2 Nevada Counties Want Nuclear Waste Dump

Officials from two Nevada counties have taken their support to the nation’s capital for accelerating nuclear waste shipments to Nevada.

Officials from Lincoln and Nye counties are bucking widespread opposition elsewhere in the state to establishing a nuclear waste dump there.

The delegation of county leaders backed the bill before the House Resources Committee this week and then met with Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig to endorse his version of the bill authorizing a temporary radioactive dump in Nevada.

“The support of these Nevada officials will help tremendously in permitting Idaho to ship nuclear fuel out of the state beginning in 1998,” Craig said in a statement. “The Nevada site is the logical repository for storage and disposal of nuclear fuel. The science supports this alternative, the economics supports this choice and the people of Nevada agree.”

But Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said Thursday she thinks Craig is exaggerating the significance of the officials’ statements, and she suggested their trip to Washington may have been illegal.

“I think it is certainly unwarranted for the senator to jump to the conclusion that their visit changes anything,” she said. “Nothing that they can say or do can change the fact that this impacts on every Nevadan, … and this is a statewide issue.”

Nevada Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan and Republican Rep. John Ensign agreed.

“A handful of Lincoln and Nye County lawmakers do not come close to speaking for the majority of Nevadans,” Reid said. “Sen. Craig should understand that Lincoln and Nye counties combined are a tiny percent of Nevada’s population. The entire congressional delegation has worked to block legislation like the Craig bill.”

In 1998, the federal government must begin moving tons of commercial waste off nuclear power plant sites, and one of the proposed dump sites is the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, where 261 tons of high-level radioactive waste already are being stored.

Craig’s legislation, just like the House measure, would set up a temporary dump for high-level waste in Nevada pending studies on the suitability of Yucca Mountain as the nation’s permanent dump.

Many state officials fear that once the government starts shipping waste to a temporary facility in Nevada, the state will become the permanent dump site even if Yucca Mountain feasibility studies indicate it is an unsuitable site.

Lincoln and Nye county officials maintain Nevada’s designation as a nuclear waste dump is inevitable, so they are seeking to capitalize on the opportunity by inviting the waste in exchange for benefits. Lincoln County, in particular, has been searching for creative ways to improve its economy in recent years.

Ed Wright, one of two Lincoln County commis sioners who made the trip, said federal funds were used, but he doesn’t believe he did anything illegal.

He said the officials were invited by Rep. James Hansen, R-Utah, to testify. Hansen has offered an amendment to the House nuclear waste bill that includes a provision to turn over some federal Bureau of Land Management land to Lincoln and Nye counties.

Wright also contended the visit to Craig was by invitation and thus not an illegal use of funds. Craig’s office, however, said the Nevada officials had requested the meeting.

If that’s true, then the Nevada officials could be considered lobbying, which is an illegal use of federal funds.

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