Kerry Tries to Energize Foes of Nevada Dump Site

It was July 6 when Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada hurried to a secluded room off the Senate floor to take a call from Sen. John F. Kerry, conveying an important message about Kerry’s soon-to-be-announced running mate.

“Sen. Edwards has taken the Yucca Mountain pledge,” the Democratic presidential nominee told Reid.

For months, the state’s Democrats have used President Bush’s decision to bury high-level nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain site in southern Nevada to rally voters for Kerry, who has long opposed the dump.

They hope it will be just enough to turn the tide in Kerry’s direction Tuesday in this battleground state, where polls show the race is a draw and voter registration is virtually split.

“This is the issue that will defeat Bush in Nevada,” Reid said.

Located 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Yucca Mountain is in line to receive an estimated 77,000 tons of the nation’s most radioactive waste.

The state has battled the plan for decades, but in 2002, Congress and Bush authorized the site. The Department of Energy hopes to begin using it by 2010.

The only way to stop the nuclear train from coming, say the state’s Democrats, is to vote for Kerry. The Massachusetts senator has vowed to kill the project if elected, saying he would prefer to keep the waste where it is -- at nuclear power plants throughout the country.

“It will take a Democratic president to stop this,” said Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), one of the most outspoken critics of Bush on the issue.

Nevada Democrats decided early on that the nuclear waste issue not only illustrated the difference between the candidates, but appealed to people across party lines. Polls show a majority of Nevadans believe that the state should continue fighting the repository.

At almost every opportunity, state Democrats emphasized Bush’s approval of the plan.

Democrats were ecstatic when an anti-Yucca plank was included in the national party’s platform and Republicans at their convention pledged support for nuclear energy to reduce dependence on foreign oil but didn’t mention Yucca by name.

When a federal appeals court in July tossed out the project’s safeguards against potential radiation exposure as inadequate, Democrats hurriedly called a news conference in Las Vegas to say the ruling was proof that Bush had failed to keep his 2000 campaign promise.

During his only visit to the state that year, Bush said any decision on Yucca Mountain would be based on “sound science.”

Some Democrats believe the statement was enough to swing voter sentiment in the state, especially when several prominent Republicans vouched for Bush. Bush won with 49.5% of the vote to Democrat Al Gore’s 46%.

“Back in 2000, President Bush made it an issue when he promised Nevadans and he lied,” said Adriana Martinez, state chairwoman of the Democratic Party.

Yucca Mountain has been so crucial to state Democrats and their strategy that in July, Berkley withheld her endorsement of Edwards as Kerry’s running mate until she talked with him about his position. Edwards had voted in favor of the repository in 2002, but said he opposed it now.

“I needed to hear it myself,” said Berkley, who represents the Las Vegas area.

When Bush approved the plan, he put state Republicans in a precarious position: saying they support Bush but not his Yucca Mountain decision.

“I don’t feel that it’s hypocritical,” Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn said. “I would never want to be in a position ... to only have one disagreement with you or the president or somebody else and say I can’t support you in the bigger picture.”

Republicans say that although Yucca Mountain is a crucial issue, concerns over homeland security and the economy are also important.

Atty. Gen. Brian Sandoval, a Republican leading the state’s legal challenge of Yucca Mountain, said he didn’t think that it was fair to blame Bush for approving the project. “He made a decision based on the information that was provided to him,” he said, adding that he and Bush have “agreed to disagree.”

Republicans have not remained silent on the issue. After Kerry held a Yucca Mountain town hall meeting that drew national media coverage in August, Bush accused his opponent of using the issue as “a political poker chip” and alluded to Kerry’s 1987 vote for the so-called “Screw Nevada” bill. “My point to you is that if they’re going to change, one day they may change again,” Bush said.

The 1987 law narrowed the number of potential repository sites from three to Yucca Mountain. It was included in a massive appropriations bill that year.

“John Kerry voted to screw Nevada, and that’s the bottom line,” Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) said. “John Kerry is trying to take the moral high ground and he cannot ... because of his record.”

But Democrats say Kerry has been with Nevada on every vote since 1987, opposing the project multiple times. “When it’s counted, I’ve voted no to waste at Yucca Mountain,” Kerry said in his August visit to Las Vegas.

At the time, Kerry said he advocated leaving the waste at the nation’s nuclear plants.

The issue hasn’t resonated outside Nevada. In Ohio, a Republican Party official said he could not recall Kerry mentioning his opposition to the Yucca project while campaigning there.

Ohio has a vested interest in plans for nuclear waste. It has two commercial nuclear power plants, plus a former plant, along with two nuclear materials facilities that are being cleaned up.

But in Nevada, Yucca Mountain remains a top issue. At one point this summer, four Yucca TV ads aired simultaneously.

Although Democrats concede the issue is not the only one in Nevada, they hope that it will resonate with undecided voters.

“I don’t think Yucca Mountain, in and of itself, is going to win it for the Democrats,” said David Damore, a political science professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. “It does energize their base.”

Republican strategist Sig Rogich said Nevada Democrats were trying to mislead voters.

“It says a lot about [Kerry’s] character when he will put his finger to the wind and test what’s popular and cast aside all those votes in favor of bringing the nuclear trash to Yucca Mountain,” he said.

Republicans say the state’s Democrats had no choice but to make Yucca a major issue given the strength of the state’s economy and what they say is Kerry’s liberal background.