Nuclear Waste Veto Stands

[MIannaccone@dhhs.state.nh.us]

07:49 PM ET 05/02/00

 By H. JOSEF HEBERT=
Associated Press Writer=
        WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Senate, in yet another struggle over
nuclear waste, failed Tuesday to override President Clinton's veto
of legislation that would have sent thousands of tons of highly
radioactive garbage to Nevada for disposal.
        The 64-35 vote fell three senators short of the two-thirds vote
needed to pass the measure over the president's objection.
        The legislation, which was vetoed by Clinton on April 25, would
require that more than 40,000 tons of used reactor fuel, now kept
at 72 nuclear power plants in 31 states, begin to be shipped to the
Nevada desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas beginning in 2007.
        The Nevada site is the location of a proposed permanent tomb for
nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain. The shipments would have been
contingent on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issuing a license
for the permanent facility, which is still undergoing scientific
review.
        Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., who in the last seconds
changed his vote to ``no'' for procedural reasons, said he may
bring up the measure again. But Nevada's two senators said if he
does they're confident they will again prevail.
        ``We have 34 votes, we will always have 34 votes,'' vowed Sen.
Harry Reid, D-Nev., referring to the minimum needed to sustain a
presidential veto.
        Reid and Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., argued that the spent
reactor fuel is safe where it currently is at the reactor sites.
The nuclear industry has argued the government promised to assume
responsibility for spent nuclear fuel and that reactor site storage
capacity in many cases will run out in the years to come.
        ``We simply cannot allow (the nuclear industry) to strangle on
its own waste without a viable alternative,'' said Sen. Frank
Murkowski, R-Alaska, chief sponsor of the bill.
        The Senate had passed the bill 64-34 last year and the House had
cleared the measure by a 252-167 margin, both short of what was
needed to avoid a veto. President Clinton issued the April 25 veto
in part because, he said, it would prevent the Environmental
Protection Agency from developing radiation standards for a
permanent Yucca Mountain waste site before June, 2001.
        Bryan said the delay was put into the bill by Republicans in
hopes that George W. Bush by then would be in the White House and
allow a less stringent radiation standard than the one being
considered by the EPA.
        Murkowksi urged his fellow senators ``to put this issue behind
us for once and for all'' and accused the White House of refusing
to address the issue of nuclear waste disposal.
        Without a central storage facility, said Murkowski, the country
would have ''80 mini-Yucca mountains'' that aren't designed for
long-term storage of wastes that will remain highly radioactive for
thousands of years.
        But Reid and Bryan maintained that the waste could be kept in
dry casks at reactor sites for as long as 100 years, and by then
other approaches to waste disposal could be developed. Most people
in Nevada are vehemently opposed to the proposed shipment of as
much as 77,000 tons of reactor waste to the state over 25 years if
the permanent Yucca Mountain facility is approved.
        Tuesday's Senate vote was closer than the actual numbers
suggested, prompting supporter of the measure to hold out hope for
another try later this year.
        Lott, who cast a ``no'' vote so he could revive the measure
later, favors the legislation as does Sen. William Roth, R-Del.,
who was absent. Murkowski noted that with those two votes, a veto
override was but one vote short.
        Republican Sens. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado and Lincoln
Chafee of Rhode Island continued to oppose the bill _ as they had
in the original vote. But the Nevadans lost a Democrat, Sen. John
Edwards of North Carolina, who had opposed the waste bill in the
original vote, but joined in voting for a veto override on Tuesday.
        ___
        The bill is S.1287

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