WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- If Congress fails to override Nevada's objections to the proposed nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain, nuclear arms reduction efforts might suffer, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Thursday during a Senate hearing.
Abraham's appeared before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee during the body's first discussion on the Yucca override legislation. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., the committee chairman, said two hearings next week will cover the state's objections and the opinions of neutral scientific bodies on the site, a 9,000-foot hill located about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"It's my intention to schedule a business meeting on June 5 for the committee to vote on whether to report the resolution to the full Senate," Bingaman said. The House overwhelmingly passed its Yucca override on May 8. The Senate must pass its version by July 25 for the project to move to a licensing phase, Bingaman said.
If Yucca is defeated, a vital component of the Russian-American arms reduction plan will be gone, Abraham told the committee. The process envisioned by the White House would blend plutonium from nuclear warheads into non-weapons-grade reactor fuel for commercial use, he said.
"Without the repository, I think that program will be set back, if not stalled," Abraham said.
Joe Davis, a Department of Energy spokesman, told United Press International the Yucca project would handle only spent fuel and waste, not unmodified weapons-grade material.
Abraham also took Yucca opponents to task for focusing on waste transport concerns. Any solution will involve shipments, he said.
"Simply by incanting the words 'transportation of nuclear waste,' opponents are hoping they can incite public fear without any basis in fact," Abraham said in his prepared remarks. "This hope has become the last refuge for opposition to the project."
Transportation issues nevertheless became a centerpiece of members' questions. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., the only committee member to speak against Yucca, challenged Abraham's assertion states will have a say in choosing the routes waste shipments will take.
Bingaman allowed Nevada's two senators, Democrat Harry Reid and Republican John Ensign, to take part in the hearing, even though they are not part of the committee. The pair used the opportunity to tangle with Abraham, and not always cordially, on several areas of dispute. Reid appeared particularly disturbed by the secretary's comparison of nuclear waste and existing hazardous material shipments.
"The three million tons of hazardous waste already shipped wouldn't even equal the danger posed by one spent fuel cask," Reid said.
Ensign brought up the cost of the Yucca project, saying Congress would have to devote tax revenues to handling the estimated $58 billion cost. Abraham replied that the existing Nuclear Waste Fund, currently holding several billion dollars and generated by contributions from electric ratepayers, could pay for the site over time.
Comments from the committee do not bode well for Reid and Ensign's attempts to scuttle the override. Several members, including Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, openly supported the override. The others, including Bingaman, posed their questions to allow Abraham to refute several criticisms of the project, and did not challenge the secretary's answers.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., asked if a General Accounting Office report on 293 technical issues contained any showstoppers for Yucca. Abraham said the issues represented a simple checklist to complete before licensing the site, adding that 41 have already been dealt with and another 50 or so should be completed by September.
