Shelley Berkley: “I'm here to talk about the Buffett bill, but I just cannot allow what Mr. Shimkus has just said to go unresponded to…”

“I'm here to talk about the Buffett bill, but I just cannot allow what Mr. Shimkus has just said to go unresponded to because it's such an important issue for the people of the State of Nevada. The so-called nuclear act that he discussed that was passed in '82 and amended in '87 is known in Nevada as the ``screw Nevada bill,'' and let me tell you what it is. It's a proposal that would ship 77,000 tons of toxic radioactive nuclear waste across 43 States to be buried in a hole in the Nevada desert, which is 90 miles from the major population center of Las Vegas, where we have groundwater issues, seismic activity, and volcanic activity. The EPA cannot come up with any radiation standards that would protect the people of the State of Nevada or anyone else in this country. Let me tell you, originally, when they came up with this nonsensical plan, which is purely political, that it has nothing to do with science. They said that we could store the rods, the nuclear waste, in Yucca Mountain with no problem, leave it there. Then we realized that that wouldn't work because of the groundwater. So then we decided that they would put their nuclear waste in canisters. But what do you know, there are no canisters that currently exist that can safely store this stuff. Then they came up with shields that would go around the canisters that don't exist to be put into Yucca Mountain.…”