Vote on cloture could hinder state's fight against Yucca bill

A political dogfight is shaping up this week over a bill that would bring highly radioactive nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain by 2007.

A vote to limit debate could come as soon as Friday and would take away the most likely weapon of the Nevada congressional delegation against the bill by Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska -- the filibuster, in which they debate for days to delay a vote.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has asked President Clinton to threaten a veto of the bill after a twice-a-day Capitol Hill newsletter reported Thursday that Reid would "no longer staunchly oppose" it. Reid denied he had softened his opposition, and CongressDaily published a clarification the next day.

Clinton for five years had threatened to veto a bill that would have brought the waste to the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as a temporary measure. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee dropped that proposal in June.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., joined Reid in requesting the veto, and the Nevada delegation -- Reid, Gibbons, Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. -- closed ranks and mounted a counterattack Friday aimed at stopping the bill.

The biggest concerns about Murkowski's new bill are competing health and safety standards. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed a weaker radiation exposure limit than the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which has been working on a radiation limit for both people and ground water since 1983. The NRC offered a higher environmental dose and no ground water limits.

In addition, the target date of 2007 is three years before Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is scheduled to be ready to accept nuclear waste. The mountain is still under scientific study and has not been declared a repository.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has said he would ask for Clinton's veto of the latest bill if the NRC radiation limit is adopted.

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., could schedule a vote to limit debate, called cloture, on Murkowski's bill as early as Friday, Senate Energy Committee communications director Tina Kreisher said.

If debate is limited, Reid and Bryan can't filibuster the bill by dragging arguments out for days. If that happens Reid is ready to try a number of other tactics, the senator's communications director Jack Pannell said.

No one from the Nuclear Energy Institute, the lobbying arm of the industry, had contacted or been contacted by Reid, NEI spokesman Steve Unglesbee said. The nuclear industry had no reaction to Reid's Thursday comment or his subsequent clarification.

But the Nuclear Information & Resource Service, a coalition of more than 200 environmental groups, was quick to come to the defense of both Reid and Clinton.

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