PHOENIX -- Nebraska Gov. Ben Nelson didn't have much company when fellow Western governors considered a proposal to have the federal government provide states with more information about nuclear weapons shipments.
He liked it. They didn't.Several of the critics said Friday during the Western Governors' Association's winter meeting that the proposal would needlessly worry the public because the moves are safe.
"The concern that I have is, we raise hysteria with these shipments that I think (is) unwarranted," said one critic, New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, whose state has several weapons development installations.
Talking about spills "creates the impression that this is green slime that is going to get into the ground water," Johnson said during the meeting.
The "memorandum of understanding" negotiated by the association's staff and the Department of Energy includes provisions on notice and response to accidents or other incidents involving weapons carriers.
Nelson, the proposal's chief proponent, asked his fellow governors to endorse provisions requiring that states be told in advance of shipments. The Energy Department had not agreed to that part of the proposal.
Nelson discussed a November 1996 accident in western Nebraska in which a weapons transport overturned on a slick highway, hundreds of miles away from the nearest tow truck powerful enough to right it.
If state officials are notified in advance, they can provide helpful information about special conditions that might affect the weapons shipments, such as highway congestion caused by football games or state fairs, Nelson said.
"The goal is not to create hysteria but to work with officials . . . through the state," he said.
Several other governors joined Johnson in voicing assurances about the weapons shipments' safety.
"These shipments are safe. They're encapsulated," said North Dakota Gov. Ed Schafer, whose state has been home to Air Force intercontinental missiles for decades.
Wyoming Gov. Jim Geringer, the association's chairman, said he and his family routinely watch security-escorted convoys carrying nuclear weapons leave a nearby Air Force base.