I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 895
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 
FEBRUARY 17, 2005
Ms. BERKLEY (for herself, Mr. MATHESON, Ms. CARSON, Mr. MARKEY, and 
Mr. RANGEL) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee 
on Homeland Security, for a period to be subsequently determined 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 3,000 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 $1,000,000,000 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) Since its inception in March 2002, the 
threat alert has consistently been at an ‘‘elevated’’ 
level, reaching a level of ‘‘high’’ 6 times. 
(9) 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. 
(10) Instead of making the United States safer, 
the proposed Yucca Mountain Project, as currently 
designed, would give terrorists an obvious huge, 
easy-to-attack target that, at any point, could cause 
massive economic and civilian casualties within the 
United States. 
(11) 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. 
(12) While there is concern about the potential 
terrorist attacks directed against spent fuel stored at 
nuclear facilities, exponentially more radioactive 
waste would be stored, including potentially above 
ground, at Yucca Mountain, than at any existing nu-
clear facility, making Yucca Mountain an inviting 
target for terrorism. 
(13) 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. 
(14) Findings of the Nevada State Nuclear 
Projects Agency demonstrate that a July 18, 2001, 
train accident in a Baltimore tunnel created a fire 
situation that would have been hot enough to breach 
a nuclear waste cask and release a cloud of sus-
pended radioactive particles. Such findings conclude 
that this type of contamination 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. 
(15) 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 or 
storage depots, or at the proposed repository itself. 
(16) 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. 
(17) The Department of Energy has failed to 
address the Yucca Mountain Project’s vulnerability 
to terrorism and sabotage, intrusions, trespassing, 
vandalism, arson, and bomb-related incidents, as ex-
pressed by the State of Nevada and independent re-
searchers throughout the country. As a result, the 
Department of Energy has failed to discuss or pro-
vide any plan for prevention and response to ter-
rorist attacks directed at Yucca Mountain. 
(18) The Department of Energy’s current 
methodology for assessing risks seriously underesti-
mates those associated with sabotage and terrorism 
against radioactive shipments, waste stored at inter-
modal storage facilities or storage depots, and at 
Yucca Mountain itself.
(19) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the 
agency in charge of protecting public health and 
safety and the environment from the harmful effects 
of nuclear waste, has not revised its rules regarding 
the transportation of nuclear waste since the early 
1970s. The antiquated rules do not address modern-
day threats and weapons, nor the increased risk 
posed by today’s most violent and maniacal terror-
ists. 
SEC. 3. YUCCA MOUNTAIN PROJECT VULNERABILITY AND 
DEFENSE PLAN. 
The Secretary of Homeland Security shall coordinate 
the development and implementation of an interagency 
plan, in conjunction with appropriate Federal, State, and 
local agencies and with public input, to prepare for and 
defend against Federal crimes of terrorism targeting any 
aspect of the Yucca Mountain Project. The interagency 
plan shall—
(1) include a comprehensive analysis of the 
safety and vulnerability to Federal crimes of ter-
rorism of the Yucca Mountain Project; 
(2) address attacks against—
(A) rail, truck, and barge shipments of nu-
clear waste;
(B) facilities, equipment, infrastructure, 
and vehicles used for such shipments of nuclear 
waste; 
(C) personnel working for the Yucca 
Mountain Project; 
(D) all intermediary, staging, transfer, 
intermodal, and temporary storage facilities 
used for shipping nuclear waste to the Yucca 
Mountain repository; 
(E) Yucca Mountain repository facilities, 
vehicles, and equipment; 
(F) all water and power systems used by 
the Yucca Mountain Project; and 
(G) nuclear waste containers for transpor-
tation, transfer, or storage; 
(3) give special emphasis to addressing—
(A) the use of nuclear waste as a radio-
logical weapon; 
(B) the use of high-energy explosives, anti-
tank missiles, armor-piercing technologies, and 
other sophisticated technologies; and 
(C) sabotage or theft of high-level nuclear 
waste;
(4) include a comprehensive strategy for de-
fending the Yucca Mountain Project against all Fed-
eral crimes of terrorism, which shall address—
(A) vulnerabilities analyzed under para-
graph (1); 
(B) the defense of the Yucca Mountain 
Project against air and ground assaults, truck 
bombs, attacks using sophisticated armor-pierc-
ing technologies, suicide attacks, and other po-
tential military-style attacks; 
(C) credible worst-case assumptions about 
the timing and location of potential attacks; 
(D) the effects of weather conditions dur-
ing and after attacks; 
(E) the use of expanded no-fly zones, and 
the development of policy regarding infractions 
of a no-fly zone, over key areas involved in the 
Yucca Mountain Project, with emphasis paid to 
whether the size of the no-fly zone is sufficient 
to protect against an airborne attack, ways of 
defending against this type of attack, and 
whether there is ample time for our national de-
fense to defend against an infraction of the no-
fly zone;
(F) the use of background and security 
checks of all personnel related to the transport 
of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain; 
(G) developing a uniform Federal standard 
for the use of deadly force to protect all aspects 
of the Yucca Mountain Project; and 
(H) specific rules of engagement for a po-
tential airborne attack; and 
(5) include an analysis of the economic, public 
health, and environmental costs and impacts of im-
plementing the interagency plan. 
SEC. 4. YUCCA MOUNTAIN PROJECT TERRORISM CON-
SEQUENCE 
ASSESSMENT 
AND 
RESPONSE 
PLAN. 
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, in co-
ordination with appropriate Federal, State, and local 
agencies, shall coordinate the development and implemen-
tation of a comprehensive interagency plan to ensure that 
Federal, State, and local government response plans and 
programs can respond adequately to the consequences of 
Federal crimes of terrorism directed against any stage of 
the Yucca Mountain Project. The plan shall include—
(1) necessary preresponse preparations and 
evacuation plans for Federal, State, and local gov-
ernments;
(2) procedures for notifying State and local 
emergency response units when nuclear waste is 
transported through their local area; 
(3) an analysis and a comprehensive set of pro-
cedures to address the impacts of Federal crimes of 
terrorism that result in a release of radioactive ma-
terials including—
(A) immediate and long-term public health 
effects; 
(B) environmental impacts, broadly de-
fined; 
(C) direct socioeconomic impacts, including 
cleanup and disposal costs and opportunity 
costs, to affected individuals and businesses; 
and 
(D) indirect socioeconomic impacts, includ-
ing economic losses resulting from perceptions 
of risk and stigma effects; and 
(4) a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of the 
economic, public health, and environmental effects of 
implementing the plan, including analysis of the re-
percussions and costs from a wide range of types of 
Federal crimes of terrorism.
SEC. 5. TECHNICAL REVIEW. 
The Secretary of Homeland Security and the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency shall enter into appro-
priate arrangements with the National Research Council 
for technical review of the plans developed under sections 
3 and 4, respectively. Such reviews shall—
(1) address the strengths and shortcomings of 
the analyses and preparations set forth in the plans; 
and 
(2) pay special attention to—
(A) the need for comprehensive and reli-
able physical testing, including full-scale-to-de-
struction and scale model testing, to evaluate 
weapons capabilities and limitations; 
(B) container vulnerability to high-energy 
explosive devices, and the effects on nuclear 
waste; and 
(C) the appropriateness of existing com-
puter models for evaluating near-site environ-
mental dispersion of released radionuclides, re-
sulting health effects, and cleanup and disposal 
requirements. 
SEC. 6. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY RECOMMENDATION. 
The Secretary of Energy shall not submit a license 
application under section 114(b) of the Nuclear Waste 
Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10134(b)), and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission shall not issue any license for a 
repository at Yucca Mountain under section 114(d) of the 
Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10134(d)), 
unless—
(1) the interagency plans required under sec-
tions 3 and 4 are completed and included in the 
final environmental impact statement for Yucca 
Mountain, and all rules and recommendations imple-
mented completely; 
(2) public hearings have been held for all af-
fected populations; 
(3) the Secretary has certified that all facets of 
the Yucca Mountain Project are not vulnerable to 
Federal crimes of terrorism; and 
(4) the Secretary of Homeland Security has 
prepared and transmitted to the Congress a report 
on the potential liability costs and damages resulting 
from a wide range of Federal crimes of terrorism 
against the Yucca Mountain Project. 
SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS. 
For purposes of this Act—
(1) the term ‘‘Federal crime of terrorism’’ has 
the meaning given that term in section 2332b(g)(5) 
of title 18, United States Code; and
(2) the term ‘‘Yucca Mountain Project’’ means 
all aspects of the high-level nuclear waste repository 
currently being studied at Yucca Mountain. The 
term includes all Department of Energy transpor-
tation plans, interim storage facilities, intermodal 
transfer facilities, repositories, and any other site 
where high-level waste will be handled in relation to 
the Yucca Mountain Project.
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