Craig Goldman Asks Secretary Chris Wright To Honor A Commitment To A Texas University To Build A Nuclear Project

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At a House Energy Committee hearing last week, Rep. Craig Goldman (R-TX) questioned Sec. Chris Wright about building an advanced nuclear project.

Transcript

00:00I recognize the gentleman from Texas's 12th district for five minutes for questions.

00:05Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very much.

00:06Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for being here today.

00:09Very interesting hearing.

00:11I agree with Mr. Vesey that the men and women out in West Texas are a very important part,

00:19not only to the people of Texas, people of the United States,

00:21but people around the world and supplying energy.

00:25And I want to stay in West Texas, but not go that far West Texas

00:29and talk about Abilene.

00:32Abilene Christian University has one of the two permits from the NRC

00:35to build the next generation reactor.

00:38The DOE committed in 2019 to provide the fuel and salt for the project,

00:42as it does for every existing university research reactor.

00:46Will the DOE support this advanced nuclear project by honoring that commitment?

00:51Yeah, that is our intention.

00:52And the department is working with Abilene right now to figure out,

00:57you know, it's a different type of fuel in a molten salt reactor design,

01:00how to accommodate that request.

01:02But I'm quite proud and impressed by the work going on at the university,

01:06and we certainly want to support it.

01:08Can you give us some sort of, in your mind, a timeline

01:10from when we see where they are now to where they'll be in five to ten years, perhaps?

01:16A timeline of where that reactor will be.

01:21Will it be online?

01:22Will it be working?

01:23Will it be, I mean, are they testing from now till a decade from now?

01:28In a perfect world, where would you like to see them in five years or ten years?

01:33Oh, in a perfect world and in a reasonable regulatory regime,

01:37which is a huge part of our agenda, absolutely.

01:41That should be selling electricity five years from now,

01:44and I sure hope it is.

01:45Me too.

01:46Mr. Vesey did talk about the workforce.

01:48So one of the potential roadblocks to building a nuclear energy is the workforce.

01:53How will the DOE budget requests increase support for universities

01:56and technical and community colleges

01:59to train the next generation of nuclear scientists and skilled workers

02:03to be able to support the nuclear build-out?

02:08Yeah, that is a key thing.

02:10As I say, nuclear hasn't been sexy for a few generations.

02:14Because we haven't done much with it.

02:15And when I speak and go around, I want to get young people excited again

02:20in wanting to go into this industry.

02:23But the only thing that will happen is if things are happening.

02:26If we're building reactors and they're selling power and businesses are growing,

02:29that's going to draw people into the industry.

02:32And for us, for research funding and our efforts in the commercial space,

02:36if we can focus our dollars on things that make American energy system better

02:41and that consumers want to buy,

02:43those are the businesses that will grow,

02:45that are not going to be blowing with the wind of government subsidies.

02:49We need sustainable industries that can grow

02:51because customers want to buy their products.

02:53That's what will bring people into that industry.

02:55And that's what we need to have happen with nuclear.

02:58Once we can build some reactors and get some efficiencies and drive costs down,

03:02I think this industry can really take off.

03:05And one of my colleagues across the aisle earlier was bragging about the Texas grid

03:09and that the wind and the solar especially, but those are subsidized, correct?

03:15They are.

03:16And our other entities on the grid, nuclear, natural gas, coal, are not subsidized.

03:23Is that correct?

03:24That is correct.

03:25Okay.

03:25In fact, they're penalized.

03:27Right.

03:28By being forced to turn on and off all the time.

03:30Right.

03:31So to that point, we obviously need more power in Texas.

03:36There's no doubt about that.

03:38What's your thought of how Texas goes about to create more power,

03:44what are the power needs in the future for us?

03:47Well, one of the houses in Texas,

03:49I'm not sure if it was the House or the Senate,

03:51passed a bill.

03:52I do not believe it was the House.

03:54Well, it's passed them both.

03:55But yeah, passed them both.

03:57And I think that's a very, electricity is complicated.

04:00And again, as I was discussing before,

04:02because you've got to balance supply and demand at all times.

04:05But I think that Texas proposal,

04:07that if you're going to bid into the electricity market

04:10and be treated like everybody else,

04:11you've got to be able to provide 24-7 power.

04:14I always say to people,

04:15would you pay the same amount of money for an Uber

04:17that you didn't know when it was going to pick you up

04:20or where it was going to drop you off?

04:22That's just not the same product.

04:23We need to have people bidding into a marketplace

04:26that are both delivering the same product,

04:28which is 24-7 electricity,

04:29because that's the only thing customers will buy.

04:32Perfect.

04:33Thank you very much.

04:34Thanks for your time, Mr. Chairman.

04:35I'll yield the rest of my time.

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