Transcript of floor statement by Shelley Berkley regarding Nuclear Waste Amendment to the Energy and Water Appropriations, June 27, 2000 (4 pages)

Rep. Shelley Berkley Floor Statement/Nuc Waste Amendment to the Energy and Water Appropriations June 27, 2000 Mr. Speaker. I stand here today to urge my colleagues to vote against this outrageous amendment which would appropriate $25 million for the Department of Energy to begin interim storage of nuclear waste at the Nevada Test Site. This amendment is not a solution to our nation's nuclear waste problem. In fact, it creates a problem of monstrous proportion. The proposed amendment would transport over 100,000 tons of an incredibly lethal substance across 43 states to be temporarily stored at the Nevada Test Site-where the nuclear waste would await permanent placement in a mountain that as been scientifically proven by DOE's own data to be an unsafe storage site for high-level nuclear waste. After more than 15 years of study, it is clear that Yucca Mountain is not what Congress had in mind when it set high standards for finding a nuclear waste disposal site. It seems ridiculous to me to spend time debating the issue of whether or not to waste taxpayer money on an interim storage facility when if fact there is not a permanent site that is suitable under DOE guidelines to hold high-level radioactive waste. I want to make it perfectly clear, President Clinton has vetoed legislation (S. 1287) that would have required interim storage of nuclear waste at the Nevada Test Site near Yucca Mountain, and the U.S. Senate has upheld that veto. Let's listen to common sense and not waste time debating this issue. 2 Furthermore, over one and a half million Nevadans live within 90 miles of Yucca Mountain, the proposed permanent nuclear waste dump site and the Nevada Test Site, the proposed site for interim storage. Those Nevadans, mothers like myself, fathers, sons, daughters, and grandparents, deserve and are entitled to, the same health and safety protections as every other American. This amendment does not take their health and safety into consideration, nor does it take into consideration the scientific evidence that has confirmed Yucca Mountain as an unsuitable site to contain the storage of nuclear waste. The Yucca Mountain Project is a failed one. Therefore, we should not spend one minute of debate, nor one dollar of taxpayer money on the issue of interim storage. I urge my colleagues to join me in voting against this unfair, unjust, and unreasonable attempt to dump nuclear waste into the State of Nevada.