Talking Points for H.R. 45 The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1999

TRANSPORTATION SAFETY IMPACTS

-- H.R. 45 mandates dangerous and unnecessary transport of high level nuclear waste:

- through 43 states over 30 years

- within a half mile of 50 million Americans,

- requiring a 100,000 shipments (4350% increase over past shipments)

-- H.R. 45 does not mandate full-scale transport cask testing or test these casks under the plausible range of accident scenarios.

-- The Department of Energy’s projections for an accident leading to a small release of radioactive material in a rural area (1380 curies) would:

- contaminate a 42 square mile area

- require 460 days to clean up

- $620 million price tag

-- DOT records indicate that in a 10 year period there was:

- 99,490 transport accidents releasing hazardous materials causing:

- 4305 minor injuries and 356 major injuries,

- 114 deaths,

- $317,523, 997 in damages

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

-- H.R. 45 revokes current regulations for Yucca Mountain. These same regulations, properly applied, would disqualify Yucca Mountain.

-- H.R. 45 sets a radiation standard four times higher than allowable at other facilities.

-- This standard (100mrem) is associated with the lifetime risk of one excess cancer death for every 286 exposed individuals.

-- H.R. 45 preempts all federal, state and local laws that are "inconsistent" with the legislation. This includes the Safe Drinking Water Act and any state legislation that would provide extra protections for its citizens.

-- H.R. 45 includes strong circumvention of the National Environmental Policy Act. The resulting Environmental Impact Statement won’t be worth the paper it is written on because of the severe restrictions placed upon the statement.

NUCLEAR WASTE POLICY IMPACTS

-- H.R. 45 continues the poor U.S. policy of nuclear waste disposition in a geologic dump.

-- H.R. 45 sets more unrealistic deadlines potentially creating future lawsuits for failure to meet those deadlines

-- H.R. will create a nuclear waste dump that we will have to cleanup in the future costing taxpayers unimaginable amounts of money.

You can find more information in the Sample Op-Ed for H.R. 45.

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