[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 55 (Wednesday, May 6, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4449-S4450]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      REGARDING INTERNATIONAL PROJECT EVALUATING AND FACILITATING 
            INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE OF ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES

  Mr. ROTH. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 224, submitted 
earlier by Senator Stevens and others.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 224) expressing the sense of the 
     Senate concerning an international project to evaluate and 
     facilitate

[[Page S4450]]

     the international exchange of advanced technology.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the immediate 
consideration of the resolution?
  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, last spring, the Duma Chairman of the 
Committee on the Problems of the Russian North, Vladimir Goman, met 
with Senator Cochran and myself to ask us for our participation in a 
new project which would help facilitate Russia's efforts in the 
remediation of nuclear wastes.
  Since that meeting, the Russian Duma has passed a Resolution pledging 
funding and infrastructure for the Advanced Technology Research Project 
(ATRP). In Europe, industry and key decision makers of the European 
Parliament, the German Bundestag, the Union of European Labor Parties, 
and several national nuclear waste management and research and 
development institutions, including the Swiss NAGRA, have all pledged 
their support for the ATRP.
  This ATRP, originally proposed by the Russian Duma, with 
participation from academia, private industry and governmental and 
public organizations, is a privately funded, neutral organization. It 
will facilitate information exchange on nuclear waste management 
technologies, and the development of a worldwide nuclear waste 
management technology marketplace. It is the goal of this project to 
advance self sufficiency in nuclear waste management in Russia and to 
globally provide advanced and affordable solutions to nuclear waste.
  ATRP will be entirely privately funded through private industry, 
public interest, and scientific organizations. This Private-Public 
Partnership will be implemented through ATRP's global nuclear waste 
technology clearinghouse, database, conferences, workshops, and trade 
shows worldwide. The objective is advanced, safer, and efficient 
nuclear waste management at the lowest possible cost.
  The management of nuclear waste is one of the world's most pressing 
concerns and perhaps Russia's greatest ecological threat. ATRP will 
help Russia help itself by developing an international market for 
technology exchange. It will also benefit United States and all other 
nuclear nations by making nuclear waste management technology more 
readily available in the international market place.
  I hope that my colleagues will join me in supporting this Resolution 
which will help us all work toward an international solution to this 
very pressing issue of nuclear wage management.
  Mr. ROTH. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
resolution be agreed to; that the preamble be agreed to; that the 
motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; and that any statements 
relating to the resolution appear at the appropriate place in the 
Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 224) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, is as follows:

                              S. Res. 224

       Whereas currently in the post Cold-War world, there are new 
     opportunities to facilitate international political and 
     scientific cooperation on cost-effective and advanced 
     innovative nuclear waste technologies;
       Whereas there is increasing public interest in monitoring 
     and remediation of nuclear wastes; and
       Whereas it is in the best interest of the United States to 
     explore and develop options with the international community 
     to facilitate the exchange of evolving advanced nuclear waste 
     technologies: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--the 
     President should instruct the Secretary of Energy, in 
     consultation with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of 
     Defense, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection 
     Agency, and other officials as appropriate, to consider the 
     Advanced Technology Research Project (known as ``ATRP'') and 
     report to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of 
     the Senate on:
       (1) whether the United States should encourage the 
     establishment of an international project to facilitate the 
     evaluation and international exchange of data (including cost 
     data) relating to advanced nuclear waste technologies, 
     including technologies for solid and liquid radioactive 
     wastes and contaminated soils and sediments;
       (2) whether such a project could be funded privately 
     through industry, public interest, and scientific 
     organizations and administered by an international non-
     governmental, nonprofit organization, with operations in the 
     United States, Russia, Japan, and other countries that have 
     an interest in developing such technologies; and
       (3) any legislation that the Secretary believes would be 
     required to enable such a project to be undertaken.

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