Volume 156, No. 36 covering the 2nd Session of the 111th Congress (2009 - 2010) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“YUCCA MOUNTAIN” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H1383 on March 12, 2010.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
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.
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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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