Tribal Council Seeks Doe Removal of Nuclear Waste

Date: December 27, 2001

Source: News Room

The Prairie Island (Minn.) Tribal Council has urged U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to act quickly to remove nuclear waste from a storage site 600 yards from the Prairie Island Indian Community. The Prairie Island Indian Community is located 600 yards from Xcel Energy's Prairie Island nuclear power plant and nuclear waste storage site. No community in the nation lives as close to nuclear waste as Prairie Island. Adding to the tribes concern, in an event of an accident, there is only one permanent evacuation route off the reservation, and it is subject to flooding and often blocked by train activity. The council is urging the federal government to approve a permanent storage facility at Yucca Mountain, located 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Prairie Island Indian Community is a federally recognized Indian Nation, located 50 minutes southeast of the Minneapolis/St. Paul along the Mississippi River.

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