Prairie Island Tribal Council Tours Proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository
Posted on: Thursday, 23 February 2006, 18:00 CST
YUCCA MOUNTAIN, Nev., Feb. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- The Prairie Island Indian Community Tribal Council today toured the proposed national nuclear waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain to learn about the project's current status. As one of the closest communities in the country to a temporary nuclear waste storage site, Prairie Island wants the federal government to make good on its commitment to move the nuclear waste to a safe facility.
"Storing the nation's nuclear waste in a remote, militarily-secure facility seems to be a better alternative than leaving it where it sits now; next to exposed communities such as ours," said Tribal Council President Audrey Bennett. "After the tour, the Tribal Council was struck by the facility's remoteness. "There's nothing around it for as far as the eye can see. At Prairie Island we can't look out our living room window without being reminded of the radioactive waste stored next to our reservation."
The Yucca Mountain project is routinely under-funded by Congress. Of the $750 million paid annually by ratepayers into the nuclear waste storage fund, only $100 million was allocated for the Yucca Mountain program last year. Recently, some members of Congress have suggested that the project be reconsidered altogether.
"We're extremely discouraged by the lack of progress," said Vicky Winfrey, Prairie Island Tribal Council vice president. "It seems foolish to continue producing nuclear waste without any way to dispose of it. There should be resolution on Yucca Mountain before the industry proceeds with new nuclear power plants."
"Members of Congress who want to abandon this project are wrong to suggest that leaving nuclear waste next to communities such as ours is better than storing it at remote, militarily-secure Yucca Mountain," said Ronald Johnson, Tribal Council Assistant Secretary/Treasurer.
The federal government took ownership of the nation's nuclear waste in 1982 with establishment of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, and in 1987 directed the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to focus only on Yucca Mountain as the potential repository for the waste. The DOE was to have the facility open by 2010 but its target completion date now is unknown and in doubt.
In Minnesota, Xcel Energy's nuclear waste storage site is located just 600 yards from the Prairie Island Indian Community and includes 19 above ground, dry-cask storage units of highly radioactive nuclear waste. The tribe has been fighting to have the nuclear waste removed since 1994 when the state first allowed Xcel Energy to store the waste near its reservation.
The Prairie Island Indian Community is a federally recognized Indian nation located 50 miles southeast of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul and near the cities of Red Wing and Hastings, Minn.
First Call Analyst: FCMN Contact:
The Prairie Island Indian Community
CONTACT: Stacy Tapp, +1-952-346-6011, or On-site Contact, Jake Reint,+1-612-636-6954 (cell), for The Prairie Island Indian Community
Source: PRNewswire
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