Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
SENATE
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

By Mrs. CLINTON (for herself, Mr. GREGG, and Mr. REID):

S. 2763. A bill to amend the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to clarify the treatment of accelerator-produced and other radioactive material as byproduct material; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Dirty Bomb Protections Acts along with Senators GREGG and REID. This bill directs the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC, to control key materials that could be used in a dirty bomb. Unfortunately, some of these materials are currently exempt from Federal control.

This bill follows a prior bill that I introduced with Senator GREGG in 2002, which was the first bipartisan legislation to propose improved domestic controls on materials that could be used in a "dirty bomb." This legislation was supported and acclaimed by international dirty bomb experts. It provided for the safeguarding of radioactive material against use by terrorists. The bill required proper tracking, recovery, storage and export controls for radioactive material.

Since then, the IAEA Board of Governors accepted and its General Conference endorsed the revised "IAEA Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources," which reflects many of the elements in that bill. The heads of state and government of the eight major industrialized democracies, G8, and over 30 other countries have committed to implement the code. And at the Sea Island Summit earlier this year, G8 leaders urged all states to implement the code and recognize it as a global standard.

Passage of the Dirty Bomb Protections Act would allow the U.S. to fully implement the commitments of the code by providing the NRC with authority to control a set of substances for which they currently lack authority, including Radium-226 and other naturally occurring radioactive materials that for historical reasons have remained outside of Federal control. To control these materials, the bill instructs the NRC to: (1) promulgate final implementing regulations governing such byproduct material; and (2) prepare and give public notice of a transition plan for State assumption of regulatory responsibility for such material.

I believe this bill represents an important step forward in our war against terror and our efforts to control access to materials that could be used to produce a dirty bomb. The language is identical to language that passed the EPW Committee unanimously last year. I look forward to working with Senator INHOFE and other Members of the Senate, as well as the NRC, to advance this important legislation this year.