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Yucca hearing set, fulfilling Clinton campaign promise

WASHINGTON -- A Senate committee on Wednesday announced a hearing on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project, enabling Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to claim credit for delivering on a campaign promise made to Nevadans over the summer.

The Oct. 31 hearing will be the first Senate airing of the proposed waste repository since Democrats took control this year. The Environment and Public Works Committee that is organizing the session is headed by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., a critic of the proposed repository, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The hearing probably will have political undercurrents as well.

Clinton sits on the committee and is expected to take part in the hearing. The senator from New York has sought to position herself as the strongest voice against the project among Democrats running for president in advance of the state's party caucuses in January.

"Senator Clinton has been working actively with the committee to schedule this hearing," said Rory Reid, Clark County commissioner and chairman of Clinton's campaign in Nevada, where the repository project is unpopular. "No other candidate for president has stood as strongly on this issue as Senator Clinton."

The hearing probably will provide Clinton and other repository opponents a fresh forum to criticize the controversial program. While it will be in a Senate committee room, the intended audience members really are voters in Nevada, said Eric Herzik, a political scientist at the University of Nevada, Reno.

"It is possible that something substantive could come out of this, but Yucca Mountain has been discussed for more than 20 years, and the sides are pretty well drawn," Herzik said. "This makes me think it will be more symbolic than substantive."

Committee aides and other Senate officials said witnesses are being invited and will be announced next week. The panel has jurisdiction over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency, so it is possible those agencies will be represented, officials said.

One outstanding question is why the EPA is taking so long to issue required radiation safety standards for the project. Agency officials had promised Congress the standards would be released by the end of last year, and they are 10 months late and counting.

Project managers from the Energy Department and spokespeople for the environmental community also might be invited. It was not clear whether Gov. Jim Gibbons is being invited to speak or to send a representative.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he has worked with Boxer to schedule the hearing "for the last few months. I am confident the information that comes out will shine a bright spotlight on the problems associated with this dangerous plan."

Most elected leaders in Nevada oppose the proposed repository that is being designed to hold 70,000 tons of highly radioactive used fuel from commercial power plants and other forms of nuclear waste. They say they consider the venture unsafe and have little trust in the Energy Department to look after the health and safety of Nevadans.

Clinton has sought to portray herself as the state's biggest ally among presidential candidates.

On July 20, she said she would push for Senate hearings as a step toward delaying the project until she could be elected president in 2008.

If she wins, Clinton said, "I will not go forward with Yucca Mountain. My administration will not proceed with Yucca Mountain."

It was not clear Wednesday what role if any Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Clinton's perceived main rival in Nevada for the Democratic nomination, would play in the hearing. An Obama campaign aide said he might not be able to attend and ask questions because he is not a member of the Environment Committee.

"Senator Obama does not need hearings to know he does not support Yucca Mountain," the aide said. "To the extent this hearing will help raise public awareness, he supports it."

But a precedent might have been set for Obama's participation if he chooses, according to several Senate sources familiar with the Environment Committee. Several weeks ago, the committee chairman allowed nonmember Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., to take active part in a hearing about the Chesapeake Bay.

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., said he challenged Clinton to try to kill the Yucca project outright.

"The Democrats are in charge, and the Democrats have done nothing to kill the project," Porter said. "Why is she going to wait to see if she wins? If she is sincere, she has the authority now."

"This is precisely why she requested this hearing," said Hilarie Grey, Clinton's campaign spokeswoman in Nevada. "There are many public safety issues and health issues that have not been addressed and she wants to be sure those questions are asked right now. Senator Clinton has been a consistent opponent of Yucca Mountain."

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., noted the hearing will take place on Nevada Day, the Oct. 31 anniversary of when the state was admitted to the Union in 1864.

"Nevada's flag reads Battle Born, and we will keep fighting Yucca Mountain and those -- like President Bush -- who want to see the Silver State turned into the nation's nuclear garbage dump," Berkley said.

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

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