David Obey: “This amendment, as has already been indicated, cuts $20 million in the bill for the gas turbine modular helium reactor.…”

“This amendment, as has already been indicated, cuts $20 million in the bill for the gas turbine modular helium reactor. This program is a prime example of the continuation of corporate welfare for a mature segment of the nuclear industry for a program with questionable technology. No funds have been requested for this program by the President for 3 years in a row. And yet somehow Congress finds room, within a brutal budget for working people, to allocate funds for this program. Over the past 30 years, taxpayers have been asked to spend 900 million smackeroos on gas-cooled reactor programs. And what do we have to show for it? Absolutely zip. The only commercial version ever built was in Colorado. That operation had the worst operating record of any nuclear facility. It was shut down in 1990, after it operated at only 14 percent of capacity.”