• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 104 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 141 WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1995 No. 160 House of Representatives The House met at 12:30 p.m. and was ing a 110 kiloton blastÐwas seven tests. I can't see any tactical reason at called to order by the Speaker pro tem- times more destructive than the bomb all. I can only see this as an attempt to pore [Mr. CLINGER]. that we exploded in Hiroshima 50 years make their bomb a little better, or de- f ago. velop perhaps a new type.'' That is Mr. Speaker, as we recall the de- right, Mr. Speaker, a bomb a little bet- DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO structive nuclear fury that was first ter. To kill more people. TEMPORE unleashed in history against the people The two bombs that we exploded in The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I think it Japan, Mr. Speaker, accounted for over fore the House the following commu- most appropriate to recognize Mr. Jo- 290,000 men, women, and children who nication from the Speaker: seph Rotblat, a physicist working on died as a result of those nuclear explo- WASHINGTON, DC, the manhattan nuclear bomb project sions. What madness, what madness, October 17, 1995. during WW II who quit in protest be- Mr. Speaker. We can say that let us get I hereby designate the Honorable WILLIAM cause of his convictions, and who was rid of chemical and biological warfare, F. CLINGER, Jr., to act as Speaker pro tem- personally devastated when he learned but let us continue dropping nuclear pore on this day. of the bomb's consequences in Japan. bombs. NEWT GINGRICH, Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate Mr. Speaker, again, I commend Mr. Speaker of the House of Representatives. Mr. Rotblat, a Polish-born scientist, Rotblat for his life's work and the f who has just been awarded the Nobel Nobel Committee for their selection of Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Mr. Rotblat as a Nobel recipient. By MORNING BUSINESS Committee. Mr. Rotblat, the world's these actions, the Nobel Committee on The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- first protester against nuclear weap- behalf of the world community has ant to the order of the House of May 12, ons, has devoted his entire life to end- sent a strong message of protest to the 1995, the Chair will now recognize ing the madness of the nuclear arms French Government and I would hope Members from lists submitted by the race. He is the founding member of the that Paris would respond by imme- majority and minority leaders for Pugwash Conference on Science and diately canceling their nuclear testing morning hour debates. The Chair will World Affairs, as well as the Stock- in the South Pacific. alternate recognition between the par- holm International Peace Research In- What arrogance, Mr. Speaker, that ties, with each party limited to not to stitute, a leading think tank on secu- President Chirac has the unmitigated exceed 30 minutes, and each Member, rity and disarmament issues. gall to do this. For over 30 years they except the majority and minority lead- Mr. Speaker, at a time France is have been exploding nuclear bombs in er, limited to not to exceed 5 minutes. thumbing its nose at the international the South Pacific. The American peo- f community, over 160 nations have offi- ple do not know the suffering of the cially protested this madness by Presi- some 100,000 or 200,000 people who live JOSEPH ROTBLAT, NOBEL PEACE dent Chirac and the Government of in those islands, and, yes, 28 million PRIZE WINNER, CONDEMNS France to continued exploding of nu- people who live in that region. We just FRENCH NUCLEAR TESTS clear bombs in the South Pacific, I find have not taken a better understanding The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under it highly commendable that the Nobel of the very real serious problem we the Speaker's announced policy of May Peace Prize has been awarded to Mr. have there in the Pacific. 12, 1995, the gentleman from American Rotblat, one of the world's most emi- While President Chirac is drinking Samoa [Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA] is recog- nent and vocal opponents of nuclear his sweet wine in Paris, some 200,000 nized during morning business for 5 testing. people's lives are at stake if that minutes. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Rotbalt has con- Muroroa atoll should break and leak, Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, demned France's resumption of nuclear and there are already indications of on the first day of this month, the Gov- testing and has written French Presi- leakages because of the 168 nuclear ernment of France exploded another dent Chirac, urging that France imme- bombs that have been exploded on that nuclear bomb in the South Pacific, its diately cancel its tests. Mr. Rotblat atoll alone. second detonation in a new series of says, ``There is no reason at all in my What arrogance, Mr. Speaker, what tests. France's nuclear bombÐinvolv- opinion for President Chirac to resume arrogance. b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. H 10079 H 10080 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Ð HOUSE October 17, 1995 ANTI-BOMB PHYSICIST WINS PEACE PRIZEÐ organization has been respected for years by Rotblat said today he has never been able NOBEL ``PROTEST'' AGAINST ATOMIC TESTS arms control professionals. Until today, how- to say with any precision how much the SHARED WITH ARMS CONTROL GROUP ever, it was relatively unknown to the rest Pugwash discussions influenced the Soviet (By Fred Barbash) of the world, as was Rotblat, a cheerful, in- position on arms limitations. tense man who says he still ``wakes up in a At the very least, he said, they opened LONDON, October 13.ÐThe Nobel Peace cold sweat'' when he hears about such events channels of communication among scientists Prize was awarded today to Joseph Rotblat, as France's nuclear tests. on both sides of the arms race. a British physicist who helped invent atomic ``Who would expect that a little man like He said he is certain that Pugwash discus- weapons in the 1940s, and the organization myself and a little-known movement, un- sions influenced Soviet leader Mikhail dedicated to doing away with them that he known to the general public,'' would get the Gorbachev's thinking on nuclear issues later formed with Albert Einstein and Nobel Peace Prize, Rotblat said today as he through the participation of Yevgeny Bertrand Russell. walked briskly from the organization's Velikhov, one of the former Soviet leader's This year's prize stands as a ``protest'' grungy office near London's Russell Square key science advisers, who helped persuade against French and Chinese nuclear testing, to a news conference. ``Who is he?'' bystand- Gorbachev not to try to match President the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Com- ers asked reporters as they followed him. Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initia- mittee, Francis Sejersted, said in Oslo as he Rotblat, a native of Poland, was working tive. announced the award to Rotblat and the on a one-year atom bomb project at the Uni- Experts said today that the Pugwash meet- Pugwash Conferences on Science and World versity of Liverpool in 1939 when the British ings also have contributed significantly to Affairs. team of which he was a part joined U.S. sci- the nuclear testing moratorium observed by Rotblat, 86, who walked out of the secret entists working on the Manhattan Project to the United States and the Soviet Union; to U.S. government laboratory at Los Alamos, develop an atomic bomb at Los Alamos. resolving complex issues involving testing N.M., in 1944 after deciding the atomic bomb ``I started to work in 1939 on the atom verification and monitoring; to the inter- being developed there was unnecessary, also bomb,'' he said in an interview today. ``I was mediate-range nuclear forces treaty of 1987; used the occasion to express his ``outrage'' at afraid that German scientists would build and to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty France's two recent nuclear tests in the the weapon and use it to rule the world. I of 1968, designed to stop the spread of nuclear South Pacific. thought that the only way this could be pre- weapons to countries that do not already Since 1957, the Pugwash Conferences have vented was if we built it too and threatened possess them. been assembling select groups of scientists, to retaliateÐthe classical concept of nuclear Indeed, the idea for the treaty was first including many of the brains behind the deterrence.'' discussed at a Pugwash meeting in 1958, ac- Two new pieces of information gained at American, Russian and British nuclear arse- cording to the organization's official history. nals, for private exchanges on arms control. Los Alamos persuaded him to leave. First, he The peace prize, which will be formally said, he learned that a major purpose for the They have opened up lines of communication awarded in Oslo in December, carries an bomb was to threaten the Soviet Union, among such scientists, serving as forums for award of $1 million. Asked what would be which was then a World War II ally. both technical and political issues, and as done with the money, Rotblat gestured to- back channels to top-level policymakers.

Load more

  232

Copy Link