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| Kerry: Bush broke vow on Nev. nuke site |
| 2004-08-11 |
| John Kerry accused President Bush on Tuesday of "breaking a promise" by authorizing a national storage facility for radioactive nuclear waste 100 miles northwest of here at Yucca Mountain. Polls show that most Nevadans oppose the $58 billion project, approved by Bush and Congress in 2002 over the objections of Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican. Kerry voted against proceeding with the facility, which Nevada officials have fought since 1982 as an unwanted "dump." Over 36 years, the project would ship 77,000 tons of spent fuel from nuclear power plants, Navy ships and research reactors to Nevada by truck and rail from 111 current storage sites in 39 states. The program was set back last month by a federal appeals court ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency's radiation-safety standard for the site doesn't adequately guard public health. The Bush administration is considering an appeal to the Supreme Court. Bush won Nevada in 2000 after promising to approve the project only on the basis of "sound science." But Bush endorsed the Energy Department's recommendation even though scientific questions about the site's safety were - and still are - unresolved. On Tuesday, Kerry told a woman questioning him in a school library: "With John Kerry as president, there is going to be no nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain - period. This is not just a Nevada issue. It's about promises kept and promises broken." The issue "absolutely could make the difference" for the state's five electoral votes by raising the turnout, says Ted Jelen, a political scientist at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. "It's not going to turn Republicans into Democrats, but it could turn non-voters into voters - and they'll probably vote for Kerry, because Kerry has a pretty good position on that. The case that Bush lied in 2000 has not been successfully rebutted." |
| Posted by:2% |
| #5 "With John Kerry as president, there is going to be no nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain - period. This is not just a Nevada issue. It’s about promises kept and promises broken." If elected, Kerry said, he’ll order the National Academy of Sciences to work with other nations on studying ways to store the spent fuel without leaking lethal radiation into water supplies. So if the international study concludes that storing the world's nuclear waste products in Yucca Mountain would be the best move, will Kerry do it and break his promise? What if the conclusion is that Afghanistan or the Sudan or Iran offered the best alternative. Would dumping a bunch of radioactive waste in those places make sense? This guy is really serious about internationalizing decisions. It's too bad that he's not serious about protecting America. |
| Posted by: Tibor 2004-08-11 18:06 |
| #4 If elected, Kerry said, he’ll order the National Academy of Sciences to work with other nations on studying ways to store the spent fuel without leaking lethal radiation into water supplies. Yeah, let's slap another study on it. This thing has been studied to death. It boils down to whom are you going to believe that will make a garrr-onnn-teeee that things will be copacetic for 10s of thousands of years. There are plenty of scientific 'hos that will take your money |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-08-11 17:03 |
| #3 "..The case that Bush lied in 2000 has not been successfully rebutted." This "Bush lied" phrase has been beaten past the point of being useful for any sort of rational argument. Sorry boys, but mention it again, and you get tuned out immediately. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-08-11 16:44 |
| #2 Kerry, of course, knows what to do with nuclear waste - we'll just store it in one of Teresa's five basements. It's not as if anybody other than the help will be there to be irradiated... |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2004-08-11 16:34 |
| #1 "With John Kerry as president, there is going to be no nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain - period. This is not just a Nevada issue. It’s about promises kept and promises broken." He'd know about that. So where you gonna put it all, asshole? Nantucket Sound with the windmills? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-08-11 16:29 |