William Bryan: “It was made in 1980. Neither the senior Senator from Nevada nor the junior Senator from Nevada were Members of this body…”

“It was made in 1980. Neither the senior Senator from Nevada nor the junior Senator from Nevada were Members of this body or of the other one at that time. But then, as now, the nuclear utilities were urging the Congress to adopt interim storage, they then were called away from reactor storage. The statements were made during the floor debate that if this were, in fact, not done, that within the next 3 years, by 1983, nuclear utilities would have to close down and there would be brownouts. As the senior Senator from Nevada knows, that was 1980. In a sense, if you took the date off that legislation and inserted the words 'interim storage' for 'AFR,' it would be identical to the context of the debate. If the senior Senator from Nevada will indulge me for a moment, this is what was said by the then chairman of the Energy Committee, Mr. Johnston, the distinguished Senator from Louisiana: Mr. President, this bill-- Referring to the AFR legislation-- deals comprehensively with the problem of civilian nuclear waste. It is an urgent problem-- Sounds somewhat familiar, does it not? Mr. President, for this Nation. It is urgent, first, because we are running out of reactor space at reactors for the storage of the fuel, and if we do not build what we call away-from-reactor storage and begin that soon, we could begin shutting down civilian nuclear reactors in this country as soon as 1983.”