Sam Gibbons: “the issue of Yucca Mountain is safety. H.G. Wells once said that human history becomes more and more a race between…”

“the issue of Yucca Mountain is safety. H.G. Wells once said that human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. Mr. Speaker, nothing in the history of mankind has withstood the test of 10,000 years. What was the state-of-the-art technology and engineered as safe as late as 1970, has proven today 30 years later, not to be a safe solution. Let us not allow short-term safety issues to become serious long-term problems hundreds of years from now. The Department of Energy cannot assure the safety and suitability of Yucca Mountain, not even 10 years from now; and that is why they have turned to basing their proposal on engineered barriers, instead of suitability of the site. Yucca Mountain will not solve our nuclear waste problem; it just creates one additional, yet unsuitable, repository. And our current sites will only have 9 percent less waste than they do today. Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to work toward a real solution based on 21st century technology, and reject H.J. Res. 87 tomorrow.”