Shelley Berkley: “a newspaper article headline states, ``Yucca In need of Repair After 9 Years.'' It says that Yucca Mountain research…”

“a newspaper article headline states, ``Yucca In need of Repair After 9 Years.'' It says that Yucca Mountain research facilities, from ground support to railroad tracks, need repairs after just 9 years of use. Now this is the same Yucca Mountain that the Energy Department is proposing to put hundreds of thousands of tons of toxic radioactive nuclear waste for hundreds of thousands of years. Just this past week Energy Secretary Bodman said, ``There are problems with the U.S. Geological Survey work that was done,'' and we now know that the work was fudged and they made up the data. ``There are problems with the EPA standards,'' and we know they are short by 290,000 years. ``And there are problems with the efforts of the Department of Energy.'' What did the Department of Energy just say: They can no longer estimate how long it will take to ready Yucca Mountain to accept nuclear waste or how much it will cost. The latest estimate is $308 billion, and now the Energy Department says that might not be right. It is time that we stop this boondoggle, end this project and let us figure out a sane and sensible way of dealing with nuclear energy in this country. ____________________”