ANS President Lake testifies on DOE's FY2002 budget
See: Testimony and Press Release
At a Hearing held by the US House of Representatives Committee on Science-Subcommittee on Energy, President Lake stated that ANS recommends substantial increases in funding in the FY-2002 budget Authorization Request for DOE. Three specific programs were named.
See also: Press Release
Testimony for the Record
United States House of Representatives
Committee on Science; Subcommittee on Energy
Dr. James A. Lake
President
American Nuclear Society
April 26, 2001
United States House of Representatives
Committee on Science; Subcommittee on Energy
Dr. James A. Lake
President
American Nuclear Society
April 26, 2001
INTRODUCTION
My name is James Lake. I am the 2000-2001 President of the American Nuclear Society. It is an honor for me to provide your Committee with the views of our Society on the nuclear energy, science and technology fiscal year 2002 budget request.
The American Nuclear Society (ANS) is a not-for-profit, international, scientific and technical organization with more than 11,000 members representing scientists, engineers, educators, managers and regulators in the broad field of nuclear science and technology. Our membership includes more than 750 students from 32 universities, and approximately 1,000 international members from 40 countries. The Society's membership is geographically distributed in 52 domestic and 9 international local sections and 23 branches at nuclear power plants across the Nation.
The Society's main objective is to promote the advancement of engineering and science related to the atomic nucleus, and of allied sciences and arts. We serve our member's professional needs in their efforts to develop and safely apply nuclear science and technology for the public benefit primarily through technical and knowledge exchange, professional development services, and enhanced public information and understanding of nuclear science and technology matters. We do this through a broad portfolio of technical divisions ranging from reactor physics and mathematics & computation, to nuclear and criticality safety, and operations & power, among others. The Society sponsors national and international technical meetings, publishes Journals, Standards, and the Nuclear News magazine, sponsors scholarships in nuclear science and engineering, and conducts teacher workshops and other public information activities.
NUCLEAR ENERGY IN THE U.S. ENERGY PICTURE
Sharply rising electricity and natural gas prices, and the energy crisis in California have awakened Americans to the harsh realities of limited supplies of energy and the volatility of energy prices. At the same time that the Congress and the Administration are grappling with the elements of a new National Energy Strategy that will propel the U.S. economy into the 21st century, nuclear power is performing at record levels. The one hundred and three U.S. nuclear power reactors generated over 750 billion kWhrs of electricity in 2000 (about 20% of the total U.S. electricity generation) at generation costs that were lower than coal, and substantially lower than gas and oil. Nuclear power is thriving in the newly deregulated marketplace, with a healthy business developing around the purchase of some of the existing nuclear plants by large nuclear generating companies who can operate them cheaper in future markets. The mistaken image of nuclear power as uneconomical is proven to be far from true, and the Government's investment in the development of nuclear power technology has produced an economical, safe and environmentally clean electricity generator that can play an increasingly important domestic and worldwide role in the future.
Safety performance of nuclear power has continued to improve coincident with the improved economic performance. Unusual Events reported to the NRC have declined in the last decade from nearly 200/year to less than 20 in 2000. Nearly two thirds of U.S. nuclear plants routinely experience no unplanned automatic shutdowns, and the industrial safety record in the U.S. nuclear industry is nearly 10 times better than that of the total U.S. industrial sector. In this context, we are finding strong public support for continued operations of U.S. nuclear power plants, and growing support for building new plants.
The clean air benefits of nuclear energy are beginning to be appreciated as we strive for a U.S. energy policy that is compatible with our environmental stewardship responsibilities. The continued operation of emissions-free nuclear power plants, and construction of new nuclear power plants in the future, can be a critical element in responding to our Nation's moral and ethical obligation to constrain and reduce global air emissions, without an accompanying negative impact on the U.S. economy.
Our Nation therefore has a very viable nuclear option for clean, economical electricity generation. However, for nuclear energy to achieve its full potential as a sustainable, long-term energy resource with large-scale domestic and global deployment, we must seek to improve the technology in the four following areas:
- The economic performance of nuclear power must continue to improve in an increasingly deregulated electricity market. Whereas the current generating cost is relatively low for nuclear electricity from the existing plants whose investment costs have been paid off, substantial improvements are required in capital cost and construction time for new nuclear power plants to compete in future U.S. markets.
- The safety performance of nuclear power plants must continue to improve in order to satisfy the very demanding expectations of the American public.
- Nuclear wastes must be managed safely and cost effectively, and the back-end fuel cycle issues must be resolved. This goes well beyond resolution of the U.S. spent fuel repository issues, and includes the minimization of future wastes from the nuclear fuel cycle and the development of the fuel cycle of the future that will be sustainable from an economic and fuel supply standpoint, as well as from a social and environmental perspective.
- Nuclear power technology, as it is deployed around the world, needs to evolve toward more and more proliferation-resistant systems that will assure that nuclear materials from the commercial fuel cycle are not usable for weapons purposes.
THE ROLE OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT IN NUCLEAR R&D
Whereas the U.S. nuclear industry is responsible for the cost-effective and safe operations of nuclear power plants, our Government plays an important role in supporting long-term, high-risk R&D to improve the technology. The Government is further responsible for supporting the broad educational enterprise and stimulating the flow of new scientists and engineers into the nuclear enterprise.
The Government has three primary interests in nuclear energy, science and technology. First, trained manpower and state-of-the-art technology are vital to carrying out Government nuclear operations, including those related to national security and environmental cleanup. Second, the Government desires to exercise world leadership in nuclear matters through technical and other means that require involvement in international R&D programs. Third, the Government has a broad responsibility to assure adequate, affordable and clean energy supplies, and to assure that nuclear power remains a viable option for future deployment. In this regard, a balanced energy R&D portfolio is needed that should include investments in the development of future technology based upon merit and potential for contribution to America's future energy security and environmental quality needs. The R&D component of the proposed fiscal year 2002 nuclear energy budget is less than $40M, a one-third reduction from the 2001 budget, far less than the investment in other energy technologies, and, from ANS' viewpoint, inadequate to support these mission needs.
SPECIFIC AMERICAN NUCLEAR SOCIETY RECOMMENDATIONS
Whereas ANS could comment on many aspects of the proposed DOE fiscal year 2002 budget request, ranging from programs exploring the health effects of low level radiation, to the civilian radioactive waste management program, to Price-Anderson Act renewal and support for nuclear power plant improvements, in the interest of time, we would like to focus our remarks on three critical parts of the nuclear energy R&D program that should be of primary interest to the Committee on Science. These three items are:
- the Nuclear Energy Research Initiative,
- University infrastructure support, and
- development and deployment of the next generation (Generation IV) of advanced nuclear energy systems that will respond to the critical issues listed above.
Nuclear Energy Research Initiative
The Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (NERI) was begun in fiscal year 1999 in response to the recommendations of PCAST, and subsequently an international component (I-NERI) was added in fiscal year 2001 to leverage the U.S. Government's R&D investment against international activities. The purpose of the NERI and I-NERI programs is to address critical technical barriers to the long-term use of nuclear energy, and to maintain U.S. leadership in the area of nuclear science and technology.
The NERI program solicits R&D proposals from the U.S. scientific and engineering community at universities, laboratories, and industrial research institutions in areas such as advanced reactor conceptual design and development, high burnup nuclear fuels, innovative waste management strategies, improvements in resistance to proliferation of nuclear materials, and basic nuclear science and technology. Proposals are selected for funding by a peer-review process that results in projects of outstanding technical merit.
The NERI/I-NERI program was funded at $35M in fiscal year 2001 for continuation of projects initiated in fiscal years 1999 and 2000, and also to initiate several new projects that are yet to be announced. PCAST envisioned the program at the $75M/year level with a 3-year rotation of projects. This program is and continues to be vital to the future of nuclear energy. Valuable collaborations are established between the university community, national laboratories, and the nuclear industry. The NERI program has been a major contributor to the support for university nuclear engineering students, and is credited (by the students) with directly encouraging and supporting their entry into the field of nuclear engineering.
ANS fully supports the continuation of the NERI/I-NERI program with adequate resources to fund the existing research commitments and to grow toward the PCAST goal of $75M/year in order to support a larger portfolio of new projects. The fiscal year 2002 budget proposes a reduction from $35M in 2001 to only $18M in 2002 that will marginally support only the existing NERI/I-NERI projects, but will not allow for any new project startups in 2002. This situation is devastating, especially to incoming nuclear engineering students who will need support for their graduate work. Given that less than 1 in 10 NERI proposals have been able to be funded under the previous budgets, ANS recommends that the NERI/I-NERI budget should be increased substantially (to $60M) in 2002. This increase is necessary to grow the scope of this critical R&D, both from the standpoint of the needed technology and also to provide continuity of research opportunities for students and laboratory researchers who will form the core of the nuclear science and engineering manpower of the future.
University Infrastructure
There is growing concern for the health and vitality of the university and laboratory infrastructure in the U.S. that trains and employs the technical specialists that keep the U.S. at the forefront of nuclear science and technology. A 10-year decline in enrollments in university nuclear engineering programs is beginning to show some signs of returning vitality with modest increases in 2001-2002 enrollments. The return of interest in nuclear engineering is based on several factors; the current attention paid to the energy needs of our Nation and the potential for nuclear energy to play a prominent role in supplying increasing amounts of clean affordable electricity, the return of Government support for research and development in nuclear science and technology that provides exciting research opportunities for students to invent the next generation of nuclear technology, and the availability of high-paying jobs as the demand for new graduates exceeds the supply by at least a factor of 2. America has limited time in which to address the issue of assuring a sustained manpower supply for the 21st century as a large fraction of the technical specialists who have brought nuclear science and technology to a point where it can make major contributions in the future to energy, public health, industrial processes, and food safety, are nearing retirement. It is a mission-critical issue that those specialists leaving the field in the next 10 years be replaced with trained young people with renewed energy and new ideas to carry the technology forward to even greater benefit to Americans and to the world.
The U.S. infrastructure has been losing key research facilities, notably university research reactors, that are critical to our ability to carry out future research and training missions. In the last decade, more than half of the university research reactors have been closed because of lack of support, and three others at major research institutions are currently contemplating closure. It is important that we take action now to assure adequate support for the remaining 28 U.S. university research reactors.
The university infrastructure has been supported in the past 2 years with a modest $12M budget that provides primarily university fellowships and scholarships in nuclear engineering, research reactor fuel and research instrumentation support, and a small number of university research grants. The American Nuclear Society recommends that this university infrastructure support program be substantially increased to $30M in fiscal year 2002 to increase the level of support for graduate and undergraduate fellowships and scholarships, to recruit young faculty into our university nuclear engineering programs and to support research-initiation grants during the first 5 years of their tenure, to increase the funding available under the Nuclear Engineering Education Research program, and to support the Nation's university research reactors with major instrumentation upgrades, operations support, and relicensing support. Legislation was recently introduced in the Senate to address these needs (S-242), and ANS encourages your support for this legislation.
Generation IV Advanced Reactor Development
Finally, in order to accelerate the development of advanced reactor systems that can fully address the economic, safety, waste, and proliferation-resistance issues discussed above, ANS urges you to increase substantially the support for the Generation IV development program (called Nuclear Energy Technologies in the 2002 budget request). It is important that these Generation IV systems be developed and tested in order to allow industry to deploy them in a timely manner where they will have the maximum benefit to domestic and world electrical energy supplies in a way that is affordable and environmentally responsible. This may be a key role for the U.S. to play in exercising world leadership to promulgate the next generation of emissions-free nuclear power technology that is cheaper, safer, minimizes wastes and removes the potential for proliferation of nuclear materials in a sustainable fuel cycle.
Efforts initiated by the Department of Energy to gather an international group of nine countries, called the Generation IV International Forum, to collaborate on the necessary R&D to produce one or more advanced Generation IV designs, shows great promise for U.S. leadership and for greatly leveraged investment leading to a global product for 21st century worldwide deployment. In fiscal year 2001, efforts were begun with a team of domestic and international experts, to develop a Generation IV technology roadmap to guide the necessary R&D in a cost-effective and technically optimum way. The R&D community will have done all of the right things to prepare for a major launch of the Generation IV R&D program in fiscal year 2002. The proposed fiscal year 2002 budget of $4.5M would only allow for the completion of the roadmap, and not for initiation of the focused Generation IV research that the international community is prepared to join. ANS therefore recommends a substantially higher Generation IV (Nuclear Energy Technologies) budget of $50M in fiscal year 2002 to initiate basic and systems research on promising Generation IV concepts.
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The ANS-Supported Budget Recommendation for nuclear energy R&D is substantially higher than the DOE FY-2002 budget request |
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Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology Research and Development |
FY-2001 Appropriation ($1000) |
FY-2002 Request ($1000) |
ANS-Recommended FY-2002 Budget ($1000) |
| Nuclear Energy Research Initiative | 34,826 | 18,079 | 60,000 |
| University Research Support | 11,974 | 11,974 | 30,200 |
| Generation IV (Nuclear Energy Technologies) | 7,483 | 4,500 | 50,000 |
CLOSING SUMMARY
This is a critical juncture for nuclear energy which stands on the threshold of making a substantial contribution to future U.S. and world needs for abundant, clean, and affordable energy. Major research and development and university infrastructure support needs exist that are not adequately addressed in the fiscal year 2002 budget request. Congressional leadership will once again be required to adequately support the development of new nuclear energy technologies and the training of young engineers and scientists in order to realize the full potential of nuclear energy for future generations.
Thank you for the opportunity to present my views and those of members of the American Nuclear Society. I would be happy to respond to any questions that you may have.
