Today, citizen's groups nationwide declared the "Mobile Chernobyl Act" bill dead in its tracks. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments (HR 1020, Upton, R-Mich.; S 1271, Craig, R-Id.; S 1936, Murkowski, R-Ak) would have turned U.S. nuclear waste policy upside down, mandating the shipment of highly radioactive waste across 43 states to a parking-lot type "interim" storage facility in Nevada. The bills would have exempted the project from federal and state environmental laws and regulations, and would have mandated a radiation standard equivalent to a 1 in 286 lifetime fatal cancer rate.
S. 1936 passed the Senate July 31, but did not garner enough support to be able to override a promised Presidential veto. House Speaker Newt Gingrich decided not to bring up the contested bill, following pleas by Nevada Republican congressional candidates and after President Clinton again affirmed his veto promise. Citizens in Nevada and the State itself are overwhelmingly opposed to both proposed "interim" and permanent nuclear dumps at Yucca Mountain. Grassroots citizen's groups across the country have worked the past two years to prevent the nuclear industry legislation from being enacted.
Said NIRS Executive Director, Michael Mariotte, "More than 50 million Americans live within a half mile of likely nuclear waste shipping routes. A worst case scenario of a transport accident involves a head-on collision and a high-temperature fire – much the same scenario of a train accident near Washington DC last winter. A damaged cask consumed by fire could release millions of curies of lethal radiation–the same type of material, including plutonium, strontium, cesium and so forth, released at Chernobyl. That is why we called this bill – and this concept – the 'Mobile Chernobyl Act.'"
Opposition to the legislation has been widespread. Cities and counties from Los Angeles to Upstate New York to western North Carolina have passed resolutions opposing the legislation, primarily on the basis of their concern about nuclear waste shipments through their area. Transportation hubs such as St.Louis, Denver and Philadelphia all went on record in opposition to this plan.
Said NIRS' campaigner Mary Olson: "We appreciate the Clinton Administration's principled opposition to this legislation. They very early realized that exempting high-level nuclear waste from environmental laws and regulations and then transferring liability for the waste it to the taxpayers, without an acceptable permanent storage site is neither fiscally nor morally responsible. President Clinton's commitment to veto the legislation, along with citizen opposition in every state, stopped this nuclear utility "dream bill" from seeing the light of day."
The nuclear utilities and their trade associations spent tens of millions of dollars in advertising, lobbying costs and PAC contributions in their bid to start moving high-level nuclear waste off their sites immediately, even while they continue to generate more waste. More than 150 environmental organizations
worked to stop this legislation, calling instead for an independent review of radioactive waste policies, including military, civilian, high and "low-level" radioactive waste, before there are any further legislative initiatives.