“Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I rise today to speak regarding a serious issue affecting my constituents that I have been investigating since it was brought to my attention a few months ago through our local media. 

“The Department of Energy is in the process of moving dangerous radioactive waste thousands of miles across the country from East Tennessee to Southern Nevada. 

“This waste is destined for the Nevada Nuclear Security Site. This is a totally separate issue from the proposed Yucca Mountain storage site debate.

“If you are unaware that this radioactive waste is travelling through your backyard, I am not surprised; the DOE has failed to properly inform Congress about this project. 

“This project involves the transport of hundreds of canisters containing high concentration of fissile materials from the Consolidated Edison Uranium Solidification Project in Tennessee to be dumped in my state of Nevada. 

“The materials are so radioactive that they have a half-life of more than 160,000 years.

“I want to be clear; this is not the kind of low-level waste that the Nevada National Security Site has accepted for years.

“In fact, just weeks ago, I learned that the Department of Energy has reworked the Waste Acceptance Criteria for the Security Site to allow storage for materials that have radioactive concentrations more than 40 times higher than anything that has ever been brought to the site for disposal before. 

“That revision to the Waste Acceptance Criteria was signed off on by the DOE the very same day that agency officials met with my staff, as well as with state and local officials; yet DOE did not feel it was necessary to inform any of us of this change. 

“As a matter of fact, it took an internet search days later to discover that DOE had reworked the playbook for the Site without any public input. 

“Mr. Chairman, there are far too many questions about what DOE is doing and plans to do at the Test Site.

“Questions that have so far gone unanswered. 

“Nevadans have had too much experience dealing with federal officials throughout decades of atomic testing during the Cold War era to just allow the DOE to run roughshod over our communities again. 

“And I am not alone in my concerns about DOE’s activities. 

“Our Republican Governor Brian Sandoval has publicly stated his opposition to the shipments of this radioactive waste. 

“In a letter to Energy Secretary Moniz, The Governor stated that classifying, “this material as (Low-Level Waste) sets a dangerous precedent…”. 

“I ask Unanimous Consent to submit for the record the letter from Governor Sandoval to Secretary Moniz.

(Without objection)

“Thank you.

“Mr. Chairman, my district sits just 65 miles southeast of the Security Site.

“The Las Vegas metro area is home to nearly two million residents and more than 40 million visitors annually. Any plan to transport waste through the heart of the Las Vegas valley would be extremely risky and incredibly irresponsible. The stakes are too high to gamble on District One’s safety.

“The DOE has refused to cooperate with repeated attempts to gather additional information so we can insure appropriate oversight.

“It is unthinkable that the DOE is moving forward with this program without properly briefing Congress. If members of Congress are being kept in the dark, who is overseeing the DOE’s plans?

“It is critical that DOE be forthright about how and why the Waste Acceptance Criteria was changed, how the changes relate to this proposed shipment, and how they will affect the safety and security of Southern Nevada and communities across the United States, which lie in its path. 

“I thank the Chairman and Ranking Member for their leadership on this critical legislation and ask for them to work with me to ensure that these funds are being spent appropriately, that proper Congressional oversight is occurring, and the people of Nevada have the answers they deserve.”