874 



HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



When he signed the supplemental appropriations bill on March 7, 

 1978, President Carter noted: 



I continue to believe that the construction of the CRBR is an unproductive use 

 of our taxpayers' dollars, which will not enhance our ability to call upon the breeder 

 to meet our energy needs. The $80 million contained in this bill for the CRBR will 

 be used to complete the systems design for this reactor and to terminate further 

 CRBR activities in an orderly way. 



It didn't take the GAO long to react. In hand-delivered letters to 

 various administration officials, Comptroller General Staats warned 

 that any Federal official certifying a voucher to use Federal funds to 

 terminate CRBR instead of building CRBR would be held personally 

 liable for the debt. 



TO BREED OR NOT TO BREED 



When Dr. James R. Schlesinger, Secretary of the Department of 

 Energy, appeared before the committee on January 25, 1978, Wydler 

 was the first and only Member to bring up the CRBR. Wydler asked 

 Secretary Schlesinger this question: 



The important thing was that last year when we had the argument over the 

 Clinch River project, the argument in return was always, "Well, we're not really 

 cutting down on research and development on the breeder reactor. We're only taking 

 out this terrible Clinch River project, which, for one reason or another we shouldn't 

 build. But we'regoing on with R. & D. and we're doing that in a substantial manner," 

 and so forth. 



Now this year we find out what's happening, that again you're trying to knock 

 out the Clinch River project and in addition you're cutting back substantially the 

 R. & D., which you were bragging about last year. 



Now does that not really show us a trend that we're giving up on the breeder 

 reactor? 



Dr. Schlesinger responded that there was $367 million in the budget 

 for breeder reactor technology. He did not comment further on the 

 CRBR. On February 2, 1978 when the Flowers subcommittee assembled, 

 Flowers led off with this comment on that figure: 



I see that even from what we considered a meager budget request last year, we're 

 knocking off almost $150 million.* * * Frankly, I'm appalled. I wonder where in the 

 world the administration thinks they're going to take us, how far back. Where can 

 we go and still be the leader in anything? * * * It occurs to me we're not going to 

 need to worry about waste management because there ain't going to be no waste to 

 manage; and safety might not be such a problem either, because there's not going 

 to be enough nuclear operations going on to be too concerned about safety- 

 Mrs. Lloyd was biting in her remarks: 



We don't have time for the floundering that is proposed in this testimony. I 

 don't think it is going to meet our needs, and I don't think we as a country can 

 tolerate this. 



