William Bryan: “Madam President, it has been a number of weeks we have been discussing the high-level nuclear waste issue. And I think…”

“Madam President, it has been a number of weeks we have been discussing the high-level nuclear waste issue. And I think it is time to put this into some perspective. In 1980, some 16 years ago, debate on the floor of the Senate indicated that there was a great urgency and immediacy to take action, that there was a crisis, that indeed, if nothing were done, if we did not get the interim storage, what was called MRS storage, nuclear reactors around the country would have to shut down by 1983. I offer that interesting piece of history as a footnote because the debate today is in almost identical respect the same debate that occurred this very week on July 28, 1980. This is a contrived and fabricated crisis. Let me begin by pointing out what the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board--this is a board that was created by act of Congress in 1987. And the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board has concluded that there is no need for interim storage at this time. And that is a conclusion which they have endorsed. Anyone who has any question about it, this is the document. So all of this debate is at best premature and in our view totally unnecessary.”