[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18299]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    AMERICA'S NUCLEAR WASTE PROBLEM

  (Ms. BERKLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. BERKLEY. Madam Speaker, the incoming House leadership has 
signaled that they are once again resurrecting Yucca Mountain as a 
solution to this Nation's nuclear waste problem. This is the height of 
insanity.
  Let me remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that we 
are talking about shipping 77,000 tons of lethal, radioactive nuclear 
waste across 43 States to be buried in a hole in the Nevada desert 
where we have groundwater issues, seismic activity and volcanic 
activity, and it is 90 miles from a major population center--Las Vegas.
  There are no EPA radiation standards. There is no way to protect the 
shipments from terrorist attacks. It requires millions of gallons of 
water. We are in the desert; there is no water. We are in the middle of 
a drought.
  This is a waste of taxpayer money. Let's bury this ridiculous idea 
and figure out what we are going to do with this Nation's nuclear waste 
before we continue to produce more nuclear waste that we still don't 
know what to do with. Let's forget this nonsense and figure out how 
this Nation is going to become energy independent. Nuclear is not the 
way to go.

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