Yucca Mountain

No single issue unites Nevadans more than our opposition to becoming the nation's nuclear waste dump. Since being selected in 1987 as the only state to house the nation's high-level nuclear waste, Nevada has been fighting for fair treatment in the political arena and collecting scientific evidence that has proven Yucca Mountain cannot safely contain radioactive waste as required by law.

Research into Yucca Mountain has demonstrated that the area is prone to earthquakes and has experienced violent volcanic activity in the past. Science has also shown the presence of water in the mountain will corrode storage containers and allow radioactive waste to escape into nearby drinking water supplies.

Transporting nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain will require thousands of shipments to be carried by train, truck and barge. These shipments will travel past hospitals, schools and houses of worship and within miles of more than 50 million Americans living in communities large and small.

Each of these waste shipments presents a potential terrorist target and increases the risk of an accident or attack unleashing radioactivity - a scenario that could threaten lives and create devastating economic impacts in areas affected by a spill.

It is for this reason I have introduced the Nuclear Waste Terrorist Threat Assessment and Protection Act (HR 2926). This bill requires the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and other appropriate federal, state, and local authorities, to conduct a terrorist threat assessment of all facets of the Yucca Mountain Project before the license application process is completed.

Despite the billions spent to date on Yucca Mountain and its acceptance by President Bush in 2002, a license has not been granted for construction of a repository in Nevada and no waste is currently stored at the site.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has indicated that it plans to submit a construction application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the end of this year. However, key scientific questions about the site remain unanswered and regulators have indicated that information being submitted in many cases is inadequate or incomplete. Without a license, no work to construct a repository may begin and no nuclear waste may be shipped to Nevada for storage.

The push to begin construction of Yucca Mountain has taken on a greater urgency under President Bush, who issued a recommendation to move forward with the site in 2002. That same year, Congress approved the President's selection of Yucca Mountain and voted to override the veto of Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn (see H.J. Res 87). The vote signaled a new phase in the effort to speed the storage of nuclear waste in Nevada.

At the same time, a series of legal challenges was brought in federal court by the State of Nevada. These cases challenge the selection of Yucca Mountain, radiation standards set for the site by the EPA and changes in the repository's design that appear to be illegal under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (PL 100-203).

Under this law, passed by Congress in 1982, the unique geology of Yucca Mountain was the sole reason given for the site's selection. Today, according to the DOE's own documents, geology now accounts for less than one-percent of the protection from deadly radioactivity offered by the site. Instead, billions of dollars in makeshift man-made barriers and untested containers are now supposed to prevent waste from being released into our environment.

In January of this year, a legal team for the State of Nevada argued in a federal court that under the Bush Administration, the DOE and other federal agencies manipulated the law in order to overcome flaws in the site.

On July 9, 2004, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled on challenges regarding radiation standards and design flaws in the site. While several of the challenges were ultimately dismissed, the Court did vacate a rule set by the EPA regarding radiation standards. The Court held in its ruling that EPA established a 10,000 year groundwater radiation standard for the Yucca Mountain Project that failed to match the findings of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), as is required by law. NAS scientists found that peak doses of radiation would not occur until 300,000 years after the repository opened, and that the waste would remain a danger to humans and the environment for even a greater span of time.

The Court's ruling is significant not only because EPA did not meet legal requirements when creating health and safety standards for the Yucca Mountain Project, but also ignored the recommendations of the NAS, in turn failing to make the health and safety of the public a priority. This decision will impact ongoing licensing activities related to the proposed repository and could ultimately spell the end for the problem-ridden Yucca Mountain Project.

Consistently, rules have been broken and science conveniently ignored in the rush to rubber-stamp the nation's only high-level nuclear waste dump. The result of these actions is a plan to store nuclear waste in Nevada that is riddled with dangers ranging from volcanic eruptions and earthquakes at Yucca Mountain to the equivalent of a dirty bomb being unleashed by an attack on a shipment of nuclear waste headed to the Silver State.

Scientific experts, including those at the independent Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, have concluded that the presence of water will cause the waste canisters to corrode and allow dangerous radiation to escape and seep into nearby water supplies, spreading radioactivity over a vast area.

Given the lack of certainty that continues to cloud the future of the proposed Yucca Mountain repository, it is time that Congress again considers the option of safely storing nuclear waste in dry cask storage at the plants where it was produced.

In order to encourage this safe and workable solution to our nuclear waste problem, I have introduced the 21st Century for Science Nuclear Waste Disposal Act (H.R. 4627). This important legislation would promote the use of funds in the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund for the research and development of alternatives that increase the length of time nuclear waste can be safely stored and reduce the amount of transportation necessary for nuclear waste storage, as well as deter the use of funds for the Yucca Mountain Project.

On-site storage is already taking place at nuclear power plants across the nation and it represents a safe and reliable alternative to a dump at Yucca Mountain. Experts on all sides of the debate, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, agree that waste can be safely stored at the sites where it was created for the next 100 years or more. My bill would invest resources in securing and expanding these storage facilities. This solution will also give science the time to develop advanced technological solutions to the nuclear waste problem.

Proponents of Yucca Mountain continue to tout supposed economic benefits that would accompany nuclear waste storage in Nevada. These claims are highly suspect and should be weighed against the health impacts and damage to the economy and environment that would result from the release of highly-radioactive waste in Las Vegas or any other community.

Talk of so-called benefits from the dump is little more than a siren song fed by lobbying dollars from the nuclear industry which is seeking to steer questions away from the disturbing flaws in Yucca Mountain and the process that led to its approval under the Bush Administration.

Simply put, there is no pot of gold at the end of the Yucca Mountain rainbow, despite what some well paid lobbyists for the dump would have Nevadans believe. No negotiations have ever taken place and no benefits will ever materialize, except for the financial dividends that dumping nuclear waste in Nevada will provide the nuclear industry.

Say No to Yucca Mountain!