Iceland references the HDWC work and concludes that a submarine cable connection between Iceland and the United Kingdom is feasible and should be pursued. Question: It is my understanding that significant strides have been taken within the last year toward commercial application of this research in Hawaii; would you please discuss these recent activities and the role of the Hawaii Deep Water Cable program in their development. Answer: Governor Waihee of Hawaii last summer appointed an Advisory Board headed by former Governor Will Quinn, to determine the commercial feasibility of a geothermal generating system on the island of Hawaii providing 500 MW to Oahu via a deep water cable system. Five major international submarine cable manufacturers were invited to brief the Committee last November, and without exception they believed that the HDWC research would be successful and that a commercial underwater cable system be shown to be feasible. In a report issued in January 1988, the Advisory Board concluded that the geothermal generation and cable system is a sound commercial venture. As a result, legislation has been introduced to consolidate the permits for both the geothermal plants and the deep water cable system and to appropriate funding for exploratory drilling on the Big Island to confirm the extent of the geothermal resource. The Department hopes that the expressed confidence of the private sector in the commercial viability of this project will translate into increased private sector financial commitment. SUBCOMMITTEE RECESS Senator MCCLURE. If there is nothing further to come before the committee at this time, the committee will stand in recess until Friday, March 18, at 10 a.m., when we will continue hearings on DOE's 1989 budget. Thank you very much for your appearance and your testimony. [Whereupon, at 11:28 a.m. Tuesday, March 15, the subcommittee was recessed to reconvene at 10 a.m. Friday, March 18.] ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 1988 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 10:09 a.m. in room SD-116, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. J. Bennett Johnston (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Johnston, Burdick, Sasser, DeConcini, Hatfield, McClure, Dominici, and Specter. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY ATOMIC ENERGY DEFENSE ACTIVITIES STATEMENT OF TROY E. WADE II, ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR DEFENSE PROGRAMS, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY ACCOMPANIED BY: GEN. PAUL F. KAVANAUGH, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR MILITARY APPLICATION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY MS. JILL E. LYTLE, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR NUCLEAR MATERIALS, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY DR. CHARLES F. GILBERT, ACTING DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR SECURITY AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY JAMES W. CULPEPPER, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR PLANNING AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Senator JOHNSTON. Good morning. The hearing will come to order. Our witnesses this morning are Troy Wade, Acting Assistant Secretary for Defense Programs, from the Department of Energy; and Dr. Robert Barker, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Atomic Energy, of the Departinent of Defense, who will present testimony of the fiscal 1989 budget request for Atomic Energy Defense Activities. Mr. Wade, please proceed. We are glad to have you this morning. Mr. WADE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is a pleasure, as always, to be here. In the audience are four of my principals: James Culpepper, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning and Resource Management; Gen. Paul Kavanaugh, who is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Military Application; Jill Lytle, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Materials; and Charles Gilbert, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Security Affairs. All except Mr. Culpepper will have detailed written statements, and with your permission, we would like to have them all inserted for the record. Senator JOHNSTON. Yes, without objection, those statements will be placed at the appropriate place in the record. [NOTE: The prepared statements referred to appear at the end of the hearing record.] SUMMARY OF STATEMENT Mr. WADE. I will summarize my statement. I am here today to talk about the defense programs part of the Atomic Energy Defense Activities budget. My request is $7.5 billion of the total $8.1 billion. I would like to begin, Mr. Chairman, by just saying a couple of words about philosophy. UNIQUE CAPABILITY FOR THE NATION The system by which we manage the nuclear weapons program, as you all know, was established on the principle that a dual-agency approach between DOD and DOE would provide the necessary checks and balances. We continue to believe that the dual-agency approach serves the nation well. That principle has been maintained, verified, and endorsed by every administration and Congress since 1946. With this committee's support, the Department has played an important role in assuring an effective nuclear deterrent. We have done that by meeting the Department of Defense requirements for nuclear weapons, improving the quality and reliability of the stockpile, and introducing safer and more secure weapons. We have a unique technical capability at the DOE laboratories and in the DOE industrial complex. We hope that the nuclear competence of those laboratories and of that industrial complex can continue to be maintained. DEFENSE PROGRAMS MISSIONS O SUPPORT NATIONAL SECURITY POLICIES OF THE 0 PROVIDE SAFEGUARDS AND SECURITY FOR NUCLEAR O PROVIDE SAFE, HEALTHFUL, AND ENVIRONMENTALLY ACCEPTABLE OPERATIONS OF DOE-OWNED FACILITIES UNDER DEFENSE PROGRAMS CONTROL MISSIONS I want to remind the committee of the missions of defense programs. First and foremost is to support the national security policy of the Nation; to do that while developing and maintaining a research, development, and test capability; to produce parts in nuclear materials for the weapons that we assemble; to process the waste generated from those efforts; and to assist other agencies in determining our adversaries' capability in compliance with treaties through verification and arms control. Of course, overlaying the primary mission is providing for adequate security and operating our facilities in a safe, healthful, and environmentally acceptable manner. ACCOMPLISHMENTS o MEETING DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE REQUIREMENTS DESPITE: 30-40 YEAR OLD, INCREASINGLY FRAGILE COMPLEX INCREASING REGULATORY PRESSURE I think we have done a good job in accomplishing our mission. These are the kinds of accomplishments that we achieved over the past year. We have met the Department's requirements, despite stretching to the limit the 30- to 40-year-old complex that we are running, and we have done so under increasing regulatory pressures. We have addressed several new safety issues in the last year, brought on, in large part, by the National Academy of Sciences safety review that Secretary Herrington requested. You will hear more about that a little later on. We have actively utilized the Nuclear Weapons Council this year, working with the Department of Defense under the Council's umbrella after the 1989 budget summit to come up with a proper balance of the 050 account. CURRENT AGENDA This is my agenda for the balance of fiscal year 1988 and for fiscal year 1989, along with this budget request. We are developing a modernization plan, as requested by Congress. Taking into account the Department of Defense requirements, we hope to send the Congress a road map in December that will show us what this Nation's nuclear deterrent capability needs will be into the next century. It is probably one of the most important undertakings of defense programs in a good number of years. We are proceeding with the acquisition of new production reactor capacity. We have in place a departmental plan which will identify a reactor technology, or technologies, and a reference site later on this summer which would allow us to proceed with the required environmental impact statement, for a new reactor, hopefully, beginning construction of that most important facility in fiscal year 1990. We continue to support the deployment of the special isotope separation technology as a mid-1990's source of plutonium for weapons requirements. Our budget request includes continuing SIS. We will complete the EIS on the special isotope separation facility later this year and hope to move to construction next year. We continue to upgrade our complex to meet the increasing regulatory requirements. I will speak more about those later. We are playing a major role in the arms control initiatives of this Nation, both directly with respect to the verification of the nuclear testing treaties, as well as providing major support to other agencies of the government in all the treaty verification R&D that is necessary for verifying things like the Strategic Arms Treaty. Finally, we have a major initiative to provide the proper balance of technology transfer from the laboratories to industry. It is a delicate balance. We must protect the information and the weapons that are required by the Atomic Energy Act, but we also must find a way to properly transfer laboratory-developed technology to the private sector and we are doing that. |