John Ensign: “nearly 14 years ago a Senator from Louisiana, who was the chief proponent in the Senate, said, ``Mr. President, this…”

“nearly 14 years ago a Senator from Louisiana, who was the chief proponent in the Senate, said, ``Mr. President, this bill deals comprehensively with the problem of civilian nuclear waste. It is an urgent problem,'' does this sound familiar, ``urgent problem. Mr. President, for this Nation it is urgent, first because we are running out of reactor space and reactors for the storage of fuel, and if we do not build what we call away-from-reactor storage space and begin that soon, we could begin shutting down civilian nuclear reactors in this country as soon as 1983.'' That was 14 years ago. Not a single nuclear reactor in America has been closed or been forced to close because of the issue of running out of space. Some have closed because of overriding safety concerns about operation and maintenance, but none because they have run out of space to store nuclear waste. Mr. Chairman, Congress has decided this issue, not the scientists. This would be similar, what Congress is doing in this bill, is saying with Yucca Mountain and with the temporary storage site at the Nevada test site, ``I do not care what any of the scientists say, it is going to be the site, and it is going to be suitable, and we are going to lower the standards until it is suitable.'' This would be like Congress saying to the medical community, ``There is a disease out there that we want you to find a cure for. By the way, here is what the cure is going to be.…”