Statement of Dr. James S. Kane before the Committee on Science and Technology, Energy Development and Applications Subcommittee and Energy Research and Production Subcommittee, US House of Representatives

It is recommended that the small research reactors with a lifetime fuel supply, and the four TRIGA reactors with FLIP type fuel, be exempted from the proposed NRC rule and that conversion of other HEU fueled reactors proceed only after existing stocks of HEU fuel elements are used, and when conversion can be done without a serious technical or economic penalty. US DOE strongly supports US initiatives to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation. However, it is seriously questioned whether broadly imposing LEU conversion on domestic university reactors (which contain only small amounts of special nuclear materials) would have any positive impact on the proliferation issue