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Palin goes after Obama, Reid over Yucca Mountain
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"We all know (Sen.) Harry Reid opposes safe storage of spent fuel at Yucca Mountain. But we didn't expect the administration to back him up on that for purely political reasons."
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STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The Yucca Mountain repository became an applause line for Sarah Palin on Friday, and the latest flash point in Nevada's race for U.S. Senate.
Speaking to a Republican audience in New Orleans, Palin worked the repository into a critique of President Barack Obama, saying he "talks a good game" on energy but allows progress to be blocked.
On nuclear power, Palin contended Obama stood aside while Interior Secretary Ken Salazar imposed a two-year moratorium on uranium mining claims on 1 million acres of land in Arizona, near the Grand Canyon.
And, she told the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, "We all know (Sen.) Harry Reid opposes safe storage of spent fuel at Yucca Mountain. But we didn't expect the administration to back him up on that for purely political reasons.
"Not safety, not environmental, or geological reasons but for political reasons. They can't have it both ways. You can't claim to support development of clean nuclear energy and then gut our options."
Rather than take it as criticism, Reid, D-Nev., has touted his clout with Obama and his influence with the White House to shelve the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository plan.
He called the president's decision to end the program a "victory for Nevadans," and it is a major selling point in his re-election bid.
Reid did not respond directly to Palin on Friday, but rather turned the issue onto Sue Lowden and Danny Tarkanian, his two front-running Republican opponents. He challenged their opposition to bringing nuclear waste into the state.
Tarkanian proposes to transition the repository site in Nye County into an advanced reprocessing facility for spent nuclear fuel, which would result in "massive job creation and an economic stimulus," according to his campaign Web site.
Reid's campaign released a video of Lowden addressing an audience in Mesquite this week in which she calls for Nevada to become "the research center of the world" on nuclear waste, and that it should look at reprocessing.
"Lowden, Tarkanian stand with Palin on bringing nuclear waste to Nevada," Reid's campaign said in a headline.
Not true, Lowden's campaign manager Robert Uithoven said.
Unlike Palin, Lowden opposes the policy of bringing nuclear waste into Nevada and burying it at Yucca Mountain, Uithoven said. But, he added, Lowden is not convinced it can be killed for good, no matter what Reid says.
"President Obama is not going to be president forever," Uithoven said.
If it becomes inevitable for Nevada to become the destination for nuclear waste from around the country, Lowden favors changing federal law to allow Nevada to take ownership of the waste and explore recycling the material rather than burying it at the Yucca site, Uithoven said.
"It is a thoughtful position to say if we are going to get high level nuclear waste sent to Nevada against our will, we better be ready to do something with it, and here is something you can do with it that is not burying it in a mountain for 10,000 years," he said.
Responding to Reid's charge on nuclear waste, Tarkanian campaign manager Brian Seitchik said, "Harry Reid's policies are the real 'toxic waste' devastating Nevada."
Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.
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Please check how many people in White Pine County , Nevada have died of cancer or have cancer because of the "safe testing" of bombs at area 51. The people who have cancer get US checks from the treasury called the "DOWNWINDER" affect. What Sara Palin knows about nuclear waste you could carve on marble and put it in you eye and not feel it.She is as dumb as a dumb as a dumb as a can't think of anything as dumb as she is.
President Obama and Mr. Reid aren't going to be around forever, but for sure, the waste has to go to a special place, and the majority of the humanity and scientists agree that land burial is the best option. Thanks!
Obviously you completely missed the point. The ones who come here now are not going to adapt what will happen is their children will be exposed to American culture and will themselves become conditioned to become Americans. By the time we hit the 2nd generation when the immigrant's grandchildren mature, very few will speak Spanish anymore. It takes time, coaxing, limited tolerance, and a whole lot of peer pressure from popular media, but their traits will essentially be bred out of them.
High crime and drugs on every corner in the Barrio, eh? Like we never have illegal grow-houses, prostitution/human trafficking houses, gangs, rapes, Methamphetamine Labs, and corpses dumped in the vacant fields around the suburbs here that are perpetrated by the legal residents that dwell there. Never minding the same thing happens in the other neighborhoods right down to the scum trailer parks and ghettos.
Face the facts, there is no place that's devoid of the same crimes in the Barrios & Ghettos. In fact, we probably rank worse in cruelty and repugnance here in the Suburbs. Which BTW brings up an interesting point. Present some valid Citations for your claims.
But then again if you want yourself and your future descendants to glow in the dark because you want to try and stop a select group of people from living here (which we will never be able to), go ahead and elect the people who keep feeding your delusions. You need to be a realist about this and wake up.
as vegan - Illegal Aliens can, and will eventually adapt to American life. All it takes is ushering in the change by forcing them to adapt, rather than cater to them with Political Correctness. Just like with the Irish, Jewish, Italian, German, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Armenians and many others who have come before them. Same story, different day. It all turned out just fine.
Within a couple of generations Latinos will be full-fledged Americans who participate in our system of tax paying, consumerism, and law-abidence. Cant' exactly say that Nuclear Waste will stop being a *threat* as fast, nor that a group of day laborers, cooks, or maids are as threatening to our way of life as High Level Waste.
->Most Illegal Aliens don't want to harm me.
->All Nuclear Waste is guaranteed to kill me.
Our odds of survival are better with another wave of immigrants versus the contamination of waste due to accidents and eventual corrosion of dry casks, so you do the math on who I an many others will vote for.
"Jimmy Jay wrote on April 10, 2010 04:40 PM: Gov. Palin continues to prove that she is far more qualified to be the President of the United States, and Rank-Amateur Obama continues to support this with his pathetic actions."
Is that all you have to argue with?
What, exactly, is Palin's expertise?
Democrat Dream Ticket 2012: Palin-Bachmann. Slogan: We Is Smart!!! Song: I Can See For Miles From My Porch by the Who
Gov. Palin continues to prove that she is far more qualified to be the President of the United States, and Rank-Amateur Obama continues to support this with his pathetic actions.