The essentials
- State Senator Al Melvin (R-26) sponsored SCM 1004, which requests access to money in the federal U.S. Nuclear Waste Fund
- That money would be used to construct the nation’s first permanent nuclear recycling and waste storage site within Arizona
- The federal Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future recently found an urgent need for permanent nuclear waste storage for the 65,000+ metric tons of nuclear waste in the U.S.
- There are multiple significant risks connected with creating a permanent site, including risk from transportation of nuclear waste from the 43 states currently storing the waste and risk regarding potential groundwater contamination