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Nuclear Waste: Industry Spent $25 Million on Yucca Lobbying, Report Says A report by Public Citizen released yesterday said the nuclear power industry spent more than $25 million in congressional lobbying efforts in 2000, the last time Congress debated the issue of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada (see GSN, March 29). More than 160 lobbyists, paid by the nuclear industry, worked on nuclear waste legislation and Yucca Mountain funding issues, according to the report by Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. “The filings leave no doubt that nuclear waste was one of the top reasons the industry was throwing around so much money in 2000,” the report said. The nuclear power industry is likely to spend as much, if not more, this year on congressional lobbying efforts, according to a Public Citizen policy analyst. “I have absolutely no doubt the nuclear power industry is going to spend more money lobbying in 2002 than in 2000, due to the urgency of this (Yucca Mountain) issue and their own pronouncements,” said Hugh Jackson, the report’s lead author. There is nothing wrong with the nuclear industry lobbying Congress on behalf of its own interests, said Steve Kerekes, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the main lobbying group of the nuclear industry. “We live in a democracy, and our industry has a right to have an input into the process just as everyone else has and just as these people have,” Kerekes said, speaking of Yucca Mountain opponents. “They just don’t like the outcome.” Senators Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) have attempted to persuade Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn to push for approval to add additional millions of dollars to the state’s anti-Yucca Mountain fund, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “That is the whole argument, that these guys in the nuclear industry have a bottomless pit of funds. They’ve opened their wallets to do whatever it takes to sell this thing,” said Nathan Naylor, a Reid spokesman. “You have to be able to respond in kind, maybe not at the same level,” Naylor said. “We really do need resources to respond to these guys” (Steve Tetreault, Las Vegas Review-Journal, April 2). Nevada Misses West Wing Tie-In A lack of funding is preventing Nevada from running an anti-Yucca Mountain advertisement during this week’s episode of NBC drama series The West Wing, which centers on a uranium fuel rod transport accident. “There is no doubt this is a missed opportunity, but there will be others,” Naylor said. It would cost Nevada $400,000 to air the advertisement during the program, which would take up much of the funds allocated for the state’s anti-Yucca Mountain public relations measures, Naylor said. Nevada last year allocated $4 million for a legal and media campaign against Yucca Mountain, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal. An additional $10 million is needed, Reid and Ensign said. Nevada could send its anti-Yucca Mountain message for less by targeting important states instead of a nationwide effort, Naylor said. “If we spend the little bit we have, then what would we do afterwards,” he said. “We have to be mindful of the rest of this fight” (Sean Whaley, Las Vegas Review-Journal, April 2).
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