WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said yesterday he may be unable to block a White House plan to bury 70,000 tonnes of nuclear waste at a Nevada site opposed by environmentals, who cite the risk of ground water contamination and the dangers of transporting the waste.
The proposed Yucca Mountain waste site, about 90 miles (145 km) northwest of Las Vegas, would permanently hold 70,000 tonnes of radioactive material generated by the nation's nuclear power plants. President George W. Bush endorsed the Yucca Mountain project last month, over the objections of state officials and environmental groups worried about the risks of trucking radioactive material over long distances and the risk of groundwater contamination from the radiactive waste.
Daschle told reporters he recently learned of a provision in federal law regarding nuclear waste disposal that would permit approval of the plan with a simple majority vote in the Senate.
Daschle's Democrats now control the Senate, but just barely. The chamber is divided among 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans and one independent, Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont.
Daschle said he had erroneously figured he could stop the plan by requiring a 60-vote majority, which is typically required for most major legislation.
"When I said in Nevada many months ago that, as long as Democrats were in control, it was not going to be an issue that had much viability, I was not aware that this legislation - when we drafted it decades ago - is under an expedited procedure," Daschle said.
That means any senator can call the measure for a vote, he said, and once on the floor "it only takes a majority vote" to pass it.
The Senate leader said only two Senate Republicans oppose the Yucca Mountain dump site, John Ensign of Nevada and Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado.
Daschle said about 30 Senate Democrats oppose the plan. He hopes to increase that number with the help of Senate Democratic Whip Harry Reid of Nevada.
Ensign said it was his understanding, based on conversations with the current as well as a past Senate parliamentarian, that Daschle could prevent a vote.
"Tom Daschle can keep this from coming to the floor," Ensign said in a telephone interview. "He promised he would and all Nevadans expect him to keep his word."
Ensign said Senate rules and tradition dictate that the majority leader controls the floor.
Daschle spokeswoman Ranit Schmelzer, advised of Ensign's comments, stuck to the majority leader's position that any senator could bring up this matter and get passage with a simply majority.
"It is very important that we get Republican support to stop this" proposed project, Schmelzer said, echoing the Senate majority leader's plea.
Spent nuclear fuel, high-level radioactive waste and excess plutonium from U.S. nuclear power plants are now stored at more than 131 sites throughout the nation.
Utilities contend they are running out of space to hold the waste and say the U.S. government must live up to a 1982 federal law mandating that a national repository be built.
By law, Nevada's state government has the right to appeal Bush's Yucca Mountain decision to Congress. The state last month filed a federal lawsuit contending there is not enough scientific evidence to show the site is geologically safe.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission must also approve a license for the site, which the Energy Department hopes to activate by 2010.:
