[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 37 (Tuesday, April 9, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S2403]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   NEVADA VETO OF YUCCA MOUNTAIN SITE

  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Madam President, I advise my colleagues that yesterday 
another significant step was taken in the process to address relief for 
nuclear energy by the approval of the Yucca Mountain process--and I 
emphasize process because it is a step-by-step effort.
  The Governor of Nevada came to Washington to deliver his veto over 
the President's recommendation to site this Nation's high-level waste 
repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
  Further, Chairman Bingaman, chairman of the Energy and Natural 
Resources Committee, today took yet another step in introducing a 
resolution, S.J. Res. 34, to override the Nevada veto. Senator 
Bingaman's action sets in motion the congressional fast-track procedure 
in both the House and Senate to approve this resolution, which is done 
by a simple majority. We finally may approve a safe, remote, central 
facility for our Nation's nuclear waste. Without this repository, our 
nuclear plants would have to shut down, and I do not think we can 
address that risk, recognizing nearly 20 percent of our Nation's energy 
is generated by nuclear power.
  Without Yucca Mountain, the cold-war legacy sites throughout the U.S. 
will not get cleaned up because we will have no place to put the waste. 
The Federal Government has an obligation for the spent fuel and the DOE 
waste, and to meet this obligation we must open that repository, and we 
must do it soon.
  To date, we have spent over 20 years and over $4 billion to 
investigate and characterize the site. The science tells us this is the 
place.
  I join Senator Bingaman in urging my colleagues to vote for this 
resolution when it comes before the Senate.

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