Lisa Murkowski: “I am the first to acknowledge the probability of some 5 tons of nuclear waste being exposed to the air, the land, moving…”

“I am the first to acknowledge the probability of some 5 tons of nuclear waste being exposed to the air, the land, moving in whatever moisture that may take place in that arid area. But that is unlike the high-level nuclear waste that would be stored there in a temporary retrievable repository. That waste would be enclosed in casks designed to omit no radioactivity outside the cask. So I would point out to my friend that there is a significant difference when you talk about 85 tons of contained waste in many, many containers that are designed to hold it with no exposed radioactivity outside and 5 tons of nuclear waste that just went up. It is in the dust. It is in the air. And that is indeed unfortunate. I think it does express a difference.”