all right well i see uh we've got jeff
uh nathan our speaker is on with us
i don't know if you can see all of us
but um
welcome everybody thank you for uh
joining i guess this is actually going
to be sort of our q2
meeting you've been done it's a little
before start of uh second quarter but um
thanks to everybody for joining us i did
want to um just recognize scott
authority member scott koppel did had
let brandy and i know that he had a
conflict that came up today so he's
participating virtually
which is still consistent with the
policy we
adopted
back when we started the in-person slash
virtual meetings
um so i'll get things started just with
a quick safety message um despite the
temperatures uh yesterday and today we
are getting into spring we had a good
interesting internal safety message with
our company last week we saw the ladder
safety i think as everybody starts doing
more work outside um
and you know yard cleanup and things
like that we may be up on ladders
uh just some reminders when you're doing
that make sure you are putting the
ladder on a stable surface don't be one
of those youtube videos that's got the
ladder on top of a garbage can on top of
whatever
um
and
if you can it's helpful to have someone
who can actually spot you while you're
on up on the ladder
to hold things stable and then make sure
you maintain three points of contact as
you're going
the ladder to uh
um and then
with that i think we should uh go around
the room and have everybody introduce
themselves so that uh before we leave
jeff uh so he knows who all's in the
room so
tim do you want me thanks um i'm tim
stuller from the virginia economic
development partnership
jeff fox
gene great shape representing the
american nuclear society
ann stodden dominion energy
frank cronenberg with office of the
attorney general um
use this quick opportunity uh to inform
the authority that they'll have a new
person sitting in this chair at your
next meeting i'm leaving the oag
pleasure serving as party cats
uh tom davonte with dramatum
here's your consortium
ken ball george mason university
john capps with the virginia
assistant
porky virginia department event
mary jeffrey virginia college
bill briscoe george washington
university
uh and then scott do you want to
introduce yourself sure scott koppel
bwxd jeff good to see you i apologize
all not being there in person just have
a tight turn around with uh kid activity
later today just hard to get down back
and forth and richmond thanks everyone
um so
uh i will suspend any other opening
remarks and we'll get right into our
guest speaker today we are fortunate to
have uh jeff navin who's the
director of external affairs for
terrapower he's also one of the
founders
and currently a partner at boundary
boundary stone partners
which is a government affairs and
communications firm
um jeff's i i don't know we met a few
years back he's been engaged in kind of
the communications and advocacy
many of the advanced nuclear companies
and uh become more heavily involved as
you can see with terror power as they're
moving their natrium project
forward jeff's held a number of
positions within government including
chief of staff to the department of
energy
back with secretary chu
and has been honestly a a leading voice
in the advanced uh nuclear space um i
asked uh jeff to join us here today
because um terrapower's really
uh undertaking a
really exciting project out in wyoming
not only are they one of the recipients
of
the advanced reactor demonstration
program awards to deploy
their generation 4
molten salt reactor on the natrium
reactor
but also
they're doing it in wyoming at a former
coal site so in light of some of the
discussion we're going to have later
today about
where virginia is going to exploring
some of those options i thought it'd be
great for for jeff to be able to share
their perspective on kind of the call
the nuclear transition
um and and how that's going
so
with that jeff will turn it over to you
for
as much time as you may consume and then
hopefully we'll have some some great
questions uh to discuss that's always a
dangerous invitation to somebody who is
in government for so long um so uh uh
you know we'll be here for two or three
days uh if i if i go through everything
but uh thanks thanks tom for the for the
introduction and thanks thank all of you
for all of the work that you're doing um
in virginia to to re-establish nuclear
power in the state um you know it's
interesting i've been working on these
issues for for a long time and
up until a few years ago it seems like
all we had we were constantly having
battles in the states and they were
always battles on defense we were
fighting to keep plants open and now
we've seen really in the last couple of
years a lot of states you know
looking for new you know looking to to
to proactively update and change their
laws to encourage the deployment of
nuclear power and i think that has um
something to do with the new
technologies that are that are being
available
and also kind of a a long time coming
recognition of the value that nuclear
power plays um on a grid so as tom
mentioned i'm the
director of external affairs for
terrapower terrapower um is is is uh
an advanced nuclear company that was
founded about 15 years ago
and it came out of a conversation that
our chairman bill gates had with a bunch
of of energy experts and he he posed the
question
is there a technology that we're going
to need to solve the dual challenges of
global energy poverty and climate change
that is less likely to come to the
market unless somebody in my position
puts some money into trying to develop
the technology and they very quickly
recognize that you're not going to solve
those those two challenges of the
growing demand for electricity
throughout the world and the need to do
it in a in a carbon-free way without
nuclear power and als and then secondly
a recognition that with all of the
advances that were happening and other
technologies
we needed step change improvements in in
the technology that would both uh
enhance the safety proposition which is
uh the most uh important way to actually
reduce the cost and make the technology
cost competitive so we started looking
at a whole host of advanced um
options and and you've heard probably a
lot about them we looked at molten salt
we looked at high temperature gas we
looked at thorium we looked at just
about everything that you could come up
with
and settled on sodium cooled reactors as
as as the uh uh as the best path forward
for for a whole host of reasons that we
can i'll sort of mention some of them um
in a moment and through that work um um
and we've been very fortunate as a
startup company to have you know pretty
solid and consistent financial backing
that's that's led us to
have many years to sort of develop and
and more fully bake our technology
without the need to turn a profit very
very quickly we recognize we're in a
very unique position because of that
but it allowed us to uh to take our time
on some of these issues um uh and kind
of meet this moment which we suspected
was coming uh and finally has in which
the the
the country and the markets are starting
to recognize the need for for the
technologies so uh we um applied for
uh the advanced director demonstration
program which is a 50 50 federal cost
share program that was established by
congress in 2020 we were fortunate to
win one of those awards um so there are
two companies terrapower one one x
energy one the other uh it requires us
to to deploy our reactor within seven
years of our signing the agreement which
would put us in a service date of 2028
it also requires us to find a utility
partner who will own and operate the
reactor so it's called a demonstration
project but it really is a first of a
kind commercial reactor
the reactor will be licensed for 60
years and obviously there's a potential
for a life extension after that
we will own and we will own
uh the project up until the time that we
flip the switch on uh and connect the
reactor to the grid and it starts
producing electricity and at that point
it'll be taken over by
rocky mountain power which is a
subsidiary of pacific corp which is part
of the berkshire hathaway energy
companies interestingly berkshire
hathaway
even though they're one of the largest
utilities in the country they don't have
any nuclear this will be their first
nuclear plant so i think that that's a
that's an important and interesting sign
about sort of the demand that this is
not um you know a very nuclear heavy uh
utility who believes in nuclear but this
is a utility that's never been in
nuclear that's taking a new a new look
at it
um as tom mentioned um part of the
reason that uh rocky mountain power was
interested in partnering with us is um
wyoming's a pretty unique energy state i
think they they produce something like
17 times the amount of energy that they
consume in the state most of it is for
export most of that export goes west
traditionally it's been coal it produces
three times the amount of coal of west
virginia um it's been you know coal and
oil and gas are very very important
parts of the wyoming economy but most of
the customers in pacific corps territory
are in a service territory are on the
west it's washington oregon parts of
california and some of utah as well
and many of those states have passed
pretty aggressive clean energy laws and
they're no longer interested in
purchasing that coal power from wyoming
so what pacific corps has been doing is
building a lot of wind in that state
they actually have a there's a there's a
project under development right now in
the sort of wyoming montana border
that uh is a 150 000 acre wind farm that
they are proposing uh to build and
they're going to continue to build that
wind because it's very very low cost
but part of the problem is the wind
i'm told this i've been spending a lot
of time in wyoming and i'm told the wind
stops blowing occasionally i've never
experienced it
but
when that wind does stop blowing they
need something to backfill fill that
that that piece and part of the the
value proposition that we proposed with
natrium i think helps helps meet that
need they also have a commitment to
keeping their employees employed in the
places where they are shutting down
these coal plants so
they have four coal plants that are
slated to be decommissioned over the
next number of years we actually before
we picked our site um ran a little bit
of a competition among those communities
and we said
we're going to you know we're not going
to put our plan anywhere where it's not
wanted we went out and did community
meetings we talked to local officials we
talked to the workers themselves
and we had all four of the communities
raise their hand and express interest
and it was a little odd for us to be on
the end of a lobbying campaign where the
communities were sending us
presentations and calling us and trying
to convince us that their community made
the most sense i don't think that i can
recall a nuclear plant being cited this
way but it's actually was really really
helpful to us because we now have a
community that is that is very much
enthusiastic about having this plant we
chose a community called kemmerer and
wyoming
in a rural part of the state lincoln
county wyoming
the naughton coal plan is slated to be
retired
it's a town of
2700 people
there's a coal mine right next to the
coal plant itself they the
the mine and the plant are obviously the
largest employers in the region um and
the the community had a pretty pretty
see it was facing a fairly serious
existential crisis when the coal plant
would shut down the coal mine would also
shut down and they would see pretty
significant
reduction in economic activity
so when we showed up but what we said is
you know
we're going to have 2000 to 2500
construction workers at peak which would
almost double the size of the town for
that period um there are 110 ibew
workers at the coal plant right now
when we uh
are fully operational we'll have between
200 and 250 full-time jobs uh pacific
corp has said that anyone every one of
those ibw members at the coal plant will
have a job at the nuclear plant
and nuclear as many of you know actually
pays more than fossil fuels uh it's the
highest pains uh energy job so uh we our
value proposition to the community
is that we're gonna show up with um
double the number of jobs that you
currently have in the coal plant very
likely will pay more than what they're
receiving at the coal plant and we're
going to be able to uh you know
have a plant that's going to run for 60
to 80 years i mean no no economic
development official could bring in any
other employer that could have that that
level of of certainty about the length
of time that they're going to be able to
provide those jobs so
after the announcement was made when we
selected kemmerer
the water department actually sent out a
survey with the water bill in the in the
area and they asked people if they were
supportive that probably doesn't meet
the you know american association of
statistics uh uh rigor as an official
poll but they had 86 percent of the
community said they were in favor of the
project and eight percent said they were
opposed to the project with the
remainder saying they were they were
you know wanting to learn a little bit
more so it kind of flies in the face of
this this belief and this
thing that's been out there about
nuclear saying oh you're never going to
build these plans because nobody's going
to want one in their backyard what we've
found is when you actually give people
choice in the matter beforehand and they
can weigh the pros and cons about uh of
the opportunities that are there
especially when you're doing it in
energy communities places that aren't
afraid of having you know big scary
looking things uh producing electricity
um um it's a pretty good value
proposition um and hopefully that's some
that's a lesson that that others can can
learn can learn from so the actual plan
itself is going to be about two miles
from the uh from the the operating coal
plant uh
those of you in virginia who've been you
know around coal plants know they're
they're pretty large facilities there's
there's um you know there's coal ash
facilities
near it and this particular
plant has a mine that's associated which
still has active blasting going on so um
we did move it down the road just a
little bit but we are going to be able
to use the interconnect the grid inter
connect from that from that existing
coal facility which helps with our costs
we also have the existing water rights
um from from the coal plant which out in
the west is a really really uh big deal
so we'll use the we'll use the water
we'll use the interconnect and most
importantly will use the the human
resources uh of folks who know how to
how to how to do this work now natrium
is an advanced reactor me and which
means that it's uh has some improvements
over traditional reactors um
i think all of you here know how
traditional reactors work and so i'll
skip that that part of the discussion i
can tell you the three major ways that
the natrium plant is different than the
large light water reactors like those
that are you know operating at
at lake anna
so first instead of using water as a
coolant which every operating reactor in
the united states uses we use sodium
sodium is a metal uh it is uh you know
at room temperature right here it's be a
big big block of
metal
but at about a hundred little less than
100 degrees celsius it melts into a
liquid and that liquid is what's going
to be used to cool our reactor one of
the advantages of sodium as a as a as a
coolant is that the boiling point of
sodium is about 880
degrees celsius
our reactor operates at about 500
degrees celsius
so we don't have to have the system
pressurized which puts a lot less strain
on the components
and it we also don't have to have the
same kinds of external pumps to keep the
coolant flowing over the reactor core
you know in a traditional light water
reactor the the thing you're trying to
avoid the most is that loss of coolant
that coolant boiling off of the reactor
causing the fuels to melt uh uh you know
down through the through the reactor
container itself
and it's a lot of times those belts and
suspenders meaning those pumps that
water that you constantly have to flow
over the reactor
that adds to the um uh
uh engineering cost uh in it and it adds
because you have to you know it's such a
catastrophic event if you lose if you
lose that that pressurized water flowing
over the core
by using sodium we don't have to worry
about the coolant boiling off so we can
sit the the we can sit our fuel
in a core and a pool of liquid sodium we
use natural convection and even air
cooling to remove the heat in the event
of of
a loss of power or an incident
if we lose power to the reactor the
reactor will shut itself down uh it
won't require any operator intervention
uh it won't require uh power to be uh
re-established uh to to uh um to improve
the safety case so that if you look at a
schematic of our reactor design versus
you know an ap1000 or one of the one of
the
large light waters ours looks very very
simplistic and the reason it's so simple
is because we don't have all those pipes
we don't have all those pumps we don't
have all those auxiliary cooling systems
we use the natural properties of the
materials and and the physics in order
to uh
to make the design simpler and simple
with an enhanced safety case equals much
much lower cost
which is something that that obviously
our customers care a lot about
the second is the size of the reactor
uh our reactor operating at base load
power um uh provides about is about a
345 megawatt plant as opposed to the you
know more than a gigawatt more than a
thousand megawatts of today's large
light water reactors
and the reason that we did that is
because we just see where the market is
heading for utilities in the united
states and we don't think that there are
a lot of utilities out there willing to
make a a you know a many many billion
dollar gamble on a first or second of a
kind technology
it's a small it sits on a small
footprint total size of our entire plan
is about 44 acres
and
of a kind cost for the reactor will be
about a billion dollars which is not an
insignificant amount of money but that's
the size of a check that a utility is uh
uh used to writing um and it's the size
of a check that we think in a regulated
market a public utility commission could
be could be um uh you know willing to to
consider
even after some of the the less than
than great uh
you know cost things we've seen in
recent years from some of the large
light water reactors
and then the third piece that makes our
reactor unique and different from from
conventional reactors is that um you
know every operating reactor in the
united states uses the heat from the
reactor to generate steam and then uses
the steam to spin a turbine and and and
produce electricity
uh ours is a little bit different
instead of using the heat to directly
make steam
we use the heat to run a large molten
salt energy storage system so
we have the nuclear island where our
reactor sits and then
um a
few hundred yards away we'll have two
big salt tanks uh these are thermal
salts that uh are really really good at
storing energy and they've been used um
commercially around the world and in uh
concentrated solar thermal storage
systems it turns out that the the heat
from our the temperature of our reactor
that 550 degrees is the perfect
temperature to power these molten salt
energy storage systems so we'll heat up
the salt
when electricity demand is low and then
we'll release that salt through a
secondary loop that'll that'll create
steam and spin a turbine when demand is
high
this allows us to store about 500
megawatts of electricity for up to five
and a half hours
that scale of energy storage is four
times larger than the biggest
lithium-ion battery storage system that
currently exists in the world that's the
one elon musk built out in australia
but what it means is we can run our
plant at base load and we can do that in
a way that provides steady constant
power just like today's nuclear plants
and we can do that carbon free of course
or we can ramp up and down in grids like
the one in wyoming that have high
penetrations of renewable energy
we can operate anywhere from 40
megawatts to 500 megawatts and we can
sustain that 500 megawatt level for up
to five and a half hours different
configurations of the plant can be used
you know we could go longer storage with
lower with lower um
uh
megawatts or we could go uh higher
megawatts with with a shorter time
duration
we chose this configuration because we
think it makes the most sense
for the market in which in which we're
selling the reactor
so
um we've known for a long time that it's
a lot easier to get to 100 clean energy
grids if you include
dispatchable power like nuclear or firm
power resources like nuclear but we
think the real um uh secret sauce of our
system is that we can do that in a way
that also allows us to be flexible so we
really do get the best of both worlds
there's nothing on the market right now
that allows you to do that you can have
uh steady firm 100 you know base load
power that's carbon free um
or you can have intermittent power that
you can't dispatch as carbon free but
there isn't any carbon-free source of
energy that allows you to do both of
those things and we think that's going
to be a key component in building block
as states utilities and countries are
looking to get to to zero emissions um
so uh you know the challenges that we
face seven years as a is a is warp speed
for nuclear um we are we're
we feel however like that that that
timeline that was mandated by congress
is very much consistent with where the
market's heading we have to have these
products available and to be able to put
into resource plans in the late 2020s so
that as uh uh countries utilities and
states are moving towards these hundred
percent clean energy goals that that
advanced nuclear tools are something
that they can consider and that are
available to them
um we have had
very positive interactions with the nrc
to date we'll be uh submitting our
construction license next year um you
know this is the easy part of engagement
with the nrc because we haven't asked
them to actually do anything yet
so you know time will tell there we're
watching that process very closely and
then the biggest issue that has come up
recently
is that our reactor like the x energy
reactor in many of the gen 4 designs
runs on high assay low enriched uranium
or halo
all of the current reactors in the in
the nuclear fleet in the united states
run on low enriched uranium which is
uranium enriched below the five percent
level
ours is going to be uh running on halu
which is halo that's enriched between
five and twenty percent um there is one
uh commercial facility in the world that
produces halo uh at commercial
quantities um it is owned by ross adam
and russia which is a state-owned
enterprise so we
given the events in the ukraine have
announced that we will not be using
russian halo in our reactor but it
requires uh
the united states to stand up that
enrichment capability which is something
that congress and the doe have been
working on for a while but the
assumption was always that we'd be able
to use the russian uh um
halo for the first core load to remain
on schedule while we're standing up that
capacity so so we're working very hard
with doe and with the congress to get
support to expedite that process
so we can get the halo capability um uh
up in time for us to meet that first
core load but right now that's a
question mark uh not a period meaning we
we don't exactly know what that process
is looking like doe is working through
that um congress is as well it looks
like there's gonna be
um um there's a bunch of money in it in
the reconciliation package but lord
knows what's going to happen with that
it was interesting that the white house
in their press release when they
announced their budget yesterday
actually specifically listed hey as one
of their priorities so that's a good
sign there but um
still to be determined on on that front
um
so you know and then then of course we
got to build the thing right so we've
got to we've got to make sure that we
that the reactor is built that it's on
time um i will you know uh we are
partnering with ge hitachi on the on the
technology and reactor design bechtel uh
virginia company will be our lead epc uh
in building the reactor um by the end of
this year we will have 800 engineers
working uh on on on the project so uh
we're ramping up and scaling uh very
very quickly
um
perhaps i'll leave it there and i'd have
to be happy to answer any questions uh
you might have about the about the
technology about the way we've gone
about citing it or the company or
anything else
great thanks jeff that
that was really informative about
questions i know i've got some but
so
let me start jeff um
this is tom again uh
question about wyoming so you talked
about uh rocky mountain power is not a
nuclear utility pacific corp is and
they are you know have extensive
fossil and renewable assets that they've
been operating and wyoming has had
experience with
uranium mining but not with the rest of
kind of the nuclear fuel cycle so what
has it been like going to not only a
customer but a
state
to talk to them about nuclear energy
advanced nuclear things that they're not
necessarily familiar with like obviously
here
in virginia there's a great amount of
familiarity we've got this group sitting
here that's focused solely on that so
what's that experience been like what
any tips on how you've approached these
new communities and talk to them about
nuclear what their reception is like
yeah it's interesting we're seeing a lot
of interest in the west right um
north dakota updated their law montana's
going through a process as well
there are no nuclear power plants in
either of those states
you know the the other advanced reactor
demonstration project winner in x energy
is going to be in eastern washington
state um it's kind of everybody's kind
of surrounding idaho there where there's
obviously a lot of familiarity and more
comfort with nuclear i would say you
know a couple things one is
wyoming isn't
particularly knowledgeable about nuclear
but they're very knowledgeable about
energy right i mean everybody there
works
for coal it works in for coal or oil or
gas i mean it is a huge part of their
economy so
they're very energy literate even if
they weren't particularly nuclear
familiar with nuclear
the uranium piece actually is really
helpful to us because historically it's
been the um the coal mines uh i'm sorry
the yeah the coal mining association
that has um
uh
opposed nuclear power because they've
seen it as as a
competition
but in in
wyoming the the the wyoming mining
association also has uranium miners in
their leadership so we actually have the
coal industry group supporting this
project because the mining companies and
the miners see it as an opportunity for
them to continue to increase uranium
mining while the uh while coal mining
has come down so you know i think um
if you have uh gotten yourself
comfortable living near a coal plant
it's actually not that hard to get
people comfortable with the idea of
having them live near near a nuclear
plant but we've had to show up we've had
to spend a lot of time out there
on the ground meeting people face to
face you know we are a
seattle washington based company uh we
are we don't have a wyoming footprint so
we have really had to spend um you know
i've spent time out there our ceo has
spent a lot of time out there the
project folks who spent a lot of time
out there meeting with people doing town
halls answering questions um you know
all the things that that you would
imagine you know that you have to do
um you know i will say that that
you know what we obviously what we know
is that if you live very near a nuclear
power plant you tend to be very
favorable and comfortable with nuclear
power because you've probably
proactively asked your questions and
gotten answers to it
but even in parts of the country where
there are states that have nuclear power
you know
i always um i'm always curious and i ask
people a lot uh that i live in
washington dc we have the calvert clitz
plant which is you know 30 30 miles away
and you know sort of ask them what do
you think the closest nuclear power
plant is to to you where you live here
and i say that to my neighbors you know
and you get these answers oh hundreds
and hundreds of miles away um you know
nuclear kind of kept its head down a lot
after three mile island and we didn't go
out and proactively talk a lot about
what we do so i think you're going to
run into some of these same issues of of
having to win the public trust even if
you're in a state that that um you know
that does have nuclear power i you know
i have no idea how many people in
in you know uh arlington
uh know that there's that there's a
couple of nuclear power plants uh in
their state and there's another one in
caliber cliffs not too not too far from
them
but that but you know we've also tried
to be very transparent you know every
time we get a question from uh from a a
reporter
uh uh we try to add it to our the faq
section of our website so we have this
really ridiculously long and boring uh
fhq site um but we kind of wanna just in
the spirit of transparency put as much
out there
as we can
so we've been talking a lot about fuel
in the in the in the press in the last
few weeks and and um you know we're
going to continue to go through that
process with the governor the
legislature the county and the and the
and the city folk the folks at the at
the community level as well
yeah this is april wade um one question
for you is uh i know my own past
legislation um supportive small under
reactors were you guys working with
wyoming at that point
no we were not and um you know that that
was a there was a legislator there david
miller who just was really interested in
nuclear and thought that it would be a
an interesting way to have the
replacement and they passed this law
in 2019 and it was actually the passage
of that law that caused rocky mountain
power and pacific corp to say oh well
maybe this is an option that we should
explore so it really is
and an honest-to-god example of a
legislator that has an idea passes a law
causes the utility to start thinking
about
nuclear as an option the more they learn
about it the more they learn about our
technology the more excited they get
we did have to update that law
they had you know they had a definition
of a small modular reactor of a reactor
under 300 megawatts ours is 345
megawatts so we did have to go back to
legislature and make some adjustments
and changes but we were able to do that
in this legislative session um and it
was a short session
um this year and and uh you know we we
got that done so um you know i think
when the history of this project is
written they're gonna go back and you
know that that that one legislator
drafting this bill that probably at the
time people were scratching their heads
saying
what are you what are you talking about
small modular reactors and and a little
over a year later we had announced our
plans to build our plant there so
know maybe they'll maybe they'll name
the plant after him
well interesting fact i have actually
been the camera wyoming and it's been a
spring right there to have a friend
there and uh they like to be in the
first the first ac pity was built there
so it's a great community
yeah it is it's um it is the site of the
first jc penney's it's still which is
still open and it's still run like a
like a general store but it is still a
jc penny's
um
um but the community really was
you know um
when we called the mayor to tell him
that we'd selected it uh he almost broke
down because i think it had been a
really long you know this this plant
closure was announced a couple years ago
i think it had been a really big strain
on the community um they're trying to
figure out how do you know how do you
replace your largest employer um
you know how do you replace those jobs
how do you keep keep kids in your
schools um and now we've presented them
with a whole host of other problems
which is you know where are you going to
put all these people that are going to
be moving in the next few years and and
we're talking to them about getting
support from the interagency working
group on coal communities
to do things like
make sure that their wastewater systems
can can can deal with the the influx of
of people um but also you know really
encouraging the community to say
um you know how can you how can you how
can you make yourself an attractive
place for some of these construction
workers you know to decide they want to
they want to stay here permanently
and move their families there so they
went from
dealing with one set of problems to a
totally different set of problems but
the second set i think are much more uh
exciting issues to uh to work on for
them
but it is a small town it's 2700 people
hey hey jeff scott koppel here i'm
curious can you just talk about a little
how the cost share aspect has worked not
so much the dollars
but
obviously this is you know there's a lot
of resources needed now from a public
private partnership standpoint so
thinking about it maybe from a
virginia's perspective from the state
and working with the developer that's
got the sort of the backing of the
federal government and congress and
there's some sort of cost share model
like you guys are working through
yeah so you know the vision of ardp um
is that you know for every dollar
every dollar that that we put in the
federal government will match
um it's capped at at the agreed upon
price um you know we were able the other
thing that's great about uh
this past year is we were able to get uh
the bulk of that money for the
total seven years of the project
appropriated through the infrastructure
bill so most of the money we need has
already been appropriated and allocated
and sitting in a bank account so
we you know we we we write a check for
something uh we submit that receipt to
doe and they actually
have been very very good about turning
that around around pretty pretty quickly
now in our particular project um
we're not asking the state for anything
and and we're not asking the rate payers
to absorb any risk of cost overruns uh
or construction uh delay costs um
that all falls on terror power right we
are the developer in this particular
case
and we will sell the plant to rocky
mountain power at a set cost and that
we've negotiated with them
that
fairly represents the value of that
plant so
if we can't deliver a functioning plant
they don't pay
um
and they only have to pay
uh that that
agreed upon price once the plant is is
operational so that really does reduce
the the risk to the state and it reduced
the risks to the to the uh to the
ratepayers now going forward you know
we're not going this we're not going to
have a federal cost share for every one
of our plants so um what that model
looks like you know we're still trying
to trying to figure that out but um we
just don't think there's a lot of
appetite until we can prove that we can
build these things on time and on budget
there's not a lot of appetite to shift
that risk over to either taxpayers or or
rate payers and the onus is really on us
as an industry to show that we can that
we can deliver um you know once we build
five or six of these things and we we're
pretty confident we can do it at a
certain time frame and at a certain cost
that maybe those things change um um a a
little bit
um you know but the state has been
supportive in
ensuring that um
you know the governor the legislature
have been very very big public
supporters uh helping us you know ensure
that we're in front of the right
audiences answering questions um talking
about the benefits of the project uh you
know we will need we we've got to get
you know state um permits for you know
environmental permits water permits all
of those things and they've been very
very um supportive on that front as well
but
especially for this first of a kind
plant um we wanted to be very clear that
we're not asking the state for money and
we're you know i mean we've got we've
got taxpayer money we've already got you
know 50 of this thing with taxpayer
money so
um we don't we want to be clear we're
not asking the state to take any
additional risk uh or or the rate payers
um you know uh and for us this is a make
or break moment for the company if we
can build this thing and show that it
works show that we can deliver it do it
in a cost-effective way then i think
that we've got a great future
if we can't do that then things look
much more uh much murkier so
we really are focused on getting this
first one right um and you know these
are these are hard these are hard things
you know and and and scott you know this
like you know we've got a
you know just the the front end of the
fuel cycle alone right we don't have
access to halo we've got to work to try
to stand up that entire that entire
industry and make sure that there's
congressional support and the like um
you know we've got to come up with a
fuel fabrication facility we've got to
get those fuels qualified there's a lot
that goes you know just on the fuel side
there's a lot that we have to do
and uh you know we've got to do the same
thing on the reactor side same thing on
the uh integrating the energy island and
the nuclear island um so there's a lot
that that a lot of balls in the air sort
of simultaneously but we've tried to do
this in a way that at least
we recognize that we need a social
license to build this thing in wyoming
and we wanted to put as little burden on
them as possible
jeff i've got one more question
um
you mentioned uh bechtel is on the on
the team um i assume their role is
they're managing uh the construction
side of the
of the project can you talk a little bit
about the
um
the planning or the challenge on
actually the construction the labor side
one of the things we've talked a lot
about is how do we prepare a workforce
to actually be able to build um and even
do some of the you know license renewal
activities that the existing fleet is
undertaking is are there synergies uh
with
you know the volvo project construction
or some of the workforce there that can
be transferred to you all how are you
handling that
yeah and bechtel obviously knows that
workforce really really well so we are
hoping that we can build you know our
construction timeline
um is you know as they're getting ready
to turn that rate those reactors on
we'll be ready to start some of our
construction process
so we are hopeful that we can get some
of those employees
regionally there's a lot of oil and gas
activity up there as well on some of
those some of those skills you know will
will transfer
you know
initially we heard some concerns from
some of the local folks saying are you
going to hire local people are you going
to bring everybody from out of state and
i said you know i i really don't think
our problem is going to be that we have
too many workers like we're going to be
you know anybody who's qualified that
wants to work on this plan is going to
have a good shot at getting that job
because um
you know in addition to this project
which was funded during the
infrastructure project you know there's
there's a trillion dollars of other
infrastructure stuff out there so that's
those are
that's a lot of the same kind of labor
that we're going to need you know highly
skilled trades uh you know people with
with that can that can um um can weld
can pour concrete can do heavy
construction and the like so um it's a
big it's a big concern um we have uh um
we've also engaged with the building
trades unions um as well um it's a
little politically fraud i mean wyoming
is not the most um union friendly state
in the world but we've we've made clear
we're going to need lots of union labor
because a lot of this stuff is very
specialized and we're getting a lot of
non-union labor as well because you know
27 there's not 2 700 uh uh
you know skilled
uh tradesmen just sitting in camera or
waiting for us to call them so
um um
it is it is
it gives us a little bit of uh we're
heartened a little bit because bechtel
you know is very very good at this you
know they know they know how to how to
pull these big projects together
but we're actively working through that
construction schedule you know right now
but yeah it's going to be it's going to
be a challenge
any other questions
well jeff thank you so much for joining
us um we you know we may have you back
in another you know year or two to get
an update this is really interesting and
i'm sure scott or myself or others may
pick your brain as we start moving
forward in virginia as well so thanks
again that that would be great and
thanks thanks to all of you for all of
all of the work that that that you do i
know like i said um
we wouldn't be building this project in
wyoming except for the fact that we had
a few local leaders who decided that
they wanted to see nuclear power and
they they pushed for a bill and they got
that bill enacted and very very very
shortly after that the discussion
started on on this project and um you
know we would love to replicate uh what
we did there uh in in virginia um um
uh it's a lot easier commute for me to
get to virginia than to get to wyoming
so i'm a little just from that selfish
point of view but really think thanks
for all the work that you guys are doing
uh in in the state and if there's
anything i can ever do to support you
just just let me know
thank you appreciate it
all right thanks everyone
all right
um so the next step is uh we've got an
update from virginia energy larry are
you doing an update for alp
firstly on this virginia energy
that um i had a conversation with now on
yesterday um do you know the woman who's
been
appointed to kind of run the energy
planner for getting their name
so chelsea jenkins is
secretary
she just started last week so we're not
too good
patients are
but she'll be the liaison of the energy
plan and overall for energy and economy
and the reason we bring that up is we
may reach out to her about uh joining us
for um a meeting maybe in the third
quarter
especially as she gets her
feet under her with everything
one major piece of legislation
we're going to discuss that that's hpe
94
so that is a wordpress
policies to advance small modular
reactors
energy
uh april
um
mobile is um occasional to everyone this
afternoon um
your tour review
it is
um we've basically been partnerships
i'm really excited to announce that
jefferson labs has signed on as a
partner
that's a really
neat
thing for us
you know one of the questions we always
ask when we go and talk to legislators
and the executive branch is where it's
directly labs it's nice to say now that
you know we have a
relationship that we're working together
even though they're on this board it's
just
it's a good conversation
we've talked to the director and the
deputy
do we know what that's going to look
like but no
they want to continue conversations with
universities and i've tried working
getting them more into v-neck as well um
to hear what the companies have to say
to the projects that are going on here
in virginia so they can
see where they can participate more in
but i'm excited um i will be calling the
working group back
soon on this valley email hopefully
tonight or tomorrow uh setting a date
for the lord we prefer to be your
approval
document but um
if you all will review it when uh
writing emails it to you
probably within the week it makes some
changes back so i can get it to the
writer
um but it's uh you know it has taken us
longer than expected but i cannot tell
you i think
conversations that needed to be had
to give them that
so we have reached out to virginia state
university
university as well they have a couple
more leaders
partners so
being able to do this
get done in the next couple of months
we'll be looking at what they need to do
next on funding opportunities
so
that's where i met there
uh yeah so brandy i'll email
the
next iteration of the draft
if we can plan on having comments back
by mid next week though
no the next one is good
so as larry mentioned uh
hp 894
um yeah i just everybody you've got kind
of a
document that april prepared just
you know i think some of the things that
jeff said were right on and i think uh
dele kilgore is very excited about small
modern reactors
um
excited
about us getting started right away you
know without the governor's signature
although we're
99.9
percent sure if governor's gonna sign
this bill
um so we're still pretty confident about
going forward
i think everyone knows that last fall we
did a grant application to the buildback
better
virginia economic development
partnership
and um
this kind of goes off of
it's from what without work we did on
the grant
um
i believe that this is a it's a great
next step for us so we have
some things in place
and the working group that the
bill calls for i believe we already have
in place as well we'll add a few others
i have talked to jefferson labs they do
also want to sit into this conversation
as well
but if you look at it the document it
just goes over
the history of where we're at the field
and then our objectives for the working
group
please review and let me know if you
think
and then the um
that we're going to look at
this is a big task and
i think we're probably going to have to
work in stages and put a calendar
together
if we want evening in the next
legislature we probably have to have
something to
delegate kilgore and a few others by
november
october
so we'll probably epileptic stages of
how we want to do this
um
but that's one thing that we'll have to
work on is the calendar
um
and then
um
you know the children would love to be
at the kickoff
for
um
again i think that shows a lot of
investment of what we're trying to use
and as always um
for v-neck to
take on this project they'll need the
authorities approval to move forward
so similar to
as you read the
legislation here
um and the you know kind of what was
actually enacted it does look to uh
virginia energy and be neca um to kind
of convene the stakeholder group as we
did with
the hub and
the strategic plan
uh when april and i had talked about is
we think you know the most efficient way
to go about that especially in light of
you know the public disclosure and all
those uh the rules for this body is to
actually
um empower v-neck to manage the process
to manage the working group and then
provide
um what we talked about is we'll have an
update on this specific task every every
meeting we have um so and then
a you know final report that would be
again reviewed signed off commented on
throughout and then
sent to uh executive branch of the
legislature
for for their input there but along the
way since this isn't really it's a
little different than say the hub or the
strategy plan there's actually a
kind of do by date um we i think one of
the things we think is this could very
well be an uh
organic and ongoing process which is
good um that may evolve and could become
a little bit of a working group that can
take on different
activities and at various stages
depending on
what the needs and how this may go
so
while
you and we don't have it there's
intentionally not a specific date for a
report to be brought back to the
authority
um there will be
uh portions um that we will want to talk
about comment on and there may be
interim reports
but this very well could be an ongoing
process and i think a lot more clarity
as the working group is stood up
um so april's kind of outlined
not only
you know some of the objectives and the
work areas that were identified here a
lot of this is out of
uh some of the discussions we had around
the
grant proposal for the for the buildback
better grant
also come out of the legislation and
then there's also
you know kind of
uh who would be on the working room so
what i thought we could do is if we want
to take a minute to look over the
objectives if
we haven't already
and the working group members and if
there are
other things we should be adding and
thinking about here that we can
represent today
to look at i think that would be useful
and then we can kind of talk about
the other recommendation for the for the
resolution
yeah
i guess i just have one comment as the
industry i know
um
a lot we're going to need to there's a
lot of overlap
objectives
um i totally agree
i think we are going to have to
and i will be
honest
there are
i do not we need to know
um
from those some others that were working
on grant application
we just want to continue that work but
we want to work strong closely
make sure we're working together on that
and there isn't any vocal act
we're all going to have a lot of
misinformation
that people need to live i think i want
to give them
um
i think there's great opportunity for
cooperation and synergy the way
would it be
beneficial so
april talked about you know kind of kick
off painting for the work
um i think back to a lot of what kicked
off the strategic plan was the uh venus
nuclear summit we had presentations on a
lot of the different aspects of that and
it kind of helped inform and
scope out so that
at a kickoff meeting would be helpful to
someone from dominion to give a short
presentation on here are the things we
think about when we look at citing a new
project or is that i think that would be
very useful
apparently
so
being someone who has done some of this
task
i will point out that for example you
know the first couple of bullets that
you have on here in terms of evaluating
site and evaluating the infrastructure
for the site
is not exactly simple
and it is not exactly
low cost and i totally agree with you
but i know that we can't do that but i
do know that we could talk you know
development partnership and some of the
changes that commerce would ask that
they have sites that have already
have to work on and help it help those
conversations i i
if you start looking at this
opportunity
i i i think we probably go easier than
some areas but some of the areas we're
going to
have to depend on divinians
i think that i think the working of the
whole structure would be very very
useful in terms of
bringing the state together around the
project
in terms of manpower development and
things but in terms of the
physical
identification of the requirements for a
site and transmission capability and all
of that
that is so specialized that there is
there's really not much
benefit that would be gained by
kind of dabbled in that it's like oh
this is
yeah it's more it's more it's more of
that's the kind of thing
evaluation and then
and then how can we how can we use the
word group based multiple important
and maybe it's also maybe the working
group's role could be helping identify
some of the things that the state could
help support too right so maybe it's
hey is there some some way that the edp
could could be
funded to do
or
cite i don't even think it's evaluation
i think it's identification right it's
just your places
that or or outreach to communities like
we heard jeff talk about they did in
wyoming right where you're gaining
interest in
you know from localities
um or it's things like workforce right
these are the these are the sectors of
the workforce that are going to be
needed if a project were to go forward
is there ways we could start that
pipeline now right we already have
virginia energy
workforce consortium that is looking in
some of
the broader
energy workforce for the
similar existing jeff my experience on
the part of sighting is
risks
franco fellaini raymond who's original
facilities in mexico it was all about
you know we that community had a site
i don't think
we need help with um economic
development partnership to just help us
help them think about it as well right
they're they probably haven't really
thought about the suspension you know
jason l cubee has learned a lot
how he's ahead of the edp
which i'm excited about but i think
having them put that hat on as well
i'm curious
do you know are there other states that
are
doing something similar to this
well as far as i know um
they're trying to set up an organization
similar to what we're doing um
they have something now
similar but not quite
so i would say there's some
there is a difference between what we're
doing here in virginia and what a lot of
other states are doing a lot of other
states there
there are some ad i would call more ad
hoc so washington's a good example
they've got
a group in the community it cut out
eastern central washington that where
the x energy
demonstration project is planned for
that they're they're now trying to look
at okay well
how do you get more of the
infrastructure around i think honestly
like that's where our field fabrication
facility is there's a lot of
infrastructure that's already there so
it's trying to see how do you maintain
some of that for the advanced nuclear
space um you know tennessee's lifted
some of this back
um
this was more around uh
some of the reactor
publishment with watts bar and brown's
ferry and now they're i think that's
transitioning into some of the work
they're doing on smrs so there is a
little bit um the carolinas and georgia
did this back when the ap1 thousands
were playing up for those areas but
maryland has something versus created
they operate totally different than
i don't know of any that are let's call
it um
legislatively mandated or not mandated
but
um driven like this right now um there's
some legislation that's been out there
that is voting but not necessarily
starting to look specifically like this
um
you know what i i met jeff
months ago and the first thing he said
was congratulations you know yeah is on
the right course
or getting noticed on some of the thesis
one of the things about this document i
i think
there's no other statement
it should be looking at
some
on the east coast it's all the west and
as jeff and others have pointed out
right down the road from the department
of energy a lot of good opportunities
and
also looking at manufacturing as well
not just building
multiple and natural
infrastructure
there's an opportunity with this to do
things
great benefit
providing clean safe a lot of energy all
the infrastructure that's where staff
from the educator
um
jobs construction jobs tax revenues
you look at everything and you think
about it it's like a chat virginia check
virginia we got it
virginia has the opportunity to be the
clean energy let's go in total for all
the things that have been happening not
just within
commonwealth point
export
and for clean energy projects up and
down the east coast and internationally
that's why i said that you know the
magnitude of these opportunities
and i think that actually
that's one thing we should
the list of what the work
does need to be
maybe just
describe you can scrub it a little bit
as you go along i did i'm not sure we
had anything on here about
export potential or what
you know i don't know at the shipyard if
we were to start looking at i know many
many years ago there was a project to
look at
doing uh heavy components um at newport
news and for both
domestic and internet you know what type
of
work might be you could go on down there
or policy to support that to be able to
be an export hub
and i think on the judges
but looking at the economic impact
this is an economic opportunity for the
state as well
that we need to be with you
i don't know about you all but i took a
note because i hadn't heard this i
hadn't heard jeff say this before but
the fact that their
plant in wyoming is going to be
two times the employment the permanent
employment not just the construction
employment of the existing
you know cold generation i think is
something that
is definitely something that would be
useful for you know communities and
people
to understand success
i you know one of the things i think
that is hard and sometimes you hear
fossil replacement power and you think
of renewables and that's it's really
useful it's great but it doesn't come
with the same job foot flipper at all so
yeah
and there are maintenance requirements
of things that aren't going so there is
some employment but you know i think the
opportunity
the opportunity to transition that site
with all the benefits that provide with
a small lodge in the reactor and the
employment and attacks the benefits of
this
viable department free energy
so i think that that that's a big
opportunity
and one of the leading images i think
tom mentioned this last time
appalachian law school is doing a study
i understand i think it's on sites and
that's what robert
but um he's setting up a call with that
professor that's leading that uh
that in charge and i know we're looking
at west virginia and virginia
science
what about the
working group members or there is there
anyone i actually made a note i think
that goal i know
she's on my list i'm not going to follow
up with colleen about spectacle having
someone
um rejoin uh vineca here but i was
thinking from the workforce standpoint
and that's going to be something i think
the construction of course we should
see
yes the working group
as well
anybody else we're missing
there you had the labs
another thing i did is i reached out to
nai they sent me a package to look at
some legislation that's gone on in other
states
no disrespect to dominion but in the
southwest part of the state
i may be involved yes
now they've spoken publicly
okay are there other comments on kind of
what april's laid out here
or and then you know at the end here we
kind of came up with a uh recommendation
um but again this is kind of empowering
v-neck uh to manage the process but also
reporting back to
us on a quarterly basis or more often
through emails that brandi can send
everybody if
any comments on
i get a motion
[Music]
what are we voting on
the the resolve the recommended
resolution at the end of the
student power
all right
so i will start on the phone scott
uh yes i'm for it
hi
okay
so that's unanimous
okay uh so then if we want to take a
moment the minutes from last meeting
marking your notes
they've also been posted
take a minute if folks have any changes
or comments
i probably
that's why i'm speaking up to them
i remember coming here because i have a
crack
across my windshield
from a rock that got kicked up on i-95
coming down
everybody's reference eric's no longer
with us he's taking a job with
it
it's ernie moniz's uh big tank of the
tennessee so you
probably see it's
right any other
changes or
um
i get a motion to adopt the minutes as
amended
[Music]
second
okay
no
scott
you approved the minutes yay
yay we can voice both the rest of the
group
all in favor
posed
um and then the only thing
before we can use a comment is that
the asset inventory list if you have any
updates would you
provide those to brandy
whatever do this every time
and i might add on that effort
as if i put my hands to eric's hand
i'm not sure if i have the
official copy because there were several
copies
so just make sure that everything that
we talked about
[Music]
so in terms of
news other reports i don't have a whole
lot i think jeff did highlight a pretty
significant issue that's ongoing right
now
obviously with the
terrible conflict that's going on in
ukraine
um more practical
near-term things for the industry is
impact on fuel
um both for the existing fleet uh and
for advanced reactors
um so that's something i know
sure
and you're
following closely uh
but the big emphasis i think and
has been
the highlight of domestic fuel cycle
capabilities within not only the u.s but
really there's discussion now of how do
we
in terms of the kind of western alliance
countries
make sure we're not reliant on russian
fuel
so there's increased discussion of how
do you stand up to additional conversion
enrichment
mining is
less of an issue and then when we get to
the advanced nuclear
it's really a whole halo fuel cycle
which is
capitalizing on a lot of technologies we
already have but it's going to take
investment
so that's a that's a pretty
high profile ongoing discussion as jeff
said it actually was in the
president's release about the budget
yesterday and securing payload supply
and domestic halo supply
is interesting along with the fact that
they have
looks like a plus up in the budget
for fuel cycle r d
right now there's some more there's a
moratorium
the other thing is you may have seen uh
dr katie huff whose acting
was acting um assistant secretary for
nuclear energy she's made it through her
confirmation hearing
um she highlighted the issues with um
with nuclear fuel and emphasis on that
for the department
um i don't know scott you may have an
update on when she may actually get her
confirmation vote but it doesn't look
like there's much of a hang up other
than timing because it is the senate but
it's got a few of the other
well i don't i don't think she's been
voted out of committee yet because i
don't think they've had a business
meeting but
um i agree with your assessment at least
at the committee level there didn't seem
to be
any real issues or hang-ups
but you never know in this process
in terms of issues that have absolutely
nothing to do with you and
a senator putting this hold on you which
can be done in secret basically um
it's basically a can do a filibuster so
hopefully that movement quickly can
because
they could use
more leadership but there's more people
yeah
anything else company wise or other
important
um so for that we will move to public
comments
cameras david could not be here today
erica gray i live in
richmond
um
i want to start off with is yesterday
mark the
43rd anniversary
of my fremont island
accident
which uh
one of the largest accidents united
states so far
it'll maintain that
another one happened
it was due to a mechanical and human
error
um and uh unit two is currently
that was shut down 1979 for the accident
it's maintained in a storage right now
until
i think when they finally closed down
unit one which looks like it's estimated
to be
in 2079.
none of us
see
um
so um
when things go wrong they go really
wrong it's really expensive i i don't
even know what that cost is going to
look like when they finally do but
that's going to be the weight of our
children and grandchildren
um
i wanted to move also to the npr kind of
demonstrate the thing that's going on in
ukraine
it's pretty horrific
of course this was on npr march 14th
last week's assault on russian porsches
on the
staff rosaria i can't say it nuclear
power plan was far more dangerous than
initial assessments suggested
according to analysis by npr
videos and photographs the attack of the
aftermath a thorough review but before
our 21-minute security camera of the
attack reveals the russian forces
repeatedly fired heavy weapons
into the direction of the plant's
massive reactor buildings
which housed dangerous nuclear fuel
photos showed that administrative fields
directly in front of the reactor company
was shredded
by russian forces a video from inside
the plan showed damage and possible
russian shells that landed less than 250
feet from reactor 2 building
if attacked in the functioning plant
wasn't insufficient
russia uh russia has also taken over the
site no longer operating chernobyl
nuclear power plant
genova nuclear power plant accident 1986
spread radioactive materials throughout
europe it was one of the largest
catastrophes in history
um it has even been recourse of because
of all of the action and stuff that's
going on there that actually they can
actually measure radioactive particles
in the area not your health
um so that kind of goes to demonstrate
that we never really know what's going
to happen i think they have like 15
reactors in that country i don't know
how many bio labs but yeah this is a
very dangerous situation uh maybe we're
just by its nature
dangerous it doesn't matter if it's from
mining
milling processing to the back end and
forever away storage yes we have a ban
on uranium mining and virginia's came
out in force and we don't want it in
that facility that's down there by
chatham virginia near the north carolina
border people don't want that there and
they bought it really hard
low-grade uranium you have to dig up a
whole bunch
i don't know how that's environmentally
friendly either but
um so
i want to mention that
um yes there's a obviously a problem
with
us uh relying on uh uranium 20
from russia 30 from their allies about
90
is uh already
imported
um
so anyone living near um
especially the native american
communities you know a lot of that stuff
still hasn't been cleaned up
to do more of that
the name of clean energy is just beyond
beyond my imagination that's even
painful um i did want to mention that
you know i do think that we need to
look at
that from the engineer
the estimated cost of cleaning up the
waste with 20th century nuclear power
plants currently stands at
131 billion
now that's more what's more is this
figure does not include construction of
a geological depository
so and that's the uk
can you imagine what ours would look
like
this group always talks about moving
forward with new new news more new well
you know we've
got some huge
daunting tasks when it comes to the ways
we already have
i think that's definitely a problem
and um
from mr lyman dr lyman from the union of
concerned scientists
report
basically if uh nuclear power is to play
a role a larger role to address climate
change essentially for new reactor
designs to be safer more secure
and pose comparable or better yet lower
risk of nuclear proliferation and
negligent terrorism than the existing
existing flea
now he goes on to say despite the hype
surrounding them none of the
non-white water reactors on the drawing
board we have reviewed
all of that those requirements
so uh he goes on basically
um
one of the uh proposed sodium cool fast
reactors tara powders
powers 345 megawatt
natrium has received considerable media
attention
because of bill gates
uh but basically
um in fact the us report so didn't pull
fast reactors such as nature would
likely be less uranium efficient
they would not reduce the amount of
waste that requires long-term isolation
in a geologic repository
they could they also could experience
safety problems that are not an issue
for like water reactors
sodium coolant for example can burn when
exposed to air or water a sodium cooled
fast reactor could experience
uncontrollable power increase that would
result in a rapid or meltdown
so when it comes to safety
that secure and security sodium cool
fast reactors and molten salt fuel
reactors are significant significantly
worse than conventional white water
reactor says dr lyman
kind of goes on to say we've got a lot
of hype going on here in this room about
uh
we don't know
and the amount of money that's going to
be needed and the amount of money that's
been given
from the government
some of these grants is a drop in the
bucket so i mean all this hype about how
exciting this is exciting like in 20
years maybe
you might get some of these
demonstration things going but
nothing's proven
so i mean i think that's a far cry there
to be really excited about it
um the reality is renewables already
exists and i think dominion knows this
mr schader knew this very well i'd like
to see a lot of virginians would like to
see
because we already have a lot of these
things at hand
and
why not move forward more with renewable
energy
it doesn't require forever storage of
nuclear waste
it's not dangerous does it require this
whole mining uranium everywhere
it's dirty and it's toxic
so i mean to me the solution is more to
kind of go with kind of where we're
going already
and so i think that would make more
sense
um
i was going to say that i did notice it
was listening i'm not sure
what april was mentioned when mr shotter
was asking about
different things that was in that was
written
and she mentioned that
she or y'all were not the ones that
worked on that proposal just curious who
did work on those proposals that y'all
were talking about before
that's another was not like
you said something about that y'all
didn't write that explain who's writing
this
i'm not sure
by the way i'd like a copy it was my
next
one of these here
that's good
and then also um please on the asset
list
as a citizen um as a mother and a
grandmother
i would like to know what my children
and grandchildren are going to be
inherited so as the asset list goes
please list
our nuclear power plants how much waste
nuclear waste
is stored
and haas on site uh
past
for both facilities but also how much
nuclear waste it's currently already
sitting in the reactor uh cooling pools
because uh if we're going to talk about
assets
i don't know maybe one day we'll figure
out how to turn it into an asset which
sounds like that's always been talked
about for the past 50 years
but the reality
is
um
that should be included
i don't want to hear just this asset
list over here
when there's no negatives over here on
the other side the negatives are
that's a problem and i'm sure dominion
spends a lot of money putting this stuff
into canisters
and they've re-racked the the fueling
pools already that's stored and these
facilities are getting older
so
you know who's going to be responsible
for the waste obviously every american
is going to be held captive in this
waste forever
i think we need to stop making it let's
go forward with what we know
what what's on the table right now is
with redemption we can do this as it
goes to the nuclear industry you guys
work on better canisters because these
canisters the nrc has not said they
would even last a hundred years
these canisters are going to start to
fail
do something better than this
and the idea of some deep geological
repository is probably not going to
happen because you can't just pop it in
the ground and think you can forget
about it we might be able to forget
about it what about the coming up
generations
kind of water problems
they're going to have i'd like to see
more responsibility happen here
instead of just more because really what
it is it's a gravy drink everybody's
jumping on the gravy trains
now it's a money growth
how much money can we make just like
some of these big projects that failed
a lot of people got paid the project
never even came to fruition
but people made money
you know i think we just need to look at
moving forward with more renewables i
hope dominion really takes the stand on
moving forward with
clean
non-dangerous threatening energy that
doesn't create waste product that lasts
forever
thank you
any other public comments
appreciate everybody's time and we'll oh
the only other thing is uh work with
granny just send out a new call to set
up
you know the third quarter meeting
probably you know june july
david you had a comment i see your hands
raised
i think it's the other one brandi this
is audio
can you find me
it looks to be unmuted
try again david i think
can't read it though
yeah we'll send out a doodle bowl for
the
for the q3
meeting and we do have i
was going to say there's two vacant
seats one was
calling deegan who stepped down from
bechtel but i'm gonna follow up with her
she was gonna see a better replacement i
think it'd be useful to have that and
the other is from virginia tech so we're
gonna reach out to
do you want to say something i can put
you up here on my phone
all right i have you on speakers are you
sure you don't say anything
okay all right
um