Guinn schedules summit on nuke waste

WASHINGTON -- With less than a month of governing under his belt, Gov. Kenny Guinn is tackling one of Nevada's most feared subjects, that of turning Nevada into a dump for high-level nuclear waste.

The governor will hold a "State Summit on Nuclear Waste" with state and congressional leaders Feb. 16 at the State Capitol in Carson City, Guinn spokesman Jack Finn said today.

"He recognizes this is the top issue in the state, and he wants to gather as much information as he can in order to devise the most effective plan as possible for the state," Finn said.

The meeting will focus on developing strategies to derail federal efforts that would require Nevada to accept the nation's high-level nuclear waste. Guinn invited members of the congressional delegation in a letter delivered to them Friday.

Also expected to attend are the state's top elected officials, as well as state Senate and Assembly leaders.

"As Nevada's newly elected governor, one of the first challenges that I will be confronted with will be fighting the federal government's illogical bias to send deadly nuclear waste to our great state," Guinn's letter reads. "This is clearly the most devastating environmental and economical problem that Nevada's citizens will face."

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., was to meet with Guinn today to discuss the upcoming meeting and plan an agenda, according to Michael Dayton, Gibbons' chief of staff.

"The congressman is very pleased the governor is providing leadership on this critical issue," Dayton said.

Jennifer Backus, spokeswoman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., praised Guinn for holding the meeting and said that a united front is the best way to keep nuclear waste out of the state.

"Fighting to keep nuclear waste out of the state is a top priority for every elected official at every level of government," Backus said. "The more resources we can marshal to slow down and stop these bills, the better able we will be to protect both the nation's and the state's public health and safety."

Richard Urey, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said the meeting is "an important step" that will help "combine the congressional delegation's and governor's resources early on to help fight nuclear waste legislation."

Two congressmen have already introduced a bill for the 106th Congress that would make the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, an interim storage facility for the nation's high-level nuclear waste. The Department of Energy is currently studying whether Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is a suitable location for a permanent repository.

Similar legislation was passed overwhelmingly by the House in 1997. Last year, Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., then speaker of the House, conceded to a request made by then-Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., and did not bring the nuclear waste bill up for a vote.

As Guinn maps out a state strategy, members of the congressional delegation are working in Washington to stop the federal legislation.

Aides for Berkley and Gibbons are meeting weekly with staff members for other congressmen to plan the strategy of how to block the legislation.

And Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., and Reid have met with their colleagues to make sure they have enough votes to sustain President Clinton's promise to veto any interim nuclear waste legislation if a bill passes both the House and the Senate.

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