[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 79 (Tuesday, May 15, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E655]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              NUCLEAR WASTE POLICY AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2017

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                               speech of

                            HON. DINA TITUS

                               of nevada

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 10, 2018

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the state of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 3053) to 
     amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, and for other 
     purposes.

  Ms. TITUS. Mr. Chair, I include in the Record a letter from the 
Office of the Governor of Nevada in support of House Amendment No. 3.

                                       Office of the Governor,

                                                      May 9, 2018.
       Dear Members of the House of Representatives, As the House 
     of Representatives prepares to vote on the Nuclear Waste 
     Policy Amendments Act of 2018, H.R. 3053, I write as I have 
     done previously, to reiterate the firm and consistent 
     position of the State of Nevada on the proposed Yucca 
     Mountain nuclear waste repository.
       My position, and that of the State of Nevada, remains 
     identical to my previous letters to the House Energy and 
     Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Environment, in May 2015, 
     January 2016, April 2016, and April 2017: the State of Nevada 
     opposes the project based on scientific, technical, and legal 
     merits. And as I have reminded members of this body on 
     previous occasions, under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) 
     of 1982, only the Governor is empowered to consult with the 
     Federal government on matters related to the siting of a 
     nuclear waste repository.
       In the past thirteen months as H.R. 3053 moved through 
     subcommittee and committee, Members of Nevada's congressional 
     delegation have communicated our specific concerns about the 
     provisions of the bill. The full committee responded by 
     eliminating the unwise and likely unconstitutional proposals 
     to usurp Nevada's jurisdiction over water resources and air 
     quality. Nonetheless, our primary objection remains the 
     fundamentally flawed adherence to the 1987 NWPA amendments 
     that unfairly and without scientific justification singled 
     out Nevada as the only state where a proposed nuclear waste 
     repository is being considered. The bill continues the 
     truncation of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) 
     licensing proceeding in ways that would limit Nevada's 
     ability to protect public health and safety and the 
     environment.
       Yucca Mountain is an unsuitable site for a high-level 
     nuclear waste repository because of its geology and 
     hydrology. Fractured rock above and below the repository 
     tunnels would allow highly corrosive oxidizing groundwater to 
     transport dangerous radioactive material from the waste 
     packages into the water table, where they would be 
     transported to an aquifer from which water is used for a 
     variety of purposes. In 2009, the NRC licensing boards 
     admitted 218 Nevada contentions, supported by over one 
     thousand pages of documentation that challenged the safety 
     and environmental impacts of the DOE license application. If 
     the NRC process is restarted, Nevada will fully adjudicate 
     these contentions through trial-like hearings and cross-
     examination of expert witnesses. Nevada intends to prevail in 
     this process, which could take five years and $2 billion to 
     complete, and which will inevitably be followed by years of 
     litigation.
       H.R. 3053 continues to ignore the primary recommendation of 
     the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, a 
     consent-based siting process for a repository, and again 
     singles out Nevada as the nation's only repository. As I have 
     stated before, if the Congress had embraced such a process 
     when my predecessor, Governor Kenny Guinn, vetoed the 
     selection of Yucca Mountain 16 years ago, we would today be 
     closer to a long-term solution for managing the nation's 
     spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. As a 
     nation, we should be able to do better than simply repeating 
     this failed exercise, wasting billions of ratepayer and 
     taxpayer dollars, trying once again to force an unsafe site 
     on an unwilling State.
           Sincere regards,
                                                   Brian Sandoval,
     Governor.

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