Clinton, enviros, Hawaii Democrats hostile
Wake Island Surfaces As Possible
Alternative to Yucca Mountain

bombs. The waste now is under watch of an agency in Russia that is both disorganized and broke.
"Our leaders have no concept of the threat that faces us through terrorism," said Adm. Murphy, onetime chief of staff to President Bush. "This is important to our national security, and I think it's doable."
But the idea has been laughed off by environmentalists as absurd and assailed by several lawmakers, including the entire Hawaii delegation.
The $7 billion project, which would be built under the corporate name U.S. Fuel & Security Inc., calls for much of Wake Island's lagoon to be filled with cement. Containers of nuclear waste would be stored on the lagoon platform.
Critics point to the group's outspoken director, Mr. Copson, a former musician with the band Iron Butterfly, as evidence that the plan cannot be taken seriously.
"I personally regard this as influence peddling; that to me is what's driving this," said Tom Clements of Greenpeace. "I do believe that a firestorm would come down on the person who would introduce this legislation."
But some lawmakers and administration officials are taking the proposal seriously because of the rest of U.S. Fuel & Security's cast.
Adm. Murphy is the

 
company's chairman and chief executive officer. He is backed by former CIA director William Webster, former Secretary of State James Baker, former Marine Corps Commissioner Paul X. Kelley, and former Customs Service Commissioner William Van Raab, among others.
"They have some horsepower behind them," said a White House official. "They have some money and they have some names.
In addition, U.S. Fuel & Security has proposed building its special transport ships in Mississippi, home of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott.
The company also is considering an $800 million investment to build storage containers in President Clinton's home state of Arkansas. Sen. Dale Bumpers, ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also is from Arkansas. Mr. Lott and Mr. Bumpers' offices did not return telephone calls.
U.S. Fuel & Security has contacted an Alaska company, Alaska Interstate, about building the lagoon island where the waste would be stored. A spokesman for Senate Energy Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski, Alaska Republican, said the committee has been briefed on the project but has not taken a position.
The Clinton administration is opposed to the idea, at

least until it has more details.
"Conceptually, it is not a wacky idea, but as presented, the administration is opposed," said a National Security Council official.
Nevertheless, the influence associated with such an impressive group of Republican powerhouses has alarmed some lawmakers, who worry the group could wield enough political influence to get a bill through Congress.
"We consider it very unlikely [to be approved], but given the depth of fear we would have for it we're spending considerable time on this issue," said Patrick McGarey, legislative director for Sen. Daniel Akaka, Hawaii Democrat.
"We don't just laugh it off because they're spending a lot of time and energy on this, and frankly, we're out-gunned by the resume list they've got."
Under the proposal, U.S. Fuel & Security would team up with Russian officials to lease MinAtom uranium -- now sitting in more than 100 warehouses throughout Russia -- to utilities around the globe to use as fuel in their nuclear reactors. That arrangement would raise about $5 billion a year for MinAtom to pay its workers.
Spent fuel would then be returned to the company and stored on Wake Island. The company also would accept

 
nuclear waste from other countries.
U.S. Fuel & Security hopes to tap into billions of dollars already being collected by foreign governments for storing their nuclear waste. The company expects to charge $1 million for every metric ton it ships and stores. About $4 million already has been spent researching and selling the plan.
Besides making a profit, the idea is to prevent the enriched uranium from falling into the wrong hands.
"It is a first-order threat to American national security," said Graham Allison, a professor at Harvard Center for Science and International Affairs. "If the 70,000-plus nuclear weapons equivalents ... in the MinAtom stockpile are stolen and sold to terrorists or rogue states, they will be able to threaten American lives."
He credited U.S. Fuel & Security for "using their imagination" to solve the problem.
But Hawaiians are furious.
"This proposal would increase the risk of nuclear proliferation by placing the critical elements of weapons of mass destruction --plutonium and highly enriched uranium -- in private hands," Mr. Akaka wrote in a letter to President Clinton last year.

"We also question the wisdom of siting such a facility on an isolated atoll that is prone to erosion and extreme weather conditions," he wrote. The letter was signed by the entire Hawaii congressional delegation.
The site would not be limited to Russian waste. The company said countries from Eastern Europe, Asia and South Africa have expressed interest in storing their spent fuel.
The group also has enlisted the support of a group of Wake Island survivors, and has promised to set up a $100,000 trust fund on their behalf.
The island is historically important -- 120 Americans died there and 1,500 were captured and held prisoner by the Japanese during World War II. But veterans aren't worried about a nuclear waste dump desecrating that memory.
"They always compare the Battle of Wake Island to the Alamo," said Max Boesiger, a spokesman for the Survivors of Wake, Guam and Cavite Inc. "It's got a lot of history there, [but] we recognize that something has to get done. This nuclear waste thing has just gone on and on."

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