Jan. 15 Democratic debate transcript

Williams: Well, I think that we have to do everything necessary to help these returning veterans get the health care and the support that they need.

And this new signature wound called traumatic brain injury is something that I am really upset about, because we've only begun to recognize it and diagnose it.

Sen. Clinton:  And, John, I was able to pass legislation to begin to provide the physical and mental evaluations so that we could begin to treat this.

And, you know, we have 1,200 people in Nevada who sign up to join the military every year. They're now going to be getting these exams because we've got to track what happens to young men and women when they go into the military, then provide the services for them.

Williams: We have to, at this point, turn a bit more local.
And let's talk for a moment about Yucca Mountain.
As sure as there's somebody at a roulette table not far from here convinced that they're one bet away from winning it all back, every person who comes here running for president promises to end the notion of storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

And the people of Nevada have found it's easier to promise to end it than it is to end it.
Anyone willing to pledge here tonight, beginning with you Senator Obama, to kill the notion of Yucca Mountain?

Sen. Obama:  I will end the notion of Yucca Mountain because it has not been based on the sort of sound science that can assure the people in Nevada that they're going to be safe. And that, I think, was a mistake.

Now, you hate to see billions of dollars having already been spent on a mistake, but what I don't want to do is spend additional billions of dollars and potentially create a situation that is not safe for the people of Nevada. So I've already -- I've been clear from the start that Yucca, I think, was a misconceived project. We are going to have to figure out how are we storing nuclear waste.

And what I want to do is to get the best experts around the table and make a determination: What are our options based on the best science available? And I think there's a solution that can be had that's good for the country but also good for the people of Nevada.

Williams: Thirty seconds each, Senators Clinton and Edwards.

Sen. Clinton:  Well, I voted against Yucca Mountain in 2001. I have been consistently against Yucca Mountain. I held a hearing in the Environment Committee, the first that we've had in some time, looking at all the reasons why Yucca Mountain is not workable. The science does not support it. We do have to figure out what to do with nuclear waste.

You know, Barack has one of his biggest supporters in terms of funding, the Exelon Corporation, which has spent millions of dollars trying to make Yucca Mountain the waste depository. John was in favor of it twice when he voted to override President Clinton's veto and then voted for it again.

I have consistently and persistently been against Yucca Mountain, and I will make sure it does not come into effect when I'm president.

Williams: Your rebuttal to the...

Sen. Obama:  Well, I think it's a testimony to my commitment and opposition to Yucca Mountain that despite the fact that my state has more nuclear power plants than any other state in the country, I've never supported Yucca Mountain. So I just want to make that clear.

Williams: Senator Edwards?

Former Sen. Edwards:  Well, I'm opposed to Yucca Mountain. I will end it for all the reasons that have already been discussed, because of the science that's been discovered, because apparently some forgery of documents that's also been discovered -- all of which has happened in recent years.

But I want to go to one other subject on which the three of us differ. And that is the issue of nuclear power.

I've heard Senator Obama say he's open to the possibility of additional nuclear power plants. Senator Clinton said at a debate earlier, standing beside me, that she was agnostic on the subject.

I am not for it or agnostic. I am against building more nuclear power plants, because I do not think we have a safe way to dispose of the waste. I think they're dangerous, they're great terrorist targets and they're extraordinarily expensive.

They are not, in my judgment, the way to green this -- to get us off our dependence on oil.

Williams: Tim Russert?

Sen. Clinton:  Well, John, you did vote for Yucca Mountain twice, and you didn't respond to that part of the question.

Former Sen. Edwards:  I did respond to it. I said the science that has been revealed since that time and the forged documents that have been revealed since that time have made it very -- this has been for years, Hillary. This didn't start last year or three years ago. I've said this for years now -- have revealed that this thing does not make sense, is not good for the people of Nevada, and it's not good for America.

Which, by the way, is also why I am opposed to building more nuclear power plants.