Palin goes after Obama, Reid over Yucca Mountain

WASHINGTON -- The Yucca Mountain repository became an applause line for Sarah Palin on Friday, and the latest flash point in Nevada's race for U.S. Senate.

Speaking to a Republican audience in New Orleans, Palin worked the repository into a critique of President Barack Obama, saying he "talks a good game" on energy but allows progress to be blocked.

On nuclear power, Palin contended Obama stood aside while Interior Secretary Ken Salazar imposed a two-year moratorium on uranium mining claims on 1 million acres of land in Arizona, near the Grand Canyon.

And, she told the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, "We all know (Sen.) Harry Reid opposes safe storage of spent fuel at Yucca Mountain. But we didn't expect the administration to back him up on that for purely political reasons.

"Not safety, not environmental, or geological reasons but for political reasons. They can't have it both ways. You can't claim to support development of clean nuclear energy and then gut our options."

Rather than take it as criticism, Reid, D-Nev., has touted his clout with Obama and his influence with the White House to shelve the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository plan.

He called the president's decision to end the program a "victory for Nevadans," and it is a major selling point in his re-election bid.

Reid did not respond directly to Palin on Friday, but rather turned the issue onto Sue Lowden and Danny Tarkanian, his two front-running Republican opponents. He challenged their opposition to bringing nuclear waste into the state.

Tarkanian proposes to transition the repository site in Nye County into an advanced reprocessing facility for spent nuclear fuel, which would result in "massive job creation and an economic stimulus," according to his campaign Web site.

Reid's campaign released a video of Lowden addressing an audience in Mesquite this week in which she calls for Nevada to become "the research center of the world" on nuclear waste, and that it should look at reprocessing.

"Lowden, Tarkanian stand with Palin on bringing nuclear waste to Nevada," Reid's campaign said in a headline.

Not true, Lowden's campaign manager Robert Uithoven said.

Unlike Palin, Lowden opposes the policy of bringing nuclear waste into Nevada and burying it at Yucca Mountain, Uithoven said. But, he added, Lowden is not convinced it can be killed for good, no matter what Reid says.

"President Obama is not going to be president forever," Uithoven said.

If it becomes inevitable for Nevada to become the destination for nuclear waste from around the country, Lowden favors changing federal law to allow Nevada to take ownership of the waste and explore recycling the material rather than burying it at the Yucca site, Uithoven said.

"It is a thoughtful position to say if we are going to get high level nuclear waste sent to Nevada against our will, we better be ready to do something with it, and here is something you can do with it that is not burying it in a mountain for 10,000 years," he said.

Responding to Reid's charge on nuclear waste, Tarkanian campaign manager Brian Seitchik said, "Harry Reid's policies are the real 'toxic waste' devastating Nevada."

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.