Rich McCormick Hammers Biden Official With Questions: ‘Why Has This Been Delayed?’

2 months ago

Last month, Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) questioned a Department of Energy official on appropriation requests during a House Science Commitee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00Chair, now recognize the gentleman from Georgia,

00:02Mr. McCormick, for five minutes.

00:05Thank you, Mr. Chair.

00:08Thank you for being here, Deputy Secretary.

00:11As you know, the Abilene Christian University

00:14is partnering with other universities,

00:15including Georgia Tech, to develop

00:17the next lab nuclear research center,

00:20which serves as the home of the molten salt

00:23research reactor, called MSRR.

00:26The molten salt research reactor will serve

00:28as a test bed for nuclear reactor design

00:31that could be used to help safely address

00:34critical needs for energy, water, and medical isotopes.

00:38In October 2023, I joined my colleagues

00:41in sending a letter to your boss,

00:43urging the DOE to treat MSRR project

00:49at the ACU consistently, with all the other

00:51university research reactors, and provide

00:53the HALU, I think it's pronounced,

00:56uranium fuel in a timely manner.

00:59Yet, to my understanding, the fuel

01:00still has not been provided.

01:02This is unacceptable.

01:03If we're gonna get this research done,

01:05which we partnered with private industry,

01:07we said, look, if you guys provide funding for this,

01:10we'll provide the fuel for it.

01:12We're talking about a clean energy source.

01:14We talk about how important it is

01:16to reduce carbon imprint.

01:18This is something I don't understand.

01:20Can you tell me why it's been delayed for over a year?

01:22Yeah, and thanks for your leadership on this.

01:24This is an incredibly exciting area of research,

01:27but also commercial opportunity,

01:29as we think about where we're gonna get

01:31our electrons, our clean electrons in the future.

01:34We just got an additional amount of funding

01:36repurposed from Congress, $2.8 billion,

01:39to work on our supply chains, not just for HALU,

01:41but for also low-energy uranium,

01:43which is what goes into conventional.

01:46We are executing on that right now.

01:48I'm happy to get the particulars on that.

01:51Our goal is to make sure that those who want HALU

01:54have the available HALU when they need it,

01:57but happy to get into the particulars that you mentioned.

01:59I don't have that information right offhand on that,

02:02but happy to follow up with you and your staff.

02:04It really bums me out,

02:04because we sent out the letter a while ago,

02:06and we promised this.

02:08We fund it, and yet people are basically funded

02:11to sit around and do nothing,

02:12because they don't have the fuel that we promised them,

02:14as our partner, that you don't have the details.

02:16It really disappoints me, I gotta tell you.

02:17And just to be clear, if I could,

02:19the $2.8 billion was quite recent,

02:21that Congress just gave us that funding.

02:24So that is a huge amount of money.

02:26That's the most money we've ever had to work on HALU

02:28and work on low-enriched uranium, as well.

02:31And obviously, we're trying to work on that

02:32as quickly as we possibly can.

02:34Okay, I hope we have a timeline set before us

02:37in an expedient manner,

02:39because it seems like, on one hand,

02:40we tout the necessity for electric vehicles,

02:43for electric trains now, which I think is insane,

02:47and AI supercenters, which we know is gonna increase

02:49the energy requirements by all states.

02:53Georgia's one of the few, actually,

02:55the only state in the last 20 years

02:56to come up with nuclear power plants.

02:58We're not doing it efficiently.

02:59We're still over-regulated.

03:00We're doing it slowly and very expensively.

03:03And I think that this research is exceptionally important

03:06to the future of energy production.

03:09One of the things I thought, also,

03:10this administration had continued the rhetoric

03:13on all this energy production,

03:14this clean energy, by the way.

03:16Now, I don't know what your opinion is.

03:17Do you think that nuclear power is, in any way,

03:20inferior in capacity or generation for clean energy

03:26than any other source, whether it be solar,

03:28or wind, or hydro, or anything else like that?

03:31So, I think nuclear plays an incredibly

03:34important role right now.

03:36It's 20% of our electricity production,

03:38and a huge percentage of our clean,

03:41carbon-free electricity production right now.

03:43And we're investing an awful lot of money,

03:45thanks to Congress's leadership and partnership,

03:47to make sure that we're not only advancing

03:50existing reactors, you mentioned the reactor,

03:52Vogel, in Georgia, that just came online.

03:54That's the first big reactor that we've had

03:56in our country for quite some time.

03:58We're investing a lot in the reactors of the future,

04:00the small modular reactors.

04:02And I view that as an incredibly powerful tool

04:05in our tool belt to accelerate our clean energy development

04:08more generally.

04:09So, you talk about accelerate.

04:10I'm gonna focus on that, because I have one minute left.

04:12Accelerating any program, this is what frustrates me

04:15with the way that we're focusing,

04:16and this is why I'm really disappointed

04:19that we promised people something for an investment

04:21without having the government side tied away.

04:23It's not entirely your fault,

04:24but it's the government's fault for sure.

04:26This administration, though, did have this rhetoric

04:28about this incredible investment in superstructure to,

04:34for example, the EV charging stations,

04:36which are now infamous.

04:37$7.5 billion in federal programs

04:41buried inside a 2021, 21 infrastructure bill

04:45promised a half a million EV charging stations

04:48across the country.

04:49As you know, right now, so far, we've had a grand total of,

04:54I know everybody's excited about this, right?

04:57Eight stations produced with billions of dollars

05:01on the table and a big promise for a half a million.

05:05I don't understand why we're slow rolling.

05:06I hope we can streamline the process

05:08because we need some things done in a timely manner

05:10and efficient, get rid of the red tape

05:12that's holding us back, and let's get to work.

05:14Thanks.

05:14This is X-Pac.

Rich McCormick Hammers Biden Official With Questions: ‘Why Has This Been Delayed?’

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