I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 3289
To provide for interagency planning for preparing for, defending against,
and responding to the consequences of terrorist attacks against the
Yucca Mountain Project, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOVEMBER 14, 2001
Ms. BERKLEY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To provide for interagency planning for preparing for, de-
fending against, and responding to the consequences of
terrorist attacks against the Yucca Mountain Project,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Nuclear Waste Ter-
rorist Threat Assessment and Protection Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The September 11 terrorist attacks in New
York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania
were the deadliest and costliest terrorist attacks
against the United States in its history, resulting in
the deaths of over 5,000 people at the World Trade
Center, Pentagon, and Pennsylvania crash site.
(2) The economic and cleanup costs as a result
of the September 11 terrorist attacks are estimated
at $100,000,000,000 in New York City alone.
(3) The attacks have resulted in massive eco-
nomic disruption to the United States. The New
York Stock Exchange’s Dow Jones Industrial Aver-
age dropped over 12 percent and the NASDAQ mar-
ket dropped 11.7 percent within the first 2 weeks
after the attacks.
(4) The September 11 attacks represent a dra-
matic expansion in the ability of terrorists to inflict
massive damage, including the wide-scale loss of
human life and economic disruption to the United
States and the world.
(5) Terrorists are willing to use any and all
methods to bring about their desire to destroy
human life and property.
(6) The terrorists who attacked the United
States have demonstrated their willingness and de-
sire to target innocent civilians.
(7) Terrorists can be expected to continue to
improve their destructive capabilities. Their net-
works have become more sophisticated and resource-
ful in carrying out heinous acts of destruction.
(8) To counter this threat, the United States
should take every reasonable step, consistent with
the principles upon which this country was founded,
to restrict terrorists’ ability to inflict damage against
the United States.
(9) Instead of making the United States safer,
the proposed Yucca Mountain Project, as currently
designed, would give terrorists a huge, easy-to-attack
target that, at any point, could cause massive eco-
nomic and civilian casualties within the United
States.
(10) The Yucca Mountain Project proposes to
ship 77,000 tons of deadly high-level radioactive nu-
clear waste throughout the United States over the
next 30 to 40 years. High-level radioactive nuclear
waste is one of the most toxic substances known to
mankind.
(11) The waste would be transported by rail
and by truck through at least 43 States, through
hundreds of cities and towns, and through more
than 360 congressional districts.
(12) Findings of the Nevada State Nuclear
Projects Agency demonstrate that a July 18 train
accident in a Baltimore tunnel created a situation
that would have been hot enough to breach a nuclear
waste cask and release a cloud of suspended, radio-
active particles. Such findings conclude that con-
tamination of this sort would spread over 33 square
miles, cost more than $13,000,000,000 to clean up,
and cause up to 31,824 cancer-related deaths;
(13) At almost every stage of the Yucca Moun-
tain Project, high-level radioactive nuclear waste
would be very vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Terror-
ists could attack or steal the waste as it travels on
our roads, highways, railways, or waterways, as it is
stored or moved at intermodal storage facilities,
storage depots, or at the proposed repository itself.
(14) The United States Government, in at-
tempting to implement the Nuclear Waste Policy Act
of 1982, has not sufficiently addressed the threat of
terrorist attacks.