ACTION: Call your senators by using the Capitol Switchboard number below. Tell them what you think about shipping at least 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste through our communities to a facility that is not scientifically sound.

Tell them where you stand on upholding Nevada's veto!

CALL: 1-202-224-3121

And ask to be directed to your Senator's office.

BACKGROUND: The U.S. Senate will soon be voting on a decision to store at least 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. Nevada's Governor vetoed President Bush's selection of the site, stating that there were many unanswered questions about the safety and security of the Yucca Mountain project. In fact, the U.S. General Accounting Office found that the Department of Energy (DOE) has failed to answer nearly 300 technical questions on the projects' safety. The Senate will, as early as June 5th, begin the process of deciding whether to uphold Nevada's veto or strike it down, thus paving the way for thousands of shipments of nuclear waste through 44 states and the District of Columbia (see maps of waste transport www.ananuclear.org/yuccapage.html#maps)

There will be as many as 100,000 shipments of this deadliest of radioactive waste across the country by truck, 20,000 shipments by train, and many thousands more by barge. These shipments, according to Senator Harry Reid (NV), will be vulnerable targets to terrorists, leaving our cities and towns at great risk potentially dwarfing the catastrophe of 9/11.

Furthermore, Yucca Mountain is an integral part of the DOE's vision for the nuclear future of this country. The revitalization of the commercial nuclear power industry is, in the DOE's eyes, vital to the survival of the U.S.'s nuclear materials stockpile which, in turn, will provide new materials for weapons. And Yucca Mountain, falsely proclaimed as the high-level waste disposal "solution," will enable the continuation of both nuclear weapons and nuclear power industries. Both will only create more nuclear waste, thereby ensuring an endless cycle of more waste for a facility that DOE Secretary Abraham has already admitted is too small and must eventually be expanded.

Back to Yucca Mountain