Kerry Says Bush Broke Nuclear Waste Vow
story.news.yahoo.com
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
LAS VEGAS - Democratic presidential
challenger John Kerry , making a play for a state that supported
President Bush four years ago, accused the president of breaking his
word with a plan to bury nuclear waste in Nevada.
Kerry said the president broke the promise
he made in the 2000 race to ensure science
and not politics determined his decision
whether to ship waste to Yucca Mountain.
Bush approved Yucca Mountain as the
nation's nuclear dump site after winning the
presidency, even though many scientific
studies remained unfinished.
"It's about promises kept and promises
broken," Kerry said.
He made his own campaign promise:
"When John Kerry is president, there is
going to be no nuclear waste at Yucca
Mountain. Period," he said.
Kerry remained focused on Yucca Mountain
while campaigning in Nevada, even as other
events dominated the presidential
campaign. He let his advisers defend him
from Bush's criticism of his stance on the
war in Iraq (news - web sites). And he did
not speak about President Bush's selection
of Florida Rep. Porter Goss (news, bio,
voting record) to head the CIA (news - web
sites), instead responding by written
statement from his campaign headquarters
in Washington.
Kerry's statement called for quick Senate
hearings on Goss' nomination, but kept the
heat on Bush to name a national
intelligence director and other
recommendations of the Sept. 11
commission.
For years, Nevada has been fighting plans
to move the nation's used reactor fuel to
Yucca Mountain.
Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt
accused Kerry of flip-flopping on Yucca Mountain because Kerry has
voted for some measures that included provisions that would have
allowed nuclear dumps there. But every time he has faced the simple
choice of voting whether or not to send waste to Yucca, Kerry has voted
against it.
Kerry said he is concerned about the safety and security of storing the
waste 90 miles outside of Nevada at a mountain that sits atop the
region's major water supply. Kerry also noted seismic activity has been
measured at the mountain and could pose a safety threat.
Kerry said he would leave waste at nuclear sites around the country
while he instructs the National Academy of Science to study how the
world should deal with nuclear waste and storage.
Kerry and Sen. Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., said
Nevada voters should choose Kerry for another reason - he saved the
life of one of their senators.
Kerry and Reid recalled how, on was July 12, 1988, Nevada Republican
Sen. Chic Hecht was attending a weekly GOP luncheon in the Capitol
when a piece of apple lodged in his throat. Kerry, running late for the
corresponding Democratic luncheon, was just getting off an elevator
when he saw Hecht buckled over in the corridor. He rushed over and
performed the Heimlich maneuver.
"I suspect that I was late for that meeting and I walked out of that
elevator because there was a higher power that said that was the
moment that I was blessed to be there for Chic Hecht," Kerry said.
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