[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 36 (Friday, March 12, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H1383]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             YUCCA MOUNTAIN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Berkley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. BERKLEY. I was in the doctor's office a moment ago, and I had the 
opportunity to be watching C-SPAN and listen to what the gentleman from 
Kentucky said about Yucca Mountain. I just thought I better come down 
here and set the record straight, because obviously my esteemed 
colleague from Kentucky doesn't know the Yucca Mountain issue very 
well. So with this 5 minutes I would like to help enlighten him and the 
rest of my colleagues.
  The State of Nevada is opposed to storing this Nation's nuclear waste 
at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. President Obama pulled the plug because, and 
only because there is no scientific evidence, and there never has been, 
that Yucca Mountain can safely store thousands and thousands of tons of 
toxic radioactive nuclear waste within the Yucca Mountain complex. And 
let me tell you why, Mr. Speaker.
  At Yucca Mountain we have discovered there are groundwater issues, 
seismic activity, volcanic activity. To refresh everybody's memory, the 
EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, had a radiation standard of 
10,000 years, where they wanted to be able to safely store this 
Nation's nuclear waste, thousands and thousands of tons of radioactive 
material, for 10,000 years.

                              {time}  1230

  The U.S. Court of Appeals overthrew that radiation standard, and let 
me share with you why: Because they determined, based on scientific 
evidence, that the radiation standard should be 300,000 years because 
that is when radiation reaches its peak. So the 10,000-year radiation 
standard was thrown out by the U.S. Court of Appeals, and they could 
never figure out how to come up with a radiation standard that tracks 
with the scientific evidence.
  There is no way to safely transport radioactive nuclear waste across 
43 States in order to be buried in a hole in the Nevada desert where, I 
remind you, we have groundwater problems, seismic activity, and 
volcanic activity. There are no canisters that currently exist--they do 
not exist--that can safely transport and store nuclear waste; not in 
Yucca Mountain, not anywhere.
  We had better figure out as a Nation, before we start building more 
nuclear power plants that create more nuclear waste, what we are going 
to do with the by-product of nuclear energy, which is the nuclear 
waste.
  This country has been single focused, and the people of Nevada have 
said year after year, decade after decade, we are not the answer. We 
don't want to be this Nation's garbage dump for this Nation's nuclear 
waste.
  We do not produce one nanogram, not one speck of energy using nuclear 
in the State of Nevada, so why should we be accepting everybody's 
nuclear waste. If you have a nuclear power plant in your district, in 
your State, then that is fine. You figure out what you are going to do 
with the nuclear waste that is produced by creating nuclear energy.
  The idea that Nevada should be the repository, and some people call 
it the suppository, for nuclear waste in this country is an absolute 
absurdity. We will fight this.
  We thank the President of the United States for standing with the 
people of the State of Nevada. We do not want the nuclear waste. It is 
dangerous, and we join with everyone else in trying to come up with a 
solution. But this myth that we are going to have one repository 
instead of 43 or 33 or however many nuclear power plants we have in 
this country is preposterous, because these power plants are going to 
keep creating nuclear waste. So we are not eliminating nuclear dump 
sites; we are creating an extra one. Can't do it. Shouldn't do it. 
Won't do it.
  I urge my colleagues to join with me and come up with a suitable 
method of dealing with our nuclear waste. Yucca Mountain just is not 
that answer, and it never will be.

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