Nevada Governor Joins Protest Over Nuclear Dump Site

More than 3,200 Nevadans, including Gov. Richard Bryan and his wife Bonnie, have signed an open letter to President Reagan asking him to stop efforts to locate a high-level nuclear dump in Nevada.

Bryan told a picnic crowd Saturday that 85% of the nuclear waste was generated east of the Mississippi River but all of it was ticketed for burial in the West.

The open letter campaign was started by Rep. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who said Reagan was Nevada’s “only hope” to halt the Energy Department from selecting the state as the site for the radioactive burial grounds.

Reid said the letter would be carried to rodeos, parades and churches to solicit signatures. “I have great confidence in President Reagan,” said Reid, a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

“He listens to the people. He’s a populist President,” Reid said. But Reagan has been “receiving the wrong vibes from the rest of the public. He doesn’t know how we feel,” Reid said.

The Energy Department has selected Yucca Mountain about 100 miles from Las Vegas, Deaf Smith County in Texas and Hanford, Wash., as the finalists for a nuclear dump.

Reid noted that there were efforts in Congress last week by Nevada, Washington, Texas and Oregon to stop any money for the Energy Department to continue its studies. But he said the opposition only raised 68 votes in the House. And a similar measure died in the Senate Energy Committee on a 9-9 vote.

The state selected, under federal law, can veto the site, but it can be overridden by Congress. Reid said 68 votes are not enough to sustain any veto by Nevada.