--April 5, 1996-- Senate Majority Leader Dole's office publishes
an "up-coming" events calendar which lists S 1271, the Nuclear
Waste Policy Act of 1996, for a Senate floor vote on April 25 or
April 26, 1996. Friday, April 26 is the 10th anniversary of the
explosion and fire at Chernobyl nuclear power reactor in
Ukraine, a disaster that continues today. The Ukrainian Health
Ministry said last year that there have been some 125,000 deaths
as a result of the accident. It is not a fitting remembrance of
this tragedy for the U.S. Senate to vote on a bill which will
set in motion tens of thousands of potential Chernobyls across
our country.
ACTION STEPS: CALL YOUR SENATORS TODAY -- 202-224-3121, better
yet call the Home office -- Congress is home for Easter until
Monday April 15th. Seek a meeting with your Senators. If you
have resolutions passed at your city or county level, ask these
officials to help get a meeting with the Senators. (Or start
today to get resolutions passed.)
Now is the time to PUSH
TARGET: Senator Dole -- Dole sets the Senate's schedule, he's
the one picking April dates for S 1271. There is no rule that he
has to bring a bill to the floor. We have been working to keep
him from doing just that!
GIVE HIM HEAT: calls - LOTS --
202-224-3135 or 202-224-6521. Handwritten post cards or letters
-- fax is good 202-224-6521 -- or mail to Senator Dole, U.S.
Senate, Washington DC 20510. Other ideas: If Dole is coming to
your area, don't spare him your point of view, make it as direct
as possible -- receiving lines at luncheons, questions at press
conferences or posters and pickets at his hotel or airport stop.
Leave no stone un-turned, call NIRS (Mary or Diane) 202-328-0002
for more ideas.
GIVE THANKS WHERE DUE: SUPPORT CLINTON'S OPPOSITION TO S 1271.
Letters and calls to the White House -- Address letters to
President Clinton, "Attention: Leon Panetta, Chief of Staff."
The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20500
or call 202-456-1414 -- ask for office of Chief of Staff, and
ask the person who answers to pass on your appreciation to the
President for opposing S 1271 and HR 1020, and urge that he veto
these and any similar bills.
BACKGROUND: S-1271 authorizes a new nuclear dump (so-called
"interim" storage) for the nation's high-level waste. 95% of all
the radioactivity of the Nuclear Age is in the fuel from nuclear
reactors. This waste would be shipped across the nation--from
the reactors primarily east of the Mississippi, thousands of
miles, through 43 states to a cement pad--like a parking lot.
Yucca Mt., NV is one of the most seismically-active areas of the
U.S. and is part of Western Shoshone Lands, who oppose it.
Accidents happen every day -- there have been 7 major rail
accidents in the news in the past two months, five of these were
on rail routes that are projected as likely high-level nuclear
waste routes. Interstate highways would also carry this lethal
waste.
STOP THE MOBILE CHERNOBYLS!
Nuclear Information & Resource Service
1424 16th St. NW Suite 404
Washington, DC 20036
(202)328-0002
nirsnet@igc.apc.org
WebSite: http://www.nirs.org