"Today's vote is a victory for the residents of Wiscasset and Midcoast and Southern Maine. Today we have set in motion a plan to permanently remove all civilian nuclear waste from the State of Maine, and place it in a location that is secure from terrorists and environmentally safe," said Senator Collins.
"I have long been concerned about the safety and environmental impact of storing nuclear waste for long periods of time at sites that were never intended for long-term storage. In addition to the Maine Yankee site on the banks of the Sheepscot River in Wiscasset, spent nuclear fuel is also being stored at 130 locations in 39 states. Most of these sites are near population centers and major bodies of water.
"Moving the nation''s spent nuclear fuel to a single, remote – and above all, secure – location would both reduce its vulnerability to terrorist attacks and provide safeguards for the environment. I support moving Maine Yankee's waste to the Yucca Mountain site, a remote desert location in Nevada, in order to both improve security and environmental safety."
The Department of Energy has spent more than 20 years and $7 billion dollars evaluating the suitability of Yucca Mountain. The Department of Energy, U.S. Geological Survey, national laboratories, universities nationwide, and scientists and engineers from 10 other nations have provided more than 36 million hours of labor to predict the performance of a Yucca Mountain repository. The evidence accumulated has led the Department of Energy to recommend Yucca Mountain as a permanent nuclear waste repository. Moreover, the proposal to designate Yucca Mountain as the nation''s permanent nuclear waste repository enjoys widespread bipartisan support, as shown by the House of Representatives'' May 8th 306-117 vote to ratify the measure.
Senator Collins also noted that the federal government must exercise its responsibility to safely dispose of the nation's spent nuclear waste. "Since 1982, residents of Maine have paid over $150 million into the Nuclear Waste Fund with the assurance that nuclear waste from Maine Yankee would be moved from Wiscasset to a permanent repository. Unfortunately, the federal government has long failed to live up to its share of the bargain by removing this waste."