Nuclear materials are not as safe as nuclear weapons …. The nuclear materials which are received after dismantling nuclear weapons are not as secure.
I don’t want the West to be used as the place where we store the nation’s nuclear waste.
All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.
No matter what policy initiatives we take on, we are going to need a permanent repository for nuclear fuel based on the law and sound science.
Zion and communities like it have been unfairly saddled with storing our nation's stranded nuclear waste... with no compensation in return. The federal government needs to make right by these communities.
There are many different kinds of radioactive waste and each has its own half-life so, just to be on the safe side and to simplify matters, I base my calculations on the worst one and that's plutonium.
I will continue to be a voice for Nevadans in the Senate, opposing Yucca Mountain and working to identify viable alternatives for long-term repositories in areas that are proven safe and whose communities consent to that storage.
The House has repeatedly had overwhelming votes in support of continuing the Yucca Mountain repository.
Pakistan has dozens of laboratories and production and storage sites scattered across the country. After developing warheads with highly enriched uranium, it has more recently tried to do the same with more-powerful and compact plutonium.
If Yucca Mountain had not been designated as a dumpsite for radioactive waste in 1987, it might easily have become a scenic overlook on the long drive between Tonopah and Las Vegas.
For nuclear power to have a future, we'll either need more Yucca Mountains or a way to decrease the stuff we put there.
