Political Quotes

“With great respect for my friend from South Carolina, who is a most able advocate for his neighborhood, the MOX facility is the ultimate sinkhole for Federal dollars. In fact, there is a viable alternative, and there are quite possibly two different viable alternatives. One is the Russian fast reactor. We have our own fast reactor. It clearly is disposing of the plutonium stockpile in Russia and creating energy along the way that they are using. We also have our own fast reactor systems that have been built in the past, and they could be viable and could be located at the Savannah River facility to dispose of the plutonium. We are going to need to come to some conclusion here. This is a debate that we really must have. The Senate has two different versions, and the House has two different versions about what to do. Maybe the gentleman and I could wrestle and we could decide which one is the version we would actually take on here. This does not stop the facility. It simply says to stop construction, use the money to look at designs, use the money to look for ongoing solutions, which the gentleman, I believe, is incorrect. But if he is right, it could be the MOX facility. But we need to solve this problem. It is a very, very serious problem. We are required by a treaty with Russia to dispose of our unused plutonium, which is another amendment that I will take up at the end of the day, but I will talk about that much later tonight.”