NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE AT YUCCA MOUNTAIN COULD LEAD TO DISASTER -- (House of Representatives - October 05, 1999)

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(Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, we have been fortunate that a nuclear accident like the recent disaster at a Japanese uranium processing plant has not occurred in the United States in the last 3 decades.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to hold on to their gas masks because things could change.

A recent article in the Las Vegas Review Journal clearly stated that ``a nuclear chain reaction similar to the one that released dangerous levels of radiation from a Japanese uranium plant could happen with spent fuel the U.S. Government wants to store at Yucca Mountain.''

Unfortunately, the Department of Energy continues to ignore the scientific facts and warnings offered by the nuclear energy experts. Scientists have already concluded that water will drip through the porous rock barrier

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and accelerate corrosion of the nuclear waste containers, potentially causing a reaction similar to the Japanese nuclear disaster.

Mr. Speaker, this Congress cannot in good faith place the lives of thousands of citizens living in the surrounding area of Yucca Mountain in peril. The plan to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain is simply unwarranted, unwise, and dangerous. We can and must prevent such a disaster.

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