[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 55 (Thursday, April 25, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4115-S4116]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT

  Mr. BRYAN. Mr. President, tomorrow, April 26, is the 10th anniversary 
of the most dramatic ecological disaster of the 20th century--the 
explosion of reactor No. 4 at the V.I. Lenin Atomic Power Plant in 
Chernobyl, Ukraine.
  On that day, 10 years ago tomorrow, a combination of poor design, 
human error--or, more accurately, human negligence and incompetence--
led to a massive explosion within the core of reactor No. 4--an 
explosion that blew off the 2,000-ton reactor chamber roof, spewing 
massive amounts of radiation into the surrounding area and the Earth's 
atmosphere in a radioactive cloud that eventually reached as far away 
as California.
  It was not until several years after the disaster occurred that the 
truth about Chernobyl, the crown jewel of the Soviet nuclear power 
industry, began to emerge--that following the explosion, reactor No. 4 
experienced what has long been considered the worst-case scenario in 
nuclear power--a full reactor meltdown. The core material burned, 
exposed to the atmosphere, for nearly 10 days, and resulting in a total 
meltdown.
  Our colleague, Senator Kennedy, summed it up shortly after the 
disaster, when he said ``The ultimate lesson of Chernobyl is that human 
and technological error can cause disaster anytime, anywhere.'' That 
has particular residence for us in Nevada.
  The ecological and economic consequences of Chernobyl were massive, 
immediate, and will last for tens of thousands of years.
  Thirty-one people died as an immediate result of the explosion, 200 
were hospitalized, and 135,000 were evacuated from 71 nearby towns and 
villages. High doses of radiation spread over at least 10,000 square 
miles, affecting 5 million people in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. The 
explosion spread more than 200 times the radiation released by the 
Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts combined. Anywhere from 32,000 to 150,000 
people could eventually die as a result of the blast. Millions of 
people have had their lives permanently disrupted by the accident. 
Belarus and Ukraine now report a broad rise in respiratory illness, 
heart disease, and birth defects. Scientists are still waiting to see 
what the role may be of the radiation exposure in leading to the many 
cancers that take longer than 10 years to develop, but expect it to be 
significant.
  The children of Belarus have been particularly hard hit. Seventy 
percent of the Chernobyl fallout landed in Belarus--a nation that 
itself has no nuclear reactors. Huge tracts of land in Belarus were 
contaminated with radioactive cesium, strontium, and plutonium. Prior 
to 1986, Belarus's thyroid cancer rate for children under 14 was 
typical--2 cases in a nation of about 10 million. By 1992, the rate was 
up to 66, and by 1994, the rate had increased to 82--an increase that 
can only be explained by the Chernobyl fallout.
  One quarter of the land of Belarus, home to one-fifth of the nation's 
population, has been severely contaminated by the Chernobyl explosion.
  The power plant complex is surrounded by an 18-mile radius exclusion 
zone--an area of very high contamination that is off-limits to for 
residence and entry without a special permit.
  Lying outside of the exclusion zone is a much larger area with 
lesser, but still very high, contamination. Despite official government 
pronouncements that this area is unsafe, it is still home to 237,000 
residents of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, who simply cannot afford to 
live anywhere else.
  The remains of reactor No. 4, still highly radioactive, are contained 
in a hastily erected sarcophagus--a highly unstable structure, 
considered by many the most dangerous building on earth. As concerns 
regarding the possibility of collapse of the sarcophagus or the reactor 
entombed inside increase, it is unclear if the technological or 
financial challenges of stabilizing and cleaning up reactor No. 4 can 
ever be met.
  Mr. President, If Chernobyl has taught us anything, it is that when 
dealing with such high-risk matters as nuclear power, or nuclear waste, 
small mistakes can have enormous consequences.
  Next week, the Senate may turn to a bill aptly dubbed the ``Mobile 
Chernobyl Bill''--S. 1271, the Craig nuclear waste bill.
  As many of my colleagues are aware, this establishes, on an 
accelerated schedule, a so-called interim high-level nuclear waste dump 
in Nevada.
  I want to be clear on what this interim storage program means. Tens 
of thousands of tons of high-level nuclear waste will be removed from 
reactors, loaded on over 16,000 trains and trucks, and shipped cross 
country to Nevada, a State with no nuclear power. The

[[Page S4116]]

waste will travel through 43 States on transportation routes that bring 
the waste within one mile of over 50 million people.
  Mr. President, I know the nuclear power industry is lobbying hard for 
this bill. I know there is a lot of pressure on Senators to support 
this legislation. I also know that the nuclear power industry has 
spread a massive amount of disinformation about the bill.
  By any objective evaluation, this legislation is completely 
unnecessary. In fact, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, a 
Federal agency created by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, and comprised 
of the Nation's most respected scientists, said just 1 month ago that 
there is simply no need for an interim storage facility at this time.
  This is not the first time the industry has cried wolf. In 1980, a 
supporter of the industry asserted:

       We are running out of reactor space at reactors for the 
     storage of the fuel, and if we do not build what we call 
     away-from-reactor storage, another type of interim storage, 
     and begin soon, we could begin shutting down civilian nuclear 
     reactors in this country as soon as 1983.

  Of course, Mr. President, no U.S. reactors have closed due to lack of 
storage. Thirteen years have passed since the prediction that in 1983 
there would result the closure of reactors.
  Despite the crisis mentality created by the nuclear power industry, 
there is no nuclear reactor in America that will be forced to close 
down due to lack of storage. Every nuclear utility, if it so chooses, 
can take advantage of existing, NRC licensed, off the shelf dry cast 
storage systems to meet its spent fuel storage needs. Should the mobile 
Chernobyl bill come to the floor next week, I will have a lot more to 
say about the lack of any compelling need for this legislation.
  There are, however, plenty of other reasons to oppose this bill. The 
bill preempts nearly every local, State, or Federal environmental 
protection. It creates a taxpayer liability of billions of dollars to 
solve the private industry's waste problem. It eliminates EPA authority 
to protect the health and public safety.
  Mr. President, I do not know when the Senate may consider this bill. 
It is my hope that it never comes up. Nevertheless, I urge my 
colleagues to fully consider the many legitimate public health safety 
consequences raised by this legislation, particularly as they relate to 
their own constituents, and to oppose the mobile Chernobyl bill. I 
yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senator from 
Alaska is recognized to speak in morning business for up to 10 minutes.
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. I thank the Chair and wish the Chair a good morning.
  (The remarks of Mr. Murkowski pertaining to the introduction of S. 
1703 are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced 
Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. I thank the Chair and wish the Chair a good day. I 
thank the floor managers for allowing additional time in morning 
business.
  Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I believe we are at the order of business 
under the previous order.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
  Mr. SIMPSON. Which is to go to the illegal immigration bill, is that 
correct?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.

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