Tom Carper

I think it is sensible.

The status quo is not acceptable, and we have to be smarter than this.

In my State, my guess is the same is true in Wyoming or Tennessee or New Mexico or any other State, nobody wants to have a dump in their neighborhood or in their community.

I also know that the interests of New Mexico will be in very good hands.

So instead of a my way or the highway, Federal Government calling the shots, you have the State in the car?

Many of the issues that arise along the way, what happened in the Waste Isolation Pilot Project was local people and State people were very worried about the safety issues.

And in one of the front seats of the car.

I want to thank you both for that joint testimony.

The overall record of DOE and of the Federal Government as a whole has not inspired confidence or trust in our nation's nuclear waste management program.

I very much appreciate your interest in this issue and asserting jurisdiction of this Committee over this issue.

That is, years or decades from now, just as you warned, Chairman Carper, others will face our current predicament.

A non-military environmental regulation and control of nuclear energy.

A non-military development of nuclear energy.

With the ability to put a foot on the brake.

We are finishing up the vote, and our colleagues are making their way back over here in the next couple of minutes.

I come from the colony of New Sweden, where the first Swedes came to America, Wilmington, Delaware.

I don't refer to it as nuclear waste myself. I refer to it as a nuclear resource.

The repository could be quite a number of years away.

What would be your first action to get this country started on a consent-based approach toward finding a final resting place for our spent fuel?

I know that any consent-based approach must include a meaningful partnership between Federal, local, and State leaders.

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. I want to welcome our witnesses.

I think when we came back from Southeast Asia at the end of the Vietnam War, I think we have about $200, $250 a month.

You get rid of that systemic problem, you will not need a hearing like this today.

Unfortunately, and we have some folks whose distance learning colleges and universities, some of them do a great job in screening people...

All right. Anybody else?