The legislature finds that the disposal and transportation of high-level radioactive waste is of vital concern to the health, safety, and welfare of the people of Minnesota, and to the economic and environmental resources of Minnesota. To ensure the health, safety, and welfare of the people, and to protect the air, land, water, and other natural resources in the state from pollution, impairment, or destruction, it is necessary for the state to regulate and control, under the laws of the United States, the exploration for high-level radioactive waste disposal within the state of Minnesota. It is the intent of the legislature to exercise all legal authority for the purpose of regulating the disposal and transportation of high-level radioactive waste.