Political Quotes

“in March of this year, when we passed the energy bill, Senator Voinovich offered an amendment to reauthorize the Price-Anderson Act that passed overwhelmingly 78-21. The Price-Anderson Act expires on August 1, 2002. This act sets up a system of insurance and indemnification to protect the public against losses stemming from nuclear accidents. It has served the nation well since the 1950s and has been reauthorized three times. Price-Anderson has been amended over the years so that the utility industry that operates nuclear reactors is charged premiums for this insurance. The private Department of Energy (DOE) contractors that are involved in strategic weapons production, clean up of national security sites, nuclear research and technology, as well as other related national priorities are indemnified by the government. In keeping with the directions in the current law both the DOE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have issued reports urging renewal. The provisions of the Voinovich amendment to the energy bill to reauthorize this legislation were crafted in consonance with these reports. In the Defense authorization bill we are now considering, there is a provision to only renew the authority for the private DOE contractors. There is strong justification for doing so, since a lapse in the authority will affect important cleanup and defense programs as I mentioned before.”