HOUSE BILL REPORT

                 HJM 4016

                       As Passed House

                       March 14, 1991

Brief Description:  Requesting that Hanford be acknowledged as a national research and development center.

Sponsor(s):  Representatives Ludwig, May, Bray, Moyer, Rayburn, Grant, Lisk, Neher, Edmondson, Orr, Jacobsen, Nealey, Paris, Chandler, Betrozoff and Miller.

Brief History:

  Reported by House Committee on:

Energy & Utilities, February 28, 1991, DP;

Passed House, March 14, 1991, 91-0.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON

ENERGY & UTILITIES

Majority Report: Do pass.  Signed by 10 members:  Representatives Grant, Chair; H. Myers, Vice Chair; May, Ranking Minority Member; Hochstatter, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Bray; Casada; Cooper; Jacobsen; Miller; and Rayburn.

Staff:  Fred Adair (786-7113).

Background:  The recently concluded 45 year defense materials production mission at Hanford left a residue of immensely valuable human scientific and technical talent.

The talent availability, the pressing national need both to restore the Hanford Reservation environmentally and to develop new hazardous and radioactive waste management technology, and the regional need for economic activity to replace that from the production mission all come together to impel new scientific and technical activity on the Hanford Reservation.

Sites are being considered, but are not yet selected, for certain high technology projects that are ideally suited to the Hanford Reservation.

Summary of Bill:  The Congress, the president, the secretary of the Department of Energy, and the director of the National Science Foundation are all asked to:  make Hanford the premier national scientific and technical research and development center for management of hazardous and radioactive waste, construct the engineering test model of the Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage System, maintain the Fast Flux Test Facility in operation, and locate the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, all at Hanford.

Fiscal Note:  Not requested.

Testimony For:  There are a number of important advanced technology development projects which are very well suited to Hanford, and if located there, could give a badly needed boost to the Tri-Cities' economy.  Additionally, the Fast Flux Test Facility is a unique resource -- the only source of some radionuclides of high value to medical and other research.

Testimony Against:  None.

Witnesses:  Representative Bray, one of the measure's sponsors.