[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 22595]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



              YUCCA MOUNTAIN JEOPARDIZES NATIONAL SECURITY

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
joined the Department of Energy in what appears to be a collusion to 
ignore public safety. An NRC statement said that it believes that the 
Department of Energy has done all the work necessary for approval to 
license Yucca Mountain. Earlier this week, the Yucca project chief for 
the DOE said that the analysis for terrorist threats would not, I 
repeat, would not, be included in a final report to the Secretary of 
Energy.
  Well, Mr. Speaker, the last time I checked, we were at war with 
terrorism; and it seems to me that a giant mountain filled with 77,000 
tons of nuclear material located near Las Vegas, Nevada, makes an 
unfortunate, yet attractive, target for these evil terrorists. It is 
simply reckless and irresponsible for the DOE and the NRC to ignore the 
threat of terrorism.
  It is obvious that the DOE and NRC are on a mission to store nuclear 
waste at Yucca Mountain at any price. Unfortunately, that price may be 
the safety of the American people.

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