just real quick for for the new folks
maybe they they could share their
affiliation or what the connection is as
well that just be helpful since I know I
don't know everyone that's new be great
Brian do you want to start sure I'll
back up I'm a partner with the law firm
Haynes Boon my office is in Tyson's
Virginia I'm a member of the nuclear
Practice Group within that law firm and
some of my clients are very active uh in
the design and construction space
uh Calvin welcome thank you good morning
everyone I'm Calvin low I'm a physics
professor at Hampton University in
Hampton Virginia I am
um happy to be here I've been at Hampton
for for a few years this is actually my
third time working at Hampton so I've
been a few other places in between
um um I well my my research interest is
in the other nuclear energy uh in
nuclear fusion my we're building
actually a fusion experiment here at
Hampton which we hope to get off the
ground in the next uh couple
years fantastic well welcome uh and
finally Mary do you w to introduce
yourself good morning everyone I'm Mary
newer I'm the director of government
Affairs for ureno USA uh ureno is a
provider of Enrichment Services for the
nuclear industry we operate uh the
nation's only um commercial scale
enrichment plant uh that's in
Southeastern New Mexico but we have
offices and are um based a number of us
are based here in Virginia uh in Rosland
so um very much look forward to um
participating and um very happy to be be
joining the
board great thank you Mary um so I'll
ask the other authority members as um we
talk today and engage if you um will
introduce where where you're coming from
I think for our new members that would
be probably helpful um I'm Tom deponte
I'm the the chair of the authority and
uh director of government Affairs for
fatom which is based headquartered in uh
Lynchberg
Virginia um so we will
get the rest of our program um in a
little bit but first I wanted to um
welcome Lucas run from uh E4 Carolina
sorry Ryan did you have something before
we start your hand up can everyone just
mute if they're not presently talking so
we can avoid some of the
feedback it's always helpful thank
you so um I we invited uh uh Lucas um
who is with E4 Carolinas um and I'll go
through his his full bio but he's also
um been uh actively um engaged with the
economic development study for for
Southeast uh nuclear which included uh
Virginia and there's some really
interesting data that he was able to
share but um Lucas is the manag managing
director of research and economic
development at E4 Carolina those of you
who may not be familiar with with E4 um
it is a um energy focused uh
Organization for um North Carolina South
Carolina based um in
Charlotte um he has been a adju Adjunct
professor um at Duke University um
working specifically on some of the
supply chain and value uh chain analysis
for the center of inter on International
Development um he's widely published um
has had a long um career um at Duke and
led a lot of uh Economic Development
research um for the government and or
for governments foundations and
international development
organizations um and has uh recently
like you said joined um E4 Carol um and
helped with uh this Economic Development
study so I'm gonna I'm going to stop
there and turn it over welcome um Lucas
I think he had some uh slides he wants
to share um we will share these at the
end and if you for Authority members if
you have questions um as we go please
just hit the you know raise hand button
so we can we can call on you and go go
from there so um Lucas uh let me make
sure we still got you here um me um
thank you I can hear you and let me just
uh okay to share uh my screen uh and
let's begin the
presentation
um see can everyone see that can I just
get a thumbs
up yep okay good great um so Tom thank
you so much for uh inviting me to speak
to the authority today about um what
we've uh discovered about the economic
impact of the nuclear industry in the
southeast United States and also just to
note um Virginia is included in the in
this study so um I'll be breaking out
not only the the southeast United States
numbers but also the Virginia numbers
and I hope if we could uh just um the
questions um I know there's lots of
questions coming up if I could just H
ask y'all to um hold those off until the
end of the presentation then we'll just
take them all at once um so uh Tom did a
great job of of Introducing Me Global
value chain specialist I'm currently the
director of research at E4 Carol uh
previously at Duke University for about
a dozen years uh both its faculty and
staff uh you'll see my credentials there
at the bottom
um Tom did a great job of uh introducing
you for Carolina is we're a trade
Association of energy companies and
organizations uh based in Charlotte
North Carolina we were founded in 2009
as the Carolina's nuclear cluster so
we've got a long uh tradition in history
uh and membership base uh in the nuclear
industry um the organization really is
focused on uh kind of an all of the
above Energy Solution uh geared towards
economic growth efficient use of
resources and care for our environment
we have over a 100 members uh including
companies University and nonprofits and
I'll just make a quick plug it's a
really nice organization because it
allows conversations across sectors uh
about energy and different perspectives
uh and it really is a nice uh format and
nice table to have those conversations
uh in our region um in 2021 we received
a three-year Grant from the US economic
development Administration to con
research and planning activity around
deploying nuclear technologies in the
southeast United States uh and we
organized the southeast nuclear advisory
Council as part of that effort uh and we
hope to continue that Southeast nuclear
Council after the end of the grant uh
that is scheduled currently for uh May
of
2024 um we put out a report uh I guess
on the 20th um to talk about what we've
discovered about the economic impact of
the nuclear industry in uh in the region
um just will quickly um goes into two
parts the first part is kind of a market
overview to orient people about you know
the the footprint of the nuclear
industry uh in the Southeast and um and
the second part does the more formal
economic impact study I'll note that um
the people that helped uh me with with
this study uh Joey Von nessen at
University of South Carolina did the
economic impact analysis uh and I was
aily assisted uh by Todd Royal at E4
Carolinas who did uh a lot of the leg
work in terms of identifying the
companies uh in each state which we'll
talk about so just an industry overview
for most of y'all you this will be very
familiar to you but um I'm always amazed
by the lack of of information about um
what the nuclear presence is in the
Southeast so 25 uh nuclear reactors out
of the 23 total 13 of 55 total operating
plans in the United States Virginia of
course has four reactors at two plants
at North Ana and Siri um nuclear power
uh makes up 37% of electric power
generation capacity in the Southeast
compared to 19% in the US so the
southeast has more nuclear electric
power generation capacity than the US
overall by quite a bit uh in Virginia uh
the data uh 2022 show that 31% of net
electric power generation uh capacity is
from nuclear sources in Virginia um I
like to present this slide because I
think it it provides a good context for
why we're talking about nuclear so um
you know the age of of reactors um every
year it gets a little bit older um and I
think it's important to note that while
nuclear reactors are licensed for 40
years they have a lifespan of much
longer than that um and even though uh
the majority of operating reactors were
built in the 70s and 80s um only two
reactors uh barar uh and vogle entered
into service this Century we hope to
have an additional reactor um soon
entering into service and in vogle four
but um the point is that uh the reactors
are aging um and that in order for it to
be part of the Clean Energy Solution uh
new reactor construction has to exceed
reactor decommissioning uh to help
achieve the zeroc carbon energy goals
that everyone is trying to achieve um so
the next part of the study went into the
southeast nuclear companies uh and I
want to talk briefly about how we did
that analysis um the first part of it
was we created a value chain my
background is in value chain analysis so
I wanted to better understand what the
industry looks like um so you have
everything from inputs to post sales
Services um and end of life activities
production Support Services where you
have the epcs and supporting services
and the institutions and supporting
organizations that are part of that
industrial ecosystem um most people
again I think uh the current audience uh
includ not included um you know when
they think about nuclear think about all
the utilities and they may think about
some of the components uh and subsystems
providers maybe some of the technology
vendors as being the nuclear industry
the point here is that it's a broad
industry and it includes a number number
of actors um all along the value chain
that are providing uh products support
services that are important in order for
this industry to function um we created
a Southeast nuclear business
directory uh and the purpose there was
really to identify firms active in the
nuclear industry with a presence in the
southeast United States um we looked
globally we identified who the global
lead firms are um and then identified
you know do they do where are they
located uh and then we went from a
bottom up so instead of just top down
Global we went also bottom up and
identified um companies that we may have
missed as a result of that Global
Perspective and um wanted to search
additional companies and identify them
through industry news sources reference
USA LinkedIn other organizations that
have inventories um of of of their
nuclear capacity and companies um in the
region uh Tennessee and Virginia being
being one of those uh states that have
that that inventory available um what we
did is we identified uh 494 firms active
in the nuclear industry with locations
in the Southeast uh and those 494 firms
had, 1600 approximately unique locations
so not all of those unique locations are
going to be doing uh nuclear related
activities but the the you know the
point is that they have a broad uh
footprint in the industry uh and in the
region in Virginia we identified 174
companies with uh 352 branch locations
or unique locations um of those
companies um we positioned those along
the nuclear value chain based on their
specific product or service and then we
V visualize the database in two ways the
first way is we just kind of you know
put the number of companies that we
identified and superimpose that on the
value chain that you previously saw
these are the results for uh the entire
southeast United States uh and then we
also did kind of dots on the map uh and
this is kind of the the cluster map uh
for uh nuclear organizations uh in in
the southeast United States you'll see
uh Virginia um is well represented there
um so the second part of the study
really did the formal economic impact
assessment of the southeast nuclear
industry
um we modeled it in three different ways
um the first is what is the total impact
of current nuclear power uh operations
uh at nuclear power plants within the
Southeast region um the second activity
is what are the firms that are
supporting the nuclear industry as
suppliers for nuclear power plants and
other nuclear related activities located
outside side of the Southeast region so
for example imagine a company has
products and services they are both
supplying uh and and providing services
for existing operational nuclear power
plants that are located in the Southeast
but also for products and services
located outside of the southeast well we
wanted to capture uh both of those
activities um and then finally What's
the total impact uh of non uh Department
of Defense Federal facilities engaged in
nuclear related uh R&D waste remediation
and other related activities um the uh
the way that we model this is um most
people who have done economic impact
analysis or or read them uh realize that
um there's it's kind of a you're you're
dropping you're trying to measure what
the effect is of the equivalent of
dropping a rock into a Still Pond right
the direct effect is the rock um the
indirect effect is that first wave
coming out from the Rock and then the
induced is the third the second wave um
there are additional ripples that occur
as a result of that economic impact that
direct economic impact but the modeling
approach that we use which is a software
model called impl stops at that uh
Second order effect uh the the third um
induced impact the of direct indirect
and induced is the total effect the
total economic
impact
um so in terms of each of the activities
um the direct employment in nuclear
electric power generation uh was
Quantified for each state uh based on
the Bureau of Labor Statistics quarterly
senses of employment and w wages uh for
Virginia um that number is
1860 um we also identified uh employment
that is serving uh nons Southeast uh
located nuclear industry and nuclear
power plants uh for the state that
direct uh employment count is uh
8183 uh and then for the nonod federal
facilities uh the the jlab um 766
employees um so we used those for each
activity and sumed them up uh and then
got a total impact figure uh the direct
Employments of about
55,000 uh supply chain and indirect
effects for the southeast United States
of 98,000 employees for
153 total economic uh employment uh
related to uh the nuclear industry in
the southeast United States um for the
southeast uh economic output results a
total direct impact of
21.3 uh supply chain and indirect impact
of 21.6 in a total of about $43 billion
uh state and local taxes contribution on
an annual basis of 3.7 billion and an
average wage of about 90,000
um here are the results for Virginia
that we have in the report uh a direct
impact of approximately 4 billion uh
supply chain and indirect of 3.1 uh for
a total of of 7.1 billion uh annual
contribution to State and local taxes of
842 million and an average wage of of
$100,000 um we also wanted to better
understand um
if nuclear power plants are going to be
built in the future what can we expect
in terms of uh economic impact both on
the construction side and on the
operation side um and so the way that we
modeled it was what would an investment
of a billion dollars yield in terms of
total economic impact what would a total
uh investment of a billion dollars of
operations yield in terms of total
economic
um we did that for each state um and the
bottom line there is that it doesn't
change much whether you look it at the
regional level or at the state level but
in the report we do break it out uh for
each state uh and and refine the results
that I'm presenting here um for nuclear
power plant
construction um a billion dollars worth
of uh of investment yields approximately
$2 billion of of total impact so for
every dollar you put in you get $2 out
um for operations it's the same thing so
for a billion dollars in you get about a
billion dollar another billion dollars
out so at two to1 return the difference
here is the average wage uh the average
wage this is in
$221 uh
$65,000 for construction wages versus
oper A's wages of over 105,000 so you
have uh fewer people earning more
dollars but resulting in the same you
know General economic impact uh if you
invest in construction versus
operations um so the bottom line that I
wanted to leave you all away with uh
today which is that the economic impact
of the nuclear industry in the five
state region uh is about $43
billion um level of activity supports
about
153,000 Jobs and4 billion dollar in
labor income that would not exist
otherwise uh contributes about $4
billion in state taxes uh across the
region uh the multiplier for the
industry is quite High uh for every 10
jobs created in the nuclear industry
another 18 jobs are created as a result
of the uh indirect and induced effects
um um and then finally in terms of
operations versus construction for 100
uh in revenue generated from nuclear
power plants in the five state region
approximately $200 in total economic
impact would be created representing a
2:1 ratio um the bottom line here is
that the nuclear industry supports High
job quantity and job High job quantity
and quality um that's it for in terms of
the presentation happy to answer any
questions or make any
clarifications that are necessary thank
you so much again for inviting
me thank you Lucas that that was great
it's really some interesting data I know
I've had a chance to actually look at
the um report I know we'll send I think
we already sent um a link out to it but
if not we will um get that out to the
whole team it's got some really really
good data I guess I'm going to take the
privilege of the chair and ask the first
question
um but please uh everybody raise your
hand if you've got if you've got a
question but I guess my first question
is what kind of um reaction has there
been and and I guess I know um uh I had
the privilege of of hearing some of the
data already at the at the Virginia
Canada um event but kind of have you
been has this been out on the road have
you have you been uh sharing this with
um you know different policy makers and
and and stakeholders in the in the
region and how's their reaction been
been to it thus far I thank you I had
the privilege of of talking about this
um at the Virginia Canada Summit uh just
kind of the highlights um and also
presented the
results um at the North Carolina energy
policy Council that met last week um
also had a number of news articles that
came uh as a result of the press
releases um
the the reaction has been very positive
um I think that there's a real hunger
and a real demand
for speaking about the economics of the
nuclear industry and that it's not just
you know how much it costs to put it put
a nuclear power plant uh in into place
but also what the benefit is in terms of
jobs and high quality uh wages um in the
region um it's been overwhelmingly
supportive the questions that I've
gotten um are we need more information
about the economics of the nuclear
industry we're really hungry for
understanding how nuclear Stacks up to
other uh Power Generation sources uh
I'll I'll say that from the North
Carolina standpoint there seems to be a
lot of confusion about where the nuclear
industry sits relative to other um
energy sources and and providing that
information to policy makers uh in you
know a onepage handout by the way that
we have at the southeast nuclear.org
website um that you can look at um
Identify some of the companies we've
only been able to you know provide some
examples of the companies um in that in
that handout but also the dots on the
map are really helpful to understand
that it's it's companies in their
communities that that are related to
this nuclear industry and hopefully the
the new construction that will soon
begin um in in the near future so um
overall very very supportive um and the
only you know questions that I've gotten
that are
um challenging are what are you all
going to do you know it's it's great to
hear about all this economic impact but
what are yall going to do about
addressing the nuclear construction
costs and um that seems to be on the
mind of a lot of folks is we believe in
nuclear we believe in the fact that it's
supporting clean energy goals but how do
you get them in the ground at a
reasonable
cost yep that's fair um so just one more
followup you you mentioned kind of the
thirst for the data is there any
um plans for any follow-up study um
related to this I know um this was done
I believe largely through the the
Department of Commerce um Grant um that
you all received but is are there any
plans for for followup
work we'd like to I think um when I st
when I talked to Joey Von nesson at
University of South Carolina what he's
eager to get his hands on are the
economics um of smrs and be able to
model those um and there's other folks
at University of Texas and University of
Alaska that are doing you know trying to
get their hand around the economic
impact assessment of an SMR um I I think
you know we we need currently the
information that we presented is based
on the input output Matrix uh for
existing nuclear power plants um and
there's some there's some limitations to
that particularly on the operation side
and we just need to have a little bit
you know a lag in time in order for that
data to get to get updated in order for
us to be able to do that modeling
exercise there's also a real demand Tom
for um public opinion polling at a local
or Regional level that we've that policy
makers are asking about relative uh
nuclear versus other energy sources
I would love to get my hands on and do
some of that work at the state or
Regional level to be able to provide to
policy makers there's a lot of
organizations that do it at a national
level but less to my knowledge there's
no one that does it at a state level or
even at a regional level um and so one
of the activities that I would love to
be able to do uh if the advisory Council
uh continues on is to get our hands
around the public opinion so that we can
feed that to policy makers because again
there seems to be a lot of confusion
about both the popularity of of nuclear
versus other sources uh and and you know
the the cost in the economics
of great well um let me um Andrew Hutton
with um Jefferson Labs has a question
Andrew yeah uh so yes Ryan did
distribute the um report and I read it
it's impressive I just feel that I ought
to comment that um I'm a Jefferson lab
we have a an electron accelerator 12 jev
which we use for fundamental Nuclear
Physics studies which
unfortunately is not related at all to
nuclear energy I would love to think
that we were involved in waste
remediation but we are not yet so I feel
I ought to say that
thank you Andrew and that information
came to light uh during our research we
wanted to include you because I we
didn't just look at nuclear power
production we looked at the entire value
chain of the nuclear uh industry
including uh radio isotopes used for
multiple purposes uh and we also wanted
to include folks in fundamental research
like yourself because we also included
universities uh that were doing nuclear
related um research so we included you
um hopefully uh that provides some
benefit to to
Virginia thanks uh Scott coo with
bwxt thanks excuse me thanks Tom um yeah
I was curious so I'm glad that you
looked at call the um the totality or as
much as you could you know of nuclear
but I'm curious when you went through
that if you sort of lumped everything
together in terms of whatever the
economic analysis you did or if you
broke it out and I say that because I'm
not sure that everything belongs
together as we push you know I think
most at least people most people here
you know want to see nuclear be
successful but it falls into different
buckets or different areas so even from
electrons on the grid to say process
heat the modeling might not
quite line up with a one for one with
one another and it might actually be two
different sets of economic models from a
scaling standpoint and then how do you
get your price points to where they need
to be so hopefully that makes some sense
it's kind of a common but there was a
question somewhere in there I'm really
just curious but again appreciate the
work that you've done and love to see
what comes
next thanks Scott again it was it was a
broad assessment of the nuclear industry
um regardless of what in Market you're
serving uh we again included a number
including uh you know commercial and
Industrial uh heat um and and and power
we included uh you know centralized
utilities we included you know space
activities um so we hope that it's
encompassing of multiple end markets and
bwxt would be included in
that I guess followup is was everything
I guess pulled together or did you do it
in chunks I guess that's really the
question I'm getting to the I'm getting
to the economics of it all yeah you got
apples and oranges in here and maybe
some other fruits
too it's a great Point Scott and I would
you know I was asked about this at the
Virginia uh Canada Summit also of you
know what's the economic impact of the
nuclear medicine industry what's the
economic impact of of you know um
different portions of of the nuclear
industry um we didn't model it that way
um we we put everything into the same
bucket um we could right we'd have to
redo the the analysis separate out um
what the what the direct impact is of
that particular segment of the nuclear
industry whether it's the space industry
whether it's um you know uh centralized
uh utility whether it's commercial
industrial Empower um we could we could
do it um we just have to redo the
analysis a fair fair answer
thanks uh Calvin do you have a
question uh yes um one one of the
questions I have know if you look at the
the kind of fusion the other nuclear
nuclear potential energy out here the
the private sector investment in in
nuclear fusion industry is exceeds five
six billion dollars now you know just
from private sector people Bing on the
uh on the outcomes um and and one of the
the things that that we're concerned
about is sort of uh association with the
with the fision industry uh because of
the pr you know issue so versus any time
you say that you want to do Fusion
you have to explain that it's not vision
and it doesn't produce long-term
radioactive stuff and all that kind of
stuff so so as you as you look at the
need for kind of Public public um
opinion
polling uh will you guys try to tease
out kind of the understanding how deep
is the understanding of the general
public in terms of the the in ins and
outs of of what nuclear energy
is yeah um I I don't think the general
public knows the difference between
fishing and fusion um you know if if you
describe it as splitting a nuclear uh
Atom versus the sun you know that that
might resonate with folks
um I think it's a great idea i' love to
have a conversation with you about how
we can get it
done great thanks Brian you have a
question
yes thanks uh I enjoyed looking over
your report and and the presentation
thank you for that you've obviously
looked at a range of facilities and
Technologies across this region and you
said some of the feedback that you've
gotten uh were
questions uh about how to bring the cost
of bringing new facilities online you
know into a commercially reasonable
range and I I guess I'm curious how do
you respond to that question do you say
well you know we've got so many uh
competing Technologies so many types of
different uh options that that different
stakeholders are
pursuing um from where you sit in the
analysis that you've done is one more
likely than the other to in the near
term be capable of achieving that sort
of commercial
practicability Brian thanks for the
question you know my my goal to date has
been just to talk about the economic
impacts and the study that that we've
done I think there needs to be a
legislative Outreach about the benefits
of nuclear and comparing them to other
uh sources of energy production um I
have not we have not at E4 Carolina's
undertaken that as one of our
mandates
uh and I just have to think about you
know what that would mean for E4 or the
southeast nuclear Council to undertake
an activity like that um there are other
organizations at the national level that
have have Tri tried and and and and
worked that are more have more
capacity uh to interface with the
general assemblies and the legislatures
of the different states and provide them
with that information um there does seem
to be a real hunger for it uh but in
order to answer your questions directly
is I have focused as much of my time as
possible on the report and what the
report message is rather than get into
the larger issues ues of you know as
levelized cost of of energy really
accomplish the goal that we want to uh
you know talk about and our talking
points as an industry in the nuclear
world so that might not be a
satisfactory answer um it's something
that um we could continue to talk about
about how we do that effectively at each
state level and as a region in order to
interface with our policy makers to get
them that information um but again my my
time to date has been just focused on
the report and what the report says
about nuclear power generation and other
nuclear uh related activities in the
Southeast right thank
you uh Mary question yes um I Echo the
others and saying this is a really great
report I really enjoyed reading it um
ahead of this and I was wondering if you
um could talk and I think this might be
a little bit related to the just the
previous question but talk a little bit
more um about you you talked about the
indirect benefits um and economic
benefits and and employment benefits
being quite high for for investment but
could you talk a little bit about how
how you approach that and and whether
there are aspects of the nuclear sector
that um that make those benefits higher
than maybe for other other types of um
energy generation and maybe what what's
unique yeah well what unique is the
extraordinary level of skill um that's
required in the nuclear industry it's
it's a high skill and as a result a
high- wage industry and whenever you
encounter an industry like that you're
going to get economic impacts that are
much greater than other Industries um
I'd have to look at a schedule of
different Industries and see kind of
where nuclear fits related to others but
I would be surprised if it wasn't among
the very highest
uh industry if you looked at them you
know from you know coal mining all the
way to you know um everything else that
you could think of including you know
space launches uh I I think I think it
it is among the very highest uh of
Industries in terms of economic
impact
thanks uh any any other
questions
okay well um Lucas thank you so much for
for joining us I know um I've already
used some of the information in uh
communication and advocacy with uh some
of the legislators I really appreciate
it I think we'll probably be um reaching
back out to you um and if there's ways
uh that whether it's the Authority or
other parts of the um nuclear industry
in Virginia can be can further be
helpful um please don't hesitate to to
reach out we very much appreciate the
work I think it's it's it's really
helpful so thank you again for joining
us
today thank you for the invitation have
a good morning you
too okay um so moving to uh the rest of
our agenda I'm going to kind of um group
The the legislative update and the um
v-neck briefing kind of together because
I know April will be talking a little
bit about um what's been going on in the
legislature but before we get to that um
Glenn if there was anything from the
Virginia
energy
um uh perspective that that you wanted
to share I know you've been um engaged
um in a number of different different
fronts I did want to give you a minute
if there are any updates you wanted to
Pro provide with to the authority um we
can have them here or we can we can move
on to April but I didn't want to um move
too quickly pass that um without giving
you an opportunity sure no I appreciate
it no obviously a lot of really good
discussions that are still ongoing uh
for opportunities with the governor's
moonshot um April's been doing a lot of
uh Yan's work uh during session meeting
with people um she'll give the update on
legislation the one thing I do want to
add which may be kind of interesting is
there's a green Bank Bill uh I use green
Bank term loosely uh it's going to be a
clean energy Innovation Bank uh that is
going to be able to leverage hundreds of
millions of dollars of um us doe funds
in V for Virginia uh and can be used for
the nuclear side as well so uh that bill
is out of the house uh out of the Senate
at this point well through
Appropriations so close enough uh and uh
hopefully that will open up some
additional funds for risk mitigation but
uh no just a lot of good conversations
appreciate what everyone's
doing great thanks Glenn I it may be
interesting at our next meeting then um
if that bill moves forward to kind of
have a little bit maybe we could put
that on the agenda as an item to kind of
understand better as Authority how that
might work and how it could be utilized
so appreciate
that um April what don't we turn over to
you for the for the v-neck
update thanks Tom um so I'll just go
right into the legislature um now vneck
did not have any legislation this year
we had about 30% new members so we felt
that it was a good time to take a step
back and really go in and meet with all
the Freshman representatives and
and uh educate them on who v-neck is the
legislation that created us um we had a
lot of positive feedback um and we are
going to be working on some further
education with legislators later on this
year um so I hope to tell you about that
more in the next meeting um so that will
be going on um there were two bills that
we did
support House Bill
1491 and Senate Bill
454 um they're both cost recovery bills
um uh house bill um
1491 is a cost recovery Bill focusing on
Appalachia um Power um and so appco
power and um they are that bill has
passed the house and the Senate now
Senate Bill
454 is leading a little bit more windier
Road um and it's in the house today
hopefully it's going to be um voted on
um it did make some changes in committee
I am not sure what it's going to look
like at um today but hopefully it passes
it did pass uh the Senate but we'll see
how that comes through today um I want
to thank the VCU students that came up
um they were great to come and speak
with the Freshman legislators you know
it makes a difference when I have people
coming up and talking not only about
what the industry has done and who we
are but also talking about the future of
the industry they make a huge impact um
and they're always well well
received is any questions on the
legislature um as uh Tom mentioned and
Lucas mentioned we had an event um in
earlier in February uh the Canadian
embassy this was a partnership between
um vneck and um the embassy of Canada
the the state of Virginia helped us put
this together make this connection it
was a great opportunity for industry
from Canada and from Virginia to get
together there's a lot of commonalities
with business and we disc we discussed
um deployment development a Workforce
opportunities economic impact uh supply
chain issues um permitting um and
environmental issues are great
conversation really enjoyed having that
relationship with the Canadian embassy
we hope to have a white paper out from
that um in the next few weeks but it was
just a great event to get everybody
together and it was well attended I
think we had a over 60 people attend so
it was a good
event um yeah I just want to I April let
me I just want to say that thank you and
um uh the state of you know the
Commonwealth for organizing that it was
a really it was a really good event
there was a good collection of of
University participation and then
industry from both Virginia and Canada
so it was a it was a great
conversation it was I know I think we're
one thing I think I can walk away from
and and going in it I knew it but it was
good to hear it again we're in similar
situations you know they are you know I
think Bruce Power said it best we're
moving slow to move fast and uh I think
you know just's a lot of good
commonalities and I think there was a a
lot of
um people were able to make some good
connections out of the me and I think
that's been very helpful from some
projects going
forward um I got asked to be uh by Lucas
Brun um he's I helped them with the
Virginia Outreach on the um economic
impact study it was very pleased how
that's gone and the information for
Virginia I also had reached out to
Virginia Economic Development
partnership to make sure that they
reviewed it before it went out um they
had some additions to make from their
value proposition that they had put
together so I think it was a very strong
um document that we have um I was also
able to supply that to legislators and
that was a really good um thing to have
during this session um and then Lucas
has also he had asked me to be on the
Southeast nuclear Council so I sat in
and W my first meeting on that um I
think that was at the end of January so
that I've been really I've been really
grateful to make that relationship with
them um then Hub is moving forward um we
are right now in the process of looking
for an executive director so hopefully
at the next meeting in the second
quarter we'll be able to introduce you
to that person and we'll able to go over
a few of the projects that we're going
to be focusing on this year um starting
out we are still you know working with
the state to get to get the funding but
once we have that executive director in
place um that we should be able to be
moving forward but we do have um our
501c3 application in so everything is
checking off we have a board that's up
and running um so it's uh things are
starting to move ahead and and on the
time frame that we set for
2024 um this year's a big year for vneck
um believe it or not we need to update
the Strategic plan so we will be doing
that as well um and uh we'll be
conducting meetings to getting input on
the Strategic plan you know we did it
last time during Co in 2020 um it'll be
interesting we've come a long way since
2020 so it' be it's a good time to take
a a moment and update that plan and see
where we want to go in the next four
four years and beyond
that um let's see I you know right now
we are moving forward on some out since
a session well session's not over but
for me it I don't need to be down there
this week um so I'm focusing now on uh
getting some Outreach activities moving
forward and some education initiatives
that we want to do for 2024 which um
I'll have more information to report on
that at our next meeting I think that's
everything
Tom well that's a lot so that's good um
I do think I know we we plan at the um
next meeting we wanted to talk about um
an update kind of on the update for the
Strategic plan um and how that
progresses um but one of the things uh
April and I talked about last week that
this Authority we do need to do today um
is we so the by legislation the
Strategic plan Authority actually
resides with us um but four years ago um
we actually voted
to empower the v-ne board to um prepare
the the Strategic plan and bring it back
to the Authority for um approval which I
think worked uh pretty well um and I
think we should uh we we need to do that
again um this time um to actually
Empower v-neck to do the update and then
bring back to the to the board for
approval so what I would like is um a
motion um from one of our Authority
members um that basically to that effect
right that that um empowers vneck to um
conduct the update for the Strategic
plan um and provide regular updates to
um the authority and final approval
later later this fall um so if that
works for everyone do we have um do we
have a motion motion for
me Andrew Hutton as a motion do we have
a
second all second
second um okay I see I saw Mary S go up
so I'm gonna Mary new Meer um Second and
then because we are virtual um um Ryan
can you can you call the role we'll need
a um a formal yes or no from The
Authority members that we can
record yes give me one second while I
make sure I have the language right for
the actual motion uh Empower v-neck to
conduct the update of the Strategic plan
and provide regular updates and what the
last part was um and report out for
final
approval yes
correct okayy
doie all right
so
um Calvin
low
yes uh John
Caps
yes uh Glenn
Davis
yes uh Tom will come back to you
right yep
uh Eugene
G
Jean you're on
mute uh yes I'm sorry but yes I vote Yes
Andrew Hutton yes Scott Cel
yes uh Mary new me
yes Tim
stoer
yes Brian Bella yes and Tom for
yes okay great so um April will look
forward to kind of having um a little
bit more of a discussion at our our next
meeting um so then one other thing Tom
real quick I want to mention is um if
youall haven't seen it the department of
energy did a really good um social media
campaign using North Anna talking about
spent fuel um it was very helpful to
have some of the pictures they posted
um talking about how much spent fuel has
been stored over the last 45 years Katie
did a couple of uh videos I thought were
very helpful so just just wanted to note
that as
well that was Federal to
clarify yes it's a yeah US Department of
energy uh assistant secretary Katie Huff
uh visited North Ana and she's touching
the spent fuel cast and she's perfectly
fine so it was a good campaign anyway
you know where we can access
so I
can yeah if you if you don't mind Ryan
that'd be great but it's on uh Doe's
office of nuclear uh web page um it's
right there on the
front and it's been on their social
media and all that Tom where can we get
a where can I get a copy of
these yeah actually Ryan thank you
Kelvin that's a good point um Ryan Maybe
after this meeting if you could send
around the link to the the Strategic
plan which is on the the v-a website but
it'd be good just to have a link so
everyone and those new members can take
a look at that so that was something
that was legislated um about five years
ago is that correct and in
2020 V created that strategic plan it's
actually been a really great road map
for um a lot of the work that's happened
since then um so it'll be good to be
able to update it and the legislation
calls for it to be updated every four
years we'll do okay um so the next thing
is uh we need to approve um the minutes
from the last
meeting um that was attached to um the
meeting notice um does anybody have any
any changes or comments on the on the
minutes um that we need to amend before
we take a vote
I did not see anything that was
incorrect okay do I have a motion to
approve the minutes I'll make the motion
Tom okay that's Scott Copple do I have a
second
second that's John
Caps all right Brian I think we need to
go through the roll call once again yep
that is perfectly fine all right
Calvin
low yes Donn caps yes uh Glen
Davis uh Jean gek yes Andrew Hutton yes
Scott
Coppel yes Mary
newm Tim stoer yes Brian V yes Tom
Deonte yes
yes
okay great so um that kind of concludes
the the formal business um so for our
for our new members usually what we also
leave some time for is any um updates
from uh the members specific to their
organization um we also um if there's
any key um nuclear news which I have
just um one thing uh but allow some time
for for comments from the authority one
thing I would I try to we try to do best
practice within framatome is anytime
there's a new um hire or someone new in
your group you're encouraged to ask um
when you have regular meetings if they
have comments or suggestions I won't put
um Calvin Mary and Brian on the spot
today but um I would welcome if you have
um you know comments or suggestions on
the way the meetings um are run or other
aspects
um to please um don't don't hesitate to
send them directly to me you can also
always um talk to to Ryan as well who's
um our great great staff person um on
the authority but but we're always
looking to try to improve um the
meetings and and one thing I know I will
enlist your help on um Calvin I already
have an idea for for you but is we we
like to have as as we had Lucas today um
we do like to have guest speakers join
us try to help broaden our um
understanding of what's going on um in
the industry um and in in Academia so um
if you have suggestions for guest
speakers for future meetings I am all
ears always love to love to hear them um
but yes please um provide us comments on
how we can make things um better more
efficient um and and more uh helpful for
you as we go forward um so in terms of
of news I just I thought I would
highlight I think um a lot of us that
that track these things regularly Scott
and Mary and and others here in DC um we
look like we finally have a fiscal year
2024 um doe budget I'm not going to
speak to DOD Scott that's more your is
in the second round of bills which may
be a little bit more challenging but um
we do look like we have a full year uh
budget for the Department of energy um
the encouraging thing is it continues um
very strong support for nuclear energy
programs in the office of science which
includes a lot of the the fusion
programs and um the implementation for
the chips act so um that's a great thing
and I think continues to show a strong
bipartisan consensus around support for
nuclear and that's on the heels last
week of a um overwhelming bipartisan um
vote in the house uh for the aeaa I
can't remember exactly the uh the full
name of the bill but it's an NRC reform
the atomic energy Advanced um
advancement act or something like that
you got it Mary you know that's that's
right I I think of it as the Senate
version the of the advance act but yes
thank you um but it does a lot for um
NRC reform around Advanced reactor
licensing it also extends um the price
Anderson um deadline or uh insurance
which is great for the for the operating
Fleet so it will have to go into
conference with the Senate but again
it's it's been broadly supported both in
the Senate and House um and I think
their conference has had already started
before the the legislation passed so
that's that's a good thing um are there
any other updates member updates or or
other um pieces of news people would
like to
share Andrew just oh I was just going to
say the uh the official name is the uh
atomic energy advancement act HR
6544 great thank you Mary Andrew you had
an update yeah actually I have two so
first of all I'm chairing a conference
on the 17th for four days on accelerator
applications we have about dozen tracks
which include high power accelerator
components
materials for Material Science um
environment medical industry cultural
compact so that's actually quite a big
deal we have couple hundred people from
all around the
world uh possibly of more interest to
the group is that um Jefferson lab has
always been a single activity lab based
on uh Nuclear Physics with an
accelerator um about a month ago so we
were awarded a massive um high high
power Computing facility which will be
cited at the lab for uh basically app
applications not only for us but also as
a user facility which people will be
able to address how we profited from
about a 50 million Grant from the
Commonwealth to actually make that
happen and they're building us a
building where that
um Computing facility will go so that's
something which hopefully when it's up
and running there would be uh people
from v-neck and vnea who will be able to
access
that that's great Andrew that might be
useful for having um someone that will
be maybe managing that program come
present the The Authority at some point
uh she would love to do it and do it
heck of a lot better than I would
perfect thank
you um other other
updates um guys I like to say uh at the
end of May we are sort of hosting a um a
uh Fusion Workforce conference that's
funded by the National Science
Foundation is going to look at the um
the need for expanding the fusion
Workforce uh right now now with all the
private sector investment uh there's a a
big Talent drain away from universities
away from know into Industries um this
is kind of like Google in the early days
right now in the industry so this a work
uh conference will be May 28th and I'm
sorry 29th and 30th here at uh in
Hampton in downtown so you'll be hearing
more about that and if anybody's
interested in in attending U let us
know
great yeah I would be very interested in
some more information on that and I also
would like to see if I make some
connections for you so if we could touch
base at some point that'd be
great Calvin this is Tim uh Stellar I
was also gonna ask is that uh really a
Virginia Centric audience or is it
bigger than
that it's bigger we're actually doing it
in collaboration with um Columbia
University and UCLA um but in these kind
of conferences NSF is looking for kind
of a report to help figure out what
direction they should head in terms of
supporting the uh the whole Fusion
Workforce
efforts thank
you great um any other other
comments okay well um now we have um the
portion of oh Ryan go ahead U yes I'm
going to go ahead and send out
the what I assume will be our May
meeting invite or I'm G to send the Dole
poll out for May I'm thinking August and
then late September early October will
be the next three meeting months unless
anyone
has any large argument to those
suggested
times no can I just a clarifying
question you know we met this is virtual
and maybe just to be reminded for all of
us me included we can only do so many
virtuals correct my we have two so the
way the code is written is we can have
two or 25% of our meetings whichever is
more okay as an entity that meets four
maybe five times two is going to be the
most we can use and so my plan was like
last year the first this meeting will be
virtual the next three will be in person
and
enrichment and then the last meeting
which could happen in November and would
happen potentially virtually would be
held in reserve in case it was an
emergency with the annual report got it
thank you very helpful I think that that
saves everyone from having to scramble
down the Richmond in case we need to
vote on something cool or up to Richmond
rather
jayes down for me but thank you um and
then also there are some I will send out
there are some stipulations that allow
people to attend virtually like if you
live more than 60 miles away from where
the meeting location will happen if you
have medical emergencies or family to
attend to so I will go ahead and send
that around to to familiarize everyone
with yep and we've got a process in
place to allow for for voting in that um
instance as well which we we have used
in the in the past so that's that's
great and I would say you know um Calvin
Bryan and Mary if you have questions on
that front um Ryan can help and then we
also have folks that can support from
the um Attorney General's office that
provide some of that training as needed
we we got all of it kind of uh postco I
guess it was right Brandy back when we
were able to um modify some of that so
but that is still available for for new
members as
well
okay um so we reserve time at the end
for for public comment um if there's
anybody from the public that has joined
us that has a comment could you hit the
raise hand button so I can call on
you okay I don't see any so
unless there are any other um questions
or comments from the
authority we can wrap up um give you a
little bit of time left but thank you um
Calvin Brian and and Mary for joining us
today welcome to the authority um we
appreciate your your input and we will
see everybody um in Richmond probably in
a couple
months all right thank you all have
everybody thank
you