860 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



John F. O'Leary, who became Under Secretary of the Department of 

 Energy, also visited the hospital and talked with Teague. Members 

 of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the nuclear industry were 

 also invited for conversations. Many of the briefings started at 6:30 

 p.m. in a lOth-floor anteroom at Bethesda Hospital. Among Members 

 of Congress, Fuqua, Wydler, Brown, Flowers, and McCormack were 

 frequent visitors. Teague related to his colleagues in 1977: 



Ar the rime that this responsibility was given ro our Committee, I had a slight 

 ility problem. But, immediately after thar happened, I began to hold afternoon 

 and evening meetings at Bethesda I [ospital with the grear help ot a man named John 

 O'Leary, the Undersecretary to the new Energy Department, who I think is a great 

 and dedicated American. I began thinking on their side. I began believing the Presi- 

 dent was right, but the further I went and the more I learned, the more I decided rhat 

 the President was wrong. 



Teague found O'Leary to be very objective in his presentations and 

 discussions, even though he clearly sided with the President. The 

 turning points for Teague were the trips which he took in the late 

 spring of 1977. He took his committee for a first-hand look at the area 

 of the CRBR site, as well as what was developing in other nations 

 concerning breeder reactors and the use of plutonium. On May 20, 1977, 

 five committee members — Teague, Flowers, Ottinger, Mrs. Lloyd, and 

 Myers plus Representative John J. Duncan (Republican of Tennessee) 

 visited Oak Ridge and conferred with the project managers of CRBR 

 as well as DOE headquarters personnel. The session was held in a 

 steaming hot building at the CRBR site. This was not just a casual 

 look-see. They probed into issues like why the project was needed, 

 what would be lost if it were terminated, reasons why the costs had 

 escalated so sharply, the public safety risks, and the relation of the 

 CRBR to proliferation among other questions. 



From the standpoint of the committee, the atmosphere and the 

 arrangements for the briefing were far from perfect. The overcrowded, 

 overheated building was jammed with project personnel which made 

 direct questioning by committee members difficult. The CRBR project 

 officials seemed intent to stick to a prearranged "show and tell" 

 presentation, instead of concentrating on answering the questions on 

 the minds of committee members. Teague impatiently attempted to 

 zero in on the central issues which were concerning the committee, 

 but it was an uphill fight. Finally, with some exasperation, he passed 

 along the word that the briefing would be terminated so that the 

 committee and staff could return for their flight back to Washington. 

 Disappointed, the local project managers and Department of Energy 

 personnel brought their presentation to a rather abrupt conclusion. 

 The committee members were glad they had made the trip, even 

 though they did not obtain answers to all the questions they had on 

 their minds. 



