868 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



Flowers then underlined the point he was making by asking: 



Would it be out of order to ask if there is any Member in the room who has not 

 made up his mind at this point? Please raise your hand. I see no hands raised. There 

 is one or two. That might make the difference. * * * This is not a one-sided issue. 

 It is an issue on which there are experts for whatever point of view we want to sub- 

 scribe to, for whatever point of view we find ourselves on or want to take a position 

 on. 

 Harkin, a supporter of the light water nuclear reactors, stated: 



I am convinced that the Clinch River breeder reactor is to our energy program 

 what the B-l bomber is to our defense program. I opposed the B-l bomber, but I 

 support our defense. 



He decried the cost overruns which had hiked the bill for the CRBR 

 up to $2.2 billion. Glickman expressed concern at the black-and-white 

 nature of the debate, which he said was "not becoming of our re- 

 sponsibilities here. A Member can be in favor of continuing nuclear 

 power development and still be opposed to the Clinch River funding 

 at this time." 



McCormack observed: 



Killing Clinch River would constitute depriving our own people of the engi- 

 neering knowledge we must have for adequate supplies of energy, economic stability 

 and jobs for our unemployed. That is why organized labor supports enthusiastically 

 the Clinch River project. 



Ottinger rebutted that the United Auto Workers and United Mine 

 Workers opposed the CRBR. Mrs. Lloyd warned: 



If construction of the Clinch River plant is canceled or delayed, time and talent 

 will be lost. 



Fish, along with Pursell the only committee Republican supporting 

 the Brown amendment, stressed that $500 million was in the ERDA 

 bill for developing breeder technology other than the CRBR. Brown 

 labeled that figure "greater in scope than the combined breeder pro- 

 gram of all the European nations." Wydler noted: 



A delay in our breeder development program would relegate the United States 

 to enter the 21st century dependent on a 19th century fuel supply. 



THE CRBR WINS A ROUND 



When the vote finally came at 5 p.m. the CRBR forces defeated the 

 Brown amendment, 246-162. An attempt by Dodd to compromise the 

 funding at the Senate-adopted figure of $75 million went down by the 

 even bigger margin of 277-129. Committee members split as follows 

 on the Brown amendment: 



