President Joe Biden is steering U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) investments and inducements into “green energies” to meet his goals of a 100-percent “clean electricity grid” by 2035 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The proposed budget and landmark bills, adopted when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress during Biden’s first two years in office, flatten allocations for oil and gas infrastructure and permitting while promoting “renewable energies” such as solar, wind, hydroelectricity, hydrogen, geothermal, and biomass.
But one form of carbon-free energy which already generates nearly 20 percent of the electricity produced in the United States—nuclear energy—appears to get short shrift in DOE’s proposed spending plan.
During a May 3 hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Energy & Water Development Subcommittee, Sens. John F. Kennedy (R-La.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) quizzed DOE Deputy Secretary David Turk about the Biden administration’s tepid support for an energy source it lauds in website statements as a significant component of the nation’s carbon-free future.
No Money for ‘Most Reliable Energy Source’
“What you do is what you believe, and in government, what you do and what you believe is where you spend your money,” said Kennedy, noting that DOE’s proposed spending plan boosts funding for fossil fuel energies by 2 percent and for renewables by 39 percent, while slashing funding for the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy.Investments and breakthroughs in the commercial viability of “green energies” are intriguing and should be pursued, he said.
“We should use technology to make all forms of energy more available, cheap, and abundant,” Kennedy said. “I support green energy. I support nuclear. I support hydrogen. I support hydroelectric energy, geothermal, oil and gas. In terms of trying to provide for a cleaner environment, it is worth pursuing.”
He pulled up the DOE’s nuclear power webpage and read: “Nuclear power is the most reliable energy source and it is not even close.”
Turning to Kirk, Kennedy said, “Says it right on your website, and that is true— especially when it comes to capacity. So how come you are not funding it that way?”
“Because there was a significant amount of funding” in the BIL and IRA for nuclear power programs, [and] “we made thoughtful choices and thoughtful decisions to make sure we had a balanced portfolio across” the energy spectrum, Turk replied.
Hagerty, noting the DOE has determined nuclear energy is two times more reliable than oil and gas, and three times more reliable than wind and solar, asked Turk if the department “considers nuclear power to be clean, sustainable, and carbon-free?”
“Absolutely, and we’ve got a lot of funding, thanks to Congress” in the BIL and IRA for nuclear power development, Turk repeated.
Proposed Bills Could Change Everything
According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA), the number of nuclear power plants in the United States declined from 104 in 2012 to 55 in December 2022.Despite this loss of nearly half the number of operating plants in a decade, nuclear power has contributed a steady 20 percent share of the nation’s collective electrical output since 1990.
The 55 nuclear power plants across 28 states include 93 operating commercial reactors and are, on average, 40 years old, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
In 2016, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Unit 2 in Tennessee became the first new U.S. reactor to come online since 1996.
“Why aren’t we building more nuclear power plants?” Hagerty asked.
“My concern is this administration seems to be more focused with pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into wind and solar when we have a serious situation where China controls a lot of the natural resources and a lot of supplies as opposed to a competitive advantage for the United States” in nuclear power, Hagerty said.
SB 947/HB 1 incorporate more than a dozen legislative proposals from House Republicans to “increase domestic energy production, reform the permitting process for all industries, reverse anti-energy policies advanced by the Biden Administration, streamline energy infrastructure and exports, and boost the production and processing of critical minerals.”
The Senate version has been read twice and referred to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chaired by Biden critic Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).
Big Small Reactor Opportunity
Noting that nuclear power was invented in the United States, Hagerty said the nation leads the world in nuclear research and innovation, but not so much in actual development and thoughtful use of the energy.Kennedy, Murkowski, and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said DOE’s support for SMR advancement is also lukewarm.
“Your proposal for funding falls millions upon millions upon millions short” in advancing SMRs.
DOE has been “very supportive of SMR projects across the country,” said Turk, noting the BIL funds SMR demonstration projects.
DOE’s Oak Ridge Lab “has been a leader in this space for quite some time. The quicker we can get these technologies available, the better for Tennessee, the country, and the world,” Turk said.
DOE is requesting $10 million to support NuScale Power’s SMR project at the Idaho National Laboratory. The 50 megawatt-electric power module is the first SMR design certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NuScale Power expects it to be operational by 2029.
There is also $54 million in the budget request for expanded capabilities at DOE nuclear labs to support SMR research, including at Oak Ridge in Tennessee.
Heinrich said those allocations are for preparing labs to work on SMR projects but the budget includes “zero funding for the SMR program” itself.
“The administration should be more aggressively funding this opportunity that is before us,” he said.
“This is an area where we can, and should, be leading,” Murkowski agreed.
DOE is “working as quickly as we can in the small modular reactor program,” Turk said.