Washington, Apr 25, 2002 - I am deeply concerned about the massive campaign to move highly radioactive waste across the U.S. to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. My constituents in Cleveland, Ohio will be subjected to repeated shipments with minimal safeguards.

The transportation of high-level radioactive waste to the Yucca Mountain repository would require a massive transportation undertaking. More highly radioactive waste would be shipped in the first full year of repository operations than has been transported in the entire five-decade history of spent fuel shipments in the United States.

The transportation of this waste would require over 96,000 truck shipments over four decades. Almost every major east-west interstate highway and mainline railroad in the country would experience high-level waste shipments as waste is moved from reactors and other sites in 39 states.

The Department of Energy proposes to directly impact 44 states and many of the major metropolitan areas in the nation, at least 109 cities with populations exceeding 100,000. Highway shipments alone will impact at least 703 counties with a combined population of 123 million people. Nationally, 11 million people reside within one- half mile of a truck or rail route.

This never-before-attempted radioactive materials transportation effort would bring with it a constellation of hazards and risks, including potentially serious economic damage and property value losses in cities and communities along shipping routes. A major concern will be the increased security risk since these shipments represent, in effect, nuclear mobile targets which will travel through some of our most populous and vulnerable metropolitan areas. This committee must understand that high-level nuclear waste will remain deadly for a million years.

If sending nuclear waste down our roads and rails with limited safeguards doesn't bother you, then maybe placing this deadly waste on barges in our rivers, lakes, and oceans will. Due to a lack of rail facilities near several reactors, the Department of Energy will use barge shipments to move this waste to a port capable of transferring the 120-ton cask to a train.

Some of these shipments will traverse the Great Lakes; the world's largest source of fresh water. Over 35 million people living in the Great Lakes basin get their drinking water from the Great Lakes, and I venture to guess they will not appreciate the fact that nuclear waste is being shipped across their drinking water. I cannot support any plan that even contemplates shipping highly radioactive waste in the Great Lakes.

Before any nuclear waste shipments occur, the federal government must ensure the safety and security of these shipments. Therefore, today, I am introducing the Nuclear Waste Transportation Protection Amendments Act of 2002, which establishes a comprehensive nuclear waste transportation safety program with far greater safety and security enhancements than are in place now.

Specifically, the legislation would establish a Comprehensive Nuclear Waste Transportation Safety Program. This will require the Secretary of Energy to develop a comprehensive safety program to include driver selection, independent inspections, bad weather protocols, road condition reporting, safe parking areas, advance notice, real time tracking and monitoring, emergency response, medical preparedness, equipment standards, training and exercises, mutual aid agreements, emergency alternative routing, program evaluation, and public information.

The bill will Protect Populated Communities by prohibiting the shipment of waste through areas with a population larger than 50,000 unless the waste originates in that community. All shipments will begin with the Oldest Spent Nuclear Fuel First which will lessen the radiation exposure because older fuel is less radioactive. Full-scale Cask Testing will take place to demonstrate compliance with NRC performance standards. It also ensures a stakeholder role in development of cask testing program, including selection of test facilities, personnel, and peer review.

Under this bill, routes must be selected with maximum consultation with affected state, local and tribal governments, and there will be a Private Carrier Prohibition prohibiting private carriers from transporting high level nuclear waste. The environmental and security risks are too large to be left to the private sector. The bill includes Advanced Notification with a minimum of 14 days is required for advanced notification including the advanced notice for local communities, not just states.

And finally, Security Precautions will include that all rail shipments be made in dedicated trains. Mandate three armed escorts per nuclear waste convoy - a trailer vehicle and lead vehicle. Shipments shall be scheduled to avoid regular patterns. Such shipments shall be planned in order to minimize storage times and to assure that deliveries occur at a time when the receiver at the final delivery point is present to accept the shipment.

This legislation offers significant, but reasonable protections, for my district and approximately 320 other districts in this nation who will see high-level nuclear waste transported through their district.