Ken Calvert Quotes

While many technological measures can be taken to secure safety at nuclear power plants, such measures on their own cannot cover great risks.

The lesson of Chernobyl is not an indictment of nuclear power as such. Nuclear power, designed well, regulated properly, cared for meticulously, has a place in the world’s energy supply.

Where there is a problem, the risks to the public are greater than they've ever been before.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and EPA, et cetera, had worked out what allowable releases are.

The scientific effort to inform the public about landslide risks often runs head-on into powerful economic interests.

When I started walking and I looked down and I saw on the floor this water, which looked like, you know, water in your basement except it happened to be in the auxiliary building of a nuclear power plant.

The tragic nuclear accident at Fukushima underscored the urgent need to enhance nuclear safety and the international emergency response framework. I commend the International Atomic Energy Agency for its work.

Nuclear accidents anywhere can affect people everywhere.

And at ten, or whatever time, in the morning we had the press conference, what we knew is there had been an incident at Three Mile Island, that it was shut down, that there was water that had escaped but it was contained.

And how the government communicates about homeland security is central to how the public responds.

Each year, at the typical nuclear reactor in the U.S., there's a 1 in 74,176 chance of an earthquake strong enough to cause damage to the reactor's core, which could expose the public to radiation. No tsunami required.

It all boils down to the safety of the public. It wasn’t a decision made lightly. This wasn’t about free speech. It was about safety.

It is the duty of Congress to ensure our lead regulations are up to date and consistent with modern detection methods so that we can better protect children from the harmful consequences of exposure.

The misguided efforts of some members of Congress to revive Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository pose a serious threat to the health and safety of Nevadans, and our national security.

For more than 30 years, the state of Nevada and local communities have rejected the Yucca Mountain project. In fact, the state has filed over 200 contentions against the Department of Energy's license application, challenging the adequacy of the department's environmental impact assessments.

There are certain systems that I think are not working well - that's the regulatory system, the whole system of how we regulate chemicals in this country.

My thinking is, government is really there to do the things that people absolutely can't do for themselves. And that's mostly involved with the things that might kill you. And what might kill me? The environment and terrorism.

We know that, too often, oil and other hazardous materials are shipped across the country on aging tankers. Too many communities have seen what happens when trains derail and in some cases catch fire.

Pipelines are the safest way to move oil.

Americans are willing to cheer on politicians who denounce bureaucratic overreach and job-killing red tape in abstract terms. But they turn out to like specific regulations against toxic chemicals in their drinking water.

We have to keep up our guard. We won't get the risk of Ebola to zero in the U.S. until we stop it in West Africa. And Ebola is hard to fight. It requires intensity. It requires speed and flexibility.

Over the years, I've been involved in many business crises. I qualify this, since my crises have never involved life and death or the survival of the human race. But they are still crises.

I'm going to have a very thoughtful and meaningful enforcement response to Superfund to make sure that we are achieving good outcomes for citizens across the country with respect to that entire portfolio of 1,336 or so sites.

Well, what every place needs is a security plan that protects it.

We always need to keep working to improve safety - not just the cars; the tracks and everything are very safe now.