Political Quotes

“in a few minutes we are going to vote on the Crapo-Whitehouse amendment. I stand to support that amendment and encourage my colleagues all to vote in favor of it. I first want to thank my colleague Senator Whitehouse. He and I have worked together on a number of issues, building bipartisan support to advance our ability to utilize nuclear energy in the United States. I also thank Senator Alexander and Senator Feinstein for their work to complete this Omnibus appropriations bill and to continue to push to bring our appropriations process to regular order. Our amendment focuses on the development of fuel sources for our advanced nuclear reactors. The United States currently lacks both the supply of high assay low-enriched uranium, called HALEU, and a process to make HALEU for advanced reactor designs. Advanced reactor startup cores require a high assay low-enriched uranium containing less than 20 percent fissile content. At the end of naval fuel's life, it contains highly enriched uranium with an average enrichment of 80 percent. Current operating naval reactors have the potential to create a total of 100,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel, and the Department of Energy estimates disposal of this spent nuclear fuel will cost about $100 billion. However, advanced nuclear reactors have the potential to reuse this spent nuclear fuel and to reduce the overall disposal cost.…”