Vivek Ramaswamy: Nuclear Energy Hurdles That Hamper Its Development

Link: https://twitter.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1687810833642844161?s=20

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is fundamentally hostile to nuclear energy in the U.S. and the worst irony of all is that it’s also worse for safety. Together, this is strictly bad for American greatness. Prior to the NRC’s inception, the average approval time for a new nuclear plant was 3-4 years. Today, it’s 25-40 years. By comparison, Japan is still able to build new plants in 3-4 years & it’s 5-8 years for France. Even worse, the cumbersome NRC regulatory burden ensures that the operating nuclear plants in the U.S. don’t use the newer Gen III or Gen IV models, which are safer and more efficient than the older Gen I and Gen II designs that the U.S. uses. By contrast, China is the first country to operate a Gen IV reactor while we’re still stuck in Gen II.

Answer: Shut down the NRC. I’ll get the job done.

The NRC has a staff of ~2,949. 47% of the staff in administrative staff and redundant roles should be laid off immediately.

The remaining 1,554 specialists will be reassigned to serve within other agencies that have overlapping missions for greater efficiency and better focus.

Reassignments:

-Department of Energy (1,176 specialists)
Office of Nuclear Energy: licensing, oversight, mission support, and training.

-The EPA (317 specialists)
Nuclear materials and waste safety.

-FEMA (43 specialists)
Event response

-DHS (18 specialists)
Homeland security.

This shutdown and reassignment of specialized personnel will return 62% of the NRC’s budget to taxpayers and unshackle nuclear to drive American energy.