During Wednesday’s House Appropriations Committee hearing, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) questioned Energy Secretary Chris Wright about nuclear energy development.
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00:00At this time, I'd like to recognize my friend, the distinguished former chairman of this subcommittee,
00:06the current chairman of the Interior Subcommittee, representing the great DOE reservation in Idaho,
00:13my dear friend, Mike Simpson.
00:15Thank you, Chairman.
00:16Congratulations, Secretary.
00:18This is the first time I've had a chance to congratulate you on your nomination
00:21and, frankly, on your confirmation through the body across the rotunda.
00:26But we're glad to have you here and glad that you've taken the time both to brief us
00:30and your time from being a successful businessman to join the government in addressing these issues.
00:40I've appreciated that several times since you've taken over as secretary,
00:44you've referred to the National Lab Complex as a crown jewel of our nation.
00:47I wholeheartedly agree with you.
00:49They do more research that's important there.
00:51I tell people if you ever want to get wowed by government, go visit one of our national labs
00:55and see what they're doing.
00:57Every time I walk out of one, I'm just amazed at what they're doing.
00:59So I'd invite you out to visit the Idaho National Lab.
01:02I'd like to know when you're coming, so I'd like to be there with you.
01:05And I know the same is true for Congressman Newhouse that represents PNNL and the Hanford cleanup site.
01:11But it's great to have you here.
01:13And when you come out, we'll have a barbecue in my backyard.
01:16I've done that with every secretary, I think, for the last 20 years or something like that.
01:20Some of them get fairly memorable, but they're a lot of fun.
01:22So anyway, congratulations.
01:24Let me talk about your budget, reactor development.
01:29And I know you've already talked about HALU fuel that's going to be needed by a lot of these
01:33new demonstration reactors and so forth.
01:36Can you give us some insight into what the president's 26th budget request might look
01:41like regarding reactor development and demonstrations?
01:46Yes.
01:46Well, I can't provide any details beyond the skinny budget.
01:49And as you saw, we do have a reduction in spending within the nuclear energy department at NDOE.
01:58But it in no way indicates a lack of focus or a lack of desire, even a reduction in desire
02:05for nuclear energy.
02:06As a career entrepreneur, to really make nuclear energy work, the biggest thing we need by far is private capital,
02:15investment capital.
02:16And I have spent a fair amount of time in my first 100 days meeting with not just nuclear plant developers,
02:23both the big plants and the small modular reactors, of course, folks from Idaho National Labs,
02:27but also the hyperscalers, the ultimate customers and end users of nuclear.
02:32Our goal is to bring in tens of billions of dollars during this administration in private capital to get reactors built.
02:41And I'm highly confident we will achieve that goal.
02:44We will use funding from direct grants through our nuclear energy office, as you're well aware of,
02:52to continue the advanced reactor development program, to get more test reactors done at Idaho National Labs.
02:59And we will also use the loan program office to provide debt capital on top of a large equity stack,
03:08mostly from hyperscalers.
03:09The offtakers of these reactors are willing to put equity capital in there.
03:14So our goal, and I believe you will see it happen, is vastly more money will be invested in nuclear energy
03:21during this administration than during the last administration or many administrations before that.
03:27But the majority of that capital will come from private sources.
03:32There will be government capital, as you're well aware of.
03:34There'll be government loans and loan guarantees.
03:36And they'll be catalyzing regulatory events to bring that private capital in.
03:41But Idaho National Labs is the leader, the leader in nuclear, commercial nuclear technology,
03:49and will be absolutely central to launching the nuclear renaissance.
03:53From the test reactors that will be done there, to the scientists that are leading ideas on this,
04:00that are collaborating with virtually all of the next generation commercial reactor developers.
04:05It is a gem.
04:07I'm excited to go out there.
04:08I'm signing up for the barbecue.
04:10All right.
04:10And I made a pledge, I should say as well, I made a pledge right on the day I walked into the office at the DOE
04:17that I would visit all 17 of the National Labs in my first year in office.
04:22They are indeed the gems of our country's scientific research.
04:27I'm passionate about science my whole life.
04:30I've visited several of them already.
04:33And I forgot my other point.
04:36Well, I appreciate that.
04:37Go nuclear.
04:38I agree with you.
04:38And I'm glad to see that you understand the importance of nuclear energy if we're going to meet the energy demands of the future.
04:44With data centers and AI and all of that stuff, it's amazing how much power local communities are going to have to have
04:51if they're going to put a data center somewhere in their community and stuff.
04:54In fact, nuclear power is what's going to solve that problem, I think.
04:57Let me ask you one other question, or at least bring up the issue.
05:01The cleanup projects that we're doing in the site, I noticed they're over, in the skinny budget, the funding is down overall.
05:11We keep Hanford the same.
05:12I fully understand that and agree with that.
05:14That is a problem that we've got to solve, and it's going to take a long time to fix it.
05:19Has there been an analysis done, and to pay for that, and to keep that at the same level, we've lowered the cleanup costs or budget in the other sites.
05:28Has there been an analysis what the increase in the total costs say at the Idaho cleanup project,
05:33what it would be by delaying it because we underfund what's necessary to keep it going at the current level,
05:40because that's going to extend the time and cost of cleaning it up.
05:47So has there been that analysis done?
05:49Well, Congressman, the total reduction in the environmental management budget is actually quite small,
05:55and our firm belief is that through efficiency, through doing things smarter, there won't be any slowdown.
06:02It's a small reduction in budget.
06:03We're hoping that the actual work achieved will be larger than it was the year before.
06:08So we're banking and believe strongly in efficiencies.
06:14That's why I'm here, is to take a department that hasn't really been run like a business and run it like a business.
06:20So with a few percent more in the budget, we can achieve several percent more in output.
06:25So no intentions to slow down the cleanups at Idaho or any of the other sites.
06:29I appreciate that, and I will tell you that I know you've met with all the lab directors,
06:33and John Wagner gave you a big thumbs up when I talked to him last time, so you're off on the right foot.
06:40Thank you, Congressman.