William Bryan: “I want to begin this afternoon by trying to give a graphic example of what it is that we fear if we do not have the…”

“I want to begin this afternoon by trying to give a graphic example of what it is that we fear if we do not have the adequate safeguards and protections, which, in my view, and in the view of the administration and many of my colleagues, are simply not present in the legislation before us, S. 1936. We frequently speak of nuclear waste in the abstract, as if it is something that is esoteric and scientific, and, indeed, the very description of what constitutes nuclear waste is a bit convoluted. So I want to describe the situation that occurred in the State of the distinguished Senator from Idaho to give you an idea just how lethal and deadly this stuff is. We are not talking now just about something that is kind of distasteful, kind of unpleasant, a little bit risky, something that we do not want any mishap to occur because it would be terribly inconvenient or expensive to clean it up. We are talking about something that is life threatening, something that lasts for tens of thousands of years--tens of thousands of years.”