Friday, August 12, 2005
Editorial: Increasing risk of nuclear terror
To profit foreign companies, Sen. Pete Domenici forced loosening of restrictions on the export of weapons-grade uranium.
From the RoundTable blog
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Occasionally, a story will come out of Washington, D.C., of a subversion of the public interest so monumental as to stun even the most jaded cynic.
For example, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., went to extraordinary lengths to relax limits on the export of weapons-grade uranium in order to benefit foreign pharmaceutical companies.
Domenici apparently did not care that the provision he inserted in the recently signed energy bill would dramatically increase the chances of terrorists' acquiring the type of nuclear material used in the bomb over Hiroshima.
He apparently did not care that the measure was opposed by fellow Republican, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, chairman of the House Energy Committee, or that it had been voted down in the Senate.
Domenici didn't even care, apparently, that the provision will make it harder for a company in his own state to raise money for its effort to produce medical isotopes more safely with lower-grade uranium.
None of that apparently mattered. Domenici twisted the arms of the Republicans he appointed to the House-Senate conference committee, and they included the provision in the final bill, which President Bush signed despite his Energy Department's objections that the Domenici provision would undermine support for U.S. efforts to eliminate the commercial use of weapons-grade uranium.
The main beneficiary of Domenici's stupefying irresponsibility is Canadian company MDS Nordion, which decided against making the expensive switch to lower-grade uranium to produce medical isotopes.
Apparently, lobbying Congress to relax the export limits was far cheaper.
At a House Energy and Commerce Committee meeting, Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., expressed his frustration. "[T]his is outrageous. To save one Canadian company some money, we're willing to blow a hole in our nonproliferation policies," he said.
How dangerous would weapons-grade uranium be in the wrong hands? The late Luiz Alvarez, an American nuclear physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, said, "Most people seem unaware that if highly enriched uranium is at hand, it's a trivial job to set off a nuclear explosion -- even a high school kid could make a bomb in short order."
So, to help foreign companies save money, Domenici is willing, apparently, to put the world at increased risk of a nuclear terror attack.
After returning from its August recess, Congress should reverse this abomination.
