Sam Gibbons: “I rise in support of the Berkley amendment. As most of you know, I have spoken at length to explain the reasons why…”

“I rise in support of the Berkley amendment. As most of you know, I have spoken at length to explain the reasons why nuclear waste should not be sent to an interim or permanent storage facility in Nevada. I have been asked many times what the alternative is to permanent burial of high level nuclear waste. The answer is transmutation. The word transmutation originates from the goal of ancient alchemists to transform, or transmute base metals into gold. Today scientists seek ways, and have developed proven systems to transmute radioactive waste into nonradioactive elements, thereby eliminating the radiological hazards and waste disposal problems. The first mistake this country made in regards to the problem of spent nuclear fuel occurred in 1977, when President Carter halted all U.S. efforts to reprocess spent nuclear fuel. The concern was that when reprocessing occurs it could potentially create a smaller, but refined fuel that could be stolen and used in nuclear weapons. He argued that the United States should halt its reprocessing program as an example to other countries in the hope that they would follow suit. As we can see today other countries did not follow our example and in the end harmed our efforts to deal with spent nuclear fuel. Senator Domenici understands this problem well and has presented a solution, a solution that is supported by this amendment before you today.”