Ed Markey: “Reclaiming my time, I do not have my information wrong. In fact, as the gentleman knows, the DOE has not even decided…”

“Reclaiming my time, I do not have my information wrong. In fact, as the gentleman knows, the DOE has not even decided whether or not they want to use this technology at all. The gentleman is substituting his own scientific judgment for that of the Department of Energy. Moreover, we are not even talking about the reprocessing of the spent fuel from the 40 years of the cold war. So what is at the heart, as the gentleman knows, is the plan to reuse this fuel in a civilian context. It is a source of fuel that could be used. The Clinch River Breeder Reactor was originally intended for that purpose. This technology ultimately has the same purpose. It is nothing more than a second generation of that same objective. So, the DOE says that it will, in fact, cost $85 billion if we do reprocessing for spent fuel from civilian reactors. Eighty-five billion dollars is the number of the Department of Energy. There is no way we are going to spend that kind of money. This is a civilian pork barrel project that blows a hole through our nonproliferation policy.”