Transcript of speech Nevada Nuclear Waste Dump, undated (1 page)

Nevada Nuclear Waste Dump Congresswoman Shelley Berkley Please oppose H.R. 45, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1999. There is no decision more critical than how to isolate for tens of thousands of years all the high-level radioactive waste ever generated by our nation's commercial and military nuclear plants. In 1987, Congress decided to short-circuit the search for a permanent nuclear waste repository for political rather than technical reasons, restricting the Department of Energy to studying only Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Twelve years later we still don't know if that political decision will prove technically suitable. But H.R. 45 does not solve the problem; it just short-circuits the process again by creating a temporary fix and eviscerating health and safety standards for long-term disposal. H.R. 45 may actually imperil efforts to find a real solution to the nuclear waste problem. Specifically, H.R. 45 would: * Mandate an unnecessary "interim" storage facility for nuclear waste: There is no reason to centralize interim storage of high-level waste in Nevada at this time. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has concluded that irradiated fuel can safely remain at the reactors for up to 100 years. Even if we build an "interim storage" site, every operating reactor would continue to store high-level waste begging the question what is gained by moving the waste. Furthermore, the Yucca Mountain area has been repeatedly rocked by what scientists call swarms of earthquakes. As recently as two weeks ago, earthquakes measuring up to 4.7 on the Richter scale jolted an area adjacent to Yucca Mountain. Additionally, it has been demonstrated to a fact that ground water moves rapidly through the Yucca Mountain area. As a consequence, many scientists believe the mountain is unsuitable to isolate radioactive waste from the environment. And it must be pointed out that the geologic and hydrologic features of Yucca Mountain strongly indicate the presence of active volcanic activity where deadly nuclear waste would be stored * Move high-level nuclear waste through 43 states: H.R. 45 requires the greatest nuclear waste transportation project in human history. 95% of the nation's waste radioactivity would be moved in casks that are governed by inadequate standards that do not even require compliance testing of full-scale models. 43 states face the risk of transportation accidents and radiation exposures from cask leaks. And if Yucca Mountain is not found acceptable as a permanent disposal site, all the waste will have to be moved again. * Slash environmental safeguards: H.R. 45 severely weakens environmental standards for nuclear waste disposal by gutting the required Environmental Impact Statements (preventing meaningful public participation), weakening licensing standards for a permanent repository, and forbidding the Environmental Protection Agency from issuing radiation release standards. * Bust the budget: H.R. 45 caps utility payments into the nuclear waste fund and adds a new project to be paid for by the fund. If the fund proves inadequate to pay for both, taxpayers could be left holding the bill for disposal of the utilities' waste. Utilities already are likely to receive compensation for repository delays through the courts; they don't need this added bonus. * Dump on the West and on minority and low-income communities: Over three quarters of the nation's reactors are east of the Mississippi River, yet the designated location for storage is in Nevada. Four of the states that will likely see the most waste shipments, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and Indiana, do not even have commercial reactors. Much of the transportation risk would fall on low-income and minority communities through which commercial routes run.