[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 144 (Thursday, October 23, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S11022]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             NUCLEAR WASTE

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, today Richard Wilson, who is the Assistant 
Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Air 
and Radiation, has announced that they have given preliminary 
certification to the waste isolation pilot plant in Carlsbad, NM. To 
Idaho and to the Nation, this is good news, because for the first time 
in decades we are on the threshold of beginning to move radioactive 
waste to a permanent repository, and the waste isolation pilot plant in 
Carlsbad will handle the transuranic waste, a majority of which is 
stored in my State of Idaho. This is consistent with an agreement that 
DOE struck with the State of Idaho over a year ago. EPA's action today 
is also consistent with a request by Congress that EPA review the 
facility in Carlsbad, NM, to make sure that it met the standards that 
we had asked for human safety, environmental protection, and of course 
dealing with any potential radiation. They believe it does not. Now 
they must go to the public process.
  We hope they will move as quickly as possible in that, because Idaho 
and the rest of the country deserves to know that by 1998 we will begin 
to see nuclear waste moving to a safe, permanent repository that this 
Government and this Senate has asked for well over a decade ago.
  I thank my colleague from Alabama for yielding.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.
  Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished 
Senator from Florida.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida is recognized.

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