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1
SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, On March 11, 2011, Japan was struck by an
3earthquake that measured 9.0 in Richter magnitude; the nation
4was then subsequently struck by a tsunami that left several
5thousands of people homeless, missing, or dead; and
 
6    WHEREAS, This catastrophe also resulted in significant
7damage to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, located
8off the coast in the Fukushima Prefecture of Japan, that has
9led to the threat of a nuclear reactor meltdown and the risk of
10extremely dangerous levels of radiation being leaked into the
11environment; and
 
12    WHEREAS, There are 11 nuclear reactors currently operating
13in this State; and
 
14    WHEREAS, One nuclear reactor, the already-closed Zion
15Station in Lake County on Lake Michigan, is in the process of
16being decommissioned and its spent nuclear fuel remains onsite
17in massive "dry storage" bunkers from Zion's operating years of
181973 to 1997; and
 
19    WHEREAS, All of the nuclear reactors currently operating in
20this State store their spent nuclear fuel onsite; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, In 2002, President George W. Bush and the United
2States Congress authorized the development of a safe repository
3at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, in which to store our nation's
4nuclear waste, known as the Yucca Mountain Project; and
 
5    WHEREAS, In 2010, President Barack Obama and the United
6States Congress ended funding for the Yucca Mountain Project;
7therefore, be it
 
8    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL
9ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we strongly urge the
10United States Congress to restore the funding of the Yucca
11Mountain Project in Nevada and request that the spent nuclear
12waste in the State of Illinois be moved away from Lake Michigan
13and any Illinois river and be sent to the Yucca Mountain
14Project as soon as possible; and be it further
 
15    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
16distributed to members of the General Assembly, the Governor,
17and the Illinois congressional delegation.