[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 37 (Tuesday, April 9, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2416-S2417]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BINGAMAN (by request):
  S.J. Res. 34. A joint resolution approving the site at Yucca 
Mountain, Nevada, for the development of a repository for the disposal 
of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, pursuant to the 
Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982; to the Committee on Energy and 
Natural Resources.
  Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, yesterday, the Governor of the State 
of

[[Page S2417]]

Nevada submitted to the Senate and to the House of Representatives a 
notice of disapproval of the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca 
Mountain, pursuant to section 116 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. The 
notice was duly referred in the Senate to the Committee on Energy and 
Natural Resources under rule XXV of the Standing Rules of the Senate. 
Under section 115 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, it is my duty, as 
the chairman of the committee to which the notice of disapproval was 
referred, to introduce, by request, a resolution of repository siting 
approval not later than the first day of session following the day on 
which the Governor's notice of disapproval was submitted.
  In accordance with the statutory requirement, I am today introducing 
the resolution of repository siting approval. The text of the 
resolution is prescribed by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. The 
resolution will be referred to committee for a period of up to 60 days. 
Under the terms of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Governor's notice 
of disapproval will stand, and the Department of Energy will be 
prohibited from applying for a license to develop a nuclear waste 
repository at Yucca Mountain, unless both Houses of Congress pass the 
resolution of repository siting approval and it becomes law within 90 
days from yesterday.
  This is an extraordinary process. The 97th Congress, which prescribed 
this process for us to follow 20 years ago, did not do so lightly. The 
Members of the 97th Congress only arrived at this procedure after 
considerable debate. Representative Morris K. Udall, who was the 
principal architect of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, explained the 
thinking of our predecessors. ``We are all agreed that the States ought 
to have a veto,'' Chairman Udall said. ``If you are going to put 
something as important, as a nuclear waste repository, in a State, then 
the State, through its Governor or legislature, ought to be able to say 
no thanks.'' But, he continued, ``we are also agreed that once the 
State has made that veto, that there ought to be mechanism so that, in 
the national interest, it could be overridden, as we do in war when we 
need an air base or at other times when we need Federal eminent 
domain.''
  The process upon which we are embarking today was designed to serve 
those two goals. It will afford the State of Nevada a fair hearing on 
its objections to the repository and will ensure that those objections 
stand unless the administration can persuade both Houses of Congress to 
override them. At the same time, it will give the administration an 
opportunity to present its case and to override the State's objections 
if it can show its decision was sound and in the national interest.
  It is my intention, once the Senate completes action on the energy 
bill, to schedule hearings before the Committee on Energy and Natural 
Resources to consider the President's recommendation of the Yucca 
Mountain site and the objections of the State of Nevada to the use of 
the site for the nuclear waste repository and to report the committee's 
recommendation to the Senate within the prescribed 60-day period as the 
97th Congress envisioned.

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