House committee endorses Nevada nuclear waste site decision

Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) -- The House moved closer Thursday to endorsing President Bush's decision to put a nuclear waste site into Nevada as a committee advanced the measure despite concern about transporting the waste.

The congressional resolution, which would overrule Nevada's protest of the waste site, was approved 41-6 by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, prompting supporters to predict overwhelming approval' by the full House in the coming weeks.

"It will be an overwhelming vote of support" for the waste site, predicted Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas.

Nevada, as it is allowed under federal law, has challenged the decision to put 77,000 tons of radioactive waste under Yucca Mountain 90 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The waste will be kept out, unless Congress later this year upholds the Bush decision.

Nevada officials have acknowledged that the battle will be drawn in the Senate where the Democratic leadership opposes going ahead with the waste site at this time.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham hailed the broad support in the House committee and added, "We know there's going to be opposition (in the Senate). The action in the House demonstrates the broad bipartisan support we have to move ahead."

Abraham told reporters that he remains convinced that the scientific studies conducted so far -- and others still expected to be completed -- assure the safety of storing the waste, which will remain dangerous for more than 10,000 years, at the Yucca site.

He said it was "a preposterous assertion" that the waste would be safer at more than sites in 39 states -- including at 103 commercial reactors and federal waste sites -- than buried at a single location under tight security.

But some Democratic critics of Yucca Mountain expressed concerns prior to voting Thursday that too many unanswered scientific questions remain and that transporting the waste in thousands of truck or rail shipments would post its own security and safety risks.

"I think we're voting somewhat blindly today," said Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. "Unfortunately the administration has rushed ahead on the decision."

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said that there were 293 outstanding scientific issues not yet resolved about the Yucca site and that the transportation of the wastes would create "a potential mobile Chernobyl" with trucks full of waste "leaving sites every four hours for 24 years."

"We will have a new national nightmare," argued Markey

Supporters of the site countered that there have been thousands of shipments of nuclear material and no accidents involving radiation releases and that Abraham has pledged that the remaining scientific issues would be resolved before the licensing process for the site by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or during it.

"Developing a safe, central repository for this waste is simply critical for the future of nuclear power," said Rep. Billy Tauzin, the committee chairman.