Energy And Water Development And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (House of Representatives - June 19, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. HOBSON. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the gentleman from Nevada's amendment, as he might expect and as his colleague might expect.

At some point we all have to go beyond parochial politics and do the right thing for the entire Nation. This is a NIMBY approach: ``not in my backyard.'' Under any scenario you might imagine, from the construction of new nuclear power plants to shutting down all existing plants tomorrow, from continuing with the once-through fuel to cycle to beginning to recycle our spent nuclear fuel, we will need the first repository at Yucca Mountain. If we pursue recycling, we can avoid the need to build eight more Yucca Mountains, but we still need that first repository.

The Federal Government has a statutory and contractual obligation, already adjudicated in the courts. It is costing us money by not getting it operational on Yucca Mountain.

But this is not solely a question about what to do with commercial spent fuel. One-tenth of Yucca's capacity by weight, and up to one-third of its capacity by volume, is dedicated to defense spent fuel and high-level waste.

Without Yucca Mountain this material will stay put in places like Hanford, Idaho, Savannah River, and West Valley. Many of these sites already have enforceable cleanup agreements requiring these materials to be shipped off to the geologic repository.

I would like to think we don't need a repository, but we do need a repository. We need it now, not 100 years. We need to move forward with this. And my real desire is that we won't have to build eight of them someplace and certainly not in Nevada. But we have got to finish this one off. It is a waste of taxpayers' money not to do it.

I urge opposition to this amendment.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source