Mark Kirk: “as chair of the Nuclear Fuel Safety Caucus here in the Congress, I would remind everyone that in the shuttered Zion…”

“as chair of the Nuclear Fuel Safety Caucus here in the Congress, I would remind everyone that in the shuttered Zion nuclear power plant just 100 yards from Lake Michigan lies a thousand tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste stored next to Lake Michigan. This is not unique to my district. The Great Lakes have another 31 coastline sites where nuclear waste is stored. Twenty percent of the world's fresh water is found in the Great Lakes. Thirty million Americans depend on the Great Lakes for fresh water. Not one scientist or scientific study claims that storing nuclear waste next to the world's largest supply of fresh water is environmentally sound. Moving nuclear waste from 131 temporary storage sites around the Nation to one secure location where America has already tested dozens of nuclear weapons is the goal of the Nuclear Fuel Safety Caucus. We must move nuclear waste from the Great Lakes. Why Yucca Mountain? Because without Yucca Mountain, we would have to construct 131 permanent storage facilities for nuclear waste in 39 different States. These storage facilities are close to groundwater, earthquake zones and in close proximity to major cities, including San Francisco, Boston, New York and Chicago. Without Yucca Mountain, 161 million Americans would have to live their entire lives within 75 miles of a nuclear waste site. And then there is the cost.…”