WASHINGTON, April 9 (UPI) -- Nevada Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn, backed by the state's senators and congressmen, Tuesday said he vetoed plans to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain outside Las Vegas to protect all Americans, not just his constituents.
Guinn said the state's disapproval of President Bush's decision to move forward with the Yucca proposal forces Congress to deal with the issue of nuclear waste storage in open debate.
"Primarily, it's based on bad science and we feel we have the preponderance of evidence to show that once we get to the floor," Guinn said at a news conference outside the Senate chambers. "We know for sure it's bad public policy to ship the most dangerous man-made waste in the history of this country (past) 123 million Americans."
Guinn described scenarios where spent-fuel shipments would pass by houses, schools, parks and other residential areas. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the idea is particularly worrisome given the nation's deteriorating transportation infrastructure.
"It isn't a question of where there's going to be (a waste shipment) accident, it's a question of when it will be and how many times they will occur," Reid told the gathering. "We know people don't want it going past their homes."
These arguments, however, have nothing to do with the current phase of Yucca discussions, said Steve Kerekes, director of media relations for the Nuclear Energy Institute.
The Department of Energy's recommendation to Bush only covers whether the site is suitable for a depository -- transporting the waste is an issue for future licensing discussions, he said.
Kerekes argued Reid's worries about infrastructure are misplaced, given the hundreds of thousands of other hazardous materials shipments that already go on yearly. Even at the height of projected waste shipments, cargoes of chemicals, natural gas and other materials would dwarf spent-fuel traffic, he said.
"They're simply stoking public fears on the issue," Kerekes told United Press International.
Reid said he and Sen. John Ensign, D-Nev., will do all they can to gather the 49 other "no" votes needed to sustain Nevada's disapproval in the Senate. According to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the 1987 law that started the process of finding a permanent waste storage site, Congress has 90 business days to override the state's objections. There is some debate as to how those days will be counted through recesses and other breaks, so the voting deadline remains unclear.
Ensign attacked the idea that one repository would be safer than having spent fuel stored at the country's more than 100 nuclear power plants. Spent fuel needs to cool down in pools at the plants before it can be transported, he said, so there always will be waste outside the Yucca facility. Security issues surrounding waste transport also need to be reconsidered in the wake of Sept. 11, Ensign said.
The state also will mount a fight in the House of Representatives, said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. A meeting Tuesday night with some of the Democratic leadership is set to start shaping the opposition effort, she said.
Guinn promised his Capitol Hill counterparts both financial and personnel support in fighting the proposal.
The fight in Congress is an uphill one, Guinn said, but the state also has filed a lawsuit to challenge the process. The nuclear act originally required the Department of Energy to certify Yucca's geology alone would be suitable for isolating the waste for thousands of years, he said, but the department has abandoned that criteria, invalidating the recommendation.
Guinn and Ensign both said existing on-site storage technology could handle the waste until better long-term solutions are found.
