Political Quotes

“I rise in support of S. 1287, a bill to provide for the storage of spent nuclear fuel, pending completion of the permanent nuclear waste repository. I also want to thank Senator Craig and Senator Murkowski for their tireless efforts to move forward on legislation to address the issue of disposing of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste. The federal government made a commitment to the nation's nuclear utilities that it would build a permanent repository to dispose of commercial spent nuclear fuel. By law, the repository was supposed to be ready to accept nuclear waste by 1998. Six billion dollars later, the Department of Energy effort to build a repository is years behind schedule and mired in political warfare. As a result of these delays, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the DOE had failed to meet its legal obligations and ordered the Department to pay contractual damages to the nuclear utilities. If the current situation is allowed to continue, the utilities will be paying twice.”