[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 32 (Tuesday, March 21, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H1140-H1141]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 IN OPPOSITION TO S. 1287, THE NUCLEAR WASTE POLICY AMENDMENTS ACT OF 
                                  2000

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Berkley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. BERKLEY. Mr. Speaker, in 1983, President Reagan signed into law 
the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. The new law began with a reasonable 
scientific approach. The country would search all over the Nation 
looking for geological formations which were capable of burying high-
level nuclear waste. The new law would also consider three sites so as 
to provide some regional equity to the burden of storing the waste. One 
site would be in the northeastern part of the country, one site would 
be in the southeastern United States, and one site would be in the 
West. These three sites would be studied and then presented to the 
President of the United States for a decision.

[[Page H1141]]

  Since then, politics has had more to say to the siting of high-level 
nuclear waste than the science. After Members of Congress from the 
Northeast began to openly oppose placing the dump in the Northeast, the 
Department of Energy unilaterally decided to take them off the list. 
When placing the dump in the southeastern part of the country came up 
as a campaign issue in 1984, President Reagan unilaterally decided to 
take the southeastern part of the country off the list.
  These decisions were not based on science, Mr. Speaker. They were 
based on politics. Then in 1987, the so-called ``screw Nevada'' bill 
was passed into law. This bill made the most political of decisions, to 
designate one site, Yucca Mountain, as the only site, excluding any 
other consideration from any other region in the country. So if I begin 
to question the claims of science from the supporters of dumping 
nuclear waste in Nevada, it is because I have learned to question from 
the history of this issue.
  Fast forward to the mid 1990s. Nearly a decade has gone by since the 
``screw Nevada'' bill and the scientific evidence against Yucca 
Mountain is growing. It has become scandalously obvious that Yucca 
Mountain was the wrong mountain to bet on. It is in an earthquake zone, 
it is in an underground flooding zone, it is in a volcanic eruption 
zone, for crying out loud.
  On top of that we find out that the rocks at Yucca Mountain cannot 
contain radiation like the politicians had hoped. So back to the 
drawing boards to find another way to screw Nevada.
  By 1995, illogical legislation took a new direction, something called 
a temporary storage site in Nevada. The nuclear industry figured they 
could build a temporary site because it would not have to meet the 
strict standards of a permanent dump, and once the waste was in Nevada, 
it would never leave.
  But a funny thing happened on the way to a temporary dump. President 
Clinton promised to veto it and that threat, coupled with the hard work 
of some Members of the House and the Senate, has frozen the temporary 
concept for half of a decade.
  But now, given that the temporary dump will not fly, we see S. 1287. 
This is nothing but a transparent effort to throw out radiation 
standards and sneak the date several years closer for shipping nuclear 
waste to Nevada. This is nothing but a temporary dump proposal in 
disguise. The President recognizes that and will veto S. 1287, and the 
Senate vote already proves the veto will be sustained.
  Can we get off this act of futility and move on to worrying about the 
important issues that confront this Congress, that confront this 
country, education, health care, Social Security, and campaign finance 
reform? This is what our constituents want.

                              {time}  1945

  That is what the people of Nevada want. We will not stand for 1287, 
and I ask my colleagues to join with me to stand up and oppose this 
onerous, ridiculous piece of legislation.

                          ____________________