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“PASSAGE OF ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATIONS BILL” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1272 on June 29, 2001.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
PASSAGE OF ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATIONS BILL
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HON. TED STRICKLAND
of ohio
in the house of representatives
Thursday, June 28, 2001
Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank our Subcommittee Chairman and Ranking Member for the hard work they put into this bill, which includes a number of programs that are very important to Southern Ohio. I would like to take this opportunity to comment on these Department of Energy programs that directly affect the workers and communities supporting the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant located in Piketon, Ohio.
First, I would like to express my support for the $110,784,000 included in the Fiscal Year 2002 Energy and Water Appropriations bill for costs associated with winterization of the Portsmouth, Ohio Gaseous Diffusion Plant and maintaining the plant on cold standby. It was just over a year ago today that the United States Enrichment Corporation, Inc. (USEC) announced that it would close the only U.S. uranium enrichment plant capable of meeting industry's nuclear fuel specifications. While I cannot overstate my disagreement, disappointment and disgust with that decision, I am pleased that funding will be available in Fiscal Year 2002 to ensure that the Portsmouth facility remains in a cold standby condition so that it could be restarted if needed in the future. I have been assured by the Department of Energy that the funding levels in this year's appropriations bill will allow the Department to meet its goals as announced in Columbus, Ohio on March 1, 2001 and as stated by then Governor Bush last October.
I am aware of report language accompanying the bill which discusses the nonproliferation programs with Russia and, specifically, the Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) Agreement. I support this incredibly important foreign policy initiative and I agree with the language calling for the Russian HEU to ``be reduced as quickly as possible.'' I am also aware that the purchase of the 500 metric tons of Russian HEU has not always stayed on schedule, and I support exploring ways to accelerate the purchase of the downblended weapons grade material from Russia. However, I would hope that we can accelerate this program without adversely affecting the domestic uranium enrichment industry. Today, we are dependent upon this downblended Russian HEU for approximately 50 percent of our domestic nuclear fuel supply. Increasing that dependence makes no sense to me, particularly at a time when we are debating a national energy strategy calling for greater energy security in order to avoid price volatility and supply uncertainty. We must act in a manner that strikes a reasonable balance between this significant foreign policy objective and the need to maintain a reliable and economic source of domestic nuclear fuel.
I am disappointed that the Department of Energy's Worker and Community Transition Office funding falls short of the President's request. I am deeply concerned that the allocated funding is inadequate to address the needs of the Department of Energy workers and communities across the DOE complex who depend on these funds to help minimize the social and economic impacts resulting from the changes in the Department of Energy's mission.
Finally, but not least of all, I am concerned about the slight reduction in the funding for the Department of Energy's Environment, Safety and Health Office. I am hopeful that this reduction will not impact the extremely important medical monitoring program at the Portsmouth plant, which also serves to screen past and present workers at other sites throughout the DOE complex. I am hopeful that these funds will be restored as the bill moves through the conference committee. We now know that many workers at DOE sites, including the one in Piketon, Ohio, handled hazardous and radioactive materials with little knowledge and, oftentimes, with inadequate safety practices. In fact, a May 2000 report issued by the Department's Office of Oversight on the Piketon Gaseous Diffusion Plant states, ``Due to weaknesses in monitoring programs, such as the lack of extremity monitoring, exposure limits may have unknowingly been exceeded. In addition, communication of hazards, the rationale for and use of protective measures, accurate information about radiation exposure, and the enforcement of protective equipment use were inadequate. Further, workers were exposed to various chemical hazards for which adverse health effects had not yet been identified.'' Scaling back the medical monitoring program now would be unconscionable knowing what we know today. Furthermore, the compensation program established last fall by passage of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA), designed to compensate employees made ill by the work they performed for the government, would be weakened if workers are then denied access to medical screening. Although the EEOICPA is not a perfect bill, it would be a shame to hobble a long overdue program before it is even out of the gate.
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