H-4174              _______________________________________________

                                            HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL NO. 38

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1986 Regular Session

By Representatives D. Nelson, Armstrong, Long, Jacobsen, Sutherland, Todd, Unsoeld, Nutley and Peery

Read first time 1/24/86 and referred to Committee on Energy & Utilities.

TO THE HONORABLE RONALD REAGAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND TO THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY:

          We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

          WHEREAS, Congress will be considering authorization of funding for a Monitored Retrievable Storage Facility (MRS); and

          WHEREAS, The United States Department of Energy is required to take title to high-level radioactive waste by 1998; and

          WHEREAS, It is of the utmost importance that the safest high-level radioactive waste disposal method and disposal site is selected; and

          WHEREAS, The United States Department of Energy is currently behind the original proposed high-level radioactive waste repository schedule by a period of no less than one year; and

          WHEREAS, Concerns have been raised regarding the United States Department of Energy's ability to  meet the 1998 deadline and find the safest site for the development of a repository; and

          WHEREAS, Safer long-term storage methods other than deep geologic storage may exist;

          NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray:

          (1) That the state of Washington encourage the consideration of both MRS and dry cask storage at reactor sites as temporary storage methods;

          (2) That the purpose of this consideration be to extend the repository deadlines and thereby facilitate choosing the safest long-term waste storage alternative; and

          (3) That if future studies reveal that deep geologic storage does not offer a long-term solution to the nuclear waste problem, that MRS be studied further as a permanent solution.

          BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, each member of Congress from the State of Washington, and the United States Department of Energy.