Nevada’s best defense against nuke waste at Yucca still is Sen. Re

Just when you thought it was safe …

Fill in the rest of that sentence anyway you want. I choose to think in terms of the safety and security of Nevadans and, yes, all Americans if those who want to shove Yucca Mountain down our throats get their way.

Stopping a proposed high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain has been a decades-long effort — mainly and mostly by Nevadans who care about the future of this state. But unlike killing vampires in old and, now, new movies, it appears it is going to take more than just a stake in the heart. This scary creature just keeps on living!

Yucca Mountain will not die willingly no matter how much people across the country and in Nevada wish it so. There is too much money at stake. It is going to take superhuman ability and determination as well as all the political power this state can muster to finally drive that wooden death stake home.

We thought this thing had finally gasped one of its last breaths when Steven Chu, secretary of the U.S. Energy Department, announced his department would withdraw its application, which had been pending before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, for licensing the site. That belief was further cemented when the motion to withdraw with prejudice was filed. And it was made almost certain when the Energy Department announced the zeroing out of Yucca Mountain budgets and the cancellation of all contracts relating to the dump’s operation.

But consider the following:

• The president of the United States and Energy Department say they no longer think Yucca Mountain is the right answer.

• The majority leader of the U.S. Senate has been able to whittle money from the project’s budget over the past few years.

• The science overwhelmingly points to Yucca Mountain as one of the worst places to store high-level nuclear waste for hundreds of thousands of years.

• The threat of terrorists blowing up trucks and trains full of that radioactive garbage in our major cities is scaring people who never cared one whit about Yucca Mountain.

• Science is promising a better, less expensive and more appropriate way to store, use and reuse the nuclear material that would otherwise be thrown down the Yucca rat hole.

Despite these points — all logical, smart, prudent and proper — there’s no guarantee the Yucca Mountain dump plan won’t be scrapped.

That’s because there are forces out there — let’s call them nuclear power producers — that want to force Nevada to accept the mess they made so their own problems disappear. The nuke power companies don’t care what happens to the waste, only that something happens so they can build more nuclear power plants. And states such as Washington and South Carolina, which have plenty of nuclear waste — and have derived plenty of benefit from this cheaper fuel source for their own industries — want only to send their problems elsewhere. Those are the folks who claim the waste is dangerous but, somehow, not so much if it is trucked and trained to Nevada! Sounds like political danger is what they are talking about.

I realize we are in the middle of one of the most-watched U.S. Senate races in the country. Republicans want to knock off Nevada’s senior senator, Harry Reid, mostly, I suppose, because he is a pain in their backsides because he is helping President Barack Obama deliver health care to Americans and job-producing bills for those who don’t have work. And, it is no secret that there are many Nevadans who, inexplicably, think dumping Harry Reid is good for them, too.

Many of those folks, when asked why they would bring home Nevada’s only chance for a strong voice in Washington, answer with the question, “What has Harry done for us?”

Well, this column is about Yucca Mountain, so let’s start there.

Here is a fact — which is something that cannot be disputed, is not a matter of opinion and is not subject to debate — Harry Reid is responsible for the impending demise of Yucca Mountain. Many have played a supporting role in that effort, but the lion’s share of the credit goes to and almost all of the heavy lifting has been done by Harry.

“So what,” the critics scoff. “Yucca Mountain isn’t going to happen for years and by that time” — I assume they are thinking — “I will be long gone or out of here. It will be someone else’s problem.”

So who do you think that someone else is? That’s right, you and me or yours and mine. Is that the Nevada we want to leave for those who come after?

Here’s what it would look like if Yucca Mountain is opened. The last study I saw on the economic effects of Yucca in Clark County showed that just one accident — and you know there will be more than one over the next few decades — would cause a 30 percent drop in property values and economic output. That didn’t mean very much to people when times were good and no one could contemplate any bad times.

But, guess what? Property values today are down well over 30 percent, and economic output is down at least that much from just two years ago. How do you like how all this feels right now? Can you imagine a 30 percent drop from here?

Now do you get it? Forget about the devastating health issues that would result, all you need to think about is jobs — as in none.

Sen. Harry Reid is the only chance Nevada has to keep Yucca from climbing out of its grave and sucking the life out of this city and state. Don’t take my word for it, listen to what President Bill Clinton had to say in 1998.

When the issue was whether a temporary nuclear dump would be opened in Nevada — an effort pushed by Republicans at a time they thought they could get the dump past Clinton by calling it “temporary,” Harry Reid was standing in their way. He was the only person, other than Clinton, who was standing in the way.

If Harry had been gone, Congress would have rolled over the president, and thousands of truckloads of high-level radioactive poison would have been rolling down I-15 toward Yucca Mountain.

Clinton then told me that if Harry got defeated, Yucca Mountain was a certainty.

But, voters acted wisely and Harry didn’t lose that election, so Nevada steered clear of hosting the world’s deadliest substances just a few miles from the Entertainment Capital of the World. Clinton was right in 1998 and I am certain if he were asked again, his answer would be exactly the same. Without Harry Reid, Nevada gets the dump.

That means the converse must be true. With Harry Reid in the Senate, Nevadans will remain safe, secure and free of the anxiety, the health scares and the economic devastation that come part and parcel with the nuclear waste dump.

That’s just one thing Sen. Reid has done for Nevada lately. One might ask now, “What have those who want to knock him off done lately for the people of this state?”

Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.