What:
Spokespersons from Clean Water Action, Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes, Don’t Waste Michigan, and Nuclear Information & Resource Service present Public Citizen’s new report “Hot Waste, Cold Cash: Nuclear Industry PAC Contributions and the Senators Who Love Them.” Additional co-sponsors of the event include Citizens Resistance at Fermi Two, National Environmental Trust, and Public Citizen.
Photo Op:
Large charts will show nuclear industry contributions to Members of the U.S. Senate. Large maps will show the targeted shipping routes on interstates and railways through Michigan’s major cities, including Lansing, upon which high-level radioactive waste would be hauled if the proposed national dump at Yucca Mountain, Nevada is opened. A large map will also show the projected barge shipment routes on Lake Michigan for high-level atomic waste transports.
When:
1:30 p.m., Monday, May 13, 2002.
Where:
The Michigan State Capital Steps, Lansing, Michigan.
Background:
The 20 year long battle over whether Yucca Mountain, Nevada will become the nation’s high-level nuclear waste dump is coming to a head. On Feb. 15 th President Bush gave his thumbs up to a recommendation by Energy Secretary Spence Abraham that 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste be buried at Yucca Mtn., despite the fact that the U.S. General Accounting Office and U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board had very recently reported that the Department of Energy’s science at Yucca Mtn. was weak, incomplete, and full of uncertainties. Exercising his right under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, on April 8 th Nevada’s Governor vetoed Bush’s decision — the first time in U.S. history a governor had vetoed a president. On May 8 th, the U.S. House of Representatives overrode Nevada’s veto. Now, the U.S. Senate will vote on whether to sustain or override Nevada’s opposition to the Yucca Mtn. dump. As documented in “Hot Waste, Cold Cash: Nuclear Industry PAC Contributions and the Senators Who Love Them,” the nuclear power industry has donated many millions of dollars to U.S. senators and U.S. senate candidates in an effort to unduly influence their vote on such matters as the Yucca Mtn. dump proposal. The co-sponsoring environmental organizations will call upon Michigan’s U.S. Senators Stabenow and Levin to protect the health and safety of Michigan’s residents as well as the environment, rather than do the nuclear power industry’s bidding.