Editorial: Yucca Mountain oversight essential

The issue is this: In 1995, Congress cut funding to the Nevada Nuclear Waste Projects Office, the state agency providing scientific oversight of the U.S. Department of Energy's study of Yucca Mountain. Then earlier this year, the Department of Energy told the state it could no longer use the unspent federal funds it had left to continue operation, effectively meaning the state's oversight would come to an end if other state funds weren't found. Because the Legislature doesn't convene again until January 1999, the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee is the only government source that can provide emergency funding to keep this vital state agency in business.

The governor, attorney general and secretary of state have recommended that the Interim Finance Committee approve the Nuclear Waste Project's request for $1.8 million to continue its oversight. There also has been unanimity among Nevada's legislators in Washington on the issue. "It is apparent to us that the decision to freeze remaining oversight funds represents a blatant attempt to silence the state of Nevada's oversight entity," Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, along with Reps. John Ensign and Jim Gibbons, wrote in a statement. This isn't a partisan issue -- both Reid and Bryan are Democrats while Ensign and Gibbons are Republicans.

All Nevadans will be watching closely the vote Thursday by the Interim Finance Committee. The issue is quite simple: Do you think Nevada should have an agency to oversee the work being done at Yucca Mountain? Any vote against this emergency state funding is a vote against Nevada and for the nuclear power industry and its efforts to unfairly push a high-level nuclear waste dump on this state.

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