Contact: Mary Jane Collipriest, 202-224-5444, Washington, DC 20510
March 10, 2003
Contact: Mary Jane Collipriest, 202-224-5444, Washington, DC 20510 |
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 10, 2003 |
Bennett Praises NRC Denial of License for Nuclear Waste Storage in Utah
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Bob Bennett (R-Utah) issued the following statement on today's action by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission which denied the licensing of Private Fuel Storage (PFS) to ship and store nuclear waste to the Goshute Indian Reservation in Tooele County, Utah.
"Today's action by the NRC underscores our concerns that storage of nuclear waste on the Goshute Reservation would dramatically impede, even jeopardize training missions of the Air Force, as well as pose a health and safety threat to residents in the area," Bennett said. "As I've said throughout this debate, locating a nuclear waste repository below military airspace is a shortsighted and dangerous way to proceed. Air Force test pilots agree; residents in the area agree and I'm extremely pleased to learn today the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board agrees. I strongly urge the NRC commissioners to uphold this ruling. "Perhaps we can now move forward in an expeditious manner to address this problem. President Bush has designated, and the Congress has approved, Yucca Mountain Nevada as the most logical location for storage of this waste. The best scientists in the field concur. We've spent too long and too much debating Yucca Mountain. It's time to move forward."