Calling for an investigation by the Law and Government Committee of the transportation of high-level radioactive waste through Pennsylvania.

WHEREAS, The Department of Energy plans to move high level nuclear waste to Nevada through 43 states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, beginning in 1998; and

WHEREAS, Pennsylvania can expect 3,979 truck casks and 2,190 rail casks to come through highly populated areas; each rail cask holds up to 24 fuel assemblies which in terms of radioactivity is far more deadly than the Hiroshima bomb; and

WHEREAS, The Department of Energy would require a 30 year shipping period of existing high-level radioactive waste across the country to Yucca Mountain, Nevada, nuclear waste that will remain hazardous for more than half a million years; and

WHEREAS, PECO operates a number of nuclear power plants, including Limerick, and will send its lethal radioactive waste to the Mescalero Apache Tribe in New Mexico, paid for by the utility rate payers in their electric bills; and

WHEREAS, Inadequate emergency management preparation exists in the Delaware Valley to handle critical accidents by rail or truck involving radioactive materials; and

WHEREAS, Alternative fuel production such as wind power, solar thermal energy, solar photovoltaic electricity, and biomass power plants can replace nuclear energy and its hazardous wastes; and

WHEREAS, Continued production of nuclear fuel by nuclear plants will create additional transportation problems in disposal of their radioactive waste; therefore

THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA calls for an investigation by the Law and Government Committee of the proposed transportation of high level radioactive waste through Pennsylvania.

COUNCILMAN DAVID COHEN

January 26, 1995