David Obey: “Mr. Chairman, I thank the House for their support on the last vote, and I would ask that they continue that support for…”

“Mr. Chairman, I thank the House for their support on the last vote, and I would ask that they continue that support for the next two amendments. This amendment simply cuts $18 million from the nuclear technology research and development program. Mr. Chairman, last year the Congress voted decisively to kill the advanced liquid metal reactor program. It was judged to be too costly at $3.3 billion, and the technology too questionable to continue. The Department of Energy, which has never been able to end a program on its own, sought and received approval from the subcommittee to reprogram $21 million to terminate this program. After receiving approval for this reprogramming, the department reneged on its commitment, terminated only a few people with buyouts, and sought $37 million more in fiscal 1996 to continue to pay the people affected while searching for a new mission for them. One part of DOE claimed the concept of nuclear fuel reprocessing technology may be a potential treatment for DOE spent fuel, but internal documents from another entity of DOE show that there is no consensus within the department on the use of this technology and, in fact, DOE's waste managers have developed plans for spent fuel which do not involve reprocessing. In fact, their preference is to obtain approval to haul spent fuel in canisters and dispose of it directly in a repository.”