Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 31, 1992                   TAG: 9203310122
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

JUSTICES HAVE DOUBTS ON FEDERAL NUCLEAR-WASTE LAW

Some justices questioned whether the law's key provision, due to take effect in 1996, violates states' rights.

New York officials are challenging the law, which was enacted in 1985. The Bush administration is defending it. A high court ruling is expected by July.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, with apparent sarcasm, said Congress adopted a "pretty clever scheme" when it gave each state until 1996 to provide a disposal site for such waste or face costly consequences.

She said if the high court upholds the law then Congress possibly "can require a state to take over a pro-rata share of the national debt," order states to build more prisons or require them to give medical care to the elderly poor.

Justice Anthony Kennedy called the law "a step further than Congress has ever gone" in usurping state power. If the law is constitutional, he said, what would prevent the federal government, for example, from also ordering each state to confiscate illegal handguns.

Justice Antonin Scalia questioned the Bush administration's use of the word "option" in describing what the law offers the states.

He said it was like calling a 30-year prison term an option for a lawbreaker.

"Don't you think `sanction' is a more descriptive term?" he asked Justice Department attorney Lawrence Wallace.

Wallace said the law "is a novel approach." But he said the problem of disposing of nuclear waste is unusual.

Congress passed the law in response to a request by the National Governors Association to deal with a problem of "broad national concern," he said. The problem "must be solved if the people are to continue to enjoy the benefits of energy from nuclear power," he said.

Three states, Washington, Nevada and South Carolina, defended the federal law. The three are the only states with sites for radioactive wastes and fear the burden on them if other states do not create sites.