858 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIEXc I AND TECHNOLOGY 



A COLLISION COURSE 



On April 20, 1977, President Carter announced his decision to 

 terminate the CRBR and called for an energy plan which would con- 

 stitute "the moral equivalent of war." Instead, the committee declared 

 war on the President's proposal. The President asked for $33 million to 

 phase out the project, and set a collision course with the Congress. 



McCormack was the first to speak out sharply against the Presi- 

 dent's decision, and he argued that the problem of nuclear weapons 

 proliferation had been exaggerated: 



As far as we know, there's not been a single nuclear weapon made anywhere on 

 earth from the nuclear fuel cycle. It's far cheaper and easier to make them outside the 

 fuel cycle. 



Throughout the Clinch River debate, Mrs. Lloyd took the lead in 

 supporting continued progress toward construction of the facility. Her 

 initial effort, voted by the subcommittee, was to broaden the CRBR 

 project to one which could employ the thorium cycle, producing 

 U-233, instead of plutonium. In the full committee, Mrs. Lloyd sup- 

 ported Flowers' move to fund CRBR with $150 million and initiate 

 hearings in June. Harkin led a group of 12 supporters of the Presi- 

 dent's position, including two Republicans (Fish and Pursell). 



Teague told the May 11 full committee meeting that he had 

 "tried all day yesterday through a series of meetings to work out a 

 compromise that we could agree on." He announced his support for 

 the Flowers proposal to hold full-scale hearings. "We should give the 

 President some time," Teague said. Flowers added: 



I would approach the further hearing, Mr. Chairman, with a completely open 

 mind on the whole subject. I would hope that the other Members would too, with 

 no predisposition of support or non-support of the Clinch River program or any 

 other breeder program that we might have. 



"clinch river is a dog" 



Ottinger, who wanted to go even farther than Harkin and strike 

 out funding of components for Clinch River, stated: 



Clinch River is a dog. It has proved to be a dog technologically and economically. 

 It is well time we got rid of it as very undesirable excess baggage. I think we ought to 

 get rid of it as a whole and go look at other alternatives that may be safer and not 

 threaten the lives of the people on the earth. 



This prompted Flippo to observe with a slight tinge of sarcasm: 



I am glad to see the gentleman is not prejudiced with regard to Clinch River 

 and I am sure that when the gentleman takes part in the hearings that will be held, 

 that he will approach it with an open mind. 



