Las Vegas – United States Senators Harry Reid and Richard Bryan today called on House Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert of Illinois to protect Americans from the dangers of transporting and storing high level nuclear waste in Nevada. Hastert, who was in Las Vegas for a political fundraiser Tuesday, has consistently supported Republican led efforts to speed up nuclear waste storage in Nevada and was critical of the White House for vetoing legislation earlier this year which would have blocked stringent radiation standards for Yucca Mountain.

"Speaker Hastert has repeatedly criticized President Clinton and Vice President Gore for refusing to sign legislation he supported, which would have weakened important radiation standards for Yucca Mountain," Reid said. "Instead of being concerned about the health and safety risks associated with nuclear waste storage, Speaker Hastert is obviously concerned about protecting nuclear power's profits and pleasing the ratepayers in his home district. He has also consistently ignored the danger to millions of Americans that would result from thousands of tons of deadly nuclear waste being shipped to Nevada. There is no price that can be put on human life, and we call on Speaker Hastert to oppose any plan for interim nuke storage at the Nevada Test Site and to support on-site storage of waste at nuclear plants around the nation."

"I am surprised at the nerve of Speaker Hastert as he continues to visit our state and ask for political contributions, while at the same time he is attempting to bury us in nuclear waste," Senator Bryan stated. "There is no one in the U.S. House of Representatives more responsible for efforts to send thousands of tons of deadly high-level nuclear waste to Nevada than Speaker Hastert. It is the height of hypocrisy for the nuclear power industry's number one man in Washington to even step foot in Nevada. Nevadans need to make abundantly clear how we feel about his views and those of the Republican platform, revealed at their national convention in Philadelphia last week, which supports a centralized high-level nuclear waste facility."

According to Hastert, Illinois is home to 14 holding sites which already house nuclear waste. In a statement following the Senate's attempt to override the President's veto of S.1287, The Nuclear Waste Disposal Act, Hastert stated, "How anyone could vote against this safe proposal that's good for their state and for the entire nation is beyond me."

Reid and Bryan said the comment shows clearly that Hastert wants the waste anywhere but in his own home state.

"If this is truly how the Speaker feels, than its hard to understand why he is so opposed to having on-site nuclear waste storage in Illinois and at all the other sites where nuclear power is generated across the nation," the Senators said.