[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 43 (Wednesday, March 11, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H3147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    NUCLEAR WASTE AND DRINKING WATER

  (Mr. KIRK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KIRK. Today's Chicago Tribune includes a report by Michael 
Hawthorne that the administration has decided not to move nuclear waste 
from the Great Lakes. This leaves thousands of tons of plutonium and 
other transuranic poisons in outdated storage facilities next to the 
drinking water of 30 million Americans and millions of Canadians. What 
would happen if plutonium leaked into the Great Lakes? It would 
contaminate 95 percent of America's fresh water for thousands of years.
  We know that respected scientists would never recommend permanently 
storing nuclear waste next to major lakes and rivers. But that is what 
Senator Reid got our President to do. Under this administration, 35 
States will have to permanently store plutonium and other poisons on 
the Long Island Sound, in the Mississippi River basin and throughout 
the Great Lakes. This policy writes the first chapter of an inevitable 
environmental tragedy of biblical proportions that will hurt our 
country for a very, very long time.

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