[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 16, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H1896]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             YUCCA MOUNTAIN

  (Ms. BERKLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. BERKLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my sympathy for the 
people of Japan as they battle a nuclear disaster that threatens lives 
and their environment, and I rise to reject calls for more wasteful 
spending, $100 billion more of wasteful spending, on the Yucca Mountain 
project in response to Japan's nuclear tragedy.
  Dumping radioactive waste on top of an earthquake fault located 
inside a volcanic zone 90 miles outside of Las Vegas will only increase 
the danger to Americans from radioactive waste produced at nuclear 
power plants. Nuclear industry plans call for decades of waste 
shipments to be unleashed on communities across the United States that 
are unprepared to deal with the death and destruction that this 
radioactive garbage can cause.
  Whether it's a tragic accident involving a train or a truck carrying 
nuclear waste or a deliberate 9/11 style terrorist attack on even one 
shipment, the risk to human lives and the potential for billions of 
dollars in economic damage is staggering.
  Let us stop pushing Yucca Mountain and start focusing on securing 
waste at existing plant sites, stored in hardened bunkers engineered to 
keep this material isolated from our fellow citizens. With what we are 
witnessing in Japan, these pro-dump forces should put concern for 
safeguarding lives above concerns about profits.

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