Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, there's good news in our pursuit of a repository to hold our Nation's spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste, although it went largely unreported. Officials from both the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have publicly admitted that neither agency has identified any technical issues that would prevent us from being able to develop a safe repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. This admission came during a recent hearing before the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee in response to a question from my friend and colleague, Mr. Frelinghuysen, the subcommittee chairman. To stakeholders in the nuclear waste debate, this fact should come as no surprise. Why else would Greg Jaczko, Senator Reid's former staffer, abuse his authority as NRC chairman and deceive his Commission colleagues to scuttle publication of the agency's safety review? If Yucca Mountain were as scientifically flawed as Senator Reid says it is, then he would have benefited by having the agency's conclusions released publicly. Instead, Senator Reid got a promise from President Obama to shut down the program. President Obama obliged, with no basis other than the cryptic statements about Yucca Mountain being ``unworkable.'' Meanwhile, Senator Reid's protege, Mr. Jaczko, made sure the NRC's independent technical conclusions never saw the light of day. These actions have been challenged in court.…”