SHOOTOUT AT CLINCH RIVER 



881 



But after listening to the discussion for awhile, McCormack 

 leveled a strong broadside against the Flowers compromise: 



I do not consider what wc have before us in the Flowers amendment as a com- 

 promise. It is at least 99 percent of the administration position. And what wc are 

 essentially doing is what Mrs. Lloyd just said that we should not be doing in this, 

 and that is simply giving up, allowing Clinch River to be killed, in exchange for a 

 study. 



McCormack stated that "we should ask for a good deal more." His 

 suggestion was that the committee should authorize a new project to 

 be called the Oak Ridge Breeder Experimental Test Reactor. 



The battle lines were drawn. 



Teague arranged for Dale Myers to meet with and answer questions 

 from committee members on the afternoon of March 21 until after 

 6 p.m. Goldwater and Mrs. Lloyd were especially disturbed that specific 

 information was not available on the costs of legal entanglements 

 which would result from the cancellation of utility contracts on the 

 CRBR. Flowers convened additional hearings of his subcommittee on 

 March 22 and April 4, to which he invited all full committee members 

 also. The April 4 hearing featured sharply critical comments on the 

 compromise by representatives of the utility industry. The President 

 of the Duke Power Co., B. B. Parker, speaking on behalf of the Edison 

 Electric Institute (the trade association of electric utilities) branded 

 the Flowers compromise as totally unacceptable. He also noted that the 

 March 17 letter from Secretary Schlesinger to Teague had been drafted 

 without notice to or consultation with the project participants. As a 

 matter of fact, several people had their noses out of joint because they 

 weren't involved in the late-evening negotiations in Teague's office and 

 in the Science Committee rooms. Myers, ranking Republican on the 

 Flowers subcommittee, resented his not being invited, so did the dozen 

 almost-forgotten band of Democrats, plus Republicans Fish and Pursell, 

 who had throughout opposed the CRBR and supported President 

 Carter's stand. 



CONGRESSIONAL CRITICS OF THE CRBR 



Suspicious of the terms of the compromise negotiated by Teague 

 and Flowers, the opponents of the CRBR and supporters of President 

 Carter's early position wrote him on April 7: 



We are concerned that the compromise moves us substantially ahead with the 

 breeder program before a comparable program for developing alternative energy 

 resources is in place. 



We are not convinced that the compromise is necessary to terminate the Clinch 

 River breeder reactor. We are concerned that the compromise may signal a series of 

 actions by the administration that will result in an earlier commercialization of the 

 breeder than if wc did nothing at this time. 



