Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to this amendment, which would prohibit funding for plutonium pit production at the Savannah River Site. I appreciate my friend from California's concern of cost.

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Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to this amendment, which would prohibit funding for plutonium pit production at the Savannah River Site. My friend mentioned the cost overruns, and I appreciate his concern with that.

Let me tell you. I spent 40 years in the construction business. In the last 2 years, concrete has doubled in price, steel has doubled in price, and there is a lot of concrete and steel in plutonium. We do need to deal with the inflation we are seeing out there.

The Savannah River Site, also known as SRS, is a Department of Energy site conducting important work to defend our national security, and Georgia's 12th District is home to approximately 30 percent of the workforce.

Currently under construction at the Savannah River Site is the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility. Required by law, this is part of a two-site strategy with Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Savannah River Site tasked with producing plutonium pits to help improve resiliency and mitigate risk in the United States' pit production. Let me say that again: to mitigate risk in the United States' pit production.

This shortsighted amendment would critically threaten this urgent national security mission. The Savannah River Site is committed to nuclear modernization to ensure America's nuclear deterrent is safe and reliable. To say otherwise is simply not true.

Mr. Chair, I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment.

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