Pete Stark: “I rise in support of the en bloc amendment which includes my amendment requiring a study on the costs, advantages, and…”

“I rise in support of the en bloc amendment which includes my amendment requiring a study on the costs, advantages, and disadvantages of using low-enriched uranium [LEU] to fuel naval reactors for current and future U.S. nuclear powered naval vessels. The study would be done jointly by the Department of Defense and Department of Energy. It is important for the future of U.S. nuclear nonproliferation policy to eliminate all rationales for nonnuclear weapon states to acquire stockpiles of highly enriched uranium [HEU], which can be used to make nuclear weapons. Aside from nuclear war heads, HEU is used for two purposes: to fuel naval propulsion reactors and to power research reactors. The United States already has a well-established program, RERTR, for phasing out use of weapons-usable uranium in civil research and test reactors worldwide. To head off future use of HEU in foreign naval fuel cycles, such as in Brazil and India, it would be desirable to place the United States in the position of being able to phase out its own use of this material in naval reactors. The United States and the United Kingdom rely on HEU fuel for their naval reactors, but France and Russia do not, using less than 20 percent enriched fuel, indicating that HEU is not an irreducible requirement for naval reactors.”