[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 12, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H3004]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                NUCLEAR WASTE AND THE ATOMIC TRAIN MOVIE

  (Ms. BERKLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. BERKLEY. Mr. Speaker, not only are the nuclear power industry 
lobbyists trying to conquer common sense with dollars in Congress, they 
are trying to do the same thing to the entertainment industry.
  I was shocked and dismayed to read in The Washington Post TV column 
that NBC has caved in to nuclear industry pressure and politely changed 
the name of the atomic train's cargo from nuclear waste to hazardous 
materials. What semantic nonsense.
  If anyone is able to tell the difference between the two, it would be 
the people of the State of Nevada, who are fighting a bill that would 
dump all of the Nation's nuclear waste in our backyard, 77,000 tons of 
it.
  This just is not Nevada's fight. Most of America would be put at risk 
by H.R. 45, the Nuclear Waste Transport bill. On April 28 I sent a 
``Dear Colleague'' letter to my fellow Members of Congress, pointing 
out that although the movie is fiction, the threat is real.
  Let me ask my colleagues this: When the first inevitable crash 
occurs, where would they want to be living? Would they want to be 
living in that neighborhood?
  I challenge NBC to stand up for public health and safety rather than 
caving in to the nuclear power industry lobbyists.

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