Washington, DC - The U.S. Senate today approved an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization bill, sponsored by Chairman of the Senate Energy Committee Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), to keep the radioactive materials necessary to create nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists.

"There are hundreds of facilities around the world that store plutonium or highly enriched uranium, including 24 sites that the State Department has identified as high priority sites," Senator Feinstein said . "Yet, there is no single, integrated U.S. government program to facilitate the removal of these materials."

"This amendment would help secure these sites and ensure that terrorists cannot access them. It would give our government the direction and resources necessary to remove nuclear materials from vulnerable sites around the world in an expeditious manner."

Specifically, the amendment would:

•  Urge the President to establish a task force, in the Department of Energy, on nuclear materials removal;

•  Provide a specific mandate for a program to remove the nuclear material from vulnerable sites around the world as quickly as possible, whether the nuclear material was supplied by the U.S. or the Soviet Union;

•  Provide authorization for funding to begin these efforts; and

•  Provide specific direction to provide flexible approaches tailored to each site to get them to give up their nuclear material.

The Bush Administration's efforts to remove vulnerable international nuclear materials will take 10 to 20 years to complete -- at the rate of one facility per year.

"I am deeply concerned that the Bush Administration's efforts do not adequately address the seriousness of the issue," Senator Feinstein added. " We must do everything in our power to prevent terrorists from ever getting their hands on nuclear material and developing nuclear weapons. We have little time to spare. I thank my colleagues for supporting this amendment." 

A report released last year from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University described a scenario in which a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb is smuggled into Manhattan and detonated resulting in the loss of 500,000 people and causing $1 trillion in direct economic damage.