Chairman Latta Delivers Opening Statement at Energy Hearing on Nuclear Energy

Today the Energy Subcommittee will examine the Department of Energy's work to develop nuclear life cycle innovation campuses. These campuses represent a new effort by the DOE and administration to quote transform the nuclear fuel cycle. The program intends to support the nation's nuclear policy ambitions as well as begin to address federal government statutory responsibility for disposal of nuclear waste. This involves taking spent fuel from reactors around the nation to a state that volunteers to host the campus where the fuel can be stored, recycled, and related waste disposed. When it comes to increasing reprocessing my view is it's about time. Our policy should be to use our technological abilities to take full advantage of the remaining usefulness of spent fuel and this in turn reduces the waste that must be placed in a permanent repository. Maximizing the remaining energy and other useful isotopes from spent fuel presents an attractive financial incentive for taking a more holistic look at the fuel cycle. This explains why six states so far are stepping up to negotiate how to develop in partnership with the DOE life cycle innovation campuses. Additionally may offer a workable path for updating our nuclear waste policy. But of course there's a long way to go to develop durable state agreements and durability is the key. The idea of consolidating spent fuel from sites under a federal program with voluntary host states is not a new one. Congress authorized the nuclear waste negotiated to set up something like that in the early 1990s. For various reasons that did not work out as have other efforts with respect to attracting durable state support. What must be done differently this what must be done differently this time around. There are also commercial and economic realities when it comes to our fuel cycle that factor into what may eventually develop. This hearing will help identify what Congress must do to enable continued work on these campuses given their potential. Our focus should be on policies that complement existing law and the designated federal disposal site at Yucca Mountain and protect the interests of rate payers and taxpayers under this law. This means not rushing to restart fees on nuclear power generation or irresponsibly rating the nuclear waste fund. We should not forget our bipartisan legislative work in 2018 provided substantial changes to the law that would have incentivized completion of the Yucca license, enhanced host state benefits and accelerated the type of program envisioned in the current proposal. These reforms passed the house by a vote of 340 to 72. Unfortunately politics obstructed the potential for the reforms. Perhaps the tremendous support of nuclear in recent years means we're in a different place today. We'll take testimony from two panels. On the first panel, we'll hear from the Department of Energy. The second is the Assistant Secretary of Energy, Ken Garish, who heads the Office of Nuclear Energy and can explain the program, state interactions and what Congress may do to help enable its progress forward. Our second panel will provide perspective from key stakeholders. We'll hear from Stacy Paradis, an Illinois Public Utility Commissioner speaking on behalf of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Electric rate payers under the law are responsible for paying for their ultimate disposal of nuclear waste and she can speak to the importance of protecting rate payer funding and the nuclear waste fund. We'll provide the perspective of the Nuclear Energy Institute, NEI, on the fuel cycle and on policies surrounding storage and disposition of spent nuclear fuel. We'll speak on behalf of the Decommissioned Plants Coalition, which represents close nuclear plants that continue to store spent fuel. And finally, Greg White, also a former State Utility Commissioner, will provide the perspective of the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition, which represents a range of stakeholders that seek to get our nuclear waste policy back on track. We welcome the witnesses that are with us today and really appreciate your testifying. And I yield back the balance of my time.