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August 13, 2004
Kerry says Bush broke his word about Yucca
By NEDRA PICKLER 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 dumpsite after winning the presidency, even though many scientific studies remained unfinished. "It's about promises kept and promises broken," Kerry said during an appearance at a school along the route that the waste would be shipped. 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. But at a rally attended by thousands Tuesday night, he defended himself from Bush's charge that he has changed his position on the Iraq war. "I voted to stand up to Saddam Hussein, but I thought we ought to do it right," Kerry said. "I thought we ought to reach out to other countries, we ought to build an international coalition." He did not speak about Bush's selection of Florida Rep. Porter Goss to head the CIA, 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 follow 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 Las Vegas 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. A federal appeals court last month rejected the Environmental Protection Agency's radiation standard for the repository, which could doom the project. Kerry promised at the rally, "If they try to change the standards on radiation at the EPA and they send it to my desk, veto pen. Gone. Out." 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, 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. |
