WASHINGTON, D.C. Assistant Minority Leader of the Senate Harry Reid (D-NV), Senator Richard Bryan (D-NV), and House members Shelley Berkley (D-NV), James Gibbons (R-NV), Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA) and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) will be the featured speakers at a press conference/rally addressing the dangers of high-level atomic waste transportation and disposal.
The event, organized by the Nuclear Information and Resource Service and Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy Project, is scheduled for Tuesday, October 26th, 1999 at 10 a.m. It will take place at Upper Senate Park, at the intersection of D Street and Louisiana Avenue N.W., !QW! North Capitol Street N.W. originates. Press packets and refreshments will be provided.
This location is just across from the Hall of the States, 444 North Capitol Street N.W., !QW! at 11 a.m. that same day, the Department of Energy will hold a public hearing on its Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed national high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Immediately after the rally, participants will attend the D.O.E. hearing to express their opposition to the proposal to bury the nation’s radioactive nuclear fuel rods in Nevada, demanding that Energy Secretary Richardson disqualify Yucca Mountain from consideration as the national repository.
Nevada Senators Bryan and Reid will express their opposition to S. 1287, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1999, soon to be voted upon in the Senate.
“The supporters of this bill are willing to endanger millions of lives across the country in order to rid themselves of nuclear waste,” said Senator Harry Reid (D-NV). “Whenever scientific questions about Yucca Mountain arise, the nuclear industry’s proponents simply try to change the rules of the game in midstream, regardless of the consequences. Their latest scheme takes away the proper role of the EPA, lowers radiation exposure standards and poses a greater risk to the health and safety of all Nevadans. I will continue to oppose any legislation which would make Nevada the nation’s nuclear waste dump,” Reid said.
“If the nuclear power industry and its allies in Congress are ever successful in their efforts to weaken existing health and safety standards, every American would be at risk of being exposed to those weaker and more dangerous standards,” said Senator Richard Bryan (D-NV). “Simply put, any proponent of gutting already widely accepted radiation health and safety standards is showing nothing but a blatant disregard for the health and safety of the people of Nevada. I am confident that if my colleagues in the United States Senate ever truly understand what is at stake and the terrible precedent that would be set, they will realize that it is pure folly to put, not only so many Nevadans at such dire risk, but their own constituents who could someday also be forced to live with weaker health and safety protections,” Bryan added.
S. 1287 would take away the Environmental Protection Agency’s (E.P.A.) authority to set radiation protection standards for the proposed Yucca Mountain site and would give it to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (N.R.C.), a move opposed by public interest and environmental organizations.
“Given its close ties to the nuclear industry, putting NRC in charge of radiation standards at Yucca Mountain is putting the fox in charge of the hen house,” said Michael Mariotte, executive director of Nuclear Information & Resource Service. “A vote for S. 1287 is a vote for more cancer for Americans,” Mariotte said.
President Clinton has vowed to veto S. 1287 because it would remove E.P.A. from the standard-setting role. Bryan said he believes there will be enough votes against the bill to sustain the President’s veto.
Other speakers will focus on the dangers of nuclear waste transportation and disposal.
Ohio has a major proposed transport route running through it. “You cannot dispose of nuclear waste. It’s forever. You can store it, but you can’t dispose of it,” said U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). “The nuclear industry promised us power too cheap to meter, but in fact it’s become power too expensive to use. Just as the nuclear industry has attempted to spread the cost of producing nuclear power, now they’re trying to spread the cost of disposing of nuclear waste socially and economically,” he said. Kucinich pointed out that the waste would travel within half a mile of the Great Lakes and thus would endanger one of our nation’s most precious natural resources.
Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy Project executive director Wenonah Hauter condemned the “conspiracy of silence” by the nuclear industry, Department of Energy, and Nuclear Regulatory Commission to hide the dangers of nuclear waste transport from communities across the nation. “If S. 1287 becomes law, up to 100,000 shipments of nuclear waste will travel through 43 States and within half a mile of more than 50 million Americans over 25 years,” she said. “The DOE’s own data show that hundreds of truck and train transport accidents could occur, and that even a small release of these deadly atomic poisons could contaminate scores of square miles, placing emergency responders at grave risk, costing hundreds of millions of dollars and many months to clean up, with untold consequences for the health of Americans unlucky enough to live nearby,” Hauter said.
“Given that each large train cask would contain 200 Hiroshima atomic bomb’s worth of long-lived radioactivity, we call S. 1287 the Mobile Chernobyl bill,” said Mariotte. “Nearly 150 such train casks from the North Anna nuclear plant in Virginia will pass directly through Washington, D.C., along the CSXT railway,” he added.
“What if the deadly 1996 collision between the Amtrak and Marc passenger trains in Silver Spring, MD had involved atomic waste shipments?” asked Mariotte. “These Mobile Chernobyl shipments will travel those very same tracks, passing by Metro stations and people’s homes,” he added.
“Even had I been elected in a district with a nuclear reactor, I would have to think of the millions and millions of people put in harm’s way because the nuclear industry has not found a viable way to dispose of its wastes,” said Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-NV) of Las Vegas, whose district could see tens of thousands of waste shipments if S. 1287 were to become law, and is located less than 100 miles from Yucca Mountain.
“It is disheartening to know the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is standing firm on its push to implement much more relaxed standards of safety for Nevadans,” said U.S. Congressman Jim Gibbons (R-NV), referring to the N.R.C.’s proposed standard for Yucca Mountain released earlier this year. “The fact that the NRC finds ‘no health and safety reason for a separate groundwater protection requirement’ shows a gross indifference to the health and safety of Nevada’s residents. In effect, the NRC’s proposed standards would put Nevadans at greater risk of radiation exposure. The NRC’s unwavering stance is unacceptable and our congressional delegation stands united in opposition to any move to soften the limits on radiation exposure for Nevada’s citizens. It is unnerving to know this agency would put the ‘bottom line’ before the safety of our children,” Gibbons said.
PHOTO/VIDEO OPPorTUNITY: A large, full-size mock nuclear waste cask (18 feet long by 7 feet tall) will serve as the back!QD! for the press conference and rally, providing an excellent view capturing Congressmembers speaking, the nuclear cask behind them, and the Capitol Dome topping it all off.
In the event of heavy rain, contact Kevin Kamps at 301-270-6477 for the indoor backup location for this event.