The U.S. Senate Voted Wrong on Yucca Mountain

Statement of Geoffrey Fettus, staff attorney, NRDC's nuclear program

WASHINGTON, DC (July 9, 2002) -- "Today's Senate vote to override Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn's veto of the Yucca Mountain project is the culmination of years of political maneuvering at the expense of sound science.

"Unfortunately, Yucca Mountain is not the end of America's nuclear waste storage problem; it's the beginning of a host of new problems.

"With so many scientific questions left unanswered, now is not the time to be moving forward with plans to dump several thousand tons of dangerous waste that will be highly radioactive for thousands of years.

"With such long-lasting, highly dangerous substances in the balance, the last thing the Bush administration should have done was force this important decision to meet artificial political timelines. And the last thing the Senate should have done was support it."

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, non-profit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has more than 500,000 members nationwide, served from offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Related NRDC Pages

May 6, 2002, Environmentalists and State of Nevada Say Yucca Mountain Radiation Standards Violate Drinking Water Protection Law

The Bush Record: Disposal of Nuclear Wastes