Anti-nuclear waste rally in Montpelier

An anti-nuclear waste campaign visited Montpelier Tuesday night, delivering a replica radioactive waste cask.

The event was organized by the "Citizens Awareness Network" as part of a multi-stop tour throughout New England.

Activists say they are responding to a bill now in the U.S. Senate that would establish temporary mobile storage for high-level nuclear waste. The storage casks would travel from places like the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant and would be transported to southwestern states like Texas and New Mexico. The group's goal is to leave the waste where it is, but better protected.

"We have to find a responsible way to deal with this waste and what the industry is trying to do is just get this waste off of their hands as quickly as possible," said Tim Judson of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.

"In New Mexico, we are concerned about not just our communities because of the storage, but the transport would impact everyone across the nation. Anywhere between a nuclear power plant and the waste site," said Leona Morgan of the Nuclear Issues Study Group.

The nuclear cask will stop Wednesday night in Brattleboro at the Congregational Church.