Heidi Alexander: “I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a copy of my remarks at the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on…”

“I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a copy of my remarks at the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: Nuclear Regulatory Commission We're here today to review the president's fiscal year 2016 budget request for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the independent federal agency responsible for regulating the safety of our nation's commercial nuclear power plants and other nuclear materials. This is the first time in many years that the subcommittee has held a hearing to examine the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's budget. It is also the first of several hearings that the subcommittee will hold this year on nuclear power. These hearings are important because nuclear power provides about 20 percent of our nation's electricity and more than 60 percent of our carbon-free electricity. I plan to focus my questions today on four main areas: 1. Licensing nuclear waste repositories; 2. Avoiding excessive regulations; 3. Licensing for new and existing reactors; and 4. Making sure the agency is running effectively First, we must solve the 25-year-old stalemate about what to do with used fuel from our nuclear reactors to ensure that nuclear power has a strong future in this country.…”