Mike Simpson

How complicated are we making this?

Last thing I want to touch on with you is that Congress funded the first three energy innovation hubs in fiscal year 2010.

One of the things that this committee is always looking at is not only, when we approve something, what it means in the current fiscal year but what it means in future fiscal years.

We must also look ahead to the future of nuclear reactor technology.

I am very concerned about indications that America is losing her competitive advantage in many emerging energy technologies.

I have great appreciation for the importance of the issues under its jurisdiction.

Assuming I live to the average lifespan of the American male will I ever see any glass manufactured there?

One of the questions that has come up is the fact that we have discovered new leaking tanks that are out there.

There are always surprises in this business.

Well, I would encourage you, and I know you are very good at this, so it probably does not need the encouragement, but keep the Committee informed and the staff informed when you get down there and find out what the challenges are that we…

Do you think you will have some estimates on what the cost is? Or will you have to submit a reprogramming request to the Committee?

So we do not know yet or have any idea yet about what the potential cost is--bigger than a bread box, smaller than a space shuttle, somewhere in there?

That is right. And it still does.

I jokingly, or half-jokingly, told them when I was down at Rocky Flats that we did not really clean up Rocky Flats, we just shipped it to Idaho.

I look forward to working with you as we try to complete this budget process.

What we need, and sometimes this takes Presidential leadership, administrative leadership, is how are we going to address these funding needs in the future on a permanent basis?

Most of them are reaching their expected life expectancy.

One of the biggest problems we face in this country, other than the debt and deficit we are facing in this Nation, is our infrastructure backlog.

Your leadership, Mr. Chairman.

We need to be able to work together to try to solve this on a long-term basis rather than this let's fix it for now.

Our frustration is the uncertainty between a billion dollars and $6 billion.

My definition of success is on time and on budget.

I suspect there has been waste.

Does an interim storage facility become a de facto permanent repository?

Well, obviously one of the problems is we cannot get one repository open, let alone having two repositories.