[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 107 (Wednesday, September 13, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8527-S8528]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      REMOVAL OF INJUNCTION OF SECRECY--TREATY DOCUMENT NO. 106-48

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, as in executive session, I ask unanimous 
consent that the injunction of secrecy be removed from the following 
convention transmitted to the Senate on September 13, 2000, by the 
President of the United States: Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent 
Fuel and Radioactive Waste Management (Treaty Document No. 106-48); I 
further ask that the convention be considered as having been read the 
first time; that it be referred, with accompanying papers, to the 
Committee on Foreign Relations and ordered to be printed; and that the 
President's message be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The message of the President is as follows:

To the Senate of the United States:
  I transmit herewith, for Senate advice and consent to ratification, 
the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the 
Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, done at Vienna on September 5, 
1997. Also transmitted for the information of the Senate is the report 
of the Department of State concerning the Convention.
  This Convention was adopted by a Diplomatic Conference convened by 
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in September 1997 and was 
opened for signature in Vienna on September 5, 1997, during the IAEA 
General Conference, on which date Secretary of Energy Federico Pena 
signed the Convention for the United States.
  The Convention is an important part of the effort to raise the level 
of nuclear safety around the world. It is companion to and structured 
similarly to the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS), to which the 
Senate gave its advice and consent on March 25, 1999, and which entered 
into force for the United States on July 10, 1999. The Convention 
establishes a series of broad commitments with respect to the safe 
management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. The Convention does not 
delineate detailed mandatory standards the Parties must meet, but 
instead Parties are to take appropriate steps to bring their activities 
into compliance with the general obligations of the Convention.
  The Convention includes safety requirements for spent fuel management 
when the spent fuel results from the operation of civilian nuclear 
reactors and radioactive waste management for wastes resulting from 
civilian applications.
  The Convention does not apply to a Party's military radioactive waste 
or spent nuclear fuel unless the Party declares it as spent nuclear 
fuel or radioactive waste for the purposes of the Convention, or if and 
when such waste material is permanently transferred to

[[Page S8528]]

and managed within exclusively civilian programs. The Convention 
contains provisions to ensure that national security is not compromised 
and that Parties have absolute discretion as to what information is 
reported on material from military sources.
  The United States has initiated many steps to improve nuclear safety 
worldwide in accordance with its long-standing policy to make safety an 
absolute priority in the use of nuclear energy, and has supported the 
effort to develop both the CNS and this Convention. The Convention 
should encourage countries to improve the management of spent fuel and 
radioactive waste domestically and thus result in an increase in 
nuclear safety worldwide.
  Consultations were held with representatives from States and the 
nuclear industry. There are no significant new burdens or unfunded 
mandates for the State or industry that should result from the 
Convention. Costs for implementation of the proposed Convention will be 
absorbed within the existing budgets of affected agencies.
  I urge the Senate to act expeditiously in giving its advice and 
consent to ratification.
                                                  William J. Clinton.  
The White House, September 13, 2000.

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