Advanced Nuclear Technology Development Act of 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. McNERNEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for that introduction. I also want to thank Mr. Latta for his work on this. He moved forward and asked me to participate. I thought it was a good plan, so I did.

As our country works to mitigate the effects of climate change and prepare for the energy challenges of the future, we must now move to develop low- and zero-carbon energy sources. This means making investments into R&D, training the scientists, engineers, and mathematicians of tomorrow, and ensuring there is an appropriate regulatory and investment framework that will foster growth as new technologies become commercially viable.

Nuclear energy has been a reliable source of energy, producing a significant amount of our Nation's energy supply, and it will likely do so into the future. But building plants and developing new technologies takes time, and we need to take steps to ensure the regulatory tools, including safety and reliability, are in place to meet potential increases in nuclear power capacity.

H.R. 4979 is a commonsense approach that provides a pathway for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to establish the proper regulatory framework to facilitate, verify, and permit advanced reactor technologies. This bill also fosters increased collaborations between the NRC and the National Laboratories to provide opportunities to test new nuclear energy technologies and bolster public-private partnerships.

The provisions in this bill are aligned with the NRC's fiscal year 2017 budget request.

As we move forward toward a low-carbon sustainable energy economy, nuclear energy has the potential to play an instrumental role in meeting both State and national goals. Our current nuclear reactors use light water reactor technology, but there are advances that move toward completely different technology, including small modular reactors that can increase efficiency and safety while reducing the permitting and construction requirements that have hampered the development of new nuclear plants in recent years.

The bill passed unanimously out of the Energy and Commerce Committee and has support from nearly a dozen organizations, and I urge its passage.

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