A concurrent resolution recognizing the essential role of nuclear power in the national energy policy of the United States and supporting the increased use of nuclear power and the construction and development of new and improved nuclear power generating plants.

Mr. President, Alan Reinstein was diagnosed with mesothelioma on June 16, 2003 and underwent radical surgery to remove his affected lung, diaphragm, and other parts of his body. Today, Alan continues his courageous battle with this terrible illness.

I received a phone call last week from by brother Don, indicating that a long-time family friend, Harold Hansen, had died from mesothelioma.

I am submitting a resolution today to designate the first day of April of next year as National Asbestos Awareness Day.

Harold Hansen was a family friend, such a wonderful man. In fact, my brother called me a short time ago and said: Harold is sick. He has mesothelioma.

I said: Did he ever work around asbestos. And he said not that he remembers.

I knew a lawyer who might be able to help him and referred him to the lawyer. Now Harold is dead.

This is a terribly difficult problem in America. I talked about Alan; his wife Linda could not just sit back and watch her husband suffer. Knowing others were also suffering, she helped create the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization to unite asbestos victims. One goal of the organization is to educate the public and the medical community about asbestos-caused diseases. The occurrence of asbestos-related diseases, including mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancer is growing.

Over the next decade, it is estimated that 100,000 victims in the United States alone will die of asbestos-related disease. About 30 a day will die from this condition.

I received many letters from Nevadans with asbestos-related diseases in their families.

Eleanor Shook from Searchlight, NV, where I was born and reared, lost her husband Chuck to this dread condition 2 years ago. They found that Chuck was sick, and 2 months later he died--no cure, no treatment, no reprieve. He had been repeatedly exposed to asbestos during all the years he was working to raise his family.

I also got a letter from Jack Holmes, a former teacher from Las Vegas, who wrote:

I am dying. I have malignant mesothelioma . . . I can expect extreme pain and suffering before I die.

I also heard from Robert Wright of Henderson, who was exposed to asbestos in the Navy and now suffers from asbestosis.

These are just a few of the hundreds of Nevadans who are suffering today from asbestos-related diseases. Every one of these stories is a tragedy because they all could have been prevented. Asbestos-related diseases are uncurable, and they are deadly. They can be prevented with greater awareness and education.

Most Americans think asbestos was banned a long time ago. But companies use asbestos every day in their water pipes, as insulation, and in building materials and other substances. Asbestos kills, and kills invisibly. Asbestos cannot be smelled, tasted, or seen, and moves through the air in tiny particles and embeds itself in the lining of the lungs once it is inhaled. It stays there for up to 50 years, damaging tissue and eventually causing disease. Inhalation of asbestos is permanent and irreversible. Simply walking by a recently demolished building that contains asbestos can be enough to breathe in a deadly amount.

I was in New York and a New York police officer was with me. He was part of an undercover unit that had New York City policemen dressed in construction clothes. They were running a construction business. That was part of what they were undercover doing. One of the reasons they did it is because there are people in this country so evil, so malignant that they are willing to take asbestos that these people said they had--it really wasn't asbestos--and they would take it and dispose of it. They would dispose of it in school grounds, and they had no concern where they disposed of what they thought was asbestos. Of course, they were arrested. But asbestos is a terrible problem. It is such a difficult problem in New York City alone where they remove asbestos. They are setting up these undercover operations to catch some of the people who are trying to make money on the disposal of asbestos.

Exposure to asbestos has had numerous consequences for victims and their families. Better awareness and education can help to eliminate future exposure. Early detection can give patients increased treatment options and often improves their prognosis. For these reasons, I am introducing a resolution to designate the first day of April as Asbestos Awareness Day. Asbestos awareness will lead to prevention, early diagnosis, new treatments, and a cure.

Just as the victims of families of asbestos-related disease joined together in founding the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, the Senate must unite in and pay tribute to victims by observing April 1 as Asbestos Awareness Day. I hope all Senators will join me in this effort.

Mr. President, it is a privilege to join my colleagues, Senator Brownback and Senator Leahy, in submitting a resolution to call attention to the plight of the large number of refugees throughout the world confined to refugee camps or segregated settlements for extended periods of time. In the vast majority of cases, these refugees are being ``warehoused,'' often for years, and in violation of their basic rights under the Refugee Convention adopted over half a century ago.

We know of 300,000 Angolans in Zambia, Congo-Kinshasa, and Namibia, two million Afghans in Iran and Pakistan, 100,000 Bhutanese in Nepal, and 500,000 refugees from Sudan who have lived in refugee camps in various countries for 20 years. Shamefully, of the world's nearly 12 million more than 7 million have been restricted to refugee camps or segregated settlements for a decade or even longer.

These tragic statistics aren't front page news. Refugees seldom dominate the headlines. But the reality is that the troubles of our time are exacting a heavy toll on people fleeing from conflicts and oppression. Throughout the world, men, woman and children are on the move, silent witnesses to the cruelties that plague our age.

Refugee camps are often created quickly, to address a crisis. But the solution sometimes creates a greater problem when temporary refugee camps turn into long-term places of detention and confinement, often under extreme conditions with little attention paid to the growing number of refugees that find themselves in endless and harmful situations.

Under the Refugee Convention of 1951, refugees have rights, including the right to earn a livelihood, to engage in wage-employment or self- employment, to practice a profession, to own property, and to have freedom of movement and residence. ``Warehoused'' refugees can do none of these things. Unable to work, travel, own property or obtain an education, they live unlived lives, without the basic freedoms they are entitled to have under the Convention of 1951.

Without the chance to obtain an education or earn a living, refugees becomes easy recruitment targets for terrorist groups. We can be vigilant against terrorism, and we can do so without abandoning the basic humanity of refugees and squandering their lives in squalid warehouses.

The resolution we are offering denounces the practice of warehousing refugees and urges all nations to grant refugees their basic rights under the Refugee Convention.

America has a proud history as a haven for refugees, especially since the end of World War II. Assistance to refugees has been a conspicuous aspect of our leadership in the world. As a leader in this area, we need to say to the world that the widespread practice of warehousing refugees violates international law. As members of the world community, we have a responsibility to ensure that refugees are able to exercise the basic rights granted to them under the Refugee Convention.

Over 100 international organizations support the end of warehousing, including more than twenty U.S.-based agencies. Nobel laureates have condemned this practice, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, and worldwide support continues to grow.

Last year, the United States was the largest global contributor to agencies assisting refugees. But, there is far more to do. We must strengthen our own commitment, and work with other countries to meet the worldwide challenge. To do too little will only add to the injustice endured by millions of refugees around the world, jeopardize our own national security, and ignore incalculable human potential that is being lost.

I urge our colleagues to join us in supporting this resolution, and help us to give new priority to ending this inhumane practice that has been festering too long in so many parts of the world.

I ask unanimous consent that editorials from the New York Times and Washington Times be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I rise to endorse S. Con. Res. 141 offered by Senator Domenici recognizing the essential role that nuclear power plays in our society.

The U.S. Senate must recognize the important role that nuclear energy plays in our Nation's economy, our Nation's energy independence and security, and our Nation's environmental goals. And, we need to acknowledge that like nearly every other source of energy, nuclear power needs our help to continue playing its important role in our Nation's energy policy.

Nuclear energy currently generates electricity for one in every five homes and businesses today. It is important not only in Louisiana, where two nuclear plants produce nearly 17 percent of my State's electricity, but also in States such as Connecticut, Illinois, New Hampshire, New Jersey, South Carolina and Vermont where nuclear generates more electricity than any other source. Nationwide, 103 reactors provide 20 percent of our electricity--the largest source of U.S. emission-free power provided 24-7.

Nuclear energy is also vitally important for our environment and our Nation's clean air goals. Nuclear power is the Nation's largest clean air source of electricity, generating three-fourths of all emission- free electricity. For future generations of Americans, whose reliance on electricity will increase and who rightfully want a cleaner environment and the health benefits that cleaner air will provide nuclear energy will be an essential partner.

Just this past Sunday, the Washington Post highlighted the problems that the Shenandoah National Forest now faces with pollution. Think how much worse our Nation's air pollution would be if nuclear energy did not generate one fifth of our electricity.

According to the Department of Energy the demand for electricity is expected to grow by 40 percent by 2020. In order to continue producing at least one-third of our total electricity generation from emission- free sources, we must build 50,000 megawatts of new nuclear energy production. If we do that, we are just preserving our current levels of emission-free generation, not improving them.

And, we need to recognize that nuclear power, by providing a stable, dependable source of electricity, is vital to our Nation's energy security and independence. Nuclear power is essentially an American invention. We generate nearly a fourth of the world's total nuclear power and we can do so with domestic energy sources. Hydrogen holds the promise of helping us lessen our dependence on imported oil and nuclear power is one of the most promising ways that we can produce hydrogen economically and efficiently.

There is a nuclear power renaissance in the making. Three of the Nation's leading nuclear power operators have already applied for an early site permit to build a new nuclear plant next door to an existing nuclear plant they operate, testing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's new licensing process for the first time. Also, just a few months ago, nine nuclear operating companies and the two major U.S. power reactor manufacturers formed the NuStart Energy consortium to apply for a construction and operating license, COL, to test the regulatory process for actually building and operating the next generation of nuclear power plants.

These are positive signs that the U.S. nuclear power industry is alive and ready to build and operate the next generation of nuclear power--still without emitting any air pollutants, increasing our energy independence, and using the safest designs ever.

Today 29 new plants are being built around the world in 16 counties-- most using a design that originated here in America--but not one of them is in the U.S. That must change.

I urge my colleagues to support this critical resolution which will further promote a vital source of energy while helping to pave the way towards improving our Nation's energy security.

Mr. President, I rise to submit a resolution recognizing the essential role that nuclear power plays in our national energy policy and to voice support for this remarkable technology. America's nuclear power reactors supply electricity for one in five homes and businesses in the United States and do so affordably, reliably and without producing any emissions. To ensure that nuclear energy's important contribution to our nation continues, we must develop and build new nuclear power plants based on advanced technology and safety features.

Our Nation will require 40 percent more energy by 2020, requiring the use of all available energy sources--wind, solar, hydro, natural gas, coal and nuclear energy. Even the most aggressive conservation and energy efficient programs will not satisfy all of our increasing energy needs. We will require significant additional electric generating capacity to meet this rising demand--electricity generation that is absolutely necessary to keep our economy growing. And we must provide this new power while protecting our environment.

America's 103 nuclear power reactors provide safe, clean and reliable, baseload electricity around the clock. Over the past 50 years, America's nuclear power plants have posted a safety

record that is unrivalled. In addition, nuclear plants produce electricity without producing harmful emissions or greenhouse gases. Nuclear energy is the only major energy source that is both emission- free and expandable.

The use of nuclear energy also reduces our dependence on foreign sources of energy. Protecting our Nation's energy independence must remain at the forefront of our energy policy decisions.

Since scientists first harnessed the power of the atom for the benefit of mankind, the United States has led the world in the development of nuclear science and technology. With some 29 nuclear reactors under construction in other countries, the United State's leadership role in commercial nuclear power could be diminished. Our scientists, engineers and technicians must research, develop and build new nuclear facilities to keep their skills sharp and further their knowledge. In addition, new plant project also will mean more jobs for those scientists, engineers and technicians, as well as many other trades.

America's nuclear power plants contribute to nonproliferation efforts. Through the public-private ``Megatons to Megawatts'' program, which this body has strongly supported, 50 percent of the fuel used in our commercial reactors comes from converted Russian warheads.

Nuclear energy also is one of the most efficient means of producing hydrogen, another key to our energy future. Hydrogen will help reduce our dependence on imported petroleum in the transportation sector, and, like nuclear energy, is a clean air energy.

Therefore, I call upon my colleagues to join me in support of this resolution recognizing nuclear energy's important contributions to our Nation, such as maintaining our energy independence and protecting our environment. And I urge all of you to join me in supporting research, development and construction of new nuclear power plants today, so that nuclear energy can continue providing these benefits in the future.