Bill Hagerty Asks Energy Sec. Chris Wright About Efforts In Advancing Nuclear Production

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During Wednesday's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) questioned Energy Secretary Chris Wright about nuclear energy production.

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00:00Senator Haggard. I want to thank you, Chairman Kennedy, Vice Chair Murray, for

00:07holding this meeting. And Secretary Wright, it's wonderful to see you here. I've

00:11enjoyed getting to know you, and I'm so pleased that someone with your expertise

00:14and background is playing the role that you are for our nation. You and I've

00:18discussed this before, but the United States is at a pivotal moment in energy

00:22production. It's not just for our nation, it's for the entire world. And before I

00:28go on, I'd be remiss if I didn't thank you for coming to visit my home state of

00:32Tennessee just days after you were confirmed as U.S. Secretary of Energy. I

00:36was pleased to be there with you in East Tennessee, and I think you know

00:41Tennessee has been at the forefront of what you've called yourself as the

00:45Manhattan Project 2.0. And I was very pleased to introduce you there and to

00:52talk about how we can leverage the deep technological expertise that we have

00:55there in our home state as you take this department and lead our nation toward a

00:59new energy future. I think if we look toward the critical advancements in

01:03artificial intelligence and quantum computing, advanced manufacturing, they

01:07will define the 21st century. And all of these technologies require massive

01:12amounts of energy to succeed. So you are really at the cusp of what it's going to

01:17take for our nation to remain at the forefront and create the competitive

01:20advantage necessary for us to dominate future technologies. It's going to take

01:25strong leadership and energy. And if we fail, I think the U.S. really risks ceding

01:30ground to adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party. But I really believe that,

01:34as you've described, that America is at the threshold of an American golden age in

01:39energy, and that revolution is going to happen with your leadership. I'd like to

01:44turn to a specific point that we discussed. That's small modular reactors. And they're widely seen as the future of nuclear

01:50technology, because they address the biggest challenges that have held back

01:53traditional nuclear power. And by that, I mean specifically cost, scale,

01:58flexibility, time to deployment. Tennessee right now is the nation, is the

02:03nation, has the nation's only early permit for an SMR. And just yesterday, the

02:08Tennessee Valley Authority submitted their construction permit application to

02:12the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. And as we explore SMR deployment at the

02:16Clinch River site, and through partnership with the Oak Ridge National

02:18Lab, I'm very hopeful that Tennessee can become the catalyst for the United

02:25States' nuclear energy resurgence. But if we could zoom out a bit, Secretary Wright, I'd

02:30like to ask you how you see nuclear energy, particularly SMRs, playing a central role in

02:34advancing and achieving American energy dominance and grid liability over the next

02:38decade.

02:39Oh, I think it's critical, Senator. As you and I have discussed before, it is the

02:46critical technology that could scale wildly beyond where it is today, which is

02:51just electricity production, into huge scale electricity production and process

02:56heat. An even larger, more critical source of energy to make everything in the

03:01globe possible. So I am all in with you on advancing nuclear. If I can give an

03:07analogy, Senator Hagedy, you talked about the stress. We need a lot more energy to

03:10meet this AI challenge.

03:12Yeah.

03:12To give an analogy, imagine if the military, the Department of the Defense, set out a

03:18quote to the defense companies and said, we want to buy tanks. We'll pay full price

03:24for high-performance tanks, but you can deliver us a tank that only moves some of the time, maybe

03:29when the sun's shining, and it only will shoot maybe when the wind's blowing. And so it's an

03:35underperforming tank, but we'll pay you full price for it. And further, we'll give you

03:39a subsidy to build the factory to build these tanks. So what do you think is going to happen,

03:44right? You're going to get paid to deliver an inferior tank. Of course, you're going to

03:48do it. And then what happens to your army? It's not just the poor kids that are in those

03:53tanks. It's the kids that are in all the other tanks that now have underperforming partners

03:58in the battle. They're at risk. That's what we've done to our electricity grid. We've burdened

04:03nuclear and natural gas and all our dispatchable energy sources with an unreliable, turns on

04:11some time, turns off the other time, not there when you need it at peak demand, but yet we pay

04:15at the same price and we subsidize the development of it. It's not only made the grid more expensive,

04:19it's hampered the advancement of dispatchable energy technologies. Nuclear is the one that could

04:24burst through, but we need to fix some problems. To stay on this, I know you've thought this through,

04:30but what steps is your department taking then regarding SMRs to deal with regulatory hurdles,

04:35the financial hurdles, the technological hurdles that may be in the way of further SMR,

04:39more rapid SMR development? Specifically in our purview, we've offered up DOE lands for test and

04:45demonstration projects. Come do it on our land. We're building test facilities at the Idaho National

04:51Lab so you can bring your reactor and test it in a containment dome that's on DOE thing.

04:56Just through normal processes, this stuff just happens just deathly slow. And then I'm very

05:01passionate about wanting to use the loan program office because the developer of these reactors

05:06are going to be grade A credit hyperscalers that are buying the power or other things,

05:10but there's just not debt capital for these new reactors. I want to get grade A equity capital.

05:15I want to match it with LPO debt to get shovels in the ground and start building these reactors.

05:20Because as we build them, the costs will come down, the reliability, they'll be commercially bankable.

05:24We'll get to a great place. But relaunching the nuclear industry is not going to be trivial.

05:30And your efforts, and I hope the DOE efforts, it's going to take all of us to make it happen.

05:35But huge upside for all of us if we do it.

05:37Well, I think of you members of this committee as your partners in that regard. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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