898 



HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



ment launched a study of nuclear waste management and Teague kept 

 closely in touch with the OTA progress in this area. 



Teague and Wydler sent a joint letter on June 13, 1978, to DOE 

 Deputy Secretary John F. O'Leary in strong support of fusion tech- 

 nologies. In 1978, the committee voted an increase of $159 million in 

 this promising long-range area, for a total in operating expenses of 

 $240.9 million. The committee held a special oversight hearing in 

 September 1978, to review with Dr. Mel Gottlieb of Princeton Plasma 

 Physics Laboratory and DOE officials the recent developments at the 

 Princeton Laboratory, where a temperature of 60 million degrees 

 centigrade was achieved — almost three times the previous highest 

 fusion temperature. Even though fusion as a commerical venture 

 remained a hope that would not materialize until many years in the 

 future, the committee continued to stress this option which gave 

 promise of providing almost limitless sources of energy. 



Representative Richard C. White (Demo- 

 crat of Texas), who joined the committee in 

 1979, and voted for the CRBR on July 26, 

 1979- 



Representative Timothy E. Wirth (Demo- 

 crat of Colorado, who served on the Science 

 Committee from 1975 to 1979, was an 

 opponent of the CRBR. 



MCCORMACK SUBCOMMITTEE IN 1979 



For the first time in 1979, McCormack, a strong advocate of 

 nuclear energy and the breeder reactor, had the opportunity to chair a 

 subcommittee with jurisdiction in the nuclear area. The new subcom- 



