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June 9, 2006
Nevada's stupidity, the world's lossBy BOB MCCRACKEN
Chic Hecht was a gentle and honorable man in the best sense of those terms. He was that rare type of human being who insisted on collecting as much information as he could on an issue before making an important decision. He had been a long-time supporter of Ronald Reagan in his bid for the presidency, and during his six years in the U.S. Senate, Hecht enjoyed a special relationship with Reagan and was given easy access to the president and the members of the Reagan administration. In a speech delivered November 1, 1988, in Reno, President Reagan said of Sen. Hecht, "He gets the job done for the people of Nevada. Chic doesn't grab headlines; he doesn't showboat. . . . He works hard, he's effective. . . . I feel a special friendship for Chic. You see, we began working side by side long before he went to Washington." While in the Senate, Hecht served on the Senate Energy and Intelligence Committees. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act was passed the month prior to Hecht's moving to Washington. The Senate Energy Committee had jurisdiction over that legislation and the nation's effort to deal with nuclear waste issues, including Yucca Mountain. Thus for six years Sen. Hecht was front and center as the nuclear waste and Yucca Mountain debate unfolded. He had an inside perspective on how the issue became so contentious in Nevada and how our nation's effort to deal with nuclear power and spent nuclear fuel stalled out. Before I move on, I would like to relate an anecdote that I think says a lot about Chic Hecht and who he was. After the passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in December 1982, many living in central Nevada assumed, perhaps naively, that it would bring jobs to rural central Nevada. After all, both Yucca Mountain and the Nevada Test Site were located in Nye County. Over the previous 30 years, numerous rural residents had held good jobs at the Test Site. Yucca Mountain adjoined the Test Site and was to be a big-ticket item, so the expectation seemed reasonable. Although numerous people were hired out of Las Vegas and others brought in from Washington D.C., Tennessee, and who knows where else in the ten months following the passage of the act, as far as anyone knew, there was still no one on the payroll from Nye County. The Department of Energy (DOE) was making little visible effort to embed the project in the local community. Though there was talk of putting 70,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel into the county, there was no effort to get the county really involved with the undertaking. A small group in Tonopah became concerned about the lack of hiring in Nye County. In the fall of 1983, Bobbie Kennedy, a leader of this group, called Sen. Hecht's office in Washington and spoke with an aide, explaining the situation. The aide told Kennedy he would inform the senator of her concerns. That same day, Sen. Hecht personally called Bobbie. He assured her he would talk to the appropriate people at DOE. The next day, she got a call from an official of the Yucca Mountain project in Las Vegas. I'm not sure how many Nye County jobs this call produced - perhaps a few - but the incident illustrates, I believe, Sen. Hecht's concern with and willingness to help his constituents. For me, it says what kind of politician he was, and more importantly, what kind of man he was. Over the next 20 years, I followed the meanderings of the Yucca Mountain project. Most of what one heard was incessant negativity from Nevada's political establishment. As our civilization rushed down the fast track toward perhaps irreparable damages caused by the twin monsters, global warming and declining reserves of oil and gas, seldom was a constructive word heard. About three years ago, I became interested in what role rural Nevada, Nye County in particular, might play in edging the world back from the brink. That is when I decided to see if Chic Hecht would talk to me. I figured he had a first-hand view and probably knew more about the early years of Yucca Mountain and its politics than anyone. He agreed to an interview and graciously invited me to lunch. On April 9, 2004 I conducted a two-hour interview with the former senator. The following is excerpted from the transcript of that interview: Q. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act was passed in December of 1982. You became a member of the U.S. Senate in January 1983. You sat on the Energy Committee, which had jurisdiction over Yucca Mountain. Some Nevada politicians were highly critical of Yucca Mountain and announced their "unalterable" opposition at the outset. You didn't. Why? A. If you're going to do something, you've got to get every bit of information you can, every fact. ... Immediately I started traveling the world and talking to people. I saw this was a huge, huge issue for Nevada, the state I represented in the United States Senate. I studied the problem for six years with the greatest scientists worldwide. I went to Dr. [Edward] Teller ["the father of the hydrogen bomb"]. Being a genius, he was a very humble man. He was very happy that I sought his counsel all the time; always had time for me. He felt that Congress should listen to the scientists more than the political people. I toured I can't tell you how many nuclear power plants across America, toured the world. I had access as a senator and took advantage of it. I talked to the top scientists in France, Sweden, and China, all which had nuclear power ... We [Hecht and Energy Committee Chairman Bennett Johnston] went to Russia studying nuclear waste. And after studying the problem for many, many years, it was obvious there was not a "problem." It's a political problem, not a scientific problem. Q. What is your take on the so called "Screw Nevada" bill, the 1987 legislation that singled Yucca Mountains out as the nation's only candidate for storage of spent nuclear fuel? What about Senator Bennett Johnston's role in this? A. He [Johnston] was being very realistic. We have all the nuclear waste in the ground in Nevada [from nuclear weapons testing]. There were different states studied, and obviously, Nevada was right up there because of the uniqueness of the Nevada Test Site and the fact that [access to the site is restricted]. Q. France is very reliant on nuclear power for its energy. How does France handle the nuclear issue? A. France, which is above 80 percent nuclear, made up their mind after the Second World War ... They had no gas; they had no coal; they had to have some type of energy. So they went to nuclear. We went to France, talked to all the scientists, observed everything, and they preprocess it and they recycle it. There is a tiny residue left over from the reprocessing and the recycling ... It was stored in a room roughly the size of a basketball court under 10 feet of concrete. And there is no problem ... The people of France have no fear of nuclear power; absolutely none. And they've never had an accident in France. Q. Nevada doesn't do very well when it comes to getting Federal pork dollars. When you compare what Sen. Peter Domenici brings home to New Mexico, Sen. Reid and the others aren't bringing home that much. What is your take on this? A. Let's talk about Domenici, who is a good friend of mine. [We both] served on the Senate Energy Committee. By his speaking out positively [on the nuclear issue], an entirely different situation developed in New Mexico [than] in Nevada. People in New Mexico welcomed the jobs. They built super highways down to the repository [at Carlsbad]. Now, it is not the high level - this is a medium level ... it's just a whole different attitude. I think 100 percent of it's from the leadership. Q. When you represented Nevada in the U.S. Senate, how close were you to the Reagan administration? A. I was President Reagan's strongest supporter in the U.S. Senate ... When you were a strong supporter [of] the president, you had support from everyone in the administration. For that reason, John Herrington [Secretary of Energy] and I were very close. Q. What is the origin of the nuclear conundrum, the existing impasse regarding the nuclear waste issue in this country? A. When the nuclear program in America was started, there was no problem with nuclear waste. The way the program was set up, nuclear waste was to be reprocessed and recycled, and that would be it. This plan was changed during President Carter's tenure. [Carter ended recycling.] Q. What is your opinion of President Carter's decision? A. Strictly unscientific. In my opinion, idiotic. He was supposed to have been a nuclear scientist. When people like Dr. Teller, who were geniuses of our time, say this is the way to do it [you should pay attention]. Q. What's your assessment of the danger of the way the waste is presently stored on site at power plants? A. Terrible. Nuclear waste at the present time is building up ... [at sites] all over the United States, and it's very, very dangerous. They're running out of facilities. You can go and buy a Russian SA-7 ... missile, and drive up to some of these places where the nuclear [material] is stored ... and [hit] it ... It is so dangerous, the way it is right now. Q. Would one of these missiles penetrate the storage containers that they have at the plants? A. In my opinion, there is no question. Q. If the solution to nuclear waste is a political and not a scientific problem, it suggests leadership issues, as with the case in New Mexico. How did the high-profile opponents of Yucca Mountain in Nevada know early on to stake out that issue? How did they know it would become such a powerful political issue - because it wasn't at first - that it would "have legs," to use a show-business term? A. It was an issue where there's a fear factor. And fear factors are always wonderful political issues. It's far more dangerous not to reprocess and recycle. You've got nuclear waste - the reality is there. Now, let's go back and get rid of it, the way it was intended. Q. Can you give me more details about how Nevada's intransigent position on Yucca Mountain evolved? A. They staked out a spot; they were intransigent and could not be moved and felt it was a wonderful political spot to be in. And they were right. Did they represent the state? In my opinion, no. Did they represent humanity? I think they did an injustice to humanity, to the far bigger picture than winning an election. Q. What is your sense of the evolution of public opinion in Nevada on the whole Yucca Mountain issue? A. Well, people's opinions are [molded] by the elected officials, and the elected officials in Nevada have been so one-sided, so the press and everyone covers them and I don't think the people gained a true picture. ... There's been a concentrated effort to mold that in the last 20 years, and it's working. Q. Is it reversible in any sense? A. Yes, it is reversible if you stick to the scientific facts and go back and reprocess and recycle. Q. Am I correct in my assessment that the Democrats were so skillful in staking out this powerful anti-nuclear political position, that they created a climate in which the Republicans kind of had to go along with it or keep quiet on it de facto? Would that be correct? A. Probably a pretty good rationalization, yes. Q. So even if a Republican were kind of for it, he can't say it too loud. He or she has to be careful. A. You saw what happened to me. Q. Do you think that was a big factor in your defeat by Harry Reid? A. Oh, I think it was. I think so. (To be continued.) Bob McCracken is the author of A History of Pahrump, Nevada and 11 other books about Nye County published by the Nye County Press. Send questions and comments to rdmassociates@yahoo.com. |
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