"Rest assured, Nevada, if I'm the president of the United States, Yucca Mountain will not be a repository," -- John Kerry, May, 17, 2004

Storing nuclear waste safely is of vital interest to the nation. Spent reactor fuel created as a by-product of the nuclear power process in reactors, can remain highly radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years, endangering the public if not properly disposed.

In his 2000 campaign, George Bush said he would not send nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain unless it was deemed scientifically safe. Yet his administration ignored sound science and adopted an irresponsible policy that rushed to pursue arbitrary deadlines to build a waste repository at Yucca. Those deadlines are based on the Bush administration's highest priority: moving waste to Nevada as soon as possible, regardless of what scientists know -- and do not know -- about the safety of Yucca Mountain.

John Kerry has a long record of opposing delivering waste in Yucca mountain. A Kerry-Edwards administration will make the hallmark of the nation's nuclear waste program an unwavering commitment to scientific integrity and to the protection of public health and the environment. George Bush broke his promise to the people of Nevada

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S REPOSITORY PROGRAM IS UN-SAFE AND UN- SOUND.

-- Technical Basis for Yucca Declared "Weak." In January 2002, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, an independent panel created by Congress as a technical watchdog in the search for a nuclear waste site, stated that, "the technical basis for the Department of Energy's repository performance estimates is weak to moderate," citing the many important scientific questions about the safety of the site that remain unresolved.

-- Current Storage Plan Likely to Cause Leaks. The U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board sent a letter on October 21, 2003, raising concerns about the potential for rusting of nuclear waste conisters that could cause leaks. The DOE and NWTRB continue to discuss the implications of these findings, showing that the science of Yucca Mountain is far from sound.

-- Yucca is on a Fault Line. Thirty-three earthquake faults crisscross the area and the rock is fractured by seismic activity. Since 1976, there have been over 600 seismic events of a magnitude greater than 2.5 within a 50-mile radius of Yucca Mountain. The 2000 Draft Environmental Impact Statement stated that "earthquakes have occurred in the Yucca Mountain geologic region of influence and are likely to occur in the future." Yet, the Department of Energy has repeatedly ignored the potential impacts of future earthquakes at the Yucca Mountain site..

-- Waste Site Sits on Top of an Aquifer. The National Academy of Sciences has identified the groundwater pathway as one of the significant pathways of exposure in the vicinity of the Yucca Mountain site. The proposed repository would lie about 1,000 feet above a freshwater aquifer, which currently provides the only source of drinking water for area residents in Amargosa Valley, Nevada, and parts of Inyo County, California. If radioactivity from the proposed repository reaches the aquifer below, it not only will contaminate this important source of drinking water, which is in short supply, but also will provide a pathway for potentially dangerous levels of radioactivity to reach the accessible environment.

THE INTEGRITY OF THE LICENSING PROCESS FOR YUCCA MOUNTAIN HAS BEEN COMPROMISED.

-- Department of Energy Not Conducting Quality Scientific Work at Yucca Mountain. In May, a General Accounting Office report found that the Department of Energy is failing to conduct quality scientific work at Yucca Mountain. The report stated that "recent audits and assessments have identified lingering quality problems with data, models, and software and continuing management weaknesses. Recent assessments identified continuing management weaknesses in the areas of roles and responsibilities, quality assurance policies and procedures, and a work environment that did not foster employee confidence in raising concerns without fear of reprisal."

Studies of Yucca Deemed "Incomplete." Studies of Yucca Mountain and the recommendation of Yucca as a nuclear waste site have been called inadequate and/or incomplete by the General Accounting Office, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Broad and several international peer review panels. The Bush Department of Energy still has many studies of site and design factors that it has agreed to complete before it submits a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

-- Department of Energy's former legal team had conflict of interest. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found that the Department of Energy may not have considered a potential conflict of interest when it hired Chicago- based Winston & Strawn to help it prepare its Yucca Mountain license application for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The firm withdrew in 2001 after two years of work when conflict of interest allegations were made due to its having previously represented TRW Environmental Safety Services, the former main contractor for Yucca Mountain, and having been a registered lobbyist for the Nuclear Energy Institute, a leading nuclear industry group, from 1995 until 2001.

Such connections lent at the very least the appearance of a pro-industry bias to the Department of Energy's application preparation process.

-- Court Decides that Federal Regulations are not Stringent Enough to Protect the Public. The US Court of Appeals for DC recently decided that the EPA had used the wrong standard for determining whether the Yucca Mountain project should proceed, saying EPA "unabashedly rejected (National Academy of Sciences) findings" and issued "a dramatically different standard, one that the Academy had expressly rejected."

SIGNIFICANT RISKS ARE INVOLVED IN THE TRANSPORTATION OF HIGH- LEVEL NUCLEAR WASTE.

-- Waste Would Travel Through 44 States. More than 50,000 shipments of radioactive waste would pass through 44 states and the District of Columbia by truck, train, and barge within one mile of 50 million Americans.

-- Some communities along major corridors, such as St. Louis and Omaha, might see shipments every hour on the hour for the next 38 years according to Robert R. Loux, executive director of Nevada Governor Guinn's nuclear projects agency. (Washington Post, 1/11/ 02)

-- Communities Not Prepared for Shipping Risks. Emergency response and public health infrastructure along shipping routes are ill-equipped to effectively respond to a nuclear accident.

-- Full Scale Shipping Containers Have Not had Physical Tests. The currently licensed nuclear waste shipping casks have never undergone full-scale physical tests and the limited physical tests performed during the 1970s on now-obsolete casks have not been repeated.

KERRY-EDWARDS PLAN TO PROTECT NEVADA FROM NUCLEAR WASTE: Nuclear power can play an essential role in providing affordable energy while reducing the risk of climate change; however key challenges such as nuclear waste disposal, nuclear nonproliferation, and plant security must be met. John Kerry and John Edwards will ensure safety and sound science come first. They oppose George Bush's plan to open Yucca Mountain over the objections of independent scientists. Instead, a Kerry-Edwards Administration will:

-- Proceed Based on Peer-Reviewed Science. Kerry and Edwards do not support Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste disposal site and will insist that nuclear waste disposal and transportation proceed only on the basis of rigorous peer-reviewed science and analysis that leads to public understanding and confidence.

-- Reject Yucca Mountain License. John Kerry and John Edwards immediately call upon George Bush and the DOE to cease from submitting a license application for Yucca Mountain.

-- Initiate a National Academies of Sciences study to examine whether geologic disposal anywhere is still the best, safest option, as opposed to long-term storage and monitoring, or some other technology.

-- Establish an international independent "Blue Ribbon Panel" to recommend world class state-of-the-art scientific methods for nuclear waste storage and disposal.

-- Secure Nuclear Plants from Terrorist Attack. The Kerry- Edwards administration will improve and strengthen security at nuclear plants. In addition, they will require nuclear plants to adopt adequate plans to improve security, including measures to reduce dangers to the public if an attack occurs.

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