Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Oversight of Activities, Priorities, and Fiscal Year 2027 Budget.

the subcommittee on energy will now come to order the chair recognizes himself for five minutes for an opening statement good morning and welcome to today's hearing we welcome chairman nii and the commissioners uh for today's hearing it's been three years since we've had the full nrc the nuclear to the regulatory commission before the committee, and much has happened since then. The energy landscape has been changing during this period. We need more power for emerging industrial growth in AI race, as well as for more robust and more robust and reliable grid. We need dispatchable, reliable power, and a lot more of it. Successful deployment of nuclear technologies promises to help meet future energy demand as well as assist in a range of other applications Expanding nuclear deployment also promises the strength of our national security by increasing nuclear commerce with allies and supporting a more cost-effective nuclear industrial base. Of course, success depends on many factors beyond the NRC, however, success will rest on a regulatory system that will efficiently provide reasonable assurance that health and safety are adequately protected. Two years ago, Congress took to optimize nr c s regulatory system so that it could be more effectively and efficiently carry out its vital role while enabling large-scale nuclear deployment. At the time there was significant frustration that the aging was not up to the task. For example, nr c s staff in twenty twenty three failed to produce a new regulatory framework that was workable for advanced ver at reactors and the staff Mm-hmm. knew nuclear applicants would uh not use it. congress members joined twenty senators in a bipartisan letter to the commission asking nr c to go back to the drawing board. We were concerned nr c was losing sight of its true mission. This concern resulted in the advance act, which focused on licensing efficiency, reducing costs, and increasing predictability in r c licensing. It also forced uh focused on aligning n r c s mission so that it could do its work in service to a goal of fully achieving the benefits of nuclear energy. With the Advance Act, Congress provided NRC the clear direction and tools to establish a strong licensing framework for nuclear deployment for the coming decades. The Trump administration, as we all know, has also stepped up to advance nuclear on several fronts. It is accelerating regulatory reforms to executive orders consistent with the Advance Act, for more efficient risk informed licensing. It is developing a more holistic approach How all this is coming together at nr c is a central topic of today's hearing. In a january hearing the subcommittee heard measured optimism that nr c has been responding well to the task before it. The developing record supports this optimism. The nr c issued the final rule for a new advanced reactor framework, the one that had raised concerns just three years ago. The so-called part fifty-three rule looks to meet congressional intent, offering one of the most flexible frameworks. and making it easier for various technologies to work through the licensing process. And the cost for that process has been cut in half. The NRC is also working to to issue a number of rules responsive not only to the present, but also to Congress. These include rules that will enable regulation of micro-reactors, rapid licensing at existing sites, and licensing of manufacturing processes so reactors can be built on assembly lines. the need for reforms to the fiscal responsibility act are expected to save substantial time and workload in the siting reviews by some estimates cutting workload by more than half and expediting decisions elsewhere nrc has already been completing licensing reviews under budget and ahead of schedule with positive responses from the regulated industry seeking relicense and to build more reactors nrc is seeking structural reforms to help it overseas the license fleet prior attention to what really matters in safety. We should discuss the challenges of course, including how NRC is developing its workforce to make the new licensing work, and how it is working with the Department of Energy or other intergovernmental process. Given all the work underway, we should also ask what more Congress may do to assist in setting NRC up for successfully implementing its important safety mission, a mission that when well perfo- performed well, will lead to tremendous benefits for people across our nation. And with that, I'll you back the balance of my time and recognize the General AD for Florida, the ranking member of the subcommittee for five minutes for an opening statement.

Good morning. Uh, thank you, Mister Chairman. Happy Earth Day to everyone. Uh, nuclear energy has been an area of bipartisan cooperation in this committee. Uh, last Congress we passed the Advance Act, uh, that was signed by President Biden to prepare the United States to lead the world in development and deployment. of advanced nuclear reactors. Thank you, Commissioner Marzano, for your leadership there, c- uh, Congresswoman DeGette as well, re former Rep Duncan. Um, Democrats also uh passed the bipartisan infrastructure law to safely ensure that existing nuclear plants were not retired prematurely, and the Inflation Reduction Act that provided long-term incentives for broader deployment of nuclear, including new technologies and advanced reactors with an eye towards energy workers, particularly in and distressed energy communities. The Biden administration set a target of three hundred gigawatts of nuclear energy capacity by twenty fifty and similarly the Trump administration has targeted four hundred gigawatts, ambitious goals, but these goals require bipartisanship, require an independent nuclear regulatory commission, and a nuclear industry that has the trust of the American people. Uh, President Trump's actions, however, jeopardizing that progress and that trust. And we should address it together. Last June, the president illegally fired Commissioner Christopher Hansen without cause. That was the first time that an NRC commissioner had ever been fired. The president also issued executive is has also issued executive orders, directing the NRC, again, an independent regulator, to reduce its workforce and modify safety rules. while urging hasty approval of nuclear reactors. The NRC has lost four hundred professionals, particularly in offices handling safety. That's concerning. Instead, the administration has deployed doge staffers with no experience in nuclear safety, and that is truly alarming. It appears that the White House is illegally trying to change approval processes to turn the NRC into a rubber stamp. We can't pretend that this is business The NRC is the international gold standard for nuclear energy safety, but the administration is actively undermining that reputation and could actually slow the deployment of nuclear energy, not just in the United States but across the globe. There is a right way to do this. Uh, the NRC must license reactors efficiently, safe, safely, and transparently to deliver the resources we need while ensuring public confidence. Today, the Trump administration and Doge are eating away at the co- that confidence and safety of America's nuclear enterprise and our international alliances. China dominates the build-out of nu- nuclear power plants, hosting nearly half of the reactors currently under construction globally. And here's the dirty little secret that the Trump administration does not want you to know. Uh, nuclear energy is at a disadvantage right now because of they it is forced to compete with coal and gas that are heavily subsidized and heavily favored uh by the Trump administration and many in this Congress. People are losing trust in uh the federal government. And why should they trust this administration? Over the last year the Department of Energy killed over three hundred energy projects. They canceled loans to build transmission lines. The administration illegally tried to

Hmm.

And now the Interior Department won't even follow congressional orders to give us a status update on energy project permits. Solar, batteries and wind are the resources that we have right now. They made up ninety-two percent of new US power capacity last year. In comparison, Energy Secretary Wright sat before this committee

Mm.

just last week and said, " We have to make sure that we don't have to week and said even for the nuclear reactors that will be critical in the coming months, we're years away from plugging them into the grid and selling electricity. So if Republicans want to ramp up nuclear energy resources and address the skyrocketing cost of ta- for ta- rate payers, it's vital to understand that nuclear power is complementary to cheaper renewable energy and storage at this moment. Republicans say we need more energy to power the AI revolution. So they should stand up when the administration engages in corrupt unfair practices that result in less energy. They should work with Democrats to pass policy that actually brings costs down for our neighbors back home and develops more energy resources. That's our mission today, Mister Chairman, uh I look forward to our discussion and thank the NRC commissioners for being here.

Thank you very much. The gentleman yields back. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from Kentucky, the chairman of the full committee, for five minutes for an opening statement.

Thank you, Chairman Latta. And thank you for our witnesses for being here today. As we discussed nuclear safety and regulatory policy, today our nation confronts an array of challenges that must be effectively addressed to secure our energy and economic future. Iran has exposed the harm that flows from allowing maligned nations the ability to choke off global energy supplies. But China looms above all by seeking to reorient and dominate geopolitical relationships. It seeks to overtake America's economic and technological particularly in the race to dominate energy-intensive AI. Meanwhile, we face unprecedented accelerating demand for more power generation here at home, now estimated over two hundred and twenty gigawatts to meet new peak demand over the next decade while losing over a hundred gigawatts of base low power. However, nuclear technology and infrastructure can help us meet this challenge. If nuclear deployments increase rapidly as we hope, whether to fill the dispatchable generation gap, or to meet various data center and industrial needs, that will create a lot of site and safety licensing work. So, can the NRC meet the pace and the scale of potential new licensing while assuring adequate safety? A key focus of this committee's work, three years ago that became the advance act, was to make sure NRC's vital uh safety net safety work would be performed in service to the mission that nuclear energy should be used for the common defense and to This policy remains as important as ever. In addition to Congress providing direction for the, for NRC, the Trump administration's nuclear-related executive orders have also helped focus NRC on efficient regulation. Recent NRC regulatory actions show positive signs that we're on the right track. And today we have an important opportunity to review uh your work. Let me uh let me welcome Chairman Nii and the commissioners. Uh, i look forward to discussion and i will yield back.

thank you the gentleman yields back and the chair now recognizes the gentleman from new jersey the ranking member of the full committee for five minutes for an opening statement

thank you chairman latta this is a precarious moment for our nuclear energy in america on the one hand there's more interest in nuclear energy and the carbon free power can deliver than at any time in the last fifty years however at the same time the trump administration's actions have shown the safety of the american civilian nuclear fleet into question for the first time since the Atomic Energy Act unlocked the peaceful use of nuclear power over seventy years ago. And the five commissioners before us today are the last line of defense for nuclear safety. Today we should be talking about how the NRC is implementing the Advance Act, a historic package of reforms passed last Congress, to prepare our nation for a wave of advanced nuclear reactors. And we should be discussing how the commission is preparing itself to efficiency But the Trump administration has made that impossible. The White House, Department of Energy and even staff affiliated with Doge have attacked the NRC's independence. Last year, President Trump illegally fired former NRC Chairman Chris Hansen, who should be sitting in front of us today. The DOE's chief counsel for nuclear energy told his colleagues that, and I quote, " the NRC is gonna do whatever we tell the NRC to do". And this threat to the NRC's independence is simply unacceptable. Fifty-two years ago, Congress passed a law creating the NRC, forever separating the parts of the government responsible for promoting nuclear energy, from the parts responsible for making sure that nuclear energy is safe. And that was the right call then, it remains the right call today. Actions to tear down that separation aren't just ill-advised, they're dangerous, and they jeopardize the future of nuclear energy in our nation. Whether or not nuclear energy has a bright future in the US may come down to how or if the nr c can protect its independence over the next few years commissioners you have a duty to the american people to uphold that independence and ensure safe and secure nuclear energy in our nation and i want to give credit where credit is due to chairman nee since assuming the chairmanship the chairmanship of the commission earlier this year i think your office has been a model for transparency the nr c staff have consistently and thoroughly engaged with my staff you've ensured that we are thoroughly briefed on the many changes that you're making to the nr c s rules to license nuclear reactors more more effectively and the level of transparency you have shown should be the standard but unfortunately the department of energy has lagged far behind the nr c in this uh transparency uh area. i also want to praise a number of the efforts the commission is engaged in under your leadership. seven years ago the nuclear energy innovation and modernization act was signed into law it required the nr c to issue a a uh rule to establish new technologically flexible process for licensing advanced reactors and i'm pleased that last month the nrc was able to publish a fauna rule more than a year ahead of the deadline set out by the law and i hope developers take advantage of it going forward however there are other changes by the commission that go too far the changes made by the commission's reactor oversight program the program responsible for ensuring the ongoing safety of

mmm

existing operating reactors go far beyond what was envisioned in the advance act changes could result in nearly forty percent of the reactor oversight staff losing their jobs or being reassigned. Frankly, after the staff turnover the commission has suffered throughout the last year as a result of Doge's attacks, I don't think the NRC can afford another exodus of smart, talented employees. I also have deep concerns about effects to tie I mean efforts, I should say, to tie NRC licenses for commercial nuclear reactors to research reactors permitted by the departments of energy and i expect that there will be tremendous pressure on the commission to offer those research reactors a type of formal fast pass to nrc licensing and that would be a disaster and would undermine the nrc's independence and it should not happen. finally i wanna end my remarks by reiterating a warning i issued last week when we had the energy secretary in front of us here and it i said it would be impossible for us to move forward on nuclear legislation as long as the nrc's independence is in question so we

Well, thank you very much. The gentleman yields back. This concludes members' opening statements. The chair reminds members that pursuant to committee rules, all members' opening statements will be made part of the record. Again, we wanna thank our witnesses for appearing and taking the time to testify before the subcommittee. Each witness will have the opportunity to give an opening statement, followed by a round of questions for the members. Our five witnesses who are joining us today from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission today are Chairman Ho K. Nee, Commissioner David Wright, Commissioner Bradley Crow, Commissioner Matthew Marzano, and Commissioner Douglas Weaver. Again, thank you very much for appearing. Just real quick housekeeping, uh, if you pull those mikes up close, uh, when you use them that'd be great, uh, so that we know that they are working for you. And also, uh, the light will be green for

Chairman Lana, Chairman Guthrie, Ranking Members, Caster and Pallone, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission appreciates the bipartisan leadership of this committee through the advance act which is guiding NRC's modernization to accelerate the deployment of new nuclear and expand existing capacity. The NRC's safety mission remains our top focus. Congress also mandated that the NRC's mission enable the safe and secure use of nuclear technologies through predictable and efficient regulation. In the regulatory context, enabling means aligning our regulations with actual risks, adapting to new technologies and adding regulatory flexibility where safety is maintained. Enabling is how the NRC fulfills its safety commitment and delivers public benefit. America urgently needs more energy due to artificial intelligence, data centers, and industrial growth. Nuclear is seen as essential to our energy security. The question now is execution. Can America build at scale, on schedule, and at lower cost. That is where the NRC matters. Regulatory uncertainty is capital risk, and capital will go elsewhere if risk is too high. This is a defining moment for the NRC and for nuclear energy in America. What we do today will determine whether nuclear can be deployed at scale or remains limited to one-off projects. As America's nuclear safety regulator, the NRC's our safety decisions must be credible, predictable, and timely. Accordingly, the NRC is making reforms driven by Congress and the President. As m- and through this period of change, the NRC is engaging and coordinating with federal partners, including the Department of Energy. In doing so, the NRC's safety decisions remain consistent with our mission and dependent from the Department of Energy. As we implement the Advance Act in executive order fourteen three hundred, the NRC is focusing on what matters most to safety, by eliminating unnecessary conservatisms and applying risk-informed performance-based approaches consistently throughout the agency. The NRC is making major changes to how it oversees and licenses nuclear facilities in America. We are rebalancing our inspection programs, to reflect the high levels of safety and security performance across the industry. And we are delivering new licensing frameworks that are predictable, efficient, and designed for deployment. Over the last year, the NRC has delivered results, evidence of a more disciplined and efficient approach. We finalized part fifty-three ahead of schedule. We issued a construction permit for a non-light water advanced reactor, nine months ahead of schedule. We approved a restart pathway for a permanently shut down reactor. We renewed thirteen operating reactor licenses. We issued a license for a TRISO fuel fabrication facility, several months ahead of schedule. We launched a regulatory framework for fusion technologies. And we prepared eighteen executive order fourteen three hundred draft rulemakings. These results demonstrate that timely regulatory action and a strong safety focus go hand in hand. This is how America will regain nuclear leadership. The NRC will not be an impediment to nuclear energy innovation. The s- the success in in to meet this moment, I am focusing the agency on three priorities. First, is core mission delivery with safety, efficiency, and speed. Second, is leadership and operational excellence in how we do business. Third, is sustaining our performance through a culture of continuous improvement. Success in this moment depends on our staff at the agency. Every day, the dedicated staff of the NRC deliver on a safety mission that is essential for public trust in nuclear technologies. Delivering our mission also requires realistic planning, disciplined budget execution, and alignment with strategic goals. The NRC's fiscal year, twenty six,

Well, thank you very much, and uh Commissioner Wright, you're recognized for five minutes for an opening statement.

Thank you. Thank you very much, uh and good morning Chairman Latta, Vice Chair Weber and ranking members. Um, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I appreciate the committee's bipartisan leadership and continued agreement uh engagement with us at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I wanna thank our Chairman for his leadership during this unprecedented time for nuclear energy and my fellow Commissioners for their dedication to the United States and for their collegiality as we help enable nuclear technology here and abroad. The NRC sits at the center of the nation's nuclear energy landscape. Since being confirmed to the commission in twenty eighteen, I have worked to transform the NRC into a more agile and modern regulator. In twenty nineteen, Congress provided clear direction in NEMA to provide a path for licensing reactors for technology uh in a technology neutral manner. That was efficient and streamlined while maintaining safety as our North Star. the NRC took this directive and got to work. The part fifty-three rulemaking, our risk-informed technology-inclusive regulatory framework, is the culmination of that work, and I'm happy to say that we accomplished this nine months ahead of schedule. This rule represents one of the most significant uprates uh uh or updates to our regulatory approach in decades, providing a flexible foundation for advanced reactor technologies. This progress reflects the dedication and expertise of the NRC staff, whose commitment to professionalism and innovation continues to drive success. While this accomplishment is huge, the American people demanded more, and in July of twenty four, Congress passed and the President signed the Advance Act. The first thing the NRC did was to update his uh its mission statement. The commission-led initiative and in you know, we'd we'd let it and my colleague to my left was critical working with me. Um, you know, this initiative was led by us and in twenty-five, January of twenty-five, uh, published the NRC's new mission statement that provides clear direction that, uh, to the staff of the NRC, that we're here to enable the safe use and deployment of nuclear technologies for the betterment of society. In the year since, we have seen a sea change in culture, uh, uh, of the staff. And they're leaning in on the mission and providing results all while keeping safety at the heart of every decision. This culture change is more evident in the revisions of our re to our regulations, directed by President Trump's EO fourteen three hundred. The NRC is delivering efficient, streamlined regulations that will enable the deployment of nuclear energy to the country, all while remaining firmly committed to safety. At the heart of all these accomplishments are the dedicated people who work at the NRC. Every day they bring their best selves to the delivering results for the country. And as I've said many times before, the NRC is the best place and has the best people and the federal government. I stand by those words today and I thank the staff for all that they do for the agency and the country. In closing, the NRC is delivering meaningful results through a modernized mission, a skilled workforce, and an unwavering focus on protecting public health and safety. Thank you for your support, and I look forward to your questions.

Well, thank you very much for your statement. And Commissioner Crowell, you are recognized for five minutes for your opening statement.

Thank you. Ch- thank you, Chairman Lotta, Chairman Guthrie, Ranking Member Castor, and members of the subcommittee for inviting me and my fellow commissioners to appear before you today. Uh, today we find ourselves at a pivotal juncture that will determine the future of commercial nuclear power not just in United States, but around the world. As I began my uh term on the commission in mid-twenty-twenty-two, I was ins- excited and help lead an ongoing transformation at the nrc that matched my growing confidence in our country's collective ability to position the us as a world leader for the next generation of nuclear energy technologies but most importantly i to do so while maintaining the united states hard-earned world class reputation for nuclear safety and security and while change rarely happens as fast as any of us would like i assure you that the nrc is moving with urgency in the right direction i'm proud to have helped uh facilitate the many accomplishments and milestones achieved by h staff in just the last few years. Chairman Nii highlighted many of the NRC's most recent successes in his remarks, and I share his optimism that we are building a framework to accelerate further achievements in the next few years and beyond. However, success is far from guaranteed. Continued US leadership in nuclear energy generation rests on our nation's steadfast commitment to nuclear safety and security. As we look ahead, my confidence in our nuclear f- fleet is buoyed by Congress' building and sustained bipartisan support for nuclear power, as an indispensable contributor to our nation's energy and in doing so for giving the nr the nrc the policy direction and resources needed to modernize its approach to responsible nuclear regulation and oversight without sacrifice and safety i appreciate the current and past members of this this committee for their help directing needed reforms to the nrc including through the twenty nineteen uh nuclear energy innovation and modernization act and the twenty twenty four advance act these key legislative accomplishments provided needed policy support to accelerate the nrc's ongoing efforts to modernize its regulatory approach and sharpen the agency's focus as we establish a refreshed a refreshed platform for success. To further advance these congressional efforts, the current administration issued executive order fourteen three hundred last May uh ordering the reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The thrust of the EO doubles down on much of the agency's ongoing work and related reform efforts. Viewed positively, the EO is a welcome recognition of the integral role the NRC can play in catalyzing the safe and secure deployment of new and advanced nuclear energy systems. But getting it right is more important than moving quickly in pursuit of Keeping the pace and working efficiently are important, but moving with haste alone can quickly become counter-productive. The oft-repeated mantra of fostering rapid advancements in many cutting-edge technology sectors is to move fast and break things. But while that ethos may apply well in some technology sectors, it is the antithesis of safe, secure, and informed nuclear regulation. The legitimate need to enhance regulatory efficiencies without impacting safety is also the reason my greatest concern as a commissioner today relates to the current and future NOC workforce. The agency is despite a growing workload workload and aggressive new time frames for agency licensing and oversight activities. This is an unsustainable dynamic. In my role as an NRC Commissioner, I'm often asked what keeps me awake at night. As of late, my response is always to question whether we are doing enough to support and supplement our staff and ensure that the NRC workforce is robust and resourced to do the anticipated work coming before the agency without sacrificing our commitment and attention to safety and security. My second greatest concern uh for fiscal year twenty s- Twenty twenty seven is the nr c s continued ability to execute on the nr c s full mission including our the oversight of our nation's current fleet of nuclear power reactors while i wholeheartedly support the need to incorporate new efficiencies into all processes throughout the agency we must not let the fervor of deregulation and a singular focus on operational efficiencies undermine the nr c s critical role in ensuring the continued safe and secure operation of existing nr c license facilities for example i am concerned that shifting the agency's focus to license activities too heavily or too quickly will come at the expense of maintaining sufficient talent and on our equally important oversight responsibilities. At this current juncture, the NRC can ill afford to to rob Peter to pay Paul, nor can we have unforced errors within our existing fleet of reactors and fuel facilities. To rise to the momentous occasion before us, the NRC must also restore, build and maintain public trust. I'm concerned on this front because the surest way to undermine the public's confidence in nuclear safety and in the NRC's role as safety regulator, is to decrease transparency. This maxim is true for all things nuclear, but this is, but it's particularly acute with respect to nuclear power generation and used fuel management. Over the past year, circumstances have clouded stakeholder belief in the agency's commitment to transparency as a pillar of the NRC's principles of good regulation. The agency's ability to seek and receive valuable input from external experts, nongovernmental agencies, trade associations, members of the public, and all other stakeholders has been hampered as we embark on the retooling of the NRC's entire regulatory framework. As we modernize the NRC, we we must retain a reasonable ability to engage more actively and transparently with regular identities and all other and all stakeholders. Failure to do so risks undermining public trust and forfeiting the social license essential to to an enduring future for nuclear technologies. Lastly, I see in the current cadre of NRC commissioners, a set of leaders with diverse skill sets and unique perspectives that constitute the right mix at the right time for effectively leading the NRC at this critical juncture. We each understand and appreciate the necessity and value of working as a collegial collegial uh policy-making body. In conclusion, uh, with adequate resources for the agency and with clear consistent leadership, I believe the NRC can achieve many great things. I intend to do my part to ensure we meet our responsibilities to the NRC workforce, and our obligations to the American public for whom we serve. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to your questions.

Thank you very much. Uh, Commissioner Marzano, you're recognized five minutes for opening statement.

Thank you, Chairman Latta, Ranking Manager Castor, and the members of the subcommittee. And thank you for the opportunity to appear. Seventy years ago, President Eisenhower stood before the United Nations to present his vision for the peaceful use of nuclear technology to a world that had crossed the threshold in the atomic age. The Atoms for Peace program that followed established the groundwork for international civil nuclear cooperation and reoriented the Atomic Energy Commission towards transparency and a dual mandate to promote and regulate nuclear technology for commercial purposes. Thus, the agency became tasked with fulfilling a defining of Eisenhower's address that this greatest quote, this greatest of destructive forces can be developed into a great boon for the benefit of all mankind end quote. The nuclear enterprise in the United States sits at a similar yet distinct crossroads today. The extraordinary promise of emerging emerging nuclear technologies has converged with a geopolitical urgency to address energy security and climate change. The interests of industry, government, and the public have aligned in ways Yet, many of the same pressures and expectations that tested the Atomic Energy Commission endure in this moment. And today, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has inherited this responsibility to enable the safe use of this technology, while ensuring adequate protection of public health and safety. For many years, NRC's staff have identified reforms that could improve efficiency without compromising safety. Some of those ideas have been discussed, studied, but eventually deferred. Further in the past, rulemaking has often been overly burdensome and lengthy. Multi-year rulemaking efforts with extensive layers of internal review can create uncertainty consume resources and delay benefits without proportionate gains in safety. In that context, I view the directives of the Advance Act and the executive orders as providing a vehicle and frankly the encouragement to modernize and incorporate regulatory reforms that have long But, I would also emphasize that modernization must be approached with care and discipline. The NRC's credibility, earned over decades, is rooted in a deliberate, evidence-based approach to decision making. Public trust, safety margins, and the long-term viability of nuclear energy all depend on getting this right. Moving too quickly or without sufficient technical grounding, risk undermining the very goals we are trying to achieve. Building and sustaining a regulatory system that is both modern and durable depends on two foundational elements, research and workforce. Simply stated, robust research provides a technical basis for informed decision making. It reduces uncertainty, supports risk informed regulation, and broadens our capability to assess new technologies on their merits. Without it, we are left to rely on assumptions and unnecessary conservatism Equally important is the strength of our workforce. The NRC's effectiveness depends on its expertise, independence, and the judgment of its people. As technology as technologies evolve, so too must our capabilities. Investing in the next generation of engineers, safety analysts, and regulatory professionals is not optional. It is essential to sustaining our mission. That is why I remain focused on addressing our workforce This involves an honest assessment of the reasons individuals may choose to leave the NRC and implementing solutions to address them. We must better leverage our hiring and compensation authorities and implement work-life flexibilities to attract and retain talent, and incentivize public service. In closing, modernization is both necessary and achievable. But it must be done in a way that preserves the principles that have served this

Well, thank you very much for your opening statement. And Commissioner Weaver, you are recognized for five minutes for your opening statement.

Thank you. Chairman Lotta. Member Caster and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you with my colleagues to discuss the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's efforts to enable the safe and secure use of nuclear technologies for the benefit of our nation. Today marks the completion of my fourth month on the commission. In that short time I've had the privilege of acting on many policy uh and rule making policy issues and rule making activities that are the culmination of the NRC staff work for many months and in some cases years prior to my arrival. It is an exciting time to be at the NRC. I've approached my role with a safety-focused, independent mindset, and a regulatory philosophy grounded in three principles, modernization of our regulatory framework, risk-informed and performance-based decision-making, and accountability and transparency to the American public. These principles guide my support for reforms to the NRC's licensing, oversight, and organization. They reflect both the long-standing principles, uh, the NRC's principles of good regulation and are responsive to the clear direction Congress has provided through the mandates and the Advance Act. NRC is delivering in a big way and will continue to do so as we implement our new organizational model, new regulations, and more risk-informed programs. While the work continues to modernize our structure and regulatory framework, to set up the country's for future success, we are also delivering on today's needs. I'd like to highlight a few of those accomplishments. Some of these the Chairman has already mentioned. NRC staff has developed a safe pathway for restart of formerly shut down reactors to add more power to the grid. The staff completed thorough licensing reviews enabling Palisades to become the first permanently shut down reactor in US history to move back towards operational status. Staff oversight continues with rigorous inspections to ensure that Palisades will meet all safety and regulatory requirements before its restart. Likewise, at the Cle- Crane Clean Energy Center in Pennsylvania, NRC staff is conducting licensing and inspection activities to support a licensee projected restart next year. I recently traveled to both Palisades and Crane and was impressed with the NRC teams that are overseeing our inspection activities. We are fortunate to have such highly trained and dedicated public NRC approved the construction permit for application for Terrapower's Natrium reactor in Wyoming the first nine non-light water reactor approval in forty years. The staff's review was completed ahead of schedule and in less than eighteen months. A robust fuel cycle will be needed to support our country's nuclear energy ambitions, so I'd also like to mention the recently issued license to TRISO for the first of a kind high assay low enriched uranium fuel fabricator. facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. NRC stands ready to meet the country's needs today and will be even better positioned to do so in the near future. I would describe the work we are doing as transformational. The full scope of the changes will become apparent as the Commission deliberates on and issues the full suite of proposed rules in the coming months. These regulatory changes, in conjunction with the cultural and organizational alignment in progress, will result

Well, thank you very much for all of your opening statements, we greatly appreciate it. This will uh conclude the opening statements from our witnesses

Mm.

and we'll move into our question and answer portion. i'm gonna begin the questioning recognize myself for five minutes you know first i won't go down the line but uh first question i usually ask everybody that comes before this subcommittee is do we need to have more energy produced in this uh country would you all agree to that that we need to have more power thank you very much uh chairman uh if i could uh start some questions with you uh you know one of the things i think i heard from all of the uh from you and from the commissioners are that you know that your looking at actual risks adapting new technologies and adding flexibility uh you know we've heard from um uh uh uh our members and the past and also now about how things have been at the nrc what what's happened in the last uh couple of years now that it seems like you're all running running on the same page with one another

thank you for the question uh chairman lata i think the advance act was uh an very important piece of legislate legislation and one of the things that i found most meaningful in that act was bringing in the enabling element of our mission alongside our safety focus the nrc has an incredibly dedicated technically competent workforce that has had a tremendous safety focus over its history and now bringing in this enabling component and using that as kind of the engine behind our regulatory activities and what we're looking at in terms of supporting the accelerated

Let me follow up with this. Um, are we keeping up with the rest of the world now, when we're talking about nuclear technology?

Uh, in in in my opinion, Chairman Lotta, I I think there are some countries particularly russia and china that are um they're building reactors at at a pace much faster in the united states uh i i believe through the regulatory actions that we are taking to safely provide safe and predictable and efficient frameworks to enable deployment in the united states will help us uh keep pace with other countries and also what we are doing here in the united states is something that could uh help the united states export its technologies to our allies uh around the world. And moreover, um, there is I was just in Vienna, Austria last week to represent the United States at the convention on nuclear safety. And many countries around the world, in Europe and in Asia, are facing the same demand from their governments to have their regulatory bodies undergo significant regulatory reform so they could bring the energy that they need to their country so we are at the forefront of of that I heard from many of my international colleagues that they are you know eager to see what NRC is doing. And I think us leading the way will help us catch up to other countries that are able to build faster.

Just one last question for you and uh if I ask this one quickly for you. On our small modular reactors, because you know these are something that we're gonna have to have deployed sooner than later, and we're hearing six seven years, is there a way to see about SMRs getting these out sooner and if of course always safely?

S so some of the things that create bottlenecks in are things that go beyond what nr c can do things typical things that um get in the way of deployment are typically f finance supply chain and the workforce to to build uh what i would share with you chairman lotta is that the nr c is not the regulatory process is not going to be an impediment for deployment of nuclear technologies whether it's an smr a micro-reactor or a large light water reactor so the nr c is working

Thank you. Uh, Commissioner Wright, I only got about fifty seconds left. Uh, you know, you talked about more uh agile model uh modern um regulators out and regulations out there always keeping safety first. Uh, how's how's the um the work been with working from the nrc with the the companies out there and i'm like about thirty seconds

yeah so last year was a a you know a very difficult year in some ways cause we lost lot of people but it was the uh uh opportunity for people to do things that that you know skill set the nrc has uh made them attractive um and so we had people that that took that opportunity um and which is which is great but we we the people who stayed with us uh, are very passionate about what they do, and people who might have had to wait a little bit of time before they had to get that opportunity, they stepped up. Um, and and they are producing and they're creating their own legacy now.

Well, thank you very much. My time has expired. There's so many questions in such little time. Uh, the chair recognizes the gentlelady from Florida, the ranking member of the subcommittee, five minutes for questions.

Uh, thank you, Mister Chairman, and thank you again to all the NRC commissioners for being here today, but for your service to our country. Uh, Commissioner,

Thank you for the question. Um, I believe for remains unchanged that I could be

Mm.

uh fired by the president at any time for any reason. Thank you.

Yes, uh, uh, Ranking Member Castor, while, you know, the dynamics of the commission have changed with the new make-up and and bringing on, um, uh, Commissioner Weaver and Chairman Chairman Nee, uh, the fact does remain that it is still a distinct possibility that we can get fired. Um, I'll caveat that it could it's not very clear what exactly that reason would be, um, but it's certainly still a possibility.

Including approval of an administration-favored nuclear reactor design.

That could be a potential reason.

Having the specter of being fired, um, hanging over all commission decisions decreases the commission's credibility, uh, credibility that the chairman need, uh, identified in his testimony as critical to the commission's mission. And and I agree with that. Uh, but I also agree, Commissioner Kroll, with your, uh, the point you made in your testimony that transparency is critical to the NRC's credibility. Um, talk about how some of the changes made to the nr c s transparency processes over the last fifteen months have undermined public trust in the commission.

Thank you for the question. One of the big changes uh from compared to past practices is that we're now um no longer able to share a proposed rulemaking with the regulated community and get their feedback to help craft and design uh the best rules. Um w- a separate e o separate from e o fourteen three hundred requires all of nr c s uh rule makings to go through o m b which is a change uh from the past at at at um at the nr c uh that certainly changes the you know that closes the door in terms of uh external awareness and engagement um and changes the dynamic that we've traditionally worked under uh nuclear is a bit unique in the fact that transparency is you know is paramount uh the regulated industry wants to know uh wants to have a hand in helping craft things and know what's coming. I think that's in this case important for crafting good rules, but other stakeholders need to be involved as well, and right now it's a black box.

And and could that have the opposite effect of what is intended to to insure not just the the safe uh licensing of new nuclear technologies, but it could delay things over time if you do not have robust uh public and stakeholder engagement.

Yeah, it very much calls into question the the durability of the rules we put out. and our if we're unwilling to extend comment periods to give a reasonable amount of time uh for uh external entities to review the voluminous amount of of rulemaking we're doing that will call it into question further

It's very concerning. And Chairman Nii uh from the weekly reports NRC submits the number of NRC departures has not slowed down since January of twenty twenty five it appears that over five hundred uh professional staffers have left, with only sixty five arrivals, about a fifth decrease in staffing. I certainly heard um uh Commissioner Wright compliment the dedicated people uh at the NRC. Uh Commissioner Kroll highlighted the greatest concern is the cur current and future NRC workforce the shifting of talent. What is the commission doing to help retain and recruit staff with the application and pre-application engagement? Uh what are are you concerned about having technical staff burnout and and folks continue to leave.

Thank you um, Ranking Member Castor. Uh, I believe that I am fully aligned with my fellow commissioners that our people are our greatest asset, and they are a priority for this agency. The NRC has a very strong workforce, a dedicated workforce, committed to the mission. Uh, we do appreciate the hiring authorities and uh that have been afforded in the advance act. And we right now are, through our Executive Director for Operation, implementing a human capital strategy to ensure that we're recruiting and retaining the key skill sets we need to deliver our safety emission emission uh effectively to the united states so we have a staffing plan for our new organization we're hiring to fill those vacancies to put it in perspective we have roughly one hundred and twenty people less than what we have requested in our uh fiscal year twenty seven budget and we feel very confident that we can fill those vacancies again using the hiring authorities and the advance act as well as uh the additional tools

Thank you very much. I yield back.

Thank you very much. The gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes the chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from Kentucky, for five minutes for questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for yielding the time. Thank you for being here to uh to the NRC. Uh, so this is a question to all commissioners. Uh, the Advance Act was largely driven uh about driving NRC to improve its performance, to meet an influence of new license applications, and still And that's important, performance safety mission. It looks like you are, um, improving performance for the influx of license and meeting your safety mission. So I would say the NRC seems to be firing on all cylinders right now. Would you all agree with that's kind of yes or no, I guess that the NRC, anybody have any say the NRC's not going in the right direction? I guess cuz I think all of you would agree, or thank you. So, Chairman Neal on the nuclear renaissance, I guess the record should reflect you all said yes, right? Okay, good. Um, Chairman, eh, you were on staff at the NRC uh during the last nuclear renaissance in the mid two thousands time frame unfortunately that didn't really materialize like it was hoped what do you think is different this time around I know we're asking a lot of people to invest a lot of money in in nuclear power because we know we need it and so what's different this time around?

Thank you for the question, Chairman Guthrie. Yes, uh in the last renaissance uh the NRC hired a lot of people for what they anticipated in new reactor license. And what is different now really ties back to this enabling element of our s- mission, which is really that sense of purpose for our agency. So, we have this enabling aspect, and what we're also doing differently, instead of just hiring people to handle the work, we are fundamentally looking at how we make these decisions. We recognize that our regulat- regulations were built decades ago, when we didn't know as much as we know today. So, we are fundamentally looking at our regulatory frameworks to be able to deliver credible safety decisions and working smarter, not harder, and not just by hiring new people.

OK, thank you. Cuz the thing about, you know, we need just like I said two hundred megawatts of gigawatts of power, co- two hundred m- And so uh, you know, for people who are gonna make investments need to know there's some basis of stability, you know, as we move forward. So thanks for your work. So reorganization, again, Chairman. Uh, uh, earlier this week, NRCA issued its reorganization plan.

Uh, Chairman Guthrie, the reorganization, one key aspect of it in uh supporting uh licensing work is that we created the Office of Advanced Reactors which is gonna have dedicated leadership and technical staff to support the license anticipated licensing that comes before the agency so that is probably the the the main area in

Mm.

supporting deployment um what I will also

Okay, so so w- would you uh also explain briefly how NRC is gonna

Yeah.

treat applications from reactors authorized by DOE?

uh allow information to be referenced for reactor designs previously authorized by the department of energy or the department of war. We're currently developing the staff guidance and the n- n- short version of it is that we will use the information from other authorizations and we will validate how that information meets our regulatory requirements. We're gonna do it efficiently, we are not gonna be a rubber stamp, but there's no need to retread the tire on things that

Okay, do all the commissioners agree that's the right uh track to take?

Mm.

Everybody's kind of saying yes? All right, I see there's no dissent on that that question. So, that that's just the point that I that I wanna make is that you guys are extremely important, and we we value your independence. I think that's extremely important as but also working with Department of Energy as we have this great uh renaissance of American manufacturing ma- American technology productivity that's coming, that it takes energy to drive all of that, and I think a lot of us agree on both sides. Our nuclear is dispatchable as space load and carbon free, so I know a lot of people uh prefer that that route, and we have to be able to do it. We're asking for a lot of investment to do it. And knowing that we work together to get it done, but knowing that you take the safety of American

Thank you. This gentleman yields back. The chair now recognizes this gentleman from New Jersey, the ranking member for the full committee, five minutes for questions.

Thank you.

Last week, Energy Secretary Wright came before the subcommittee and he said that it is quote " critically important that the NRC be independent." And he rebuked a DOE employee who said that the NRC would do whatever the DOE wanted it to do. and while i'm skeptical that everyone in the trump administration agrees with secretary wright on this point i wanna ensure that all of you do so let let me just go down the line for a yes or no question do you think that it's critical to the future of nuclear energy in this country that the nrc retain its independence chairman nee

yes

um commissioner krause

yes

commissioner marzano

yes

commissioner wright

yes

we have a lot of rights around here. And Commissioner Weaver?

Yes.

Well thank you, and I I appreciate that because I do believe that any potential nuclear renaissance uh will be cut short if the NRC can't guarantee its independence. And so I was glad to hear that from Secretary Wright and from all of you as well. But we do need to ensure that safeguards are in place to fight against encroachment by the White House. So let me uh start with Commissioners Kral and Marzano. Do NRC commissioners and STF have adequate

yes i believe that's still the case uh both for uh commissioners as as well as for staff but the um the telltale sign will be when you speak out if there are negative repercussions that would call into question our independent

uh Well, thank you. Commissioner Marzano.

Yes, I agree with my colleague that staff do have the avenues available to them right now. Um, but it's our responsibility as a commission to continue to reinforce uh our policy on safety culture, ensuring that

So are you suggesting that uh some of the rule making that you've talked about might address that? Is that

I I would say that uh you know as as we are negotiating and and working on these rule makings that dissent

Alright, thank you. Now, uh f- last thing, I wanted to talk about NRSC's changes to the reactor oversight process, or ROP. Last month, the NRSC overhauled the ROP for the first time in twenty-five years. And while I'm supportive of the commission finding efficiencies, I do worry that a reduced focus on reactor oversight

Mm.

I think as commissioners we're gonna have to remain vigilant uh to ensure we don't uh find ourselves on a slippery slope with regard to uh oversight and its um its importance to safety. Note that the um the you know the world class safety record of the us nuclear fleet is uh due in large part to the rop not in spite of it and i'm worried that if we move too quickly to uh uh uh minimize our inspection and oversight programs uh we're gonna see some uh you know we're gonna end up with unforced errors or negative results that are gonna impact our entire effort to move towards a a renaissance

commissioner marzano

yes i think uh there's a couple of aspects here one is that we have a a an oversight program that is responsive to fleet performance. And so if we are seeing declines in certain indicators and things like that, uh, the ROP process should, uh, react to that and - and ensure that, um, continued sustained high performance of the fleet, uh, uh, remains. Um, the - the other aspects here I think, um, that are very important, um, is that we were able to collect that data that gives us the ability, uh, to trend and analyze and - and look out for those per- Well, thank you all gentlemen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much, gentlemen.

Uh, thank you, Chairman Lowder, for holding this important hearing today, uh, with the commissioners from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Nuclear energy is critical for our energy security here in the United States. It is affordable, reliable, and clean with, uh, a base load capacity. I'm no stranger to the role and importance of nuclear uh, of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as My district, uh, the twelfth district of Georgia is home to Plant Vogel. Plant Vogel has units three and four, which just came on, uh, operation, and they're the first nuclear reactors built in United States in over three decades. Uh, with units three and four in full commercial operation, Plant Vogel is the largest nuclear power station in the country. I'm proud of all the co-owners who persevered through this project, and it shows America actually can do big things. Plant Vogel three and four were the first nuclear units constructed under ten CFR part fifty-two. Chairman Nye, as I understand it it the promise of this one-step licensing regime is that once the resource intensive licensing and construction of the first plant of a particular design or reference plant in part forty-two parlance has been completed, follow-up on applications to build the same as constructed lead plant design would

Th- thank you, Congressman Allen, for the question. Thank you, Congressman Allen, for the question. Uh we the NRC learned a lot from the Vogel three and four experience in implementing part fifty two and many of those lessons are being brought into some of the broader rule making activities that we are pursuing under the executive order of fourteen three hundred in uh making improvements for greater flexibility in in part fifty two not withstanding we just received the latest revision for the Westinghouse AP one thousand design and that was basically taking what unit four looks like and uh putting that into the certified design we expect to make that safety decision in a credible manner in a in a very um uh expedited uh period of time probably before the end of this year in relation to uh future ap one thousand activities again based on the experience and the certified design we're not looking at things we haven't seen before so an applicant can expect significant

right

uh improvements to the timeliness of a licensing decision

right great good thank you any of the other commissioners wish to weigh in on this process? No comment? Okay. All right. Um. Uh, last Congress we made l- uh, great strides in advancing nuclear energy policy, most not notably with the Advance Act. Provisions for my bill, the Nuclear License Efficiency Act, were signed into law as part of the Advance Act. Part of my bill was to improve the licensing process. Uh, it it and this is for any of the

Yes, thank you for the question, uh, Congressman. Um,

Mm.

I think one of the most,

Mm. Mm.

uh, transformative, uh, under the licensing efficiency is how we communicate with applicants during the license review process. Um, last year, um, the former executive director for operations directed staff, uh, to look at what we call, uh, consultation versus guidance. Um, it is a, uh, a principle that drives staff interactions to not cross the line into where we would be providing any, uh, particular applicant with, uh, additional, uh, information that we wouldn't give to anyone else. Um, that has in the past hindered uh, open and frank exchange. Um, and really when you talk about delays, it is the exchange of this information and requests for additional information where um this lack of understanding can develop and delay the process. And so, uh, what I've heard from stakeholders as they've come in is a dramatic shift uh in how they interact with staff and and the information that they get.

OK. Any other comments? Uh, well, I'm out of time, but I will say we had a dinner last night with Atlantic Energy and I will say,

The gentleman yields back, and the chair now recognizes the gentleman from California's fiftieth district, for five minutes for questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thanks to the witnesses for being here. The San Onofre nuclear generating station or songs uh sits just outside of my district in san diego on a beautiful stretch of the california coast um the spent nuclear fuel at songs is within a hundred feet of the pacific ocean sits near dense population centers an active military base and multiple fault lines the the gao the government accountability office has rated the flood hazard level at the site as high and the wildfire potential as very high right now we are on schedule to fully decommission the plant Uh however one thing that will remain on site after the plan is demolished is the spent nuclear fuel and dry storage. What happens to that spent fuel matters greatly to the people of Southern California and my district in San Diego. Uh my constituents along with many around the country know we need a long-term fix for spent nuclear storage fuel storage. And decades of inaction have led us to where we are today, and we can't wait any longer. I was encouraged to see the Department of Energy's request for information gauging nationwide interest. on which states would be willing to accept spent fuel for quote nuclear's life cycle innovation campuses. I've expressed concern about the consent-based process before. I'm a skeptic a little bit about the viability of getting consent from a a community to take uh the waste for storage. I'm also concerned, if you got consent, that the geology would be appropriate for nuclear storage. Um, but I will be closely monitoring and hope that we can um, since we've chosen this path, we can come up

Uh, n- no, sir. No, sir. We will we will s- stand ready to fulfill our safety. We will we will s- stand ready to fulfill our safety.

Okay, great. One thing that's gotten a lot of attention, um, recently is, is the viability of, uh, spent nuclear fuel recycling, uh, and, um, both for using spent fuel and for shoring up supply change for certain classes of reactors. Uh, I have a bill, the Refuel Act, uh, which I lead with, uh, the Nuclear Refuel Act, which I lead with Chairman Lat- Lata, um, that would streamline the licensing process for certain fuel reprocessing facilities without compromising safety or the nr c s mission. That bill passed out of the senate environmental public works committee in a strong bipartisan vote. I look forward to seeing it in this committee and and hoping that it becomes law. Um, chairman nye if this bill becomes law, will you be able to f- to um license these facilities in a timely manner? Uh, will you do foresee having to do a rule making, how do you think that implementation will go and what will be the challenges we face in getting that um get those facilities into the ground.

Uh, thank you Congressman. Yes, we we envision being able to license these type of facilities in a timely manner. As part of the overall rulemaking efforts under executive order fourteen three hundred there are uh active uh activities at the agency looking at being able to enable uh safe and secure use of these types of technologies. We'll be ready.

OK, great. I just wanna finally say thank you for um all endorsing the concept of bipartisanship. I know there's a lot of uh There's a lot of um, back and forth uh, politically in this town uh, more than I've seen most of my time in Congress. Um, I just ask you to keep your heads down, um, follow the science, do the right thing, uh, and continue to serve the country in an honorable way. And I yield back.

Thank you, the gentleman yields back, just to let members know a a vote has been called. We got two, we have two votes. There's about thirteen minutes left, so what we're gonna do is try to get a couple more members in. The chair recognizes

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and thank you all for being here and I uh have the same sentiment that Mister Peters also has. So thank you for being here today. Uh, Chairman Nii, I I'd like to touch on the commission's process for reviewing upgrade requests to nuclear facilities and increase their generation output. Last year the house passed my bill, the grid power act, which will help expedite certain generation generation projects through grid operators and our connection queues. And recently, FERC has approved requests from grid operators to expedite projects through their queues to increase generation and meet the growing demand. For example, PJM's reliable reliability resource initiative includes five nuclear projects, including four upgrades at nuclear facilities to increase capacity by nearly five hundred megawatts. Can you discuss the NRC's review process for upgrade request at existing nuclear?

Thank you, Congressman, for the question. The NRC has had a power upgrade program for decades and in fact, over over the the years that we've been doing power upgrades, we have approved nearly nine thousand megawatts electric of upgraded capacity. That's equivalent to about nine large nuclear power plants. And we look at power upgrades that are in three different types. We have small upgrades that we call measurement uncertain uncertainty recapture a couple percent. Then we have stretch power up rates which are on the order of seven to ten percent of additional power and then extended power up rates which are either up to twenty percent or perhaps a slightly more so we have a a we we a lot of experience doing this we're using efficiencies and risk informed approaches and we are aligning our organization to to be able to process these license applications in very reasonable periods of time uh we actually have you know uh specific um uh mandates for timeliness for our licensing activities that were uh driven in part

Alright, thank you. Um, Commissioner Wright and Commissioner Weaver, uh, do you have anything that you'd like to add? And do you believe there's any room to safely speed up the review process for stretch or extended power up rates? Minister Wright, go ahead, sir.

Yeah, thank you very much for the for the question. Quite honestly, I think uh staff has been since they've been leaning in in this area in a big way. They've reduced the number of hours that they've uh it's taken to do these up rates and it and it's been on a it's been on a curve that's coming down. And I'm very happy with what I see there um I'm and and encouraged about what they're doing.

Commissioner Wright, Weaver, thank you.

Yep, I agree with what the Chairman and Commissioner Wright have said, that you know using the risk informed techniques um has allowed us to bring these times

Okay, thank you. Back to you, Chairman. The the Advance Act included language directing the NRC to facilitate the licensing of reactors at brownfield sites and increase the efficiency of environmental reviews. Chairman, can you discuss how the commission is implementing this provision of the Advance Act and more broadly how can placing new reactors at brownfield sites help expedite expedite the NRC's NEPA review process and get these reactors up

Thank you, Congressman. Yes, we have implemented many licensing efficiencies that were driven by the advance act, uh and we have uh reflected those also in how we're doing these rule makings. Probably the biggest thing that will really help with brownfield sites is our our uh, reformation of how we do environmental reviews, so we are have made significant changes to uh making sure that we are doing exactly what the National Environmental Policy Act requires, nothing more, nothing less.

Thank you. Um would any others like to comment on that or Yes sir, Mr. Cromwell.

I would just say that um uh

Brownfield.

Thank you very much, and thank you all again for being here. Thank you very much, and thank you all again for being here, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman,

Thank you. The gentleman from New Jersey's eighth district is recognized for five minutes for questions and we have uh eight minutes in the f left in the first vote.

Thank you, Chairman. This is an incredibly important hearing as states such as New Jersey and tech companies are turning to nuclear energy to address rapidly increasing energy demand at the same time we watch President Trump attack our federal agencies and public servants and undermine their ability to carry out their critical missions in service to our country as ranking members Pilon and Castro are the main targets for the current power.

my my understanding remains unchanged i could be fired at any time for any reason by the president

thank you

Yes. Is it normal for a commissioner at a bipartisan, independent federal regulator to fear retaliation from the president of the United States when a commissioner exercises their independent judgment on a matter of jurisdiction, yes or no? Yes. Sorry, it is it is normal? Sorry, it isn't, it is not normal. Thank you.

No, it's not normal.

Yeah, I agree, and it's not normal when the president, for the president of the United States to fire

yes and it has an impact on our ability to um hire and retain uh future employees

Mm-hmm.

So, the nr. c. needs

Yes.

But since President Trump took office, over four hundred employees have left the NRC. According to a Pro Publica report on Doge at NRC, some of the most significant losses are on teams that handle safety. And the NRC has been slow to hire replacement staff, with only sixty new staff hired within the first year of the Trump administration. Uh, Commissioner Crowell, you mentioned earlier that what keeps you up at night is whether the NRC is doing

That's correct.

Can you expand on that?

So, uh, you're correct in that we've, uh, lost, uh, uh, close to five hundred staff over the last, uh, fifteen months. We've hired around s- sixty something. If you look on USA jobs, we've only got a dozen or so openings listed. Most of those are for lawyers. That's not the most critical, uh, need we have at the agency. Um, so, you know, if we don't, uh, start hiring more, quickly for the types of skill sets we need um we're gonna have a trouble fulfilling our mission and uh ensuring that safety and security that what we're responsible for

i appreciate that and speaking of lawyers seth cohen a lawyer who previously had no significant experience in nuclear and nuclear law or policy said that the goal was to turn the nrc into a quote rubber stamp for this administration for everyone just yes or no do you believe that trump's attacks on the nrc's independence and staffing cuts cuts undermines the public's confidence in the nrc and

I don't, uh, as far as being independent, we're we're

But just yes or no, Trump's actions on the staffing cuts, do you think that undermines public confidence in the NRC and in nuclear energy, just yes or no? We'll go down the line.

It's kind of a trick question, but

Think it's very very possible.

Yeah.

Sorry, I don't believe there are attacks on the NRC.

But a commissioner was fired before his term ended. Would you not consider that an attack on the independence of the NRC?

Sir, that was a decision by the President of the United States.

Yes, I think that, uh, amongst many other, uh, challenges are, are, um, wherever that may come from. Uh, the undermining of the independen- independence of the NRC undermines the goals that we are trying to achieve.

Yeah. Since,

Okay,

And I don't feel it.

well, I think it does undermine, and that's the problem, because we can all agree that the NRC's independence is essential to keeping our community safe but commissioning commissioners are publicly testifying that they fear retaliation for going against the president's wishes. Where four hundred career staff at the NRC have left since president Trump took office, they have not been replaced. Those in charge of overseeing staffing changes at the NRC have been quoted saying that the goal is to make the regulator a rubber stamp all while nuclear is increasingly viewed as a key piece to meeting our growing we this is a bipartisan issue that we all should be working on but you but i think we have to be cognizant and aware that the president is undermining these efforts with his actions at the nrc and undermining public confidence in you all and in nuclear energy thank you and i yield back

thank you this gentleman yields back and the subcommittee is is going to take a

yep

can i can i respond very quickly

well uh if we can after we get back because we uh we can take a brief recess uh and we're gonna reconvene

ok alright

ten minutes after the second vote start uh after the second vote starts thank you oh good afternoon uh the subcommittee

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and I appreciate uh the commissioners uh for the work you do and get a lot of compliments uh from a lot of people on uh now moving a little bit more at the speed of uh, speed of need and and getting things processed. Um, we have an important project uh that you all have approved and issued a license to at Abilene Christian University uh for the construction of a small molten, uh, and very proud of uh what Abilene Christian and and the uh Natura uh public-private partnership has done on that. It really marks the first permit for a liquid-fueled advanced reactor and only the second for any adva- advanced reactor issued by by you, by the NRC. Um so Chairman Nien, now that uh ACU's partner Natura has uh demonstrated this and is part of the DOE pilot program uh can you provide a little bit of a clarification and uh uh remarks as to how licensing under that

Yeah, thank thank you, Congressman. As as I mentioned uh in the earlier session that we, the NRC, will use information from the DOE pilot projects to support NRC review for commercial deployment, and what we will do is use that information efficiently. We won't uh, you know, r- redo the work, but we will validate that it meets

I think that's been the frustration of any go- government bureaucracy, is the re-litigating of things that have already been discussed and going from one agency to another that I very much appreciated um and there are industries beyond um the nuclear energy where high consequence activities are undertaken every day oil and gas uh just to name a few aerospace defense uh and the equipment and the components used in these industries are manufactured with safety um and with quality at the forefront uh and the nuclear industry industry supply chain is unique in that the safety related structures and systems and components can generally uh only be provided by a very small pool uh of suppliers um but they've adopted the NQA one quality management standard um and this has the effect of constraining the industry on its supply chain um can you maybe address some of the actions that have been taken to the potential use of uh alternative quality management systems such as those used in other critical industries uh for supplying safety related or structure systems and other components to uh to the nuclear industry specifically

yes sir there are already existing provisions in nrc requirements where through classification of safety systems they can use commercial grade items uh provided they you know move through uh uh a structured process to determine the components um safety significance what we're doing further than that in these rules that we're developing under the executive order we are uh taking that same concept to be able to apply flexibility so that uh designers of uh nuclear systems and applicants can really focus their attention on what is most important to safety in terms of the quality assurance requirements for safety related components. So we already do that in our frameworks already and we're taking that and expanding it further into the licensing process. And again, this is gonna help you really accelerate the deployment safely because we just wanna make sure that the components that are most important to safety are the ones that have have high levels of quality there are other things that may have functions that are more important to safety.

Chairman, as you um we've talked about here, there's several pieces of legislation that we've passed in the past couple of years. Um, with the intent of allowing us to compete, to move quicker, to be more efficient, you've just answered several questions on that. Um, wh- wh- what is it that will get us to that A plus grade? Because I'm worried about the amount of electrons that are uh being generated, and and the demand that we see increasing. That's a good problem for us to have, but we have to compete. worldwide and what gets us to the A plus level that we're not doing, whether it's us or or you or the Department of Energy.

Well, uh, it anything that gets to shovels in the ground to start in construction safely with, uh, you know, NRC approvals of applications that come before us. We're we're doing the groundwork now to de- develop these licensing frameworks that are gonna provide a wide variety of options for different types of use cases deployment models design maturities to come to the NRC and, experience a disciplined and predictable process with a robust safety decision. So those options are gonna be available once we complete our rule making activities. The NRC, we're we're waiting for more applications. You know, we are open for business.

We

We're developing the workforce and the technical competence to be able to do that. And under the executive director's leadership, we're implementing a structured and disciplined manage model management model to to really execute our uh safety mission with discipline.

What what percentage of the grid in the future should be serviced by nuclear?

It I it was question.

What percentage of our grid should be serviced in a perfect world by the nuclear uh component?

I I can't give give a number there. I really think that's for the, you know, the energy providers to really decide, but whatever they decide upon, if it's nuclear, we'll we'll be ready for it.

You're back. Thank you.

Thank you very much, gentlemen. Yo's back. The chair recognizes the gentleman from California's fifteenth district, with five minutes for questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, commissioners, for your testimony. So California and the San Francisco Bay Area, which I am proud of, to represent our home to many startups, developing the next generation of vision technology, also known as advanced nuclear reactors. Their designs are fundamentally different from legacy reactors and encompass a variety of technologies that have the potential to be safer. While our existing regulations were not designed for these technologies, I am encouraged by your commission's recently introduced part fifty-three regulations which could give our innovators more flexibility and predictability. However,

Thank you, Congressman. Through the NRC's licensing process, the NRC staff makes many all of its meetings essentially publicly available, unless they're specifically closed when proprietary information is discussed. I I assure you that we will continue that same process to have all our

Mm.

discussions with applicants being done in in the public. Of course, members of the public have opportunities to participate in the in the contested hearing process as well. So those are that is not changing.

Thank you for that. And the US has not had a nuclear accident in nearly fifty years, in large part thanks to the commission's work and the industry's uncompromising focus on safety. I fully support our innovators and wanna make sure that they are part of this safety culture. So, Chairman, Again, could you discuss the importance of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations in creating this culture and where innovative start-ups can play an important role?

Yes, th- thank you for the question, and I can speak from a very unique position because I worked at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations for a brief period of time before returning to the commission. The high levels of safety and secure uh safety that exist today and reliability in the operating nuclear power plants have really been made possible by the work of INE Of course, th- it's a larger ecosystem when you're talking about nuclear safety and reliability. The NRC has a role, our license holders have a role, as well as INPO, but I - I assure you that INPO's processes are, you know, focused on safe and reliable operation and achieving a level of excellence in nuclear power operations and I think that they have provided extraordinary benefit to America because the operating fleets today are operating at levels of safety and reliability that are the highest they've been in a long time.

Great, thank you for that. I yield back.

Thank you very much. The gentleman yields back and the chair now recognizes the gentlelady from Tennessee's first district for five minutes for questions.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and thank you to the witnesses for being here today. Um, I understand that the commission is updating its regulations with the advisory committee on reactor safeguards. And my understanding is that these changes will direct ACRS' advice to focus on the most important novel and safety significant issues. So, Chairman Nii, uh, can you share why this is so important and after more than half a century of business as usual why what the urgency is for the NRC and ACRS to change their approach?

Yes, thank you, Congressman. The uh, the importance of the ACRS uh reviews and input into the licensing and decision process is very important, especially for new and novel technologies. Now that we have gained s- uh so much experience over the decades of existing technologies their their role i- is not really uh that important anymore, so having the ACRS focus on new and novel things that we have not encountered

Yeah.

is is is very important having them operate efficiently is also important

Yes.

because as you know the ACRS review contributes to the overall time it takes to a licensing decision so i i can share with you that the acrs on its own initiative

yes

has taken steps to be more efficient and focus their activities on um what what is required and through these rule makings we will further solidify that in the nrc's regulations to make sure that acrs focus on its statutory mandates

yeah

again nothing more nothing less and then focusing their reviews on matters related to nuclear safety

ok do you think that a clarification in law One that says that ACRS should focus on new safety significant designs could help put safety first and and uh get the best work out of the committee.

Uh, I believe any time laws can be clarified, it would be helpful.

Yeah, that's a novel idea, isn't it? So Um, in my district we have a project to produce highly enriched uranium for naval reactors. It's under the NNSA's defense fuels program. Uh, it's critical to our national defense, and this will be the first time since nineteen ninety-two that our country will begin

So, early engagement is what I call that, right? And it it's it's it's really critical for us to for people who are looking

Yeah. I agree.

So we can understand what's the new and novel things,

Yeah.

what is what's unique that maybe, do we have the expertise to review it or do we need to go find that?

Right.

Or is there something they haven't looked at that they need to go do and and supply to us? And all that does is help the applicant or potential applicant and the NRC prepare the most robust application possible which is going to move everything to the left, because it can be, it can

Yeah, I I agree. You know, it's rare to see a federal agency move with such speed. Uh, and we know the window for advanced nuclear energy won't stay open forever, and it's it'll slam shut if we compromise safety and public trust. And I understand the commission's made significant changes to its react uh reactor oversight process. So, Commissioner Wright, can you tell me how the commission conducts its baseline inspections today compared to prior practices and what are those changes?

So the ROP is a living document. And and it it it can change uh over time.

Yeah.

The you've had improvements in the plan operation, you you heard about Info and and what they do,

Yeah.

so they have peer review going on as well.

Yeah.

So uh we we need to be um constantly reviewing in how we can be more efficient, and under our new mission statement to lean in and enable the safe use and deployment of nuclear technologies. Uh, and I think through the RIP and the changes that we're making it, we're not cutting safety here,

Right.

uh, it it it all. Uh, in fact, we're still gonna have two resident inspectors in every plant in this country. We're not, nobody's getting rid of that. But it's it's allowing our inspectors to do and to to, uh, follow the most safety significant issues in areas in plant operation.

Well, I've got lots more questions, but I will enter them into the record for you. So thank you, sir, uh, for answering and I yield back.

Well, thank you very much, John Lee.

thank you chairman latta and ranking member castor for holding this hearing and thank you to our witnesses for being here today uh any coherent strategy to boost american independence uh energy independence improve energy reliability and drive down energy costs for the american people involves a robust well regulated and safe nuclear energy sector and to that extent an independent and well resourced nuclear thank you regulatory commission is critical in supporting the renewed growth of this industry and ensuring that we are keeping safety top of mind. So I'm concerned by recent actions from the Trump administration that undermine this independence of the NRC particularly executive orders of fourteen three hundred and fourteen three O one which seek to impose structural changes and reforms to the NRC and shift oversight authority of the development and construction of advanced nuclear test reactors, These reforms flout congressional intent that the NRC function, independent of the Department of Energy, is staffed by technical experts that possesses the critical knowledge to oversee and regulate this important industry. And efforts to reduce the NRC's independence weaken our ability to effectively regulate the industry undermine public perception that nuclear energy is safe reliable and robustly regulated. And these concerns have been by a proposed eight percent reduction in the NRC's budget and a staffing cut of a hundred and ninety-six full-time positions outlined in the fiscal year twenty-seven budget request released earlier this month so I want to pick up with the witnesses where ranking member Pilon left off and ask about NRC's changes to the reactor oversight process it's inspection program for existing operating nuclear reactors now I understand that the cumulative changes by the R R two will result in a thirty eight percent reduction in inspection hours, including a forty eight percent reduction in inspecting inspection hours for security and fifty six percent reduction in inspection hours for emergency preparedness. While there's always room for efficiency, I highly doubt that there's room for a thirty eight percent reduction while maintaining our reactor fleet's current safety standards. And I'm concerned that the NRC has gone through a tremendous loss of staff in just over the last fifteen months and with this ROP change, partners with the agencies reorganization, we will see further shedding of knowledge that the commission cannot afford. And I understand the commission's plan to convert many of these employees currently working on inspections to work on new reactor licenses, but I am concerned that these are very different skill sets. So, Commissioner Crowell, can staff currently working as inspectors, transcribe

Uh, thank you for the question. It it is certainly uh possible and has happened in the past, but it's not necessarily easy in in to um move from one discipline to the other. Uh, and I can say right now I don't I haven't seen a lot of appetite from uh, inspection staffs that um uh are impacted by our reorganization uh to necessarily want to move into other areas. Um, but to the extent they do, we will we will make sure that they're successful in in that regard. Uh, but So, uh, yeah.

Thank you. And if we see the current wave of interest in nuclear energy actually materialize in the form of operating reactors, then ten years from now you're gonna have fewer staff trying to oversee and inspect many, many more reactors. So, Commissioner Crowell, how should the commission allocate resources between reactor licensing and reactor oversupply? And how should that uh allocation of resources shift if and when new advanced nuclear reactors uh come online?

I mean it it certainly needs it needs to be balanced as appropriate. Um, my my concern in the near term is that we're we're we're moving too aggressively, too quickly. Uh, in terms of the oversight program, um, the commission ultimately approved um, uh, uh, scaling back that for even further than the staff recommended. Um, that concerns me because we don't have a uh the experience yet.

That's right. Um,

Mm.

and Chairman Nee, uh, for the record, cuz I don't think you'll have enough time to answer, we've seen an increased number of cyber security threats to energy, infrastructure. So can you submit for the record how these changes to the NRC's ROP and security inspection protocols will impact cyber security oversight and how the NRC will work to ensure its cyber security inspection protocols remain robust enough to ensure our nation's nuclear power plants follow best practices and are prepared to withstand targeted cyber attacks uh from line actors. You could submit that for the record, I'd appreciate it, and with that I yield back.

Thank you very much, Jill, I yield this back, the chair now recognizes the gentleman from South Carolina's seventh district for five minutes for questions.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, uh Commissioner, it's good to see you uh today. South Carolina knows the value of nuclear energy, uh our state, uh in our state nuclear power is not theoretical, it's a very much a tremendous part of the fabric of who we are, uh supports our economy, our grid reliability and certainly our energy future. Uh South Carolina has been a leader for decades, quite frankly, in this space and um I think In the district that I represent, the Robinson nuclear plant in Darlington County is a clear example of that value. It supports hundreds of jobs, keeps the lights on across the region, and serves as a major economic anchor uh in the surrounding community. Commissioner Wright, good to see you, sir. Um, uh thanks for being here today, and wanted to uh inquire about the current status of Duke Energy's subsequent license renewal application which would extend the operating life of the Robinson plant through twenty fifty uh the facility of course is a

Well, thank you for uh one your comments and um Robinson is uh very near and dear to me as well. I did my very first resident for a day um visit was at Robinson and had a great, great time, great experience working with the staff that is the with the licensees people as well. Um so I know they're going through the the license Um, and several components to that. And the NRC has over the last, I don't know, year or so we've really leaned in and efficiencies that we've gained in these reviews are moving things along very quickly. Um, uh, so I I can't tell you, uh, exactly where the process is, but I can tell you they're ahead of schedule, uh, and right now. And so I would look for things happening pretty soon.

Great. Thank you so much for that. On a separate note, Commissioner, uh, as directed by the bipartisan Advance Act, the nr c is moving to expedite licensing at existing sites um i think this is great news

take a

uh for predictable efficient regulations obviously i think you all unanimously say that um cutting the time um for licensing well characterized technologies it can be helpful to employ existing uh at existing sites in south carolina can you describe how leveraging information was part of the licensing basis of an existing site can help expedite future licensing processes

Oh yeah, I mean, we just gotta get first, if we stay in our lane and we do what we're supposed to do efficiently, and and we can reference anything else that's out there, that anybody else, uh that ground has already been plowed and uh that that helps move things forward. You've had changes to NEPA, right, you've we've com committed as a commission and our staff has bought in and and made those commitments to shrink that the review timelines without compromising safety. Safety is our Nor- North Star. You know, uh you've heard me

Thank you for that, Chairman. You're on the hot seat now. Uh, not really. Uh, Santee Cooper and Brookfield are moving toward completing the two AP one thousand units at VC summer. which was a few years ago a dirty word in South Carolina. Um, because the combined licenses were terminated in twenty nineteen, the project will require new construction and operating license uh applications. Given that the site and design uh have been extensively reviewed before, uh and that the same AP one thousand design is now operating at Vogel, uh what is the commission doing to ensure that it can lever leverage prior work and give applicants a predictable accelerated pathway rather than a cold start?

Thank you, Congressman, for the question. Yeah, we're we're thinking about that as well, and recently the NRC staff made publicly available a an information paper that describes the different options for situations like uh the the Santee Cooper project as well so we do not expect to again re- retread the tire on this those these units are already operating safely in reliability in Georgia at the Vogel three and four the there's a certified design that we're updating based on the experience from Vogel four so should an application come to NRC to resume that,

Efficient government, what an oxymoron, I love it.

It's great, I it it's unbelievable, you know I left the government for five years and and came back to an amazing agency, the the the turn that this agency has made to be an enabling regulator after two decades at this NRC is just incredible, I am so honored to be part of this uh defining moment for the NRC along with my colleagues.

Thank you uh, Chairman, Commissioner Ryan, all commissioners, thank you for being here in your testimony today. With that, Mister Chairman, I yield back.

The gentleman yields back, and the chair now recognizes the gentleman from Massachusetts fourth district for five minutes for questions.

Thank you, Chairman. I appreciate the commissioners being here. Um, and I just wanna start really by echoing the comments previously made by uh Congressman uh Peters, which is to say um you know as best as possible at a highly partisan moment in Washington, really try to continue to do the work that you've been doing, which is um non-partisan, uh technically sound and oriented towards how do we have a nuclear renaissance in this country, which to lower energy bills, to take bold climate action, we desperately need. And I've been monitoring closely the rules, the culture, the orientation of nrc and i think overall it's trending in the right direction so um try to continue to do that good work um chairman nee let me uh address my first question to you regarding uh alara uh the nrc plans to start a rule making process to revise the nrc's radiation protection regulatory framework specifically looking at reliance on the linear no threshold or l n t model for radiation exposure and the as low as reasonably achievable or alara standard uh i think we need to modernize our protection standards and and ensure that the regulations are based on the best available science. An Idaho national lab report from last year notes that "for members of the general public, the current dose limit of one hundred millirem per year also appears to be overly restricted given the lack of observable effects at much higher levels of natural background radiation experienced by millions of people worldwide." Chairman Neat, can you explain why updating these regulations is important, both in terms of reducing the cost of constructing and operating nuclear power plants, and in terms of correcting misconceptions

Yes, thank you for the question, Congressman. It is important because any time we can have clarity and predictability in our regulatory frameworks that makes the regulatory process better so I can't comment on the details of this uh modernization of our radiation protection framework, but what I will say in the context of ALARA, ALARA that principle is an open-ended expectation that's unbounded and how you define what's reasonable may be very different than what I

So in terms of achieving that clarity, the idea how National Labs advised a whole body whole body dose limit of five thousand millirems per year, and to eliminate uh all as low as reasonably achievable requirements and subsequent limits below that threshold, is that the approach? that you're planning on taking with the new regulations or are there other proposals that you're evaluating?

So we we are taking an approach again without uh being able to share the specific details of the rule we're we're looking to provide clarity and structure into our rules for radiation protection that uh will be able to uh provide great greater flexibility and still keep the public's uh protection at

Right.

you know as a priority.

So it sounds like you're taking other proposals into account besides the Idaho Hub National Labs proposal?

Yes, it's not a carbon copy of what what Idaho has has suggested,

Okay.

but what I will say,

Okay.

Congressman, is when the the commission completes its deliberations, we will timely make that rule uh publicly available for comment. This I believe this is gonna be an important rule that we receive stakeholder comment on.

Very much so. No, I agree. And and as you said, it's critically important that this is a transparent apolitical and scientific process. I think this getting this rule right really matters. Um, we know that there's gonna be a lot of, you know, swirl around this. and you really gotta nail it down scientifically, you gotta get input, you gotta uh uh uh respond to the input, otherwise it could risk public's distrust. And we we don't wanna do that cuz we've got momentum, we got more momentum now than we've had in twenty five years probably, so on this issue let's really keep it up. And you know as this rule proceeds, I I think we the next step is we wanna look at codifying it in statute, right? We wanna evaluate how the rule, what it what it looks like ultimately, but I think um to prevent potential misinterpretation, interpretations of it down the road between the epa and the nrc in particular, probably we're gonna have to put uh updated rules into statute form. And so please come to congress and and work with us on that as well. I yield back.

Thank you very much. The gentleman yields back. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from Texas's twelfth district for five minutes for questions.

Right.

Chair recognizes the gentleman from Colorado's eighth district for five minutes Excuse me.

Chairman, ranking member, thank you so much uh for this hearing. Thank you of course uh to our witnesses for taking some time to come. Uh, no question about it. Energy demand is only going up in Colorado and across the country. Uh, electric utilities in my district have told told me they're going to need to triple the amount of power over the next ten years that they have on the grid to meet growing demand and that's after already doubling in the last ten years. Um, but unfortunately we have policies colorado from the democrats that run the state of colorado that are gonna cost sixty one billion additional dollars to push failed energy policies that can't even keep the lights on um republicans the administration and congress were focused on making sure that we have safe affordable reliable energy and nuclear is absolutely key to that approach uh we need the base load dispatchable power in colorado to prevent blackouts in high demand areas like denver international airport and to make sure that we can uh, these public safety power shutoffs, ones happening right now in Colorado because we've got an old, weak, dumb grid and generation sources. Um, but unfortunately many folks still oppose nuclear energy out of environmental and safety concerns, even though half of all carbon-free electricity in the United States comes from nuclear generation and that sounds pretty uh pretty environmentally friendly to me. And we also know that it's safe. Uh, somebody who works at a nuclear power plant, Mar- nuclear power plant is exposed to a hundred times less radiation and on an on an annual basis than i am just flying back and forth from uh from colorado to washington d. c. and so uh chairman nee my first question will be to you um many folks understanding of nuclear energy is unfortunately limited to previous disasters now i know we've talked about safety here um but would love uh any additional thoughts that you have on why nuclear generation with today's technology is safer than ever before what is the administration doing to increase uh that safety to promote that safety and then also the transparency of those safety measure measures so people can feel secure and confident in modern nuclear technology

thank you congressman the the levels of safety that exist today are they exist because of a much broader ecosystem that i referred to before it's the the robust regulations and the dedicated staff and inspectors at the nrc and the people that do the it's the highly trained and qualified operators that are in the control room operating the facilities it's the robustly designed facilities themselves, it's the institute of nuclear power operation, it's how this industry, this global industry shares operating experience when things occur at facilities, that information is disseminated very rapidly so people can learn from that experience and one strength of this industry is that it's a it's a continuous learning organization and that's one thing that's really been driven um into this industry by the institute of nuclear power operations so i believe that you you know this this when when you look at the data of safety performance in terms of the number of unplanned shutdowns unplanned power changes number of consequential events, safety significant inspection findings they are all trending in a direction that shows very high levels of safety performance so it's really uh of uh it's a team sport in in nuclear safety and it's not just the federal government, it's the federal government and the industry itself.

So, something that sticks out in people's minds from forty or fifty years ago in terms of uh things that went wrong in nuclear facilities, that just it is that really something that can even happen today with the combination of technology and cultural advancements in the safety space that we've made?

We've learned a lot, Congressman, and now many of the advanced designs, including the Vogel three and four AP one thousands use passive safety features, which do not rely on electric power and

Excellent. Um,

Great.

to make sure that we have more nuclear, we know we need permitting reform. Um, I'm actually uh one of the colleagues with one of my colleagues rep peters across the aisle for a permitting reform framework, that includes a

Y- yes, uh, the, you know, the mandatory hearing process is is a vestige of of the past. It was a way to get information out there and to the public, and we have many means of communication now in our in the transparency of our licensing processes. So the NRC is actively looking

Mm-hmm. thank you you're back

thank you very much gentlemen you're back the chair now recognizes the general lady from washington's eighth district for five minutes for questions

thank you mister chairman and thank you to our witnesses the nuclear regulatory commission uh is the world's gold standard nuclear regulator. It gives the American public trust in our government to regulate this energy source safely. And we cannot give up that momentum or trust we've gotten so far to make this, uh, topic bipartisan. Uh, but when this president fires and threatens to fire commissioners and directs them to rubber stamp pro projects, it erodes the public's trust for the NRC to work as a dependable and independent regulator. We've seen this in other agencies. The public just needs to have confidence about safety assurances, and those assurances on safety will allow even more bipartisanship hearing committee like the Advance Act. So I uh I wanna thank you all for your independence and work during this time of change. I'd like to transition to the licensing proj process and some red tape. And we just heard some of this about the mandatory hearing requirement. Um i believe and you just heard that it is one good place to start even when no one's contesting the approval of a license for reactor nrc still has to hold this unnecessary hearing that takes thousands of nrc man hours and months to prepare for and so to start i'd love to just go down the line uh we already got your opinion mister chairman but we'll do it with you too um just yes or no do you support dropping the requirement for mandatory hearing in the licensing process When there is no opposition.

Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

I love that unanimity. Thank you. Uh, you should know uh that I was proud to introduce H R five five four nine, the efficient nuclear licensing hearings act with representatives Griffith and VC, which would do just that. My bill cuts red tape by dropping the mandatory hearing requirement when no one objects to the project and only after environmental and safety reviews. public consultation is required. Uh I would encourage the chair and ranking member to consider taking up uh this needed reform uh i that is bipartisan. Um now I'd love to just pivot to fuel supply here in the United States. Uh we talk a lot about national security and uh domestic supply chain. Uh it is feeling increasingly urgent as our geopolitical adversaries dominate the global

Mm.

while nuclear energy demand is is getting more and more support, and is growing in the United States and abroad. And on the enrichment step of the fuel cycle, Russia has forty-five percent of the world's uranium enrichment capacity, and the US has only one enrichment plant at this point. Thanks to bipartisan action here, DOE just awarded two point seven billion dollars for the US to build out Helium and LEU enrichment. critical for our supply chains and security in advancing energy independence. Um, Commissioner Crowell, what what reforms in Congress would help ensure that we can get these domestic commercial enrichment facilities up and running as quickly and safely as possible, and prior while prioritizing your safety mission?

Thank you for the question. I'm not sure I'm familiar with all the uh uh proposals before Congress, but I can assure you

i agree and and uh there are ways of building

i agree and uh uh

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Thank you, representative. So, the mandatory hearing also applies to enrichment facilities because of section one ninety-three of the Atomic Energy Act. So that's one opportunity. Um, in addition, enrichment facilities are held to a higher account and uh they're not allowed to start construction at risk. Where

i agree i feel that uh that seems common sense doesn't compromise safety it allows progress you know kind of simultaneously with the permitting process and nothing's gonna be permitted if it's not safe so uh i'm over time i yield back thank you very much.

General Leader yields back, Chair now recognizes himself for five minutes. This is a question for all of you guys, I'll I'll use that term, all the witnesses. The NRC has published a number of final and proposed rules to implement the requirements of executive order fourteen thousand three hundred. Y'all familiar with that executive order? Good. Ordering the reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, quote unquote. So my question is, and we'll start down then with you, Commissioner Wright, how far is the NRC into that process of overhauling its regulations to achieve that goal?

Thank you, we've got a number of rule makings right now that are going through. I wanna say we're thirty one to thirty six ish, if I'm if if subject to check. Um, but and we're moving forward very quickly on on this, um, and it very efficiently as well. So stay tuned. You know, we're dropping them once, you know, they're they've already dropped like fifty-three's already dropped. We we got others right behind it.

Okay, Commissioner.

Um.

To to build on what my colleague said, um, we are uh uh on track to finish by the um the the timeline set in the executive order of um late this year

Mr. Chairman.

y- yes sir uh we are very far down the process of implementing the those provisions in the executive order that you reference. Uh it there's sections five alpha through five Juliet J that we uh consider to be the most significant ones and we are on track to have those in final form by the end of this year.

And Commissioner.

I agree. And uh I wanna thank my colleagues for all of the work that we've done over the past few

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

The um the Advance Act actually got the staff started on micro-reactor rulemaking The um the Advance Act actually got the staff started on micro- reactor rulemaking And that's one of the first proposed rules that I looked at when I took my role on the commission. It was, I I think it's a a well-based rule, and you'll see that soon, and I agree with the other comments that my fellow commissioners have made.

Well, you're, you must be reading my mail here, because you're asking the next question I was gonna ask. What's the most meaningful change that y'all are embarking on the prac in response to these categories? You've named one. Let's go to you, Mr. Marzano, for what what do you think, the most meaningful change in y'all's process?

I mean there's a lot. Uh I I will say I I do wanna kinda highlight our cooperation with Department of Energy on the development of test reactors et cetera. In uh twenty nineteen Congress passed the Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act that truly envisioned this cooperation between uh NRC and DOE in demonstrating reactors and getting them commercialized uh and I think what you're seeing now is is the fruits of that labor. Um and so I'm very encouraged that we will be able to effectively manage uh conflicts of interest those kinds of things. and our own independence in that process. And so I think that that's been one of the most transformational uh aspects of of our role in the community.

Okay, Mr. Chairman, to you.

Y- y- yes, sir. There there are again so many, it's hard to just pick one, but I I would just maybe give you a a flavor a few flavors. The optionality that we're providing for applicants is going to be uh v- very very significant. The other part is also using risk-informed approaches in our licensing frameworks to give flexibility for a- applications to meet uh objectives instead of having prescriptive requirements. So that's uh great. And then one that's r- very more practical in terms of accelerating licensing, all the things that we're doing to streamline our environmental reviews.

Yeah, you can go up on the scroll.

Uh, to add uh to the list of importance of my colleagues have said uh I would add the efforts we're doing to streamline and make the front-end of the fuel cycle more efficient. Um, uh, if we don't succeed there without uh without fuel, we're not gonna have any uh more nuclear power, so we need to have uh that as a in place.

Mister Wright.

I'm gonna give you two things, one I'd um the mission statement itself was big and it everything that the executive orders are calling for, the mission statement, it it all falls underneath that. Um and then the second is a full commission. We have a full commission, again, that you know when we had when we were down to three it's hard, but with five it makes it work.

Okay. Mister Chairman, this is

Well, uh, uh

You're wondering how much time do we have?

Yeah, I actually uh, I I actually can't wait to get to work the next day to keep going on these things. You know, the the things that I guess keep me up at night is really the the dedicated staff of the NRC. You know, they are working so hard. They these are among the most dedicated people I have ever worked with in my entire career. And I wanna make sure that they have the the the knowledge, the skills and the resources to be able to get the job done. So I I think about the team at the NRC.

Okay, well that's my time. Thank you for that. I'm gonna yield back and recognize the gentlelady from Texas for at least five minutes.

Well, thank you so much, uh, Mister Chairman. Um, and thank you to our witnesses for being here with us today and for your dedicating your careers to the safety of nuclear energy in our country. Uh, like many of my colleagues, I have been deeply concerned um about the independence of the NRC, uh especially given the pressure from the White House, the Department of Energy, and the so-called Doge effort. Uh, since President Trump took office last year, we have seen a consistent campaign of consolidating power in the White House. Uh, it's not limited to the NRC, but certainly uh we have seen an overall effort to weaken independent agencies. And several former NRC officials have publicly warned that this type of intervention at the NRC will pose serious safety risks and slow the deployment of nuclear energy. So everyone in this room, um everyone who's left and everyone who regularly serves on this committee, uh knows that we need urgently to get more generation online uh to meet growing demand we've had hearing after hearing about that, um and it's hugely important but it can't be an excuse to create regulatory process that is influenced by politics and this industry in particular cannot afford to lose public trust, as you all know. Last week during a hearing before this committee, uh, Energy Secretary Wright rebuked, uh, a DOE employee, Seth Cohen, who had proclaimed, and I think you all probably know this, but just to make sure, proclaimed that the NRC would do whatever DOE told it to do. And I heard you, Commissioner Marzano, talking about the good collaboration between, uh, DOE and NRC. So, you know, I obviously that is a good sign. Um, but I am concerned about the statement. I'm very glad that the secretary said he didn't agree with the statement, certainly. Um, but it is still a concern that he could have that influence and that that kind of attitude could perve could, um, go pervade the the thinking. Um, and so, you know, right now his LinkedIn profile says that he's

thank you congresswoman for the question uh i can confirm that thank you congresswoman for the question uh i can confirm that mister cohen is a doe employee who is on detail to the rc mister cohen is a doe employee who is on detail to the nrc my experience with mister Cohen is the exact opposite of what was described. I heard the energy secretary say last week that he is passionate about implementing the executive order and seeing the safe deployment of nuclear energy. That has been my experience with mister Cohen. I've only spoken with him maybe a couple of times by video. He I don't believe he's in the area here, but what I have seen in in my interactions with mister Cohen is that he um, has given some innovative thinking, some new ideas to the NRC. I am not seeing or

Okay, well. Well, thank you for that, Mister Chairman, and and I do hope you all can see why that is a concern, and I hope you share that concern. I see your heads nodding, so I'm gonna take it in the affirmative that everyone uh shares that concern. So, Mister Chairman, with that I also wanna give you an opportunity to clar- clarify a little bit, um adding to what you just said about how the NRC is working together uh with the DOA, specifically specifically on the reactor pilot program. Um, can you talk about how the NRC staff that are detailed to the department are helping the department?

Ye- yes, yes, I can. And I just had a very uh one-on-one engagement when one of our details from the NRC over to the Department of Energy and what NRC is doing, is observing the DOE authorization process and providing technical input and insights into how the design is maturing and how it it could transition over to licensing for uh the NRC and I'll give you a example so this staff member was observing the testing of an important component for a design the shutdown control rod system and he noticed something about the reliability of the system and the tests that they were performing and had some questions and based on that input DOE performed additional tests to confirm the reliability of the system and that's how nrc is adding value this whole thing that the DOE is doing to test these reactors it's what we need to do as a country to test these technologies before they go down the path for commercialization. So from my perspective, Congresswoman, we are doing what we need to do as a unified federal government to deploy nuclear technology safely in America.

Okay. Well, thank you, Chairman, and I think I have time to get one more thing in here, which is I know earlier this month, NRC published a draft rule to govern how the commission would assess reactor designs that had previously gone through authorization by DOE and DOD. And so, Chairman, can you just confirm that the proposed rule would put the onus on reactor applicants to detail how reviews by doe and dod adhere to the nrc's safety and testing requirements and that they aren't getting a special fast pass

that's correct any applicant has to demonstrate that it meets nrc's requirement with the information so support that

ok well thank you so much i've gone over my time thank you all again for your testimony and for your work and with that madam chair i will yield back

right well thank you all for being here today uh i know uh Recognize myself for my five minutes of questioning. Uh, we are at a pivotal moment for American energy policy as energy demand continues to grow. Congress and the administration have both taken steps to accelerate the deployment of nuclear technologies through the Advance Act and also recent executive orders. But with that momentum comes our central challenge, ensuring that efforts to increase efficiency and speed do not come at of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's core mission of safety, independence, and public trust. Deployment expands the NRC's ability to effectively coordinate with partners like the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense, while still maintaining its independent regulatory authority will be critical. I appreciate you all being here with us today and providing us with your insight and your expertise. I'll just start with a question for you, Commissioner Wright. Uh, following the completion of phased cyber security inspections and their integration into the reactor oversight process in twenty twenty two, how is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission evaluating whether emerging cyber threats warrant updates or enhancements to its current cyber framework?

Cyber is a cyber is a a thing, right? Um, and if you, if you're not careful it can turn into a black hole uh for cost and things like that. I do know that we're uh we're staying in touch with every every agency that has anything to say about this, um, and that we are uh working closely with our inside people to make sure that we're doing it right, that it's structured correctly, right? That it's right sized as well. Um, uh because we have to tell,

I know the commission uh developed a cyber security road map back in twenty seventeen.

Yes.

Uh, do you believe it is it is necessary or are you already uh working on any sort of update to that road map?

Yes, this I I believe, subject to check, that that is happening, yes. There's it's under re- it's under review, things sort of.

Uh, Chairman Nee then, back to you. Uh, do you have anything to add on uh the questions that I just directed to Commissioner Wright about uh the current cyber security posture and the twenty seventeen road map?

Y- yes, the regulatory controls are in place for robust protection against cyber threats. The NRC continuously monitors uh information

And, Chairman, the Congress directed the commission through the Advance Act to enable efficient, predictable, and timely licensing while maintaining safety. Uh, executive order fourteen three hundred builds on that by accelerating the commission's efforts to monitor and monitor the threat, and the commission's efforts to monitor and monitor the threat.

They work hand in hand, they're complimentary, the the timelines that were driven by Nemo and further complimented by the executive order we are already working toward that, we are building review schedules to meet those timelines, and in some cases beating those timelines. This is how much change is happening at the NRC. We have made so many improvements into how we actually make the decision, focusing.

Do you believe any additional congressional action is necessary to reconcile or clarify these directives?

Uh, I I would like to maybe respond on on the record for that, to give that

Alright, well thank you all for being here and for your testimony here today. At this time At this time, I will recognize the gentleman from Texas for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, today's hearing I think is is very important and I think that any fu- any future hearings on this topic are hugely important because I I really do believe that we are headed towards uh uh, you know, a a calamity if we don't act soon. Um, I think the electrification issue in this country is something that needs to be addressed immediately. Uh, you know, we have the driverless cars, for instance, uh, that are all electric in Austin, and you see them everywhere in downtown Austin. I lived three hours from Austin, I lived in Fort Worth, but I was in Los Angeles, they were everywhere. And the electrification and and people moving more and more into these products, and and with every everything else has happened and with the controversy around data centers, we're just going to need more energy, more electrification, and I think the nuclear has to be a part of that mix. We're not going to get around the nuclear piece. Uh, we're the number one producer of renewable energy in this country, in Texas, and and and even with the large amounts that we produce in the lone star state, it's not going to be enough for everything that we need in a state of thirty plus million people. Uh, and so, uh, we have to have real power. showing up for the american public each and every day um and we need to be honest uh uh about another major benefit that nuclear energy helps protect us consumers from price spikes uh when crude and natural gas prices started to surge because of uh uh this war that is being fought right now in iran you started to see everybody's utility bills go up their gas bills go up uh and grid operators are also going to feel the the squeal nuclear pan plants once they get operating they really do provide a very uh stable cost over long term horizons and can and can reduce over-reliance on volatile commodity markets and uh in places like texas and nationwide i think that that's going to matter a lot and so the challenge before us i believe is clear uh can america scale nuclear deployment uh while preserving the gold standard of safety uh and i believe that we can do that uh Congress has acted in bipartisan ways before to modernize licensing and help move these technologies uh forward, uh but laws on paper are not enough. Implementation is really what counts. And so that's going to be uh the challenge is making sure that we have a nimble and efficient NRC that can really uh help us. Otherwise, I think that we could be headed towards some sort of a paralysis and that's that's not going to be good. Uh, I wanted to ask uh the question, um, how do we

I'll go back to one thing that was kind of glossed over uh at one point. The staff have recently issued a an inform information paper in anticipation of the uh AP one thousand uh design change rule that's coming to the commission. Um, looking back to the last renaissance, there was a number of licensing actions, various early site permits, combined. uh, operating license, um, applications that have been approved, um, but have gone stale at this point. And I think picking up on where the the the agency left off and and where we see interest in in uh reinvigorating these uh these projects that were once envisioned, um, that's the kind of low hanging fruit I think that we can see right now, um, where there is significant um, NRC staff resource that has alway already been put into evaluating those those applications. And so I think we start, um, in terms of new construction, uh, looking at what has already been done, um, and then of course, um, plant restarts is another big area, and and upgrades. So we have a lot of, uh, in the in the near term, uh, solutions that that that the NRC can be a part of in in helping address bringing electronics to the grid faster and,

Yeah.

yeah.

Yeah. Let me ask you this and this and and anyone can jump in and ans- answer this. From a national security standpoint, do you think that it's important that when it comes being able to deploy nuclear quickly and efficiently and safely that the US lead in that area or does it really not matter if other countries are doing it more quickly and more efficiently than us

sir if i may uh yes i i believe it is important for national security our energy

yeah

security is our national security as well what we do here we can help our allies around the world uh and again i think it is important for national security just to add on your your previous question what can make things go faster investing in the people at the NRC, the technical competence, the leaders, our operations with discipline and efficiency in how we do business. These are the investments we have to make in the agency to be able to do these things that America needs right now and we are doing those things and investing in our people.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

And now recognize the congresswoman from Iowa's first district, Miss Miller-Meeks.

Uh, thank you, Madam Chairman, uh, for holding this important hearing with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's leadership. Nuclear energy is reliable base load clean power, and with hindsight, the wave of retirements over the past decade created real vulner vulnerabilities for our grid. Today, with surging demand from data centers, reassured manufacturing, and electrification, we are paying the price of those decisions. The good news is that the market has responded. Capital is flowing back into nuclear, and shuttered plants are coming back online. Palisades led the way, pioneering a first of its kind process to reverse decommissioning, and restart a shuttered reactor. Now, Iowa's own Dwayne Arnold Energy Center is following suit. NextEnergy has partnered with Google with a twenty-five year agreement to restart the six hundred one megawatt plant with operations targeted by twenty twenty nine. What makes Dwayne Arnold's restart particularly compelling is the community buy-in. The Linn County Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of the rezoning and the project is projected to generate more than nine billion, economically, benefits to lynn county and the state of iowa over the twenty five year operating term that is affordable reliable power with local support exactly what energy policy should look like i'm also impressed by the work the nrcc has done since twenty twenty five to make the restart process smoother implementing the advance act and developing the regulatory pathway to restore operating licenses for plants like dwayne arnold and palisades palisades the future of american energy dominance depends Modernizing our licensing process to restart existing plants, build new ones, and champion emerging technologies like small modular rea reactors is not optional. It is essential. Commissioner Weaver, can you walk us through how the NRC developed this new restart licensing framework, what went into building it, and how your team ensured that they could meet project deadlines without cutting corners on safety?

Yes. Thank you for the question. The, so the framework was was put in place before i arrived however um it is something that that i'm following closely um so the nrc created a an inspection procedure about two years ago and what we do is leaders of the program offices and the regional who a region that has oversight of the particular project get together and assign a team with some senior executives in charge and put together a multidisciplinary team to to manage the restart Uh, in terms of the details, the licensee will need to look at what's the status of the equipment, right? How long have they been decommissioned? What needs to be done from a physical plan perspective, but then also from a, to reconstitute the licensing basis, they need to then seek the NRC approvals to b- to to switch from a decommissioning to an operating plan status.

Thank you. Uh, Commissioner Crowell, the NRC says its revised reactor oversight process will reduce baseline inspection hours by about thirty eight percent while preserving strong independent oversight. How will you ensure those same advanced act section five O seven principles are applied to Dwayne Arnold restart inspections across the existing fleet?

Those those changes to the uh reactor oversight process um will apply to to Dwayne Arnold just as they apply to the other reactors.

Uh, Chairman, the the NRC is revising regulations and guidance under executive order of fourteen thousand three hundred and has broader ongoing and then rulemaking rulemaking's tied to efficiency and timeliness. Which of those changes will produce the biggest near-term benefit for current light water reactors and restart projects not just advanced reactors?

I think the biggest uh ones who are are related to the modernization of part fifty and part fifty-two they're they're we are uh considering major revisions to again uh depart from prescriptive regulation to more performance-based and risk-informed uh approaches.

Thank you. And Commissioner Wright, the twenty twenty-four memorandum of cooperation with Canada and the UK on advanced reactors and SMRs shows how regular regulators can work together internationally. From your perspective, how can these ti- kinds of international partnerships be used, not just to share technical reviews, but also to advance American innovation and diplomatic leadership in nuclear technology?

Thank you, thank you for the question. Well, you know, we're the gold standard of regulator around the world. And and the partnerships that we have with our international partners can lead to better global standards as well. And that we have the opportunity, uh, doing that same, um, with that engagement to, uh, promote US technologies that have the NRC seal of approval, right? And they've got a design certification with us. That's what people are looking for. Um, and so we can build that sixty to one hundred year relationship, uh, with with our international partners. And and as you know, we've already shown that this can be done uh with the bdw x three hundred review

thank you my time has expired i have some questions that i'll submit for the record to uh uh chairman knee and madam chair i yield back

and i recognize the representative from north dakota miss fedorchuk

thank you madam chair and thank you all for being here today and sharing your expertise thank you for your commitment to this very vital industry um chairman i wanna start with you And to go a little bit um higher level, I'm really intrigued and and pleased by the NRC's uh refocus on a more enabling mission. Can you just speak briefly about what what kind of a sea change that is for the agency and uh what you're pivoting away from and and what this kind of means in a l- a broader sense to the industry as a whole?

Thank you for the question, Congresswoman. It is It is a real sea change and this enabling mindset is something that is really fueling the engine of the work that's occurring at the NRC and I mentioned in my opening remarks that enabling is adjusting our our frame al aligning our regulations with actual risks and operational needs. It's not arbitrarily lowering our standards, it's adapting to new technologies, it's not force fitting old technologies into old frameworks, and it's adding regulatory flexibility where safety is maintained.

Thank you for that, and thank you for your leadership in this area. I would argue that we need an enabling mindset in energy across the country, on all forms, and quite honestly in all industries in our country, um, because we're at this critical time where we've got a lot of competition uh from others who don't necessarily share our values and if we're gonna stay ahead in this race and lead the world we have to move and work and build and grow and that takes an enabling mind-set so thank you for showing us way in your agency. Um, I'd like to talk a little bit about the uh waste uh side of things and uh so for that, So I'll turn to you, Commissioner Wright. Uh, you uh, you and I share some similar backgrounds, and I have appreciated your friendship over the years. Um, the United States has tens of thousands of metric tons of spent nuclear flu fuel sitting in temporary storage with no permanent disposal solution in sight. Um, given that the NRC recently reorganized around nuclear materials and waste as a core business line, what, specifically, specific regulatory actions is the commission taking to advance uh consolidated interim storage licensing.

well we've already had um a couple of um applications come through that we've acted on um you know we can approve uh consolidated facilities all day long we can license them but it's gonna be it's not our decision to to open them it's gonna be a community decision a board decision uh it could be a uh you know a a local decision a legislature or something so i mean we we have the process to review and to um uh to license these facilities like in texas and and in new mexico we did p.

mmm

f. s. in utah before that um and and the wasting in general you and i both agree on this it's not a um it's it's not a science issue

right separately does nrc have a regulatory framework ready to support spent fuel reprocessing if

Uh, the answer is yes. We can we can do reprocessing under our current regulations, but we've also got some stuff that's being rolled out into in the rulemakings that w we'll back that up and actually um address some of that.

Excellent. Mister Chairman, I only have about a minute left, but can you speak to the reprocessing of spent fuel? Uh, what what do you need from Congress to help facilitate that? Where do you see that going? How can we speed that process up?

I'll say very briefly, Congresswoman, we we are ready, as uh Commissioner Wright mentioned, we we can do that now within our existing framework, uh but we are working on a more comprehensive and structured approach that will enable the flexibility for um an expeditious pathway to license that technology should it come before the agency.

And so how what's holding that up? Other countries are doing this. France does a lot of this reprocessing. Where where is the holdup in the US?

So the the techno- it's it's feasible? uh, as as I understand it, this is really a commercial decision to make the investment to uh pursue these technologies. I don't I'm not aware of any uh policies or legislation that's needed to do it. It's really a gonna be a business decision.

It's a cost. And so if there's more demand for this fuel with more development and building and production of uh on on-site then this industry will follow. Is that your um expectation?

That's my understanding, yes.

Excellent. Alright, thank you gentlemen, wish we had more time to talk, but appreciate your insights. experience in all that you're doing for this industry in the US. I yield back.

Gentlelady yields back. The chair now recognizes the gentlelady from Indiana for at least five minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, at least five minutes, I love that. Good afternoon everyone, I wanna thank Chairman Latta and for permitting me to wave on to this nuclear regulatory commission hearing thank you to the members of the commission, for appearing before the subcommittee today. Abundant energy is critical for competitiveness and growth in the modern world. The supply and demand of energy household uses, transportation, industrial applications, technology, and yes, even the controversial deployment of data centers. It's essential we get the policy right, how can we produce the right amount of energy and then deliver it to the consumers that need it. In two thousand twenty-five, Indiana residents experienced a one-year cost increase of seventeen point five percent in their energy bills. Economic development cannot come at the cost of making energy prohibitively expensive, for our constituents. Wind and solar power generation come with some drawbacks. Uh, they produce energy when the sun shines and the wind blows, but sometimes they can fail when customers need it most. Alternatively, nuclear power has the potential to unlock nearly unlimited clean, reliable energy for our country. We can use it to provide affordable, stable, consistent power for consumer, commercial and national security applications, enabling innovation and growth. In last year's National Defense Authorization Act, I introduced an amendment to the NDAA that would expand a Navy pilot program to construct small modular nuclear reactors on Department of War property. This common sense step will help the Navy address the enormous power needs the military applications require for testing and training purposes, and it will expedite the permitting landscape for the deployment of these SMRs. From these pilots, the Department of War will have adequate stable power for their needs, but private businesses may purchase unused power to jolt additional ac- economic activity. More importantly, the safe, timely deployment of these SMRs can provide a streamlined pathway for the NRC to approve commercial advanced reactors reactor designs. To that end, Chairman Nii, could you provide some details on the proposed rule that would provide a pathway that the NRCC is considering NRC is considering for streamlined reviews for commercial advanced reactor designs if they've previously

Thank you, Congresswoman. Yes, we recently published a draft rule for comment to do exactly what you just described. And it is our intention to be efficient in using the information that comes out of the Department of War or the Department of Energy in one of their projects, because that provides valuable information that would support a license application to the NRC. What we're not gonna do, we're not gonna repeat what was already done. We're gonna validate that it meets our requirements. And then, for those things that are not done in a DOE or DOS, authorization process that are required by nr c we'll focus on those things but we will validate the information to support an independent decision that the agency makes on the safety case and we'll look at other things that were not looked at

well i wanna say i'm grateful for that it does sound like an expedited and safe way to approach this um we were successful in getting that amendment adopted into the ndaa to give further opportunities for the deployment of small modular reactors on naval property chairman nee uh could you discuss mandatory uncontested hearings for nuclear generation, uh what value do those provide and do they cause delays in the approval timeline of a project?

Y- y- yes Congressman. Uh the the value is limited at this point. With what we know about nuclear energy and availability of the uh uncont uh of the contested hearing process available to the public, there there's little value in having the mandatory hearing. All it does is add to the schedule.

And uh finally if I could ask uh you and the other commissioners uh chairman,

Uh, I would echo uh one one comment that my fellow Commissioner uh Weaver mentioned, related to construction at risk for fuel cycle facilities. I I think that's something that's needs to be revisited.

Mm-hmm.

And as we're talking about spent nuclear fuel and nuclear fuel recycling, uh there are critical minerals that can be extracted in the process with new What role could states play in expedite expediting um the um use and case in in in uh the United States for recycling the spent nuclear fuel?

Uh well I I think uh it's you know the Department of Energy recently um made uh available a program, this nuclear uh life cycle innovation campus, so I I think those are opportunities for states to you know see what role they may have in the

Thank you. Well, uh, before I yield back, I just want to uh thank the Chairman, my colleagues and the NRC for the conversation today. Expanding nuclear energy pr promises the advancement of clean, safe, affordable power. I'm really thrilled with the work that's being done. I look forward to continued engagement on these issues. Thank you. I yield back, Mister Chairman.

The General Yady uh yields back saying there are no other members to ask questions. Uh, I would like to thank the Commissioners for being here today. Uh, members may have additional questions for you all. Remember, you all is a Texas word. And I'll remind members that they have ten business days to submit additional questions for the record and I ask that our witnesses do their best to submit responses within ten days upon receipt of the questions. I ask unanimous consent to insert in the record the documents included on the staff hearing documents list without objection. So ordered? Without objection, this subcommittee is adjourned.

Thank you so much, man.