Katie Britt Asks Energy Sec. Chris Wright About Plans To ‘Win’ Nuclear Energy Race Against China

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During Wednesday’s Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) questioned Energy Secretary Chris Wright about nuclear energy competition with China.

Transcript

00:00Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.

00:02Senator Britt, we were talking earlier, and I made the comment, I want to state it on the record,

00:06that you've got an automatic place in heaven for having to carry Senator Tubervich, okay?

00:13It was legendary right here.

00:15I hope you're listening, Senator Tubervich.

00:17Legendary.

00:19Well, as the chair mentioned earlier, and I wasn't expecting that one, so that's some good stuff.

00:25Your department covers everything from basic research to advanced nuclear reactors to grid security.

00:33The work that you do affects Americans every single day.

00:36When we're looking at that, and this kind of piggybacks off of both of the questions or questions that have been asked previously,

00:41but I want to talk about China and where they are specifically with their embrace of nuclear generation.

00:47When you look at the facts as they are, China is, I think, has at least 28 nuclear reactors that are in construction,

00:55which is about half of the construction of all nuclear reactors across the entire globe.

01:02We look at what they're doing.

01:03We know they're working to undermine us.

01:05To me, this is very similar to what we saw in the manufacturing space.

01:08They're using political and economic leverage to ultimately manipulate and get ahead.

01:14I think that that is a mistake on a number of ways.

01:19I mean, if we turn a blind eye to that, I think it's critical that we look at this,

01:23particularly within the AI space, knowing that AI is not just an AI race.

01:27It is also an energy race, and we must win both.

01:31So my question to you is, what are your plans?

01:34What is the Trump administration's plans to win that race?

01:37And how do we make sure that you have the funds in the proper place to do that?

01:40Fantastic, Senator Britt.

01:43And I agree very much with the assumptions.

01:45China is moving full speed ahead with nuclear.

01:48In fact, most of the reactors they're building is essentially a knockoff, a stealing of an American reactor technology.

01:54But they build them much cheaper and much faster.

01:57And they don't have the giant bureaucratic regulatory overhang we have in the United States.

02:02We need to get the NRC, you know, in touch with physical reality.

02:07Grand Central Station in New York, our train station, could not be licensed as a nuclear reactor because radiation is too high.

02:15We have standards that are just so expensive to meet.

02:18It makes everything slow.

02:19It makes everything expensive.

02:21We bring all sorts of regulatory uncertainty into that environment.

02:26So we are talking with commercial providers.

02:28We've offered up DOE lands.

02:30We've had tons of solicitations.

02:32Come build on our land.

02:34We'll be fast.

02:35We'll be efficient.

02:36We'll help you get going.

02:37We'll arrange creative incentives for you to build nuclear reactors in our space.

02:43I think we'll do it.

02:44The loan program office is a key tool.

02:47We do need to make sure we have funding available in the loan program office.

02:52Because used judiciously, it's a way to leverage private capital to make things happen fast.

02:57If your equity investors behind that debt are the six hyperscalers in the United States, they're great credit.

03:06The American taxpayers are going to be paid back.

03:09Alternatively, in the last administration, the loan program office in its 15-year history lent $43 billion.

03:15In the 76 days since Election Day to Inauguration Day of the new president, the previous administration lent or committed $93 billion.

03:28Two and a half times the 15-year total.

03:29You're kidding me.

03:29Tell me that time frame again.

03:3176 days from Election Day when Biden lost the presidential election to President Trump's inauguration.

03:38In 76 days.

03:38That is absolute insanity.

03:40They lent or committed $93 billion.

03:43So is there a reason I'm moving slow and I'm doing evaluations of projects?

03:47Yes, there's a very big reason.

03:49Well, let me turn quickly in my remaining time.

03:52And thank you so much for doing that.

03:54We cannot cede this ground to China.

03:56And so thank you for making sure that we don't do that at all.

04:00In December of 2020, DOE selected a team led by Southern Company in Birmingham, Alabama,

04:05to lead the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment, MCRE, in partnership with DOE.

04:11Developing this new type of nuclear reactor is transformational to that next generation nuclear energy

04:18and that type of leadership that we need to see across our nation.

04:21The MCRE program is going to deliver the world's first fast-spectrum salt reactor

04:27to support the administration's goal of unleashing American energy dominance

04:31and to achieve world leadership in nuclear energy.

04:35Further, MCRE is the first demonstration of a reactor technology

04:40that can revolutionize the commercial shipping industry

04:43and serving as a catalyst for restoring American maritime dominance

04:47throughout floating nuclear power plants and U.S.-flagged large commercial ships.

04:52So this project supports scalable, deployable, and transformational American nuclear energy.

04:59Given that strategic value associated with this critical advanced reactor demonstration project,

05:04will you commit to support this project and to continuing to work

05:07that it has successful reactor operation and will be executed during this administration?

05:13A super exciting project.

05:15I can't commit today to any specific project

05:17because I very carefully assembled a team of people, of leaders,

05:21that are evaluating honestly and objectively all of these projects

05:26and going full steam ahead on ones that deliver affordable, reliable energy

05:30and have a reasonable chance of success.

05:31Well, good. I hope you will take a look at this.

05:33We're really proud of the work that's being done,

05:34and I think that you are going to be very pleased with what you see.

05:37And in my last few remaining seconds, I just wanted to ask about grid security.

05:43So when you're looking at the chair and I, we live in Gulf Coast states,

05:48and so hurricane season is upon us when we're looking at what's happening with the grid,

05:52obviously, making sure it's protected not only for natural disasters but natural national security disasters.

05:58What are you all doing to ensure that reliability and protection?

06:03It's a key issue.

06:05It is a vulnerability of our country.

06:06Our grid is very distributed.

06:08A lot of it's very antiquated.

06:10It's very easy to attack our grid, and we are being attacked all the time.

06:15And I think there's more sophisticated attacks possible that have not been launched against us yet,

06:21but it could be an adversary waiting for the right time.

06:24In fact, one of the meetings I had right before coming here was with him.

06:26Land the plane for me, Mr. Secretary.

06:28We've got to move on here.

06:30Yeah.

06:31I agree with the problem.

06:32We are working on it, including today.

06:34Excellent.

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