BUSH WHITE HOUSE NOW PUSHING TO TRIPLE THE SIZE OF YUCCA MOUNTAIN

Energy Secretary Wants Even More Toxic Radioactive Waste Dumped in Nevada

(Washington D.C. – December 9, 2008) Congresswoman Shelley Berkley today rejected a call from the Bush administration to triple the size of Yucca Mountain in order to bury even more toxic radioactive waste in southern Nevada.

“This new Energy Department report calls for construction of a 'supersized' dump that would hold three times the toxic radioactive waste now slated for Yucca Mountain. I fear the Bush administration has gone delusional in its final throes,” said Berkley.

“But with the support of President-elect Obama, Nevadans will continue to oppose every effort to bury nuclear waste outside Las Vegas,” said Berkley. “We can safely store nuclear waste at existing reactor sites for the next 100 years, which will keep this toxic nuclear garbage out of the hands of terrorists and off our roads and railways where it poses a danger to more than 50 million Americans. Yucca Mountain is a failure and with the end of the Bush Administration, Nevadans look forward to saying goodbye to this $100 billion dinosaur once and for all. Whether it’s burying waste at a second Yucca Mountain or creating one giant dump, I will be working with my colleagues to make sure these changes never become law.”

In a statement accompanying a new Department of Energy (DOE) report on the need for additional capacity to store high level nuclear waste, Secretary Samuel Bodman calls for changes in the existing law that would lift the cap on the amount of waste that could be stored at Yucca Mountain. Bodman claims the change would enable three times the waste to be dumped next to Las Vegas.

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