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[Page: S2774]
Mr. REID. I say to my friend from Nevada that I appreciate that. I have a few things to say. But I will not speak at length about the transportation aspect. If my friend would allow me to speak for a few minutes at a time which he feels appropriate.
Mr. BRYAN. I yield to the senior Senator from Nevada.
Mr. REID addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the senior Senator from Nevada.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, we need to understand what this debate is all about, and that is how powerful the nuclear lobby is. We acknowledge that it is pretty strong. They have gotten more out of a worthless piece of legislation than I could ever imagine. They continually are allowed to bring this up and continually talk about it.
Mr. President, my friend, the junior Senator from Alaska, said that nuclear waste is all over, that we need to put it in one spot. Nuclear waste is all over, and it will stay all over for years to come no matter what happens with this legislation; no matter what happens with the legislation as it relates to the permanent repository, where my friend is absolutely wrong. Nuclear waste is not in some States. Commercial nuclear waste is not in Nevada. We don't manufacture nuclear waste. It is not in the Dakotas. It is not in Montana and a number of other States. So the statement was a little wrong.
Mr. President, this legislation, I repeat, is being driven by the nuclear lobby. As shown in the chart that the junior Senator from Alaska had, there are a number of nuclear generating plants around the country; a little over 100 generating facilities. The average lifespan of those facilities is about 15 years. Some will last 25 years. Some will be out of business in 5 years.
The point is that nuclear waste manufactured by power companies generating electricity is in our lifetime going to be a thing of the past. It is not going to happen in the future. Generating electricity by nuclear power is no longer going to happen. It has been determined that the environmental concerns are too much and the American public simply won't stand for another nuclear power facility being built in this country at any time.
The powerful nuclear lobby recognizes that they are going to be out of the business of generating electricity by nuclear power. So they want to wash their hands of the mess they have created and shift the responsibility to the Federal Government now. They don't want to wait, as the law now indicates, until someday a permanent repository is constructed. They want to short-circuit the system. They want to change the law, which now says you can't have a permanent repository and a temporary repository in the same State. They want to eliminate that. They want to also do an end run around all environmental law.
Mr. President, my friend, the junior Senator from Alaska, said that they were working on amendments with the junior Senator from New Mexico. Well, I would just alert everyone. Be very careful about the amendments because, as we learned last year, amendments in name are not amendments in fact. The fact is that they cannot make changes in this legislation to any standard that will allow them to go forward with this legislation. They are talking about changes in this legislation by amendments just like they did last year. But when the facts come down, you will find that their amendments mean virtually nothing. You had better read the amendments very carefully.
Mr. President, I think it is important to note that from 1982 to today, the scientific community has been working on methods of transportation, as indicated on the chart that my friend, the Senator from Nevada had, showing the transportation routes around the country--they, the scientists, have been working on a way to transport nuclear waste. They have been working on it, now, for 15-plus years. Interestingly enough, they have not found a way to safely transport nuclear waste. The best they have been able to come up with is something called a dry-cask storage container, which is a canister, and in it would be placed spent fuel assemblies.
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