McCain on Yucca: “We have to find somewhere to store nuclear fuel”

LAS VEGAS-Presumptive Republican nominee Ariz. Sen. John McCain was in Las Vegas today, raising campaign cash and holding a very brief news conference just far enough ahead of schedule that it was missed by many local media outlets.

Due to the lack of local press, McCain's press conference was largely about national issues like the war in Iraq.  He did, however, briefly address two major Nevada issues, his one-time support of a ban on amateur sports betting and his stance on the nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain.  McCain's answers to these issues, particularly in regards to Yucca Mountain, are likely to set off a firestorm of criticism in coming days and may have seriously harmed his chances to win Nevada this fall.

On Yucca Mountain, McCain said that he would "accede to whatever scientific-credible scientific-opinion is."

"I would point out that long studies were conducted before Yucca Mountain was recommended.  If there's scientific evidence that contradicts that recommendation then I would certainly pay close attention to it.

"But I want to say that we have to find somewhere to store spent nuclear fuel.  I mean, it's just a fact of life."

McCain connected the repository to fears of terrorist attack on the many sites that house spent nuclear fuel across the country.

"It's not only an environmental issue, it's not only all the other aspects of it, but it's a national security issue," said McCain, "because obviously the more sites there are that have spent nuclear fuel in them, the more likelihood that they could be, and I emphasize ‘could,' be the target of terrorist organizations.

"So I want to get the issue resolved and I don't think it's fair to the American people for us to have this issue just drag out and drag out indefinitely as it has for many years.  I will respect scientific opinion.  The scientific opinion that I had up until recently was that Yucca Mountain was a suitable storage place, so I hope that explains my position on it."

McCain's stance represents very risky politics in Nevada, where voters overwhelmingly oppose the site.  Unlike McCain, both Democratic presidential hopefuls, N.Y. Sen. Hillary Clinton and Ill. Sen. Barack Obama, have publicly declared their opposition to the site.

McCain also sought to downplay his one-time support for a ban on amateur sports betting, saying that "I felt that way because the college coaches, the most respected people in America, came to me and said that they believed that there was enormous temptation before their young athletes and these were NCAA coaches including the head of the coaching organization and I respect their views.

"Obviously that legislation was not going to be successful, but when people like coach Krzyzewski of Duke and Dean Smith and people that are the most respected people in America come to you and tell you of something that they're concerned about, I think you should take their views seriously."

Despite McCain's claim that he knew the bill wouldn't be passed, it was a serious-enough threat at the time to prompt Ensign to seek a post on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

"One of the reasons you want to get on Commerce is because John McCain sticks his fingers into so many things, including the NCAA betting bill," Ensign told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2001. "You want to be on there to fight that battle."

Although scheduled for 1:55 p.m. with a press check-in at 1:40 p.m., McCain took questions somewhat earlier and was already out of the building before many reporters, including those from the two major Las Vegas newspapers, had arrived.

The early exit led some local media to question whether McCain was avoiding answering questions about Nevada-specific issues and prompted Las Vegas Sun columnist and host of "Face to Face" Jon Ralston to suggest "they're just ducking us."

McCain's campaign disputed that later this afternoon.

"The schedule was running a little bit ahead of time," said McCain spokesman Jeff Sadosky. "We did not mean to inconvenience any members of the press."

With McCain's "straight talk" on those two issues, however, it's easy to see why he may have wanted to avoid the questions altogether.