Reid makes the case that transporting 77,000 tons of nuclear waste across 43 states poses a far greater danger than leaving it in on-site dry cask storage at existing reactor locations. He describes the shipments as 120,000 potential targets of opportunity for terrorists, each cask weighing 135 tons. He notes that on-site storage has been proven safe for 100 years at a fraction of the cost, allowing time for new technologies to emerge. Art presses him on whether Nevada should negotiate for financial compensation, and Reid flatly refuses, saying that once you discuss price, you become a prostitute.
Reid also addresses the secrecy surrounding Vice President Cheney's Energy Task Force and the political math needed to sustain Governor Guinn's expected veto in the Senate, where he counts roughly 37 to 38 votes toward the 51 needed to block the override.
Key Moments
Reid: Bush 'betrayed our trust' over Yucca Mountain: Art reads Harry Reid's February 15 statement charging that Bush betrayed Nevadans by approving 77,000 tons of nuclear waste shipped across the country to Yucca Mountain after campaigning in Nevada in May 2000 promising the opposite.
120,000 'targets of opportunity' on the road: Reid lays out the alternative: leave the spent fuel in dry-cask storage at the 110 generating sites for 100 years rather than running 100,000 truckloads and 20,000 trainloads across 43 states - what he calls 120,000 targets of opportunity for terrorists.
'Once you start discussing price, you've become a prostitute': Asked if Nevada should at least extract money if the dump becomes inevitable, Reid refuses to entertain it - says the federal surplus is gone, the WIPP facility in New Mexico got nothing, and a Yucca repository would create fewer than 200 permanent jobs.
Reid joins the Cheney Energy Task Force lawsuit: Asked about Cheney handing over thousands of mostly-redacted Energy Task Force documents that day, Reid confirms he has joined the litigation - the public should know who Cheney met with, when, and where, to write national energy policy.
Steiger reads the Issaquah 'monkey man' ball-of-light report: In the second hour with Brad Steiger, Art reads a 20-year Washington police sergeant's account of a softball-sized white sphere crossing a building wall at 2 a.m. in Issaquah's Gilman Village, followed five minutes later by a three-to-four-foot ball of light containing what looked like an upright walking monkey-like figure.