Kerry Vows to Keep Nuclear Waste Out of Nevada

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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtm ... ID=5928359

By Patricia Wilson

Reuters

Tuesday 10 August 2004

Las Vegas - Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry on Tuesday accused the Bush administration of recklessly putting politics above science and vowed to prevent Nevada from becoming America's nuclear waste dump.

The state's Yucca Mountain - which President Bush approved as a burial site for radioactive refuse from nuclear power plants and weapons - has become a centerpiece of the closely contested Nov. 2 White House race in Nevada.

Kerry said Bush had broken his promise as a candidate in 2000 to base his decision on "sound science, not politics" and cited a slew of skeptical studies from the U.S. government's General Accounting Office, the National Academy of Sciences and other bodies.

"When John Kerry is president, there's going to be no nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, period," the Massachusetts senator told invited guests at the Ralph Cadwallader Middle School, about 90 miles from the site.

While the issue is largely local, it could help determine the presidential race. Nevada is a key battleground state that Bush won in 2000 and without its five electoral votes would not be in the White House. He will visit Las Vegas on Thursday.

"This administration has pursued a relentless, purposeful policy to push the science no matter what the science says, to push the rules, no matter what the rules do, to push common sense no matter how much it speaks to the other side, in order to put that nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain," Kerry said. "The United States deserves a president who believes in science."

Bush and his Republican allies say they were relying on years of study by the Energy Department and that they believe scientific concerns will be answered either by the courts or by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in its licensing of the project.

Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt pointed out that Kerry had voted for the 1987 Nuclear Waste Policy Act Amendments, known in the state as the "screw Nevada bill" which was tacked onto budget legislation.

"When it has counted - on real votes to say no to Yucca mountain I voted no," Kerry said. His vice presidential running mate John Edwards, a senator from North Carolina, voted in 2002 for the Yucca plan but campaign aides said he and Kerry were now on the same page.

The school where Kerry spoke sits near the route nuclear waste would travel to the repository, just like many other schools and communities in 44 states. The so called "mobile Chernobyls" would pass through many communities that Kerry said were ill-equipped to respond to a nuclear accident, posing a risk to the more than 50 million Americans along the way.

He also pointed out that the Yucca Mountain area was earthquake prone and home to aquifers that provided surrounding areas with water.

Kerry said the United States needed a Manhattan Project "to tame the negative consequences of the power of the atom" and pledged to set up a panel of the world's best scientists to study how to deal with nuclear storage and waste.

"Yucca Mountain to me is a symbol of the recklessness and the arrogance with which they are willing to proceed with respect to the safety issues and concerns of the American people," he said. In February 2002, Bush announced that five decades worth of nuclear waste should be buried in the Nevada desert, declaring that an end to the search for a place to isolate the radioactive debris was necessary to "protect public safety, health and the nation's security."

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What i find sadly amusing is this quote:

"When John Kerry is president, there's going to be no nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, period,"

That's great John - now, how about sharing where YOU plan on putting it, huh bud? easy to pander to the locals - everyone is a local somewhere! "there's going to be no nuclear waste here in beautiful downtown redwood city, california, period!" "there's going to be no nuclear waste here in beautiful downtown fargo, north dakota, period!" hear the crowd cheer!

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except that the yucca mountain plan has been worked on, strategized, planned, etc for nearly a decade. everything is in place, the testing is done, the transport containers have been tested to an incredible degree - they slammed a freight train at 60mph into one sitting on tracks - the *engine* was detroyed, the container was unscathed! think about that, how many things win in a challenge with a freight train!

and of course, the bigger question: if not yucca, where? *any* place you propose putting it, you'll have the same opposition. nobody wants it in their backyard. but it has to go somewhere.

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exactly. it's a win-win issue for kerry. he doesn't have to say where he would put it, he just has to say "it won't be here, period!". he looks like a good guy no matter what.

it's nothing more than pandering. it's just as offensive to me as his proclamations that he understand the working class, the little guy. while sipping dom perignon in the castle with wifey.



strangely, the left loves to bash the filthy rich - except when it's their own candidate.