[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 63 (Wednesday, May 8, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4837-S4838]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE

  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, very soon, we must make an important 
decision which will lead us to a safer future for all Americans. Mr. 
President, today we have highly radioactive nuclear waste and used 
nuclear fuel that is accumulating at over 80 sites in 41 States, 
including waste stored at DOE weapon facilities.
  Here is a chart showing the locations of used nuclear fuel and 
radioactive waste destined for geologic disposal. Each Member can see 
where used nuclear fuel is stored in his or her own State. Out at Pearl 
Harbor, we have naval reactor fuel. In Illinois and New Jersey, for 
example, we have commercial reactors. In many States, particularly on 
the east and west coasts, we have shut down reactors with spent fuel on 
site. We have non-Department of Energy research reactors, as indicated 
by the green, in various States. We have DOE-owned spent fuel and high-
level radioactive waste scattered in across the country.
  The purpose of this chart is to show each Member that used fuel is 
stored in populated areas. It is near neighborhoods, it is near 
schools, it is on the shores of our lakes and rivers, and in the 
backyards of our constituents young and old all across our land.
  Now, as you can see, this nuclear fuel is being stored in highly 
populated areas, near where most Americans live. It may be in your 
town, my town, your neighborhood, my neighborhood. Unfortunately, used 
fuel is being stored in pools that were not designed for long-term 
storage. Mr. President, some of this fuel is already over 30 years old. 
With each year that goes by, our ability to continue storage of this 
used fuel at each of these sites in a safe and responsible way 
diminishes.
  It is irresponsible to let this situation continue. It is unsafe to 
let this dangerous radioactive material continue to accumulate at more 
than 80 sites all across America. It is unwise to block the safe 
storage of this used fuel in a remote area, away from high populations. 
This is a national problem that requires a coordinated national 
solution.
  Senate bill 1271 solves this problem by safely moving this used fuel 
away from these areas to a safe, monitored facility in the remote 
Nevada desert. This is a facility designed to safely store the fuel. It 
is the very best that nuclear experts can build--certified safe by the 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

  Senate bill 1271 will end the practice of storing used fuel on a 
long-term basis in pools such as Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota, California, 
New York, New Jersey, and 35 other States across the country. And 
Senate bill 1271, Mr. President--make no mistake about it--will solve 
an environmental problem. That is why I was so dismayed to receive the 
statement of administration policy, dated April 23, 1996, which 
threatened to veto Senate bill 1271 ``because it designates an interim 
storage facility at a specific site.''
  Mr. President, although the statement claims, ``The administration is 
committed to resolving the complex and important issue of nuclear waste 
storage in a timely and sensible manner,'' such words ring hollow in 
the context of a threat to veto any legislation that does anything but 
perpetuate the status quo. That is just what a veto of Senate bill 1271 
would do.
  I hope that it is not true, but I have to ask if the President is 
playing politics with this issue. If so, its a political calculation 
that I do not understand. Perhaps the President is simply getting poor 
advice.
  Are President Clinton and Vice President Gore really telling the 
voters in Illinois, New Jersey, and all of the other States on this 
map, that nuclear waste is better stored in their States than out there 
in the Nevada desert? I challenge Vice President Gore, who feels 
strongly about the environment--much to his credit--to go to the State 
of Minnesota, to go to New Jersey, to go to Wisconsin, and tell those 
voters that they must continue to store nuclear waste in their State.

[[Page S4838]]

  The administration's approach on this matter is simply business as 
usual. The administration's strategy is to avoid making a decision. Mr. 
President, that is no strategy at all. But the approach of Senate bill 
1271 is to get the job done, to do what is right for the entire 
country.
  For those who are not familiar with the program, let me describe the 
status quo. We have struggled in this country with the nuclear waste 
issue for almost 15 years already, and we have collected $11 billion 
from the ratepayers. But the Washington establishment has not delivered 
on its promise to take and safely dispose of our Nation's nuclear waste 
by 1998, only 2 years from now. Hard-working Americans have paid for 
this as part of their monthly electric bill, and they are entitled to 
have the Government meet its obligation to take the used nuclear fuel 
away. Those people that have paid their electric bills have not gotten 
results. The program is broken; it has no future unless it is fixed. We 
can end this stalemate. We can make the right decisions. The job of 
fixing this program is ours. The time for fixing the problem is now.
  During the debate that will unfold in future days, we will have my 
good friends, the Senators from Nevada, opposing the bill with all the 
arguments they can muster, and that is understandable. They are merely 
doing what Nevadans have asked them to do. Nobody wants nuclear waste 
in their State. But it simply has to go somewhere.
  The Senators from Nevada, both friends of mine, have talked to me 
about this issue, and I understand that they are doing what they feel 
they must do to satisfy Nevadans. But as U.S. Senators, Mr. President, 
we must sometimes take a national perspective. We must do what is best 
for the country as a whole.
  To keep this waste out of Nevada, the Senators from Nevada will use 
terms like ``mobile Chernobyl'' to frighten Americans about the safety 
of moving this used fuel to the Nevada desert where it belongs. They 
will not tell you that we have already move commercial and naval 
nuclear fuel today. The commercial industry has shipped over 2,500 
shipments of used nuclear fuel over the last 30 years, Mr. President. 
They will not tell you that an even larger amount of used fuel is 
transported worldwide. Since 1968, the French alone have safely moved 
about the same amount of spent fuel as we have accumulated at our 
nuclear power plants today. They will not tell you that our Nation's 
best scientists and our best engineers have designed special casks that 
are safety-certified by the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Commission to 
transport the used fuel. They will not tell you about the rigorous 
testing that has been done by the Sandia National Laboratory and others 
to ensure that the casks will safely contain used fuel in the most 
severe accidents imaginable.
  There is proof that these safety measures work. Out of the over 2,500 
shipments of used fuel that have taken place in the United States over 
the last 30 years, there have been seven traffic accidents involving 
spent nuclear fuel shipments. But when the accidents have happened, the 
casks have never failed to safely contain the used fuel. Mr. President, 
there has never been an injury caused by a cask, there has never been a 
fatality, and there has never been damage to the environment.
  Can the same be said of gasoline trucks? Of course not.
  Still we can expect that our friends from Nevada will try to convince 
people that transportation will not be safe. But the safety record of 
nuclear fuel transport, both here and in Europe, speaks for itself.
  This issue provides a clear and simple choice. We can choose to have 
one remote, safe and secure nuclear waste storage facility at the 
Nevada test site, the area in the Nevada desert used for nuclear 
weapons testing for some 50 years. Or, through inaction and delay, we 
can perpetuate the status quo and have 80 such sites spread across the 
Nation.
  Mr. President, it is not morally right to perpetuate the status quo 
on this matter. To do so would be to shirk our responsibility to 
protect the environment and the future of our children and our 
grandchildren. This Nation needs to confront its nuclear waste problem 
now. The time is now. Nevada is the place. I urge my colleagues to 
support the passage of Senate bill 1271.
  Again, I thank my friend, Senator Harkin, for allowing me the 
opportunity to move ahead of him on the Senate schedule.
  Mr. President, I see my colleague has stepped out. I suggest the 
absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as if 
in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, thank you for recognizing me.

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