[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 103 (Thursday, July 22, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S8752]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. CLINTON (for herself, Mr. Gregg, and Mr. Reid):
  S. 2763. A bill to amend the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to clarify the 
treatment of accelerator-produced and other radioactive material as 
byproduct material; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Dirty Bomb 
Protections Acts along with Senators Gregg and Reid. This bill directs 
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC, to control key materials that 
could be used in a dirty bomb. Unfortunately, some of these materials 
are currently exempt from Federal control.
  This bill follows a prior bill that I introduced with Senator Gregg 
in 2002, which was the first bipartisan legislation to propose improved 
domestic controls on materials that could be used in a ``dirty bomb.'' 
This legislation was supported and acclaimed by international dirty 
bomb experts. It provided for the safeguarding of radioactive material 
against use by terrorists. The bill required proper tracking, recovery, 
storage and export controls for radioactive material.
  Since then, the IAEA Board of Governors accepted and its General 
Conference endorsed the revised ``IAEA Code of Conduct on the Safety 
and Security of Radioactive Sources,'' which reflects many of the 
elements in that bill. The heads of state and government of the eight 
major industrialized democracies, G8, and over 30 other countries have 
committed to implement the code. And at the Sea Island Summit earlier 
this year, G8 leaders urged all states to implement the code and 
recognize it as a global standard.
  Passage of the Dirty Bomb Protections Act would allow the U.S. to 
fully implement the commitments of the code by providing the NRC with 
authority to control a set of substances for which they currently lack 
authority, including Radium-226 and other naturally occurring 
radioactive materials that for historical reasons have remained outside 
of Federal control. To control these materials, the bill instructs the 
NRC to: (1) promulgate final implementing regulations governing such 
byproduct material; and (2) prepare and give public notice of a 
transition plan for State assumption of regulatory responsibility for 
such material.
  I believe this bill represents an important step forward in our war 
against terror and our efforts to control access to materials that 
could be used to produce a dirty bomb. The language is identical to 
language that passed the EPW Committee unanimously last year. I look 
forward to working with Senator Inhofe and other Members of the Senate, 
as well as the NRC, to advance this important legislation this year.
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