Roberts joins state nuclear panel

For the second time this week, Gov. Jim Gibbons appointed a new member to the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects, choosing Nye County schools Superintendent William "Rob" Roberts to fill Michon Mackedon's seat.

His earlier appointment to replace Mackedon, whose term expired this year, was Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley.

However, Eastley resigned before attending one meeting after an uproar among some of Nevada's delegation over her stance in favor of the planned nuclear waste repository, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

That's unlikely to happen with Roberts, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, who says that transporting highly radioactive waste across the United States to Yucca Mountain would be too risky because of the potential for a terrorist strike or an accident triggered by a bridge collapse or railroad failure.

"I have a real concern that hazardous materials coming through our state could be targeted. Once a canister is open there could be serious degradation of life," Roberts said late Thursday.

Roberts said the governor's staff discussed the appointment with him Monday, and Gibbons' spokeswoman, Melissa Subbotin, confirmed Thursday that he had accepted the position.

Former U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, who chairs the state nuclear panel, said that at first glance, he's pleased with Roberts joining the Nuclear Projects Commission.

"It sounds like he's given this some thought," Bryan said Friday in a telephone call from Canada, where he is joining others on an annual fishing trip.

Bryan said he shares Roberts' view that the nuclear waste transportation issue "is one of the major considerations," especially in light of terrorism.

Roberts referred to his military experience for insights on the transportation issue.

From 1986 to 1989 he was an instructor and chief of the military science instruction branch at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He is a Vietnam War combat veteran, having served in 1969 and 1970 as a helicopter pilot with the 101st Airborne Division.

"I know transporting hazardous materials is risky and would be underestimated," he said.

"If there are any safe ways of storing it in the mountain, I don't have an edge in science, so I can't argue that science."

Earlier this week, Gibbons had appointed Susan Brager, a Democrat who is also a Clark County commissioner, to replace former Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams.

Williams' term on the state panel expired June 30, as did Steve Molasky's term.

Molasky hasn't been formally reappointed but continues "to serve at the pleasure of the governor," Gibbons' communications director Brent Boynton has said.