Dianne Feinstein

Counterterrorism is extraordinarily important. It is vital to the protection of the homeland.

One of NCTC's statutory responsibilities is to conduct strategic operational planning for counterterrorism activities and integrate all of the instruments of national power.

I cannot imagine a more thankless task than being Director of the policy Committee of which you were Director.

I think we have to deal with these issues. Otherwise, I feel from my vote that I just compound the problem down line.

I'm reticent about it because if we let this go without a policy for spent fuel, if we close the plant or the repository in Nevada after spending $14 billion on it, we have $13 billion in liabilities because we can't dispose of the waste…

So you're saying the same thing. Is your cost of production at 10 to be cost effective and one will stand on its own?

Are you essentially saying the same thing that Mr. Ferland said that if you can manufacture 10, from a manufacturing point of view, that's cost effective, but that you can operate one in a cost-effective way?

So to be cost effective, you have to manufacture 10 units, but that doesn't mean you have to cluster them all together.

My big concern is that they're not cost effective on their own, that they have to be clustered.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to you this morning.

Thank you, Dr. Lyman.

You certainly have my full support to do that.

I very much appreciate that. I think that's a lot of food for thought.

That's because the subsidy was passed in 2005.

I think all of this goes into the decision as to whether the Government should subsidize which we're already doing.

It seems to me that we're in a brave new world and these are big companies. They make profits.

Yes. I understand that, but these are very profitable companies. We've already established they're going to be subsidized.

To me, that is putting the cart before the horse.

I have a hard time with a new start before we have any permanent method of fuel storage.

Would you agree that taking two SMR designs through design certification will cost at least $1.5 billion?

I don't understand why it's necessary for the taxpayers to pay one-half of the cost of licensing.

It is my understanding that these plants on their own are not cost effective and that the eventual plan is to cluster them.

In 2005, the Congress enacted legislation creating a 2-cent-per-kilowatt-hour subsidy for the first eight newly built nuclear reactors in our country.

We should use subsidies to jump start technologies, like offshore wind.

We badly need a place to put, in the end, used nuclear fuel.