Chuck Schumer: “again, the argument is simple: Do we want nuclear proliferation? If we do, we allow highly enriched uranium to be…”

“again, the argument is simple: Do we want nuclear proliferation? If we do, we allow highly enriched uranium to be floating around the world with very few checks. There is no issue of health. Let me repeat: Everyone, every single person in this country and in other countries who needs isotopes has gotten them. Let me quote from Physicians for Social Responsibility, a group that has been involved: Contrary to its stated intent, section 621, the new section added to this bill, would do nothing to ensure the supply of medical isotopes to the United States because that supply is not currently endangered by restrictions on exports of HEU. So the bottom line is simple: We want sick people to get these isotopes. They are all getting them. But why do we have to trade away the ability to prevent highly enriched uranium from proliferating around the world? God forbid the consequences to our country if a terrorist steals such uranium or it gets lost. No U.S. firm has any interest in this. It is one Canadian firm that does not want to pay the extra price that other firms have been paying to require foreign countries to convert from HEU, highly enriched uranium, which can be used for weapons, to low-grade uranium, LEU, which cannot. So the argument is simple. There are a large number of organizations that support our amendment, many of them concerned with nuclear proliferation and, of course, organizations concerned with health such as Physicians for Social Responsibility.…”