[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 15 (Wednesday, January 27, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S1032]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    DEATH OF MR. VICTOR STELLO, JR.

 Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I have the sad duty to inform the 
Senate of the untimely death of Victor Stello, Jr., an honored civil 
servant who had a very great influence on the safe operation of 
commercial nuclear power plants and Department of Energy nuclear 
facilities.
  Mr. Stello came from a family of coal miners in Pennsylvania. It was 
from seeing the terrible toll on the health of friends and relatives in 
the mines that he became convinced that safe, clean nuclear power would 
be a great boon to our country. He worked tirelessly throughout his 
career to make nuclear power plants safer and safer. At the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission he rose through the ranks because his singular 
ability and forceful personality made it clear that he was a man who 
got things done. In turn, he was Director of the Division of Reactor 
Operations, the Office of Safety and Enforcement, and the task force 
that investigated the Three Mile Island reactor accident. Eventually he 
reached the highest civil service position at the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, becoming the Executive Director for Operations.
  In 1989 because of his reputation for fixing problems, President Bush 
nominated him to be Assistant Secretary for Defense Programs at the 
Department of Energy. Despite the pleas of the Secretary of Energy, 
James Watkins, a group of antinuclear activists delayed his 
confirmation. Due to this delay and a subsequent serious leg injury, 
President Bush reluctantly acceded to Mr. Stello's request that the 
nomination be withdrawn.
  Despite this set back, Secretary Watkins persuaded Mr. Stello to join 
the Department of Energy as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary 
for Safety and Quality, whose primary duty was to ferret out 
potentially unsafe practices in Department of Energy nuclear weapons 
facilities. With his forceful personality, coupled with Secretary 
Watkins' support and the high responsibility delegated to him by a 
succession of Assistant Secretaries for Defense Programs, Mr. Stello 
was able to break through previously impenetrable institutional 
barriers to effect real and lasting change.
  Mr. President, it is because of Mr. Stello's tireless efforts that 
the Department of Energy reached a high level of safe operations, so 
that the Nation's critical nuclear deterrent would not become unsafe or 
unreliable, and that the facilities needed to maintain that deterrent 
could continue to operate safely.
  Mr. President, I ask the Senate to join me in expressing to Mrs. 
Stello and the children our heartfelt condolences.

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