Guinn, legislators show united front

CARSON CITY -- Gov. Kenny Guinn and the Legislature are united in an effort to sidetrack a bill in Congress that would send high-level nuclear waste for 100 years to the Nevada Test Site and reduce safeguards at the proposed permanent repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

Guinn flew to Washington, D.C., today to testify Wednesday before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power.

The governor will oppose the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1999, a bill that would allow use of the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as an interim storage location for the waste now accumulating at the nation's nuclear power plants.

"My goal is to deliver the message that a new governor in Nevada does not mean any weakening in our state's resolve to stop the nuclear waste bill," the governor said.

He will be carrying a resolution passed Monday as an emergency measure by the Legislature with only one dissenting vote.

Senate Joint Resolution 4, sponsored by Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, and Assembly Majority Leader Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said the congressional act would require the shipment of the radioactive materials through 43 states "endangering the lives of 50 million American citizens who live within one-half mile of the proposed transportation routes."

James noted the proposed bill would give a 100-year license for storage at the Test Site, thus effectively making that location a permanent solution.

For years, Nevada's elected officials have been fighting any effort to site a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain -- 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas -- and now the battle has turned to heading off a temporary facility at the Test Site.

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1999 would also, James said, "obliterate " the scientific and suitability standards now in effect to evaluate whether Yucca Mountain is safe to contain the deadly nuclear waste.

James said Yucca Mountain doesn't qualify under the present guidelines. And now Congress wants to change the rules. "This is a major shift in policy," he said.

Assemblywoman Dawn Gibbons, R-Reno, said the bill in Congress causes "a lot of grief" in Nevada.

Gibbons is the wife of Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. He has joined with the rest of the Nevada delegation in battling the bill.

The lone dissenting vote was cast by Sen. Lawrence Jacobsen, R-Minden, who said he felt like a "coyote howling in the wind." He said he didn't want to see the waste in Nevada, which doesn't have any nuclear fuel plants.

But he said naval aircraft carriers are fueled by nuclear power and 37 other states have nuclear plants. "There's a responsibility we have to accept," he said.

Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, criticized the joint resolution, saying it made statements without facts to back it up.

"In the order of threat assessments, nuclear power is down on the list," he said.

Neal called the issue a "red herring" and complained that elected officials have used the issue "for political purposes" in the past. But Neal abstained in voting on the resolution.

Guinn said it's crucial that the state work together "as a team to defeat those who see Nevada as the country's dumping ground for nuclear waste."

"As a Nevadan I'm outraged at the prospect. As Nevada's governor, I will do everything in my power to stop it," Guinn said.

Rep. Gibbons said he has arranged for a private meeting with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Guinn to talk about the issue. Gibbons said the congressional delegation will join Guinn in opposing the bill, which may receive only one hearing before it is voted on in the house.

"We are doing everything possible to protect Nevada's neighborhoods, environment and economy from this deadly nuclear waste," Gibbons said.

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