[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 42 (Tuesday, April 16, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H1293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DOE HAS IGNORED GEOLOGICAL PROBLEMS AT YUCCA MOUNTAIN
(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, this morning I joined with hundreds of
Americans opposed to the idea of shipping high-level nuclear waste
across the entire country to a geologically unstable site in a Nevada
desert.
Scientific evidence continues to mount showing that Yucca Mountain is
not a safe or sound location for nuclear waste, and evidence also shows
that the Department of Energy has ignored its geologic problems.
Even former DOE officials have agreed that the DOE has not held Yucca
Mountain to high scientific standards. Dr. Victor Gilinsky, former
commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, asserted in a
sworn affidavit that the DOE's site suitability standard is so lax that
it could be met in the basement of the DOE headquarters here in
Washington, D.C.
Mr. Speaker, Americans deserve better. The site suitability of a
nuclear repository should be based on science, not politics. Yucca
Mountain is not a suitable site for the storage of the deadliest
substance known to man. I urge Members to oppose the DOE Yucca Mountain
lie.
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