Political Quotes

“this debate has become far more political than technical. The bottom line is that the Federal Government made yet another commitment it cannot keep. Following decades of rosy predictions and assurances to the public, we explicitly promised to properly dispose of the nation's nuclear waste. Twenty years and $8 billion dollars later, we are still not prepared to do so. This is not acceptable. We need to keep our promise to communities across the country that are temporarily storing waste in sites that are vulnerable to terrorist attacks and natural disasters. We are not ready to open the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. There are too many unresolved questions, even as the Administration agrees that the current storage system can reasonably remain for many years. The low standards and inadequate science that the Department of Energy has shown at Hanford in the Pacific Northwest for decades are apparent at Yucca Mountain as well. Even if we do go forward with this proposal, by the time that the Yucca Mountain site is ready to actually accept waste underground, we will have already exceeded its capacity. By the year 2035, the waste from just commercial power plants currently in operation is expected to be at least 90,000 tons. Yucca Mountain can only hold 77,000 tons. By law, in order to expand the capacity at Yucca, a second site must be named.”