U.S. House of Representatives to vote on Yucca/Mobile Chernobyl as early as May 8 or 9.
Call your U.S. Representative right away:
Capitol Switchboard phone number 202.224.3121
Urge your Representative to oppose the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, and the unprecedented tens of thousands of risky high-level radioactive waste trucks, trains, and barges through 44 states that Yucca would require. Urge him/her to uphold Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn’s veto of the Yucca dump. Tell your Member that instead of Yucca/Mobile Chernobyl, he/she should support Representative Dennis Kucinich’s Nuclear Waste Transportation Amendments Act of 2002, H.R. 4605.
While on the line with your Rep’s office, get their fax number and follow up with a handwritten, personal letter.
BACKGROUND
Despite a Dec. 2001 U.S. General Accounting Office report that a decision should be postponed indefinitely due to nearly 300 incomplete scientific studies, and a Jan. 2002 U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board determination that the Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain science is “weak to moderate,” on Feb. 14, Energy Secretary Spence Abraham recommended Yucca Mountain as a suitable site for burying 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste. President Bush rubberstamped the reckless plan the very next day. Nevada Gov. Guinn exercised his right under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and vetoed the president’s decision on April 8th. That meant that Congress would have to override Nevada with a simple majority vote in both the House and Senate within 90 legislative working days, or else the veto would stand.
Under the leadership of House Speaker Dennis Hastert (Republican from Illinois, the state with the most commercial reactors — and thus the most nuclear waste — in the country, whose own district hosts the global headquarters of nuclear power giant Exelon), pro-Yucca forces in the U.S. House have wasted no time to ride roughshod over Nevada’s veto. Longtime “Screw Nevada” U.S. House Members Joe Barton (Republican from Texas) and John Dingle (Democrat from Michigan) didn’t let the facts get in the way of their ramming the Yucca override resolution through the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Despite a more balanced hearing in the House Transportation Committee, with numerous Members raising concerns about the dangers of high-level nuclear waste shipments, the resolution to override Nevada is moving like a runaway freight train for a vote before the full House as early as Wednesday, May 8 or Thursday, May 9.