto of the temporary storage bill.

The Senate last year passed the bill 65-34, two votes short of the number needed to override a veto with one senator not voting.

Reid and Bryan said they have the 34 votes necessary against the bill, enough to sustain President Clinton's veto.

If the two senators cannot block the Senate from bringing the bill to the floor, both Bryan and Reid have said they plan to use stall tactics to deter Lott and nuclear industry backers of the bill. An eight-day stall could delay action on other business before the Senate.

Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Projects Office, said Lott may not bring the bill to the floor, unless he has the votes to override the president's threatened veto. The Clinton administration objects to temporary storage because it would detract from efforts to build a permanent repository.

"We've heard out here that the staffers are still writing the legislation," Loux said.

Utilities with nuclear power plants are pushing legislation for the government to open a temporary dump in Nevada so they can remove high-level radioactive wastes piling up at some 70 reactors around the country.

The U.S. Department of Energy has been sued by some utilities because it missed a Jan. 31 deadline to begin accepting irradiated fuel rods from commercial utilities. But officials fear that temporary storage will drain funds from studies at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the proposed permanent dump site.

It would be 2010 before Yucca Mountain opens, if it is proved scientifically sound.

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