(Washington,
D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray’s (D-WA) office released the following
testimony that Senator Murray provided to the Blue Ribbon Commission on
America’s Nuclear Future during its meeting in the Tri-Cities this
morning. Murray, who delivered the testimony through staff due to votes
in Washington D.C., criticized the Obama Administration directive not to include
Yucca Mountain in the Commission’s deliberations.
In 2002, Murray
voted to reaffirm Yucca Mountain as the nation’s permanent nuclear waste
repository. She also directly
questioned Energy Secretary Steven Chu about the lack of a scientific
rationale for taking Yucca off the table as an option. Additionally, last
Tuesday (7/6) Murray joined with Congressman Doc Hastings (R-WA 4th)
to lead a
letter to Secretary Chu calling on the Administration to immediately halt
all actions to dismantle operations at Yucca Mountain. 89 other members of Congress signed
onto their letter. Murray is a senior member of the Senate Energy and Water
Appropriations Committee which oversees the Department of Energy’s budget.
Senator
Murray’s full testimony at today’s hearing follows:
Good
morning, and welcome to Washington state. Please accept my apologies for
not being with you in person. I’d like to welcome the Co-Chairmen and the
Commissioners – and especially my former colleagues, Senator Domenici and
Senator Hagel.
Thank you
for coming here to the Tri-Cities, to visit and learn more about the Hanford
Nuclear Reservation – the site of the first full-scale plutonium production
reactor in the world. The people of the Tri-Cities stepped forward to produce
the material that went in our strategic arms during World War II and the Cold
War. We won those wars in part because of the sacrifices made here in the
Tri-Cities.
One legacy
of that sacrifice is the freedom we enjoy today, but another legacy is the
nuclear waste those efforts produced. And now, twenty years after we
stopped making plutonium here, work at the site has turned to cleaning up the
nuclear material and contaminated waste that was left behind. I’m glad that you
had the opportunity to tour the site yesterday, and to see first-hand some of the
waste we are dealing with. It’s a complicated cleanup task, and in
Washington state we continue to do our part to meet that challenge.
There have
been difficulties along the way. But there has also been progress. Last
summer, I stood up with officials from the Department of Energy, the
Environmental Protection Agency, and the State of Washington as we announced an
agreement on new commitments for Hanford cleanup.
The new
agreement is an aggressive plan to make sure that the federal government meets
its obligation to clean up this site. As the federal government works to meet
its cleanup obligation, it must also remove the waste from Hanford.
Due to
ARRA spending, the workers have been able to accelerate cleanup and shrink the
footprint of the site, so the need to move the waste offsite has become more
pressing. I understand that the charge of the Commission is to take a broader
look at nuclear issues and not to determine a specific repository site.
However, I am deeply disappointed that the Obama Administration has dismissed
out of hand any discussion of Yucca Mountain.
Over the
last 30 years, Congress, independent studies, and every previous administration
have voted for, pointed to, and funded Yucca Mountain as the nation’s best
option for a nuclear repository. In concert with those decisions, billions of
dollars and countless work hours have been spent at Hanford and nuclear waste
sites across the country in an effort to treat and package nuclear waste that
should be sent there.
Yesterday
morning, you saw the Waste Treatment Plant – the most complicated construction
project in the country – which is being designed specifically to feed Yucca.
Without a national repository, The WTP, those sites and the communities that
support them are now in limbo.
Decisions
about if the Department of Energy has the authority to unilaterally terminate
Yucca Mountain will be decided by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the
D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. While we wait for those answers, no high-level
waste or spent fuel will leave Hanford.
When
interim storage turns into long term storage, it can cause cost increases and
turn a known cleanup task into a more complicated one, as we learned here at Hanford
when spent fuel from the N Reactor was stored in the K basins for longer than
intended.
Hanford is
also home to the Columbia Generating Station, Washington’s only nuclear
plant. The spent fuel from CGS is stored on the Hanford Site. In my view,
it will be difficult for our country to move forward with a “nuclear
renaissance” without a clear plan to address nuclear waste.
Without a
clear plan for a national repository, it becomes more difficult to continue to
work to meet our already aggressive timelines for cleaning up Hanford.
Nevertheless, I – together with the people of this community, who have shown
tremendous support and dedication to the cleanup work – will continue to insist
that the federal government meet its legal and moral obligations.
Finally,
while the Commission has stated time and again that it will not name a specific
site in its report, I want to be clear, and I have been consistent – I will
fight any attempt or any recommendation to make Hanford the site for a
permanent repository.
I hope you
enjoyed your visit to the Tri-Cities, and I look forward to reading your
report.
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