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Contact: Tom Randall at 773-857-5086 or [email protected]
For Immediate Release: January 12, 2002
Moving America's nuclear waste to a safe storage facility in Yucca Mountain, Nevada - as was proposed January 10 by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham - would make an important contribution to national security according to a study, "Terrorism and Nuclear Power: What are the Risks?," prepared for The National Center for Public Policy Research by nuclear physicists George S. Stanford and Gerald E. Marsh.
The National Center study found that nuclear waste, which is
now in storage ponds at the nation's nuclear power plants around
the country, is the only significant vulnerability of our nation's
nuclear facilities.
"American electricity consumers have been paying for the
Yucca Mountain storage facility for years," according to
Tom Randall, director of The National Center's George P. McGovern
Center for Environmental and Regulatory Affairs. "To build
and operate it, the federal government has been collecting fees
on all electricity generated by nuclear energy. Yet, the waste
remains in temporary storage pools at nuclear power plants around
the country for purely political reasons." So far, the Department
of Energy has spent $8 billion on the project; ending it now would
be the equivalent of throwing the money away.
If President Bush approves Abraham's proposal, Nevada would then
have 60 days to reject it. If the governor and legislature of
Nevada reject the proposal -- and the governor has already profanely
indicted that he will do so -- the final decision goes to Congress,
which can approve it with a simple majority in both houses. A
spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Illinois Republican,
said the approval "will move expeditiously" through
the House. However, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD)
opposes the measure.
The John P. McGovern, MD Center for Environmental and Regulatory
Affairs is a project of The National Center For Public Policy
Research, a non-partisan, non-profit education foundation. For
more information, contact Tom Randall at 773-857-5086 or [email protected].
A copy of National Policy Analysis #374: "Terrorism and Nuclear
Power: What are the Risks?," is available online at http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA374.html,
or by request.
