In a measure environmental groups say will put 50
million Americans at risk of radiation exposure, Congress recently
authorized storage of 50,000 tons of nuclear waste at the Nevada
Test Site.
Opponent Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.,
dubbed the bill “Mobile Chernobyl,” because it funds the
transportation of spent nuclear fuel rods from power plants in 43
states to a temporary storage facility at the site, 90 miles
northwest of Las Vegas. The Department of Energy’s environmental
impact statement predicts 295,000 truck trips to the Nevada Test
Site, and as many as 69 fatalities, 23 from radiation exposure,
from all shipments nationally.
Opponents of the
bill raise two concerns: that the Nevada Test Site is not safe for
storage, and that the risk of accidents from thousands of
truckloads of nuclear waste plying the nation’s highways is too
high. “This could be one of the country’s worst environmental
disasters,” said Karen Kirchgasser, spokeswoman for Sen. Richard
Bryan, D-Nev. “It pre-empts every environmental law on the books.”
The House passed the bill, 307-120, on Oct. 30,
with more than enough votes to override a veto, which President
Clinton has threatened. But the bill passed the Senate two votes
short of the two-thirds majority needed to defeat a veto. Now, the
House and Senate are working on a new version of the bill that
would attract enough votes to override a veto. They hope to have it
on Clinton’s desk by March.
Meanwhile,
researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories discovered
plutonium-contaminated groundwater within a mile of the Nevada Test
Site. Nevada’s tiny congressional delegation seized on the
information in their ongoing attempt to prevent more nuclear waste
coming to Nevada. Annie Kersting, a Livermore isotope chemist, said
they’ve traced the plutonium to a 1968 test
blast.
For information, contact Sen. Bryan’s
office, at 202/224-6244. You may also call the White House Comment
Line at 202/456-1111. To get a copy of the Department of Energy’s
Environmental Impact Statement, Final Waste Management Programatic
EIS, call 800/736-3282, and ask for publication
DOE/EIS-0200-F.
* Jason Lenderman
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline State fights nuclear waste shipments.
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