Percentage Who Favor Making Deal on Yucca Project Grows
Sep 21 - Las Vegas Review - Journal
By STEVE TETREAULT
WASHINGTON -- A growing share of Nevadans say in a new poll the state should
accept a nuclear waste repository and try to deal for benefits in return,
although they remain less than a majority.
Asked whether the state should continue to fight or negotiate with the
federal government over the Yucca Mountain Project, 50 percent said fight and 46
percent said deal.
"That's tightening; it's a lot more balanced than it has been in
previous polls," said Larry Harris, a principal with Mason-Dixon Polling
& Research Inc., the Washington, D.C.-based firm that conducted the survey
for the Review-Journal and reviewjournal.com
"Maybe there's more of a sense of inevitability about the reality of (a
repository) happening," Harris said.
The poll of 625 registered voters was conducted Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday. The margin of error was 4 percentage points.
Four percent of Nevadans had no opinion on how state leaders should proceed.
Asked the same question in a July poll, 54 percent preferred to continue the
battle while 39 percent favored negotiations.
Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said
the poll results were suspect because respondents were asked their opinion after
being told Yucca Mountain "has been approved as a repository of high level
nuclear waste."
Although President Bush and Congress designated Yucca Mountain, "it
hasn't been approved for anything," Loux said. He said the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission has yet to dissect the science behind the repository, a
licensing process which will take years and will be hotly contested.
"We have never been closer to winning this issue than we are now,"
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said.
A federal court this summer threw out a key repository safety standard,
causing federal agencies to scramble for a response. Congress has been unable to
find Yucca funding for next year's budget. A review board decertified an Energy
Department document database, ordering repairs that could take months and throw
off project timelines.
But although those matters have occupied lawyers, politicians and
bureaucrats, "a lot of it is so much inside baseball. The average person
doesn't understand," said Irene Navis, Clark County nuclear waste planning
director.
Former Nevada Gov. Bob List, a paid consultant to the pro- repository Nuclear
Energy Institute, said he sees a growing acceptance of the project. He said some
people believe Nevada leaders should feel out the government for benefits while
continuing to battle.
"I think that's a real number," List said of the poll result.
"I get that message from even hard-core opponents of the project, and I
think that's probably a very sound measure of the current mood."
There has been a frenzy of Yucca Mountain activity over the summer, including
visits to Las Vegas by the presidential candidates that generated headlines
about the repository and television commercials from both campaigns.
Nevadans may be experiencing Yucca fatigue.
"Yucca has been so in their face for the last two or three months. They
have been so overwhelmed by ads on the issue," said Paul Seidler, who
performs contracts for the Nuclear Energy Institute and Lincoln and Esmerelda
counties.
"People are seeing through the fact the issue is being used as a
political football, and that probably is making them more cynical," Seidler
said.
"I don't sense fatigue at all in the community," said Rep. Jon
Porter, R-Nev. "I think they are asking questions. We have 5,000 to 6,000
new people a month who don't understand the history."
"I think people are tired and thought it was inevitable, but it's
not," said anti-repository activist Peggy Maze Johnson, head of Citizen
Alert. "A majority is still telling us to fight."
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
reviewjournal.com
OPINION POLL
Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has been approved as a
repository of high-level nuclear waste. Do you think the state's leaders should
continue to fight the decision in court, or should they try to deal for money or
benefits in exchange for accepting a nuclear waste repository?
FIGHT 50%
DEAL 46
NOT SURE 4
Source: Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc.
Margin of error: 4 percentage points.
REVIEW-JOURNAL