Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

eactors to determine if any safety improvements are needed in
light of the Chernobyl accident.
In the commercial reactor sector, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
is closely monitoring and evaluating the causes and consequences
of the Chernobyl accident, to determine if there are any
lessons to be learned with respect to the regulation of our own
commercial nuclear industry.
I, for one, am confident that the soul searching and self-evaluation
that we are now undertaking as a result of the Chernobyl accident
is healthy and will eventually lead us to a renewed confidence
in our own nuclear industry. For, given the obvious differences in
the technologies, safety systems, and regulations between our two
countries, we will inevitably come to the conclusion that our technology
is one of the finest in the world.
One need only to point to such things as the accident at Three
Mile Island, where 70 percent of the core melted down, releasing
millions of curies of radiation into the containment building, and
yet no public health consequences resulted from that truly severe
accident. And, to the fact that numerous States and counties have
borrowed and used successfully the emergency response measures
originally established for nuclear powerplants, in responding to
nonnuclear disasters that have occurred in locations nearby to a
nuclear plant.
Our technology does, in fact, work. Our regulations do serve to
protect the public health and safety. We have learned from TMI
and other plant events how to make our technology even better.
We, in Congress, have been striving to make public liability coverage,
if a severe accident were ever to occur, the most comprehensive
we possibly can. More importantly, we are finally taking to
task the one big area that is still broken, that of the nuclear licensing
process, so that this Nation can enjoy a continued growth in
the use of nuclear power that has served this country so well in the
past.
Senator Metzenbaum.
Senator Metzenbaum. Mr. Chairman, first I would like to submit
on behalf of Senator Johnston, a statement of his, as well as his
letter to you.
The Chairman. His statement and the letter will be made a part
of the record, as well as Senator Evans' statement.
[The prepared statement of Senator Johnston, his letter to the
chairman, and the prepared statement of Senator Evans follow:]