John Jerry editorial on Yucca Mountain

["Scoggins, Frank S." <FSSCOGGI@southernco.com>]

John Kerry guest editorial on Yucca Mountain

This is not a joke. It was in the Sunday Edition of the Las Vegas Review



Journal. Use link below to get to page.



http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/May-16-Sun-2004/opinion/2388

9849.html



Not on my watch



Candidate says Yucca a non-starter if he's elected



By JOHN KERRY

SPECIAL TO THE REVIEW-JOURNAL











One of the biggest environmental and security challenges facing Nevadans

is 

the threat that Yucca Mountain will be turned into the nation's nuclear 

waste dump. I voted against the plan to dispose of waste at Yucca

Mountain 

-- and as president I will fight against it.



Four years ago in a letter to Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, then-candidate

George 

W. Bush pledged he would approve a nuclear waste repository at Yucca 

Mountain only if it was scientifically proven to be safe and secure. But



before his first year in office was over, President Bush changed his 

position and approved the plan -- placing the profits of the nuclear

power 

industry above the safety of Nevada families.



Today George Bush is still trying to move forward with this misguided

plan, 

despite the overwhelming opposition from Nevadans and the scientific 

evidence that it is unsafe.



Two major scientific bodies have sounded alarms about Yucca Mountain.

First, 

an independent commission advising Congress on Yucca Mountain determined



that the metal to be used for the waste containers would corrode,

leaking 

nuclear radiation into the surrounding environment. The Bush

administration 

knew this when it approved the Yucca Mountain site, but unfortunately 

ignored it.



Second, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) -- the final judge of 

whether a safe waste repository can be built at Yucca Mountain --

recently 

warned the Department of Energy that its proposed license to build Yucca



Mountain was in inadequate shape. Apparently, despite billions of

dollars 

and decades of research, DOE still lacks the technical and scientific 

information required to even submit the license application for review.

The 

department's inability to produce information supporting the safety of

the 

project speaks volumes.



Despite this scientific evidence, the Bush administration is rushing to

meet 

an arbitrary, self-imposed deadline of December 2004. The risks are 

tragically clear. In January, we learned that workers who dug a test

tunnel 

at Yucca were exposed to hazardous dust and mineral hazards. Evidence

shows 

that the Bush administration was aware of these risks and the procedures



required to protect them. But pressure to keep the project on schedule 

pushed safety into the back seat. Tragically, many of these workers are

now 

sick.



It's a shame that the Bush administration has put the financial

interests of 

the nuclear industry above the health and safety of DOE workers and 

Nevadans. I believe there is a better way to secure Nevada's health, 

environmental and financial well-being. That includes putting a stop to

the 

dump once and for all.







John Kerry, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, is the presumptive

Democratic 

presidential nominee.







************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To

unsubscribe, send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the

text "unsubscribe radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail,

with no subject line. You can view the Radsafe archives at

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/