NRC Industy Lying Politicans

The nuclear industry is attacking the federal regulators in so many ways and politicians like this are nothing but liars.

OPENING STATEMENT

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION FY20 BUDGET

ENERGY & WATER APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2019 - 2:30PM

The Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development will please come to order.

Today’s hearing will review the administration’s fiscal year 2020 budget request for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

This is the last of the Subcommittee's four budget hearings this year. In April, we heard from the Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, and Bureau of Reclamation about their funding requests. 

Senator Feinstein and I will each have an opening statement.

I will then recognize each Senator for up to five minutes for an opening statement, alternating between the majority and minority, in the order in which they arrived. 

We will then turn to Chairman Kristine Svinicki to present testimony on behalf of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

At the conclusion of Chairman Svinicki’s testimony, I will then recognize Senators for five minutes of questions each, alternating between the majority and minority in the order in which they arrived. 

We run a real risk of losing our best source of carbon-free power just at a time when most Americans are increasingly worried about climate change. Nuclear power must be part of our energy future if we want clean, cheap, and reliable energy that can create good jobs and keep America competitive in a global economy.

Today 98 nuclear reactors provide about 20 percent of electricity in the United States, and 60 percent of all carbon-free electricity in the United States.

But nuclear plants are closing because they cost too much to build and cannot compete with natural gas. 

Two reactors have announced they will retire later this year, and ten more have announced retirements by 2025.

Let’s do a little math here. If we closed those 12 reactors, that would mean a 17 percent decline in carbon-free nuclear power by 2025, which is 10 percent of carbon-free electricity.

The deal here is these are ancient and obsolete plants. They are increasingly being non completive and the future is bleak.

Today, solar power – despite impressive reductions in cost – provides 4 percent and wind provides 20 percent of carbon-free electricity despite billions of dollars in subsidies. 

Nuclear power is much more reliable than solar or wind power. It is available when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.

The bottom line is, we can’t replace nuclear power with just wind and solar. We would have to use natural gas to replace nuclear power, which would increase emissions in our country.

Unfortunately, we do not need to speculate about what happens when a major industrialized country eliminates nuclear power. We have seen what happened in Japan

Well the Japan nuclear industry melt down down three nuclear plants...that is the reason for the high cost of electricity. They had about fifty nuclear plants. Only some 6 nuclear plants are fit to safe and operarting today.

and Germany for different reasons. Major industrialized economies similar to ours lost their emission-free, low-cost, reliable electricity. Prices went up, pollution went up, and manufacturing became less competitive in the global marketplace. And that is where we are headed in the next 10 years if we do not do something. Stakes are high.

In Japan, the cost of generating electricity increased 56 percent after the Fukushima accident in 2011 when Japan went from obtaining 30 percent of its power from nuclear to less than 2 percent.

Before 2011, Germany obtained one quarter of its electricity from nuclear. Now that number is down to 12 percent.  Now Germany has among the highest household electricity rates in the European Union after replacing nuclear power with wind and solar as part of an expensive cap-and-trade policy.

Germany also had to build new coal plants to meet demand, which increased emissions.

In late March, I proposed that the United States should launch a New Manhattan Project for Clean Energy, a five-year project with Ten Grand Challenges that will use American research and technology to put our country and the world firmly on a path toward cleaner, cheaper energy.

These Grand Challenges call for breakthroughs in advanced nuclear reactors, natural gas, carbon capture, better batteries, greener buildings, electric vehicles, cheaper solar, and fusion.

I put advanced reactors first on the list for a reason. To make sure nuclear power has a future in this country, we need to develop advanced reactors that have the potential to be smaller, cost less, produce less waste, and be safer than today’s reactors.

We need to stop talking about advanced reactors and actually build something. Within the next five years, we need to build one or more advanced reactors to demonstrate the capabilities they may bring.

As we review the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s fiscal year 2020 budget request we need to make sure the Commission has the staff and resources it needs to respond to the changing industry.

First, I would like to thank our witnesses for being here today, and also Senator Feinstein, with whom I have the pleasure to work again this year to draft the Energy and Water Appropriations bill.