Sam Gibbons: “I come to this body to speak on the floor to make one final plea that we consider a safer, more cost-effective solution…”

“I come to this body to speak on the floor to make one final plea that we consider a safer, more cost-effective solution to the disposal of our Nation's high level nuclear waste than simply burying it in a hole in the high desert mountains in the State of Nevada, my home district. Just last year, I urged Members and the public to review a GAO report which called the Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain project ``a failed scientific process.'' The GAO's independent, highly critical study of the Yucca Mountain project should be enough to shine the light even through the thickest nuclear industry smoke screen. And now, almost 5.5 years after I brought this issue to our attention, I implore this body and the DOE to abandon this misguided Yucca Mountain project. Consider the following: Is Yucca Mountain suitable for storage? Just listen to the proponents of the Yucca Mountain project. Time and again they will tell us the number of years and the billions of dollars that they have spent by this government to move this process forward is suitable for making this decision. But this argument is flawed, as is the DOE policy. Spend all we want, we cannot make a volcanic, seismically active mountain geologically sound.”