[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 56 (Tuesday, May 7, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H2114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          STOP 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, the issue of Yucca Mountain is safety. H.G. 
Wells once said that human history becomes more and more a race between 
education and catastrophe. Mr. Speaker, nothing in the history of 
mankind has withstood the test of 10,000 years.
  What was the state-of-the-art technology and engineered as safe as 
late as 1970, has proven today 30 years later, not to be a safe 
solution. Let us not allow short-term safety issues to become serious 
long-term problems hundreds of years from now.
  The Department of Energy cannot assure the safety and suitability of 
Yucca Mountain, not even 10 years from now; and that is why they have 
turned to basing their proposal on engineered barriers, instead of 
suitability of the site. Yucca Mountain will not solve our nuclear 
waste problem; it just creates one additional, yet unsuitable, 
repository. And our current sites will only have 9 percent less waste 
than they do today.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to work toward a real solution based on 
21st century technology, and reject H.J. Res. 87 tomorrow.

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