Shelley Berkley: “The incoming House leadership has signaled that they are once again resurrecting Yucca Mountain as a solution to this…”

“The incoming House leadership has signaled that they are once again resurrecting Yucca Mountain as a solution to this Nation's nuclear waste problem. This is the height of insanity. Let me remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that we are talking about shipping 77,000 tons of lethal, radioactive nuclear waste across 43 States to be buried in a hole in the Nevada desert where we have groundwater issues, seismic activity and volcanic activity, and it is 90 miles from a major population center--Las Vegas. There are no EPA radiation standards. There is no way to protect the shipments from terrorist attacks. It requires millions of gallons of water. We are in the desert; there is no water. We are in the middle of a drought. This is a waste of taxpayer money. Let's bury this ridiculous idea and figure out what we are going to do with this Nation's nuclear waste before we continue to produce more nuclear waste that we still don't know what to do with. Let's forget this nonsense and figure out how this Nation is going to become energy independent. Nuclear is not the way to go.”