How Did Your Senators Vote? HJ Res 87- A joint resolution approving the site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for the development of a repository for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, pursuant to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982..
Yea 60 Allard (R-CO) Allen (R-VA) Bennett (R-UT) Bingaman (D-NM) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burns (R-MT) Cleland (D-GA) Cochran (R-MS) Collins (R-ME) Craig (R-ID) Crapo (R-ID) DeWine (R-OH) Domenici (R-NM) Durbin (D-IL) Edwards (D-NC) Enzi (R-WY) Fitzgerald (R-IL) Frist (R-TN) Graham (D-FL) Gramm (R-TX) Grassley (R-IA) Gregg (R-NH) Hagel (R-NE) Hatch (R-UT) Hollings (D-SC) Hutchinson (R-AR) Hutchison (R-TX) Inhofe (R-OK) Kohl (D-WI) Kyl (R-AZ) Landrieu (D-LA) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Lincoln (D-AR) Lott (R-MS) Lugar (R-IN) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Miller (D-GA) Murkowski (R-AK) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Nickles (R-OK) Roberts (R-KS) Santorum (R-PA) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Smith (R-OR) Smith (R-NH) Snowe (R-ME) Specter (R-PA) Stevens (R-AK) Thomas (R-WY) Thompson (R-TN) Thurmond (R-SC) Voinovich (R-OH) Warner (R-VA)	No 39 Akaka (D-HI) Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Biden (D-DE) Boxer (D-CA) Breaux (D-LA) Byrd (D-WV) Campbell (R-CO) Cantwell (D-WA) Carnahan (D-MO) Carper (D-DE) Chafee (R-RI) Clinton (D-NY) Conrad (D-ND) Corzine (D-NJ) Daschle (D-SD) Dayton (D-MN) Dodd (D-CT) Dorgan (D-ND) Ensign (R-NV) Feingold (D-WI) Feinstein (D-CA) Harkin (D-IA) Inouye (D-HI) Jeffords (I-VT) Johnson (D-SD) Kennedy (D-MA) Kerry (D-MA) Lieberman (D-CT) Mikulski (D-MD) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Rockefeller (D-WV) Sarbanes (D-MD) Schumer (D-NY) Stabenow (D-MI) Torricelli (D-NJ) Wellstone (D-MN) Wyden (D-OR)
Not Voting: Jesse Helms (R-NC)
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WASHINGTON, July 9 — The Senate gave final Congressional approval today to a nuclear waste repository deep inside Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert, marking a pivotal moment in the 20-year search for a home for the radioactive byproducts of the nation's nuclear reactors.

The opponents of the site, led by Nevada's two senators, knew they had lost when the Senate voted 60 to 39 to consider a resolution to override Nevada's veto. All sides had said that vote would be the critical test of support. After that, the Senate approved the resolution by a voice vote, instead of a formal roll-call vote. Opponents conceded that they might have lost a roll-call vote by an even larger margin.

The House of Representatives passed a comparable resolution by a 306-to-117 vote in May.

Under the Energy Department plan, endorsed by President Bush earlier this year, the site is to receive high-level radioactive waste shipments of up to 77,000 tons from 103 nuclear reactors around the country over the next quarter century.

The site is envisioned to open in 2010 — though it still faces numerous regulatory and legal hurdles. The nuclear waste, which stays radioactive for thousands of years, is currently stored at local plant sites, making many lawmakers from many states eager for a permanent storage site somewhere far from their own borders.

Many critics of the plan objected, however, to transporting all that waste to the Yucca site from plants across the country.

"Concerns are going to mount, and we are going to rue the day we allowed the waste through that many streets and neighborhoods," said Tom Daschle, the Senate majority leader.

Senator Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, had fiercely opposed the site, as had his assistant majority leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, and the two made one last plea to fellow Democrats at a closed-door party lunch. But they were unable to keep their party completely in line, as 15 Democrats joined most of the Republicans to vote to consider the Yucca Mountain resolution.

Senator John Ensign of Nevada was joined by only two other Republicans — Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado — in voting to block the resolution. Senator Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina, did not vote.

Both sides vyed for votes until the final minutes, with Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham appearing at a closed-door Republican caucus. In defeat, the Democrats tried to use the vote to further Democratic campaign charges that Republicans are beholden to big business. "A lot of special interests are behind this," said Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, who protested that the Yucca Mountain site risked contaminating California's drinking water. "Who are we fighting for here? Who are we fighting for here?"

Supporters of the nuclear waste repository called it critical for the future of the nation's nuclear power industry, saying the plants were not viable without a disposal site. Indeed two states, California and Connecticut, have prohibited new reactors pending some solution to the waste problem.

"Nuclear power is a clean, efficient source," said Trent Lott, the Senate minority leader. "We need to deal with nuclear waste."

Senator Lott, a Mississippi Republican, dismissed opponents of the nuclear power as unrealistic. "There are people in America that don't want nuclear power," he said. "They don't want hydropower, they don't want oil."

Opponents of the Yucca Mountain site raised an array of safety questions, from whether the repository's design would prevent groundwater contamination to whether it would be safe to transport 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste across the country, particularly at a time of terrorist threats.

Mr. Abraham, the energy secretary, today dismissed such concerns. "We've been transporting the same kind of waste for 30 years and there hasn't been one harmful exposure," he told reporters. "We will take every precaution to maximize safety. If we didn't go forward with Yucca, there would be alternative schemes."

Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

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