The three nominees for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission made it through their Senate nomination hearing Tuesday with no indication of serious obstacles to their confirmation.
After postponing the hearing last week, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee heard from each of the nominees: current NRC Chair Kristine Svinicki and new prospective appointees Annie Caputo, a senior policy adviser on nuclear issues to the EPW Committee, and David Wright, a former South Carolina Public Service Commission member.
When asked about the primary challenges facing the agency, all three cited trimming and reshaping the NRC staff to accommodate a future that will involve fewer new reactors than expected a few years ago.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) asked the nominees whether cost to nuclear plant licensees should be considered in determining the scope of emergency planning — her specific concern being that the NRC’s current decommissioning rulemaking could allow for sites’ emergency planning zones being automatically reduced following shutdown, even if spent fuel remains in wet storage.
Svinicki said the issue is now being examined in the rulemaking. It has been NRC’s position that spent fuel pools and dry cask storage are equally safe. Gillibrand replied that the definition of “safe” might be re-examined in the context of domestic security threats.
Caputo and Wright said they would both need to be briefed on the issue.
Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) questioned the nominees about a study from Princeton University and the Union of Concerned Scientists that suggests the NRC has underestimated the risk of fires in spent reactor fuel pools. The nominees said they had not reviewed the study.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) did not pose any questions to the NRC nominees during the hearing but said it was important to develop technology to “address our nuclear waste stockpile” and transform it into an asset.
The committee is scheduled to vote Thursday on Svinicki’s nomination for a third term through June 2022, to help ensure the NRC retains its three-person quorum when her current term expires on June 30. Lawmakers would decide on Caputo and Wright at a later session, for respective terms through June 2021 and June 2020.
The other current commission members are Jeff Baran and Stephen Burns.
