[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 50 (Monday, April 29, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H1677]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE 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, today, I come to the well of the House to 
discuss the risk of storing high-level deadly nuclear waste in a hole 
in the Nevada desert called Yucca Mountain. Mr. Speaker, this will be 
the first gelogic repository for high-level nuclear waste.
  No one can predict what the next 10,000 years will bring at Yucca 
Mountain, no matter whether we are discussing seismic activity, 
volcanic activity or meteorological activity. Mr. Speaker, how can we 
even decide what language to use on the ``no trespassing'' signs that 
will be pertinent 10,000 years from now?
  Regardless of what the DOE crystal ball may show, the future is 
unknown, as is the stability of Yucca Mountain. Even DOE's own 
scientists question its suitability. No matter how many billions of 
dollars the DOE has spent on Yucca Mountain, they still cannot make 
that mountain a geologically-sound repository. Instead, they have to 
rely on engineered barriers, barriers which could just as easily be 
used on site, thereby diverting disastrous transportation risks.
  Mr. Speaker, the Yucca Mountain project is fatally flawed; and no 
amount of money, nor square pegs in a round hole, can keep Nevadans and 
Americans safe from its failings.

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