SR0142 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0142 LRB097 11292 ASK 53330 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, On March 11, 2011, Japan was struck by an earthquake that measured 9.0 in Richter magnitude; the nation was then subsequently struck by a tsunami that left several thousands of people homeless, missing, or dead; and

WHEREAS, This catastrophe also resulted in significant damage to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, located off the coast in the Fukushima Prefecture of Japan, that has led to the threat of a nuclear reactor meltdown and the risk of extremely dangerous levels of radiation being leaked into the environment; and

WHEREAS, There are 11 nuclear reactors currently operating in this State; and

WHEREAS, One nuclear reactor, the already-closed Zion Station in Lake County on Lake Michigan, is in the process of being decommissioned and its spent nuclear fuel remains onsite in massive "dry storage" bunkers from Zion's operating years of 1973 to 1997; and

WHEREAS, All of the nuclear reactors currently operating in this State store their spent nuclear fuel onsite; and

WHEREAS, In 2002, President George W. Bush and the United States Congress authorized the development of a safe repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, in which to store our nation's nuclear waste, known as the Yucca Mountain Project; and

WHEREAS, In 2010, President Barack Obama and the United States Congress ended funding for the Yucca Mountain Project; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we strongly urge the United States Congress to restore the funding of the Yucca Mountain Project in Nevada and request that the spent nuclear waste in the State of Illinois be moved away from Lake Michigan and any Illinois river and be sent to the Yucca Mountain Project as soon as possible; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be distributed to members of the General Assembly, the Governor, and the Illinois congressional delegation.