Angela Bradbery (202) 588-7741

 October 26, 1999

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy Project will kick off a day of testimony at the Department of Energy’s public hearing on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada. Critical Mass Director Wenonah Hauter will speak at the rally and testify at the hearing. Other speakers lined up for the rally include Nevada Senators Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Richard Bryan (D-Nev.) and House Members Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), James Gibbons (D-Nev.), Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Cal.), and Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio).

"The nuclear industry is buying itself a nuclear waste dump with campaign contributions," Hauter stated. "We must not allow the government to minimize the health and environmental risks associated with transporting 70,000 metric tons of radioactive waste through 43 states and past the homes and workplaces of 50 million Americans. Because the proposed repository is such an unprecedented endeavor, every effort must be made to explore the consequences of each and every action associated with building, monitoring, and closing the repository, as well as transporting the waste to the repository. For fifty years, this country has shied away from confronting the problems that the nuclear age has caused, and it is vital that we insist upon looking these problems in the face, finding sound solutions, and honestly characterizing the results of our decisions."

Return to CMEP Home Page