Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Sun Editorial:

Battle Born defiance awaits Shimkus, other Yucca backers

Non, nein, nyet, lo, jo, khong, nao, nie, ochi, nej, tidak.

Those are ways of saying no in different languages, and we offer them today because certain members of Congress don’t seem to understand the common English word for refusal when it comes to Yucca Mountain.

Do Nevadans want the horrific, high-level nuclear waste facility to be built 90 miles from Las Vegas?

Non, nein, nyet, lo, jo, khong, nao, nie, ochi, nej, tidak.

Maybe one of those words will be recognizable to proponents of the project, like Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill. So perhaps we should just use a simple “hell no” to communicate to the man determined to make Nevada the nations most toxic dump.

Kidding aside, Shimkus is well aware that Nevadans are staunchly opposed to turning Las Vegas’ backyard into a pit where 77,000 tons of the nation’s most toxic nuclear waste would be buried.

But he obviously doesn’t care, which is why he’s pressing for a bill that would revive the project. On Yucca, Shimkus is like the “Terminator” robot — the menacing one from the first movie, not the one that traveled back in time to help protect people.

But with the project, nothing’s changed in the decades it’s been on the drawing board. It’s still a disaster in the making, where there’s no guarantee that nuclear waste won’t leak out of containers and seep into the groundwater. Just as nightmarish is the possibility that an accident or a terrorist attack would result in release of radiation in the heart of Las Vegas — which is a very real threat given that the waste would be transported on tracks that run along Interstate 15 close to the Strip.

What’s even more revolting about the new measure — which has already been coined the “Screw Nevada 2” bill in reference to the proposal 30 years ago that called for Yucca to become the national repository — is that it wouldn’t just put Nevadans at risk. Transportation routes stretch thousands of miles across more than 30 states.

But despite the obvious risk the project poses to millions of Americans, President Donald Trump paved the way for the bill by including $120 million in funding for Yucca Mountain in his budget.

Horrible, to use one of the shockingly few words in Trump’s vocabulary.

Maybe he’s also not so good with distances. An accident on the tracks west of the Strip puts all of the hotels in the “kill zone,” and guess which would be in prime position to catch the radioactive death rays?

You got it. Trump International.

Maybe knowing that, our president will think again before he subjects his guests to such a horrible ending.

But it seems doubtful, so it’s to their credit, Nevada leaders digging in for a fight. For an idea of the unpopularity of the measure, consider:

Although Gov. Brian Sandoval and Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt have been involved in high-profile political disputes, the pair agreed to file a motion to intervene in a Texas case involving Yucca Mountain. The claim from Nevada is that the suit could eliminate the right of states to have a say in where waste should be dumped.

Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., has expressed no-holds-barred opposition to the project, despite the prospect of being one of the most highly targeted members of Congress in the 2018 mid-term elections. Although Heller could seemingly use all of the GOP support he could get, and therefore would have a political reason for supporting Trump, he said during a recent address to the Nevada Legislature that the proposal was “anti-Nevada” and that Yucca Mountain was dead and that he would fight to ensure that “Nevada will not be our nation’s nuclear waste dump.”

Those three Republicans deserve a pat on the back, as do the many other Nevadans who are opposing the project.

Shimkus, who has scheduled a hearing for the measure this week in an environment subcommittee he chairs, would be wise to get ready for some Battle Born defiance.

Regardless of what language it’s spoken in, no means no.

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