Thursday, November 20, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Lieberman: Safety key to Yucca site

Presidential hopeful says nuclear waste repository wouldn't go forward based on politics

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, right, speaks Wednesday to Las Vegas resident John Handy after arriving at McCarran International Airport. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Joe Lieberman said Wednesday that he would not go forward with plans to site the nation's nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain "if I feel it's not safe."

Lieberman, D-Conn., told reporters he is a "clear alternative" to President Bush, whom he said was guilty of breaking promises and "knuckling under to special interests."

During a 2000 campaign visit to Lake Tahoe, Bush promised to base any decision on Yucca Mountain on "sound science." He approved legislation last year to store 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, despite numerous unresolved scientific questions.

Lieberman also took a slight jab at Democratic front-runner and former Yucca Mountain proponent Howard Dean, who during a campaign stop in Las Vegas last month said he had "seen the light" on Yucca Mountain now that he's running for president and no longer is governor of Vermont.

"I didn't support (the Yucca Mountain bill) because it was just not the right thing to do," Lieberman said. "This is a statement about the kind of president I intend to be.

"I'm going to stick with a decision whether it's popular politically or not," Lieberman said. "Howard Dean has gone a slightly different way."

After a brief news conference, Lieberman spoke to about 35 people at a $1,000-a-plate luncheon at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, according to host Hal Ober, a developer.

Ober said he was not certain how much money was raised. Attendees included former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones; state Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas; Democratic National Committeeman Steven Horsford; and Adriana Martinez, Nevada Democratic Party chairwoman.

In a brief opening statement to reporters after arriving at McCarran International Airport from Chicago, Lieberman said in the past he had felt "very real pressure" to move waste from the four power plants in Connecticut.

Lieberman said that now that Yucca Mountain has been approved, he would want to examine whether there are alternatives.

"Isn't there some way we can figure out how to recycle that much nuclear waste and find something useful to do with it?" he asked.

Lieberman voted against the Yucca Mountain bill in 2002 and has also opposed efforts to designate Yucca Mountain as an interim storage facility.

But in a March 23, 1999, letter to the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Lieberman and other Democratic senators urged an "accelerated waste acceptance" time frame to ship waste from shuttered power plants once a central repository was approved.

Lieberman said Bush's 2000 campaign statement was strictly political, and that, if elected president, "I'm not going to let something go forward if I feel it's not safe, if I feel it's not right."

"It's a big decision with big consequences, and I'm not going to let this decision, to the best of my ability, be rushed for political reasons," he said.

Lieberman said he was the only candidate who didn't "go to a reflex reaction" during a Democratic campaign event Tuesday in New Hampshire sponsored by the American Association for Retired People, which had just pledged support for a compromise on Medicare legislation.

"All of us in politics in the federal government have been promising seniors for years that we'd provide a prescription drug benefit in Medicare," Lieberman said. "This bill gives at least 10 million seniors in America prescription drug benefits that are pretty good under Medicare."

Lieberman said that while the bill now contains provisions he does not support, he wanted to talk with fellow senators about possible support for the compromise. He said he planned to make a decision on the bill within a few days.

"The question is `Do we say no to 10 million Americans ... or do we say let's put our foot in the door now for seniors and let's fix the parts we don't like in the years ahead?' " Lieberman said.

Lieberman also said he did not support efforts to approve a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. During the late 1990s, Lieberman said he supported efforts to define marriage "in the traditional way between a man and woman," but to let individual states determine whether to recognize civil unions.

"I don't favor a constitutional amendment," Lieberman said. "I think the Constitution is kind of like the Ten Commandments; you don't amend it lightly."

Lieberman is the fifth Democratic candidate to visit Las Vegas this year, following Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., retired Gen. Wesley Clark and Dean. Gephardt will make another trip to Las Vegas on Friday for two private fund-raising meetings.

Lieberman, who spent about three hours in Las Vegas on Wednesday, said he plans to return several times before the state's Feb. 14 Democratic caucus.

Republicans in Nevada, who are gearing up for Bush's planned fund-raising visit next Tuesday, sent out a news release condemning Lieberman for his criticism of Bush.

"Senator Lieberman would better serve the people of Nevada by returning to his duties in Washington," Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said in the news release issued by the Nevada GOP.