[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 62 (Wednesday, May 15, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E806]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              YUCCA MOUNTAIN REPOSITORY SITE APPROVAL ACT

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                               speech of

                          HON. PHILIP M. CRANE

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Wednesday, May 8, 2002

  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to take this opportunity to express 
my full support for House Joint Resolution 87, approving Yucca Mountain 
as a repository for storage of high-level spent nuclear fuel. It is 
important to remember that over half the population of this nation 
lives within 75 miles of a temporary nuclear waste facility and that 
Illinois is one of the states most dependent on nuclear power. Close to 
my home in Illinois is the Zion nuclear power plant, though the plant 
itself is no longer operational, nuclear fuel remains in temporary 
storage there. The people living near by are anxiously awaiting the 
Federal Government to fulfill its promise to take possession, and 
dispose of this material.
  In the 37 years that government and private industry has transported 
nuclear waste, there have been only 4 rail accidents and 4 highway 
accidents. That represents a 99.7 percent success rate. It also 
represents 2,700 shipments of 10,000 spent fuel assemblies over a 
distance of more than 1.6 million miles. It is important to remember 
also that the states will be actively involved in the rout selection 
process, there will be no shipments through down town Chicago.
  The containers, in which the spent fuel is stored, are quite capable 
of withstanding a broadside from a locomotive traveling 60 mph, tests 
have been conducted that prove this. The trucks and trains carrying 
this spent fuel are accompanied by at least one escort, which must 
report to the Department of Energy (DOE) every two hours and are 
continuously monitored and tracked by satellite. This is just the 
smallest part of the safety precautions being taken by the DOE, the NRC 
and state and local first responder's nation wide.
  After twenty years of spending $8 billion of the taxpayers money the 
Department of Energy has determined it is safe to store spent nuclear 
fuel at Yucca Mountain. That being the case, it is high time the 
Federal Government keeps its long-standing commitment to citizens and 
utility companies by taking possession of these materials. Passage, by 
the House, of H.J. Res. 87 is a big step in that direction.

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