[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 27 (Wednesday, March 5, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E376-E377]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        NO PACIFIC NUCLEAR DUMP

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 5, 1997

  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, when most of us think of 
Pacific islands, we usually think of a tropical paradise with brightly 
colored fish swimming in turquoise waters while palm fronds rustle 
overhead in a warm gentle breeze. Well, Mr. Speaker, I am here to tell 
you that there is trouble in paradise because there are some people 
that see a tropical island and think of nuclear dump sites.
  As we struggle with the legacy of the cold war and the wastes 
generated by it, those that trade in these wastes have increasingly 
looked at isolated atolls, with few if any constituents to object, as 
likely nuclear dump sites. Several years ago, there was a proposal to 
store radioactive waste in the Marshall Islands. Fortunately, the 
Marshallese Government eventually thought better of it and that 
proposed died. Last year, a group calling itself U.S. Nuclear Fuels was 
making the rounds in Washington, DC, to drum up support for a proposal 
to create a nuclear dump site on Palmyra Island, a private owned island 
in U.S. territory. This proposal prompted the introduction of 
legislation in both Houses of Congress prohibiting the Federal 
Government from siting a nuclear waste storage facility outside the 50 
States. Now, another group, Nuclear Disarmament Services, Inc., is 
circulating legislation to authorize the siting of a nuclear dump site 
on either Palmyra or Wake Island, a U.S. possession. In fact, there is 
a symposium occurring today at Georgetown University, sponsored by U.S. 
Nuclear Fuels, to discuss this proposal.
  What do all these crazy ideas have in common? One man, Alex Copeson, 
has been the driving force behind all these proposals and a principal 
in these companies. And this is not Mr. Copeson's first foray into the 
waste trade. In the early 1990's, he was the pitch man for a scheme to 
dump toxic waste on the sea floor, even though this is prohibited under 
U.S. and international law.
  Why does Mr. Copeson think that we should store nuclear waste on 
Pacific islands? An article in the March edition of Outside magazine 
offers some insights. Referring to the Marshallese Government and the 
Bikini Islanders, Mr. Copeson is quoted as saying, ``They're all scam 
artists banging the tin cup in front of the white man. They'd open a 
whorehouse and sell their daughters and grandmothers for a dollar. 
They've never lived so good since that bomb, the fat lazy [expletive]. 
All they want to do is go gambling, drinking, and whoring in the United 
States. The only contribution they could make to the world is to give 
someone their islands [for waste] and take a hike--be an absentee 
landlord for world peace.''
  Given Mr. Copeson's views of the people of the tropical Pacific and 
his insensitivity to the economic, social, and environmental injuries 
inflicted on them by above-ground nuclear testing, it is no wonder that 
he thinks that we should continue to dump radioactivity in their back 
yard. And that brings up the most crucial point. Even if one thought 
that shipping nuclear waste thousands of miles across the stormy 
Pacific Ocean to store it on geologically unstable coral or volcanic 
islands in the

[[Page E377]]

middle of the Pacific Ocean's typhoon belt was a good idea 
scientifically, how could one justify inflicting further nuclear 
contamination on the people of the Pacific territories? In furtherance 
of our cold war, many of the people of the Pacific islands have lost 
not only their traditional way of life, but in some cases their home 
islands have been rendered uninhabitable.

  We need to stop this madness in its tracks. That is why Mr. 
Abercrombie and I are introducing a resolution today that expresses the 
sense of Congress that we will not transport to or store nuclear waste 
on any U.S. territory or possession. Federal law already forbids the 
siting of a nuclear waste storage facility in U.S. territories or 
possessions without the express authorization of Congress and passing 
this resolution will send a clear signal that we do not intend to do 
so. We need to let the international waste merchants know that the 
people of the Pacific islands have suffered enough and that we will not 
insult them further by forcing them to be the caretakers of the nuclear 
legacy of the cold war. I recognize that this is a terrible problem, 
but Pacific islanders did not start the cold war, and they should not 
be asked to finish it.

                          ____________________