Mr. BRYAN. Mr. President, I thank the Chair. I yield myself such time as I may need.

Mr. President, I want to continue this discussion of my colleague. Each of us was thinking in the same frame of reference. He said no matter how much you dress up a pig it's still a pig. I learned as a youngster the old adage, you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. And that is exactly what we have here.

We have not had a chance to review in detail all the asserted changes that the chairman of the committee intends, and we will have a chance to comment on that tomorrow. But central to this debate, the basic issue, the point at which all discussion begins, every thoughtful and analytical and policy frame of reference, is the question of whether or not we should place interim storage anywhere before a determination is made with respect to a permanent repository or dump. That is why the administration continues to oppose this legislation, Senator Bingaman opposes this legislation, why every environmental organization in America opposes this legislation. Because the basic flaw is this is unnecessary and unwise. We will have a chance to expand upon this tomorrow.

But you go back to the origin of this debate, 17 years ago, you scratch the surface and always the nuclear utility industry and its highly paid advocates have one mission and one mission only--remove the waste from the reactor site. That was the essence of the debate, as we have pointed out time and time again on the floor dating back to 1980 when then the Holy Grail of the industry was an `away-from-reactor' storage program; the same basic concept, anywhere away from here, get it out, away from reactor storage. The Congress wisely rejected in 1980 that approach, just as they have rejected that approach consistently, year after year.

I want to refer to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. We have talked about that a great deal. Much has been made of its contents. But the point that needs to be made is there is no urgent technical need for interim storage of spent fuel--none. Our colleague, the ranking member of the committee, last night, the senior Senator from Arkansas [Mr. Bumpers], went on at great length about: There is no necessity, no need to do so. Indeed, any thoughtful policy approach rejects that premise.

Again, in 1997, a reconstituted Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board reaches the same conclusion, namely that there is no necessity and no reason to move at this time.

They make a second point here that I think is important to emphasize, and that is, if the site selection process is to retain any integrity at all, here is what Dr. Cohon said in his testimony of February 5:

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However, to maintain the credibility of the site-suitability decision, siting a centralized storage near Yucca Mountain--

That is interim storage he has reference to--

should be deferred until a technically defensible site-suitability determination can be made at Yucca Mountain.

That is the essence of the argument, that no decision should be made until a defensible site-suitability determination can be made at Yucca Mountain.

He goes on to say:

We have estimated that such a determination could be made within about 4 years.

Those are Dr. Jared Cohon's comments.

So, Mr. President, it is clear that the nuclear utility industry is scrambling at the last moment to put together a few flourishes on the legislation that is before us, but they will not and cannot change the basic flaw in that they would propose to site interim storage at the Nevada test site before a determination is made with respect to the permanent repository.

Let me say, for those who have followed this issue over the years, the only justification for siting it at the Nevada test site--and this was debated last year on the floor, to some extent--was the assumption, the predicate that Yucca Mountain would be the permanent repository. That was the only basis. How in the world can you place interim storage until you have a determination made as to whether the permanent facility, which is the whole predicate of the interim storage licensing decision, has been determined, and that has not occurred.