ACTION ITEM

The International Nuclear Safety Program (INSP), which provides funds for safety upgrades to Soviet-designed nuclear reactors throughout Central and Eastern Europe, is threatened. This is a major program for Ukraine. The Energy Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee will be considering the issue in the next two weeks. Constituents of subcommittee members are urged to write to their members of Congress in support of the program. Letters should urge that the subcommittee fully fund the $50 million request for the INSP. Arguments that can be used in support are:

• nuclear safety is an international concern; these nations have instituted political and economic reform and are integrating with the West;
  
  
• the over-all program is a joint program with other G-7 nations and the recipient countries;
  
  
• the countries affected lack the finances and technological capability to improve the safety at their reactors without Western, including U.S., assistance; and
  
  
• the effects of another Chornobyl-type accident would be devastating to the country in which it occurred, to the other countries in the region, and to the international environment.

The members (and their districts) of the Energy Subcommittee are:Alabama: Sonny Callahan (1); Arkansas: Jay Dickey (4); Arizona: Ed Pastor (2); California: Vic Fazio (3); Indiana: Peter J. Visclosky (1); Kentucky: Harold Rogers (5); Louisiana: Robert Livingston (1); Michigan: Joseph Knollenberg (11); Mississippi: Mike Parker (4); New Jersey: Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (11); Pennsylvania: Joseph McDade (10); Texas: Chet Edwards (11); Wisconsin: David Obey (7).

It is especially important to contact the chairman of the subcommittee, Rep. Joseph McDade of the Scranton, Pa., area. It is also very important to contact Reps. Knollenberg, Frelinghuysen and Visclosky.

The address of members of the House of Representatives is:

The Honorable (name)
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

- Submitted by Eugene Iwanciw

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 8, 1997, No. 23, Vol. LXV

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