[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 7 (Tuesday, February 5, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H113]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    MORE CRITICISMS OVER YUCCA MOUNTAIN: WHEN WILL THE DOE RESPOND?

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, last week the Nuclear Waste Technical 
Review Board joined an ever-expanding list of independent experts who 
are criticizing the science being touted by the Department of Energy 
regarding the Yucca Mountain Project.
  In its report the board called the DOE's science ``weak to 
moderate.''
  Board member and hydrologist Paul Craig added that ``many of the 
DOE's assumptions regarding Yucca Mountain are extreme and 
unrealistic.''
  John Bartlett, former Director of DOE's Office of Civilian 
Radioactive Waste Management, stated that ``the documentation does not 
provide a sound foundation for the basis of a site recommendation.''
  Moreover, the GAO has raised its own concerns with the Yucca Mountain 
Project, stating that ``making a site recommendation at this time would 
not be prudent or practical.''
  Mr. Speaker, when will the DOE begin to answer the serious questions 
being raised about its failed science? Hopefully they will do that 
before going any further into the site recommendation process and 
before the lives of millions of Americans are jeopardized.

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