Shelley Berkley: “I find it very ironic that this Congress is willing to put nuclear waste in a hole in the Nevada desert for 10,000…”

“I find it very ironic that this Congress is willing to put nuclear waste in a hole in the Nevada desert for 10,000 years, yet we are talking about a 5-year unfunded mandate. It is bad enough that we are set to vote on a resolution that will approve the Yucca Mountain project that has costs ranging from $56 billion to $308 billion. Nobody knows exactly how much this project will cost. This money is supposed to come from the nuclear waste fund, but the fund only has $17 billion in it. Where is the rest of this money going to come from? Are the proponents of this foolhardy project proposing to raise taxes, dip into the Social Security trust fund? This proposal only gets worse. If we approve Yucca Mountain, more than 108,000 shipments of deadly nuclear waste will be rolling across our Nation's highways and railroads, through 43 States for the next 38 years on its way to Yucca Mountain. As it passes through each of the 703 counties along the proposed transportation routes, local law enforcement and first responders must be prepared for the worst. And if the worst happens, where is the money going to come from to clean up the mess, the destruction, the devastation? I see no provision in the budget to cover these enormous costs. This is an unfunded mandate to our local governments.”