McCain: We may not need Yucca - News

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May. 28, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

McCain: We may not need Yucca

Reid says Arizonan backs Nevada facility

By KEITH ROGERS and STEVE TETREAULT
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Yucca Mountain: Nuclear Waste in Nevada

Sen. Harry Reid speaks outside the Clark County Government Center at a rally Tuesday to defeat the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project.
Photo by Ronda Churchill

While Nevada officials were about to rally Tuesday in Las Vegas against plans for licensing a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain was in Colorado saying such a facility might not be necessary.

"I would seek to establish an international repository for spent nuclear fuel that could collect and safely store materials overseas that might otherwise be reprocessed to acquire bomb-grade materials," McCain, R-Ariz., said in a speech on international nuclear security at the University of Denver.

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"It is even possible that such an international center could make it unnecessary to open the proposed spent fuel storage facility at Yucca Mountain," McCain said, referring to the volcanic-rock ridge 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

At the rally in the Clark County Government Center's amphitheater, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who was aware of McCain's remarks, took the opportunity to note that McCain's voting record in favor of the Yucca Mountain repository speaks for itself.

"Everyone here should understand that John McCain is an advocate" for Yucca Mountain, Reid said.

"John McCain is on the wrong side of that issue," said Reid, the Senate majority leader who was joined at the rally by former Sen. Richard Bryan, chairman of the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects, other state and Clark County officials, environmentalists and Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev.

In a call with reporters, McCain's senior foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, said the idea of an international repository is only practical at one site: Siberia.

"So when Senator McCain indicates a willingness to support the idea of an international repository and because the United States controls in effect the destination of some 75 or 80 percent of the spent fuel in the world ... an international repository will not happen without U.S. support and will not happen without a place to go," Scheunemann said.

He said an international repository would be primarily for spent fuel that's in other countries.

"But Senator McCain did indicate a willingness to entertain the possibility that if the spent fuel repository is up and running, if the security and safeguards are sufficient that we could possibility send some of our spent fuel there too," Scheunemann said.

Later, McCain's regional spokesman, Jeff Sadosky, said McCain is "just looking at new proposals out there. He believes they have merit and should be looked at because they could potentially alleviate the need for the Yucca Mountain site."

An official with the Nevada Democratic Party said McCain was trying to flip-flop on his traditional support for the Yucca repository.

The remarks were delivered a day before the candidate is scheduled to campaign in Reno.

"McCain did not explain how this international repository would work, and it is a disingenuous 180-degree turnaround for the Arizona senator," said Kirsten Searer, the Nevada party's deputy executive director.

Presidential candidates for the Democrats, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., have said they are opposed to building a repository at Yucca Mountain for 77,000 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel and defense wastes.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said McCain was on the right track in steering the nuclear waste debate away from Yucca Mountain and toward waste reprocessing.

"I will be talking to Senator McCain a lot about that," Ensign said in a call with reporters. "My belief is you don't need a repository, you need to recycle the waste."

Ensign said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a close McCain ally, shares that view and "we are going to work on Senator McCain that way when he is president."

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., believes McCain's reference to creating an international nuclear waste repository lacked detail and raised more questions, her spokesman David Cherry said.

"While it is still unclear how Senator McCain hatched this plan, Congresswoman Berkley has enormous concerns about shipping nuclear waste overseas given the dangers involved," Cherry said.

Berkley "welcomes any acknowledgement from the McCain camp that Yucca Mountain is a failure and should be scrapped, but that does not mean she agrees with this concept as an alternative," Cherry said.

Jon Wolfstahl, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said McCain's reference to international nuclear storage seemed to come "out of left field."

"It is possible that Russia might build a storage facility for countries in East Asia, but McCain seems to be suggesting some other country is going to accept our huge (the world's largest) stock of spent fuel and that this might be a way to avoid opening the spent fuel repository in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Talk about pandering," Wolfstahl wrote in a posting to the Web site of the National Security Network, a self-described progressive organization.

At the rally, organizers said they intend to collect thousands of signatures for a petition that asks the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reject the Department of Energy's license application for the planned repository when it is submitted in June.

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said she is prepared to make legal challenges as soon as DOE submits its license application because she believes it will be incomplete, lacks a safety plan and fails to protect the public and the environment from deadly radioactive materials.

Allen Benson, a DOE spokesman for the Yucca Mountain Project, said, "We will submit a complete license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will conduct a very thorough and rigorous review. We look forward to participating in the NRC process."

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. Michael Ray Thompson wrote on May 28, 2008 07:29 PM: Dear Senators Ensign and McCain: Please don't put this poison pit in Nevada's back yard? Susanne wrote on May 28, 2008 05:46 PM: Does Senator McCain know of any country willing to host an international repository? Susanne E. Vandenbosch charles wrote on May 28, 2008 12:59 PM: Sorry to say but one thing in this article is wrong. Nevada is a wasteland, which is why we are 48th in education, roads crumbling, and a political infrastructure that has no clue of right from wrong. The Hepatitis crisis and how it is playing out is proof of that. I say put the waste in Harry Reids backyard. A man who is useless in Washington, since his nose is in everything but the good of Nevada. But what do you expect from a man who is all but senile. The economy is rotten in Nevada, unemployment higher than average, and a housing/mortgage crisis that shows no signs of letting up. And this fool spends our money worrying about what the republicans are doing and saying. Glad I didn't vote for this yutz, but somebody had to since he got re-elected..... say what wrote on May 28, 2008 09:50 AM: don't believe mccain he only wants the nevada votes.. Dumb and dumber wrote on May 28, 2008 09:13 AM: I'll tell you what's dumb... a state like Nevada that faces a budget deficit and can't keep decent teachers, wanting to get rid of 2,000 high-tech, non-gaming jobs. Not to mention million$ in money spent here for materials and infrastructure needed. All because a bunch of chicken littles have sold you a bill of goods based on fear, lies, and a phony "green" agenda riddled with hypocrisy. Educate yourself on Yucca Mountain-- then decide. apdp wrote on May 28, 2008 07:57 AM: Reid has been acting like he is against Yucca Mtn, but in reality it is cheap political fodder for him. He does nothing but gripe which keeps him in the headlines and masks his impotence as a senator. Berkley is a new yorker who basically is worthless. Masto is nothing but a place holder and poor ensign has lot all touch with reality. These politicians do not understand what the material is nor do they have they reviewed the science involved. It is all just headlines for them and they could give a crap. Keep your head in the sand. Push away high tech jobs and we will all work for the casinos eventually. Nevada should embrace Yucca Mtn and reap the award of a high tech nuclear industry. There is not a better place in the world to develop recycling technology, nuclear medicine research and all the other opportunities that will arise with the storing of these nuclear materials. This material is not nuclear bombs, it will not explode although bob loux, Nevada’s propagandist will tell you so. Loux and Nevada’s Yucca Mtn opposition, which is funded by the Federal government, has never made a logical point that contradicts the science of Yucca Mtn and had 20 years to do so. Look at the science and quit reading the propaganda and you will find this repository is safe and will be an asset to the nation. Let the science decide. Russ wrote on May 28, 2008 07:33 AM: You're right on Wild Bill. With Scott McClellan's new book out soon, maybe some of King Bush's devote and blind followers will wake up to what Bush was really all about. Deception!! As for Mr "I believe in Miracles" Shiller, Berkley and Reid have keep McCain and Bush from shoving Yucca down our throats as well as college sports on the betting tables. Wayne Shiller wrote on May 28, 2008 06:37 AM: Berkley and Reid should drive to Long Beach and take a long walk off a short pier! hecklejeckle wrote on May 28, 2008 06:37 AM: McCain will be more of the same that we have gone through for the past eight years. More lies, more debt, and I don't believe the country can last another four years of the Republican regime. They stomp on the common man while convincing the brainless that they won't raise taxes? Oh, yeah? They screw you over ten other ways: gas, Iraq, terrible healthcare so you die before your time. My husband is waiting for a referral from Sierra Health and HPN. It's been three weeks, but they haven't gotten the doctor's dictated notes back yet from the transcriber who is in ... get this ... INDIA! And people are worried about the Mexican illegals? It's your own government you should be worrying about. They're the ones who have us in this mess. No money for education. What better way to control the masses than to keep them stupid. I love the land in which I live, but I have to say that this country, run by the Republicans who control Bush (let's face it, the man couldn't think his way out of a phone booth) for the past eight years has turned this nation into a cesspool. Wild Bill wrote on May 28, 2008 03:16 AM: McCain the flip-flopper? Now that he needs our electoral vote, McBush now LOVES Nevada. He takes back what he said about Yucca Mountain, collegiate gambling, and Colorado River water rights. Next you're going to tell me that Bush takes back what he said about Yucca Mountain. Can you believe this state was dumb enough to vote for Bush TWICE despite his position on Yucca Mountain? Why is the LVRJ silent about their long-standing position on Yucca Mountain? Have the boys from Arkansas changed their minds about storing nuclear waste in Nevada?