Uranium Provision to Alter U.S. Policy

Senate opposition was led by Schumer and Republican Jon Kyl (Ariz.), who warned that "were something bad to happen, each one of us would be responsible."

They cited the Energy Department's stated goal of ending the commercial use of weapons-grade uranium, and the department's public conclusion that there is no real shortage of medical isotopes. They also pointed out that uranium exported to any European Union country could be resold to another E.U. country without U.S. knowledge. They ultimately persuaded the Senate to reject the amendment in late June, 52 to 46.

The House and Senate still had to reconcile their energy bills, so Joe Barton (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and the panel's ranking Democrat, John D. Dingell (Mich.), proposed compromise language. But Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said not to bother; Senate conferees would accept the amendment, even though the full Senate had rejected it.

"It really is amazing," said Edwin Lyman, a senior staff scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists. "To get something as outrageous as this, that's skillful lobbying."

Since 2003, the Alpine Group's main energy lobbyists -- James D. Massie, Richard C. White and Rhod Shaw -- have contributed more than $25,000 to members of the energy committees, and nuclear medicine trade groups have donated tens of thousands more. They have also drummed up support from doctors; the computer signature on one letter to a senator, purportedly written by a radiologist, was actually White's.

Doug Heye, a spokesman for Burr, said the senator's support had nothing to do with lobbyists, and everything to do with the 40,000 medical procedures that use isotopes every day. There are plenty of isotopes to irradiate tumors and help doctors see through skin without surgery, but industry groups warn that unless Nordion and other manufacturers can continue to use bomb-grade uranium, patients could suffer.

"Certainly, there are concerns about proliferation," Heye said. "But we're also concerned about people with breast cancer."

Critics say that the danger of isotope shortages is highly remote but that the danger of terrorists seizing control of nuclear materials is quite real. During the presidential debates last year, President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) both identified nuclear proliferation as America's most pressing foreign policy challenge.

"I don't recall them agreeing on much else," Markey said. "You'd think we could all agree on this."