Nuclear Information and Resource Service

1424 16th Street NW, #601, Washington DC 20036

202-328-0002; fax: 202-462-2183; e-mail: nirsnet@igc.apc.org

web site: http://www.essential.org/nirsnet/

Executive Director

January 18, 1996

We agree with one precept of the sponsors of HR 1020: our

nation's radioactive waste policies are not working.

But HR 1020 does not provide answers; indeed it does not even

address the right questions. More than 150 organizations,

numerous legislators, and the American public have called for a

fresh look at our nation's radioactive waste policy. Rather than

embark on costly and dangerous band-aid fixes, we need to

implement a blue-ribbon, truly independent commission to

re-examine all of our nuclear waste programs from the ground up.

Such a commission could and should address issues such as the

classification of radioactive wastes, issues of cost and

liability, how to develop coherent programs to cover both

commercial and defense-related waste, and much more.

Meanwhile, grassroots America is continuing to display its

opposition to HR 1020 and to the unnecessary transportation of

radioactive waste. NIRS already has collected more than 25,000

Don't Waste America petitions against nuclear waste

transportation, and nuclear waste generation. Some 15,000 Don't

Waste America postcards have been mailed to members of Congress

by local citizens.

And a small, but growing number of local governments have

adopted resolutions or taken other action against HR 1020 and

waste transportation. These include Philadelphia, Bucks and

Bedford Counties, PA, as well as Bensalem, Bristol and Falls

Townships; Mt. Rainier, Greenbelt, and Takoma Park, MD; Decatur,

GA; Marshall and Anson Counties, NC, and several nearby towns;

Amherst, MA, and other nearby towns; Santa Barbara and Ventura

County, CA.

One year ago yesterday, at 102 press conferences across the

country, we released a study showing likely radioactive waste

transportation routes if a parking lot in Nevada was designated

as a storage site. At the time, predictions were that "interim"

storage legislation would pass rapidly through Congress. Now, it

appears increasingly unlikely that HR 1020 and its companion

legislation can be enacted, nor that it would be signed by the

President.

We therefore ask the sponsors and co-sponsors of HR 1020, and S

1271, to seek the right answers and to join with us in a united

call for formation of an independent blue-ribbon commission to

fully review our nation's nuclear waste policies.