I really feel that that spent fuel has to have a place to go, so maybe it can be early in the line, I do not know.

To help solve this stalemate, Senator Feinstein and I will again include a pilot program for nuclear waste storage in the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill.

This is a step along the way.

The legislation is consistent with the President's Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, but my own view is that Yucca Mountain can and should be part of the solution.

Is dry cask storage safer than spent fuel pool storage?

The real driver of our Federal debt is out of control mandatory spending on entitlement programs.

I can think of a whole host of things that could happen that are not predictable.

This really changes my support of the nuclear industry because if things are going to be built that they are going to be there forever and never moved, and subject to--I do not know what the monitoring regime would have to be.

Okay. And the rods now in spent fuels that you say are safe essentially forever, I guess, are you saying that they are safe for a millennium in spent fuels, and that you can predict that there will be no catastrophic earth movement, which…

Would this be underground? What would the requirements be? My understanding is it is underground.

Well, thanks very much, Mr. Chairman. And, Mr. Burns, essentially what you are saying, if I understand it, is that there is now a voluntary proposal to provide a pilot nuclear waste facility in Texas.

I gather that is correct.

I do not, except thank you, lady and gentlemen, for being so game and answering these questions.

I think this increase really portends some danger for the nuclear program.

The risk of an accident and its impacts can be significantly reduced by expediting the movement of spent fuel.

I really cannot agree with that.

the fact remains that the NRC in its final rule digressed from 30 years of regulatory precedent

I look forward to reintroducing with Senator Feinstein, and Senator Murkowski, and perhaps others, legislation that would create temporary and permanent storage sites for nuclear waste.