Nevada rep turned down in bid to join Yucca tour

The entrance to Yucca Mountain is seen in this April 2011 file photo. (Jessica Ebelhar/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Both of Nevada’s senators, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., a member of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, remain strongly opposed to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project, pictured here in 2011. (Jessica Ebelhar/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

WASHINGTON — A Nevada bid to send a representative when members of Congress visit Yucca Mountain this week was turned down Monday by organizers who said there was no room on the tour of the nuclear waste site.

The executive director of the state Agency for Nuclear Projects offered to have Steve Frishman, a geology consultant, accompany the half-dozen lawmakers scheduled to examine the site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas on Thursday.

In a letter Monday, trip leader Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., told agency director Robert Halstead there was no room on the tour being arranged through the Department of Energy.

“I am grateful for your generous offer of Mr. Frishman’s time; however DOE’s current itinerary for the tour is fully subscribed,” Shimkus wrote.

Shimkus, whose state is a leading producer of electricity from nuclear energy, has said the Yucca Mountain tour was aimed at showcasing the site for a possible revival after it was shuttered by the Obama administration in 2010.

The government spent more than 20 years and $15 billion to study Yucca as a potential repository for used fuel from nuclear power plants as well as waste from nuclear weapons production.

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff report released in volumes over recent months concluded Yucca Mountain might hold the highly radioactive material safely for periods up to a million years, giving new wind to Shimkus and others supportive of resurrecting the program.

Frishman likely would have provided a competing view. He has been one of Nevada’s leading technical experts as it built an argument that the Yucca site is unsafe. The geologist also sought to accompany Shimkus on a previous visit to Yucca Mountain in 2011 but was rejected.

“No matter how intense this fight is, I think it is really useful for people to have honest discussions with one another,” Halstead said Monday. “I think it would be useful for them to hear our view of what’s going on with the safety debate, where the questions are and what the reality is here.”

Other members of Congress announced for the trip are Reps. Cresent Hardy and Mark Amodei, both R-Nev., Bob Latta, R-Ohio, Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., and Dan Newhouse, R-Wash.

Counting aides and Department of Energy chaperones, it could not be immediately determined how many people were to be on the tour. A small number of news reporters also was scheduled to go along.

Contact Steve Tetreault at stetreault@reviewjournal.com or 202-783-1760. Follow @STetreaultDC on Twitter.