WASHINGTON, D.C. - Best known for their world-wide hit "Love Shack," B-52's lead singer Kate Pierson and bass player Sara Lee visited Washington, D.C., today to persuade senators to vote against a proposal to build a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The band members met with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and members of the staff of Sens. Max Cleland (D-Ga.) and Zell Miller (D-Ga.) to discuss the dangers of transporting high-level nuclear waste to the proposed dump.

"Transporting high-level radioactive nuclear waste on the same highways that carry our children to school is a terrible idea," said Pierson, who lives near a projected rail route for the waste in the Hudson Valley. "Any senator who votes in support of this nuclear dump does so with a guilty conscience."

Pierson and Lee spoke Thursday afternoon at a briefing for Senate staff, hosted by the Transportation Safety Coalition. The briefing was sponsored by Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). The band members, along with Lisa Gue, policy analyst for Public Citizen, and Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, outlined the problems associated with the U.S. Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain proposal and urged senators to reject the dangerous plan.

"We plan to take this message on the road in our upcoming national tour," said Lee, who plays bass with the B-52s. "It seems that the government is trying to keep people in the dark about the true impacts of the Yucca Mountain plan in terms of nuclear waste transportation."

The controversial Yucca Mountain proposal calls for 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste from nuclear facilities throughout the country to be shipped through 44 states and the District of Columbia to Nevada. Experts project that as many as 390 accidents could occur while transporting the dangerous radioactive waste.

Last week, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee narrowly approved a resolution in favor of Yucca Mountain. The full Senate is expected to vote in the coming weeks.

Back to Yucca Mountain