Nuclear power plant closures and strain facing the industry are a “geographic” problem, not a national one, the head of the federal nuclear energy regulator said Tuesday.
“Some of the units in the regions they operate in are operating at kind of breath-taking losses, and are not economic,” said Kristine Svinicki, the chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on its fiscal 2019 budget request.
However, the situation that is causing nuclear power plants to not be financially viable in one region is not the same across the nation, she said.
“Others operate in other markets in the country, and have other regulatory, rate-recovery mechanisms that they are profitable,” Svinicki said. “So it appears to be a very geographic situation.”
Her statements were in response to Rep. Gerald Mark McNerney, D-Calif., who asked if conventional power plants can be viable in the future. He followed up by asking Svinicki if new designs, such as smaller, less expensive, reactors, are more viable.
The chairwoman said the designs do possess “efficiencies,” but their success “is dependent on natural gas prices and other things into the future that I’m not really even an expert on.”
NRC is primarily a safety regulator for power plants. It also licenses the design and construction of new nuclear power plants. It does not get involved in more market-related activities like some of its sister agencies do. Nevertheless, it is being pressured by the closures of power plants, which has reduced the fees it charges the industry that make up a large chunk of its annual budget.
Nevertheless, top Democrats on the committee began the hearing by denouncing the administration’s push for nuclear and coal power plant incentives through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the nation’s electric market regulator.
Reps. Frank Pallone of New Jersey and Paul Tonko of New York, the top Democrats on the energy committee and the environment panel, respectively, used their time to repudiate Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s proposed plan at FERC to provide market incentives to ensure the reliability and resilience of the electric grid.
NRC had no role in the Perry plan, but that didn’t stop Democrats from using the hearing on the commission’s budget to praise FERC for rejecting the Perry grid plan.
