President Stands By Yucca Mountain Decisions

President Stands By Yucca Mountain Decisions

Aug 16 - Las Vegas Review - Journal

By ERIN NEFF

REVIEW-JOURNAL

President Bush on Thursday stood by his decision to locate a national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain and pledged to abide by any court or licensing decision related to the project.

"I will allow this process to be appealed to the courts and to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and I will stand by the decision of the courts and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," Bush said in his speech at the carpenters union training center south of the airport.

Bush called Yucca Mountain a "vital question" and said "we need to keep facts, not politics, at the center of the debate."

In his first public statements on the issue, viewed as central in a key battleground state, Bush accused Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry of "trying to turn Yucca Mountain into a political poker chip."

Bush said the issue has been developing over the years and mentioned the 1987 congressional vote to exclusively study Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as a potential repository. Implied, but not spoken, was Kerry's vote in support of that bill.

During a two-day campaign tour in Southern Nevada this week, Kerry said his 1987 vote was to study the issue, and he noted he voted against the repository on every substantive vote.

Bush has been criticized by Democrats for approving Yucca Mountain a year into his presidency, which they contend violated a 2000 promise to Nevada voters that he would base his decision on "sound science, not politics."

The president addressed his promise.

"When I campaigned here in this state, I said I would make a decision based upon science, not politics," Bush said. "I said I would listen to the scientists, those involved with determining whether or not this project could move forward in a safe manner. And that's exactly what I did. ... I listened to the people who know the facts and know the science, and made a decision."

Bush also addressed Nevada's Republican leaders who disagree with him on the decision, including Gov. Kenny Guinn, who attended the event.

"They didn't agree with my decision. I understand that. They made themselves very clear," Bush said.

The president went on to say that he would allow the process to be appealed.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she couldn't believe Bush's comments.

"He didn't allow the state of Nevada to go to court," she said. "The state has a constitutional right to go to court, and we won on this issue."

Berkley was referring to a recent U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision which invalidated a requirement that the repository be able to contain radioactive materials safely for at least 10,000 years, suggesting the period should be longer -- perhaps hundreds of thousands of years.

During his trip to Las Vegas, Kerry called on Bush to hold off submitting an application for licensing the repository. Kerry also said that, if elected, he would withdraw any application for a license the Bush administration submits, and that he would veto any congressional attempts to change the EPA's radiation standards.

The Bush-Cheney campaign said Kerry has been playing politics with the issue.

The campaign handed out a 1996 letter Kerry and fellow Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy wrote to then-Department of Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary.

In the letter, the senators urge her to comply with the congressional budget bill directing the department to complete core scientific tests at Yucca Mountain.

"It is important for us to move towards a viable and safe solution to the nation's need for a permanent nuclear waste repository," the letter states. "We are hopeful that DOE will move expeditiously to comply with the direction of the conferees and properly fund scientific and technical suitability testing at Yucca Mountain."

On Wednesday, Kerry said he has studied the science over the years and no longer believes geological burial of the waste can be done safely.

The Bush campaign also pointed to a 1999 letter Kerry, Kennedy and the two Connecticut senators wrote to then-Sen. Frank Murkowski, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, seeking to expedite shipments to Nevada if an interim repository were approved.

On Wednesday, Kerry said he didn't recall signing it, suggested it was a delegation-generated letter and pointed out that he voted against interim storage when it did come to Congress.

Murkowski, now governor of Alaska, issued a statement for the Bush campaign Thursday that said: "John Kerry's message with this letter was clear; get nuclear waste out of my state now, and send it to Nevada."

Bush was less blunt, saying: "My opponent says he's strongly against Yucca here in Nevada, but he voted for it several times. And so did his running mate."

Kerry voted against the repository in 2002 and in 1999. Vice presidential candidate John Edwards voted for the repository in 2002 and now says he would defer to Kerry's position on Yucca Mountain.

"My point to you is that, if they're going to change one day they may change again," Bush said to a standing ovation. "I think we need -- I think you need straight talk on this issue. I think you need somebody who is going to do what he says he's going to do."

Peggy Maze Johnson, president of Citizen Alert, is one of the plaintiffs in Nevada's lawsuit challenging the Yucca Mountain repository. She disputed Bush made his decision based on science, saying the Government Accounting Agency has identified more than 200 unresolved scientific issues involving the repository and that the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board has found no leak-proof canister for storing the waste.

"The citizens of Nevada are not stupid," Maze Johnson said. "Don't lie to us once again, Mr. President."

According to a poll commissioned in July for the Review-Journal, 57 percent of Nevada voters said Bush's approval of the repository would have no influence on their presidential vote. Thirty-five percent said the decision would make them less likely to vote for Bush, and 6 percent said it would make them more likely to support Bush.

Just before his speech, during a tour of the training center, Bush was asked twice why he approved Yucca Mountain. He smiled and waved at the reporter.

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