GOP candidates' backing of Yucca closure draws anger in Washington

Republican lawmakers from Washington state and South Carolina, which hold tons of nuclear waste, are none too pleased that leading candidates for the GOP presidential nomination are backing President Barack Obama’s decision to shutter a central dump designed to store their waste.

When Obama cut out funding for the long-planned Yucca Mountain waste repository near Las Vegas in 2009, Republicans accused him of playing politics in a bid to help Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in his tough Nevada re-election race.

The Yucca site has been extremely unpopular in Nevada since Congress in 2002 authorized building a huge storage vault beneath the mountain as the nation’s central nuclear waste dump.

Now GOP White House aspirants eager to win votes in Nevada’s Jan. 14 Republican presidential caucus have come out against Yucca, just like Obama and Reid.

At the GOP presidential debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday evening, candidates competed to see who could appear more anti-Yucca.

“What right do 49 states have to punish one state and say, ‘We’re going to put our garbage in your state?’ ” Rep. Ron Paul of Texas said.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney quickly followed suit.

“Congressman Paul is right on that,” he said. “The idea that 49 states can tell Nevada, ‘We want to give you our nuclear waste’ doesn’t make a lot of sense. I think the people of Nevada ought to have the final say as to whether they want that.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry was not to be outdone. “You know, from time to time, Mitt and I don’t agree, but on this one, he hit the nail on the head.”

Rep. Doc Hastings, a Pasco Republican who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, criticized the GOP presidential candidates’ newfound Yucca opposition.

“Despite Yucca Mountain being the law and $14.5 billion in taxpayer dollars spent to develop it, the Obama administration has taken several steps, without the consent of Congress, to terminate all operations,” Hastings said. “Unfortunately some are following his lead and playing political football with this critical issue to Washington and other states with nuclear repositories.”

Members of Congress from Washington clearly intend to continue their push for the Yucca site.

U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Deer Park, another key backer of the Yucca site, did not mention the GOP candidates, but she reiterated her criticism of the Obama administration, with her spokesman, Todd Winer, noting that three years have passed since the project was canceled. “They have yet to provide a compelling alternative to Yucca Mountain,” he said. “Rep. McMorris Rodgers believes it’s time to get to work.”

In the Senate, Democrat Patty Murray of Washington has been one of the most vocal opponents of shutting down the Yucca site, referring to it recently as a “misguided path.” Her spokesman, Matt McAlvanah, said Thursday that “her views haven’t changed.”

Murray said last month the nation has “a legal and moral obligation to clean up the waste at Hanford and other sites across the country.”

At the Tuesday night debate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was the only candidate who defended the Yucca dump, noting that scientists had studied waste storage sites exhaustively and concluded that the Nevada site was the best option without major safety threats.

David Damore, a political scientist at the University of Nevada, said the candidates were playing to a very different audience of Nevadans who oppose the Yucca waste. “The path of least resistance is to say the right thing and get it over with,” Damore said. “It’s just not worth the political risk.”

James Rosen: jrosen@mcclatchydc.com

Rob Hotakainen: rhotakainen@mcclatchydc.com