SUBMITTED CAMPAIGN RELEASE
LAS VEGAS – Sen. Harry Reid’s recent victory for Nevadans in finally blocking the nuclear waste dump at Yucca mountain came under attack this morning from Republican Sarah Palin, a position that is being followed in lockstep by GOP candidates Sue Lowden and Danny Tarkanian. Just this week, Lowden devoted a lengthy section of a town hall in Mesquite advocating shipping all of America’s nuclear waste to Nevada for reprocessing – literally mocking the potential danger of bringing mass quantities of the most toxic substance known to man right here to Nevada. Said Lowden:
We should be the research center of the world to figure out what to do with this so-called “nuclear waste.” I put that in quotes. … We should be looking at this area for reprocessing and I’m with you and I don’t think it’s too late. … I think it’s a valuable tool for us to figure what we’re going to do with the next generation of so-called “waste.” I keep putting it in quotes because some countries are figuring that out and we’re America, we can figure it out. It’s not going to be waste forever, and why shouldn’t we be using it, be part of that research group that looks at the next generation of what we can be using with the so-called waste. I’m all for it.
Tarkanian has also stood in lockstep the Lowden-Palin position of turning Nevada into a haven for reprocessing America’s nuclear waste, saying of safety concerns: “There’s no risk at all.”
The renewed push for the Palin-Lowden-Tarkanian position to bring mass quantities of nuclear waste to Nevada comes as a non-partisan report released just today said those advocating that position “need a reality check” specifically rebuffing Palin and Lowden’s arguments:
“Reprocessing nuclear waste, like what has been attempted in France, Japan and elsewhere, often fails, is too costly, comes with nuclear weapons proliferation risks and doesn’t eliminate the need for a repository to replace the one the Department of Energy had planned for Yucca Mountain.”
Moreover, Bruce Breslow of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects has argued compellingly against the plan, concluding that “Yucca Mountain may be the worst possible site in the nation for reprocessing.”
“Sen. Reid has fought tooth-and-nail over many years to finally win the battle against Yucca and these dangerous policies that would bring hundreds of tons of nuclear waste just 90 miles from the Las Vegas strip,” said Kelly Steele, communications director for Friends for Harry Reid. “The last thing Nevada needs is this disastrous plan from Sue Lowden and Danny Tarkanian where a single accident would ravage tourism in Nevada and devastate our economy unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”
