Political Quotes

“This is pure doubletalk. The fact of the matter is that the weapon that they used to test was a device designed to destroy reinforced concrete pillars and piers. The weapon was not designed to destroy a structure like a nuclear waste canister. In fact, the weapon used for testing performed its military mission so poorly that our military forces abandoned this device for a better design. The weapon used, even though it was not much good, did perforate the canister. The hole is small, and there was leakage, but it was not a great deal of leakage. But everyone looking at this knows that the weapon that has been used--any of the weapons that I have on this chart are manufactured all over the world--would perforate this thing like that--16 inches of steel, 36 inches of steel, 28 inches of steel. This is, in all due respect to the Senator from Louisiana, who is a tremendous advocate for the nuclear industry, part of their doubletalk. They have not been willing to test these canisters the way they should be tested, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said to this point that all they have to do is to be able to withstand a maximum of 30 miles an hour and a fire for 30 minutes. That is totally inadequate not only for accidents, but for terrorist activities.”