Pro-Yucca lawmaker tries new strategy

Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois, a leading U.S. House advocate of reviving the Yucca Mountain Project,  unveiled a new strategy today.

In a House speech, Shimkus, a Republican, called out individual senators from the Pacific Northwest and urged them to “step up to the plate” to pressure Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on the shut-down nuclear waste site.

Without the once-planned Nevada repository, 53 million gallons of high-level radioactive waste accumulated through Cold War weapons production will continue to be stored at the Hanford reservation in Washington state, near the Columbia River and the Oregon border,  he said.

Shimkus was unusually direct, displaying poster boards with photos of Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell of Washington, and Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and mentioning them by name.  All are Democrats.

“These senators need to step up to the plate," Shimkus said.  “And these senators need to do their job.”

“These senators are even empowered to go to their leader and plead for their state and make the compelling argument,” he said.  “If you can’t make it for Hanford,  you can’t make it anywhere.”

Shimkus said he planned to deliver a series of speeches in the coming weeks on nuclear waste, spotlighting parts of the country where the government is storing radioactive material.

“I can start making the clarion call to senators around the country who have high level nuclear waste in their state,”  Shimkus said, with the goal to build pressure on President Barack Obama and Reid,  who engineered the termination of the Yucca project that was unpopular in Nevada.

“It is time for them to stand up and be counted,” he said.

There was no immediate comment from the senators.