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WASHINGTON – In a broad interview last week, energy secretary Chris Wright discussed how the US can bring nuclear power to the forefront for both energy and defense purposes.
According to the British Guardian, under the first Trump administration, the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) tried to achieve the Pentagon’s goal of producing 80 pits.
The light is J. Robert Oppenheimer suggested he would like to see the plan come to fruition as the same energy sector in New Mexico that helped develop the atomic bomb.
The US has never imported plutonium pits, but has not done any major manufacturing operations like this since the end of the Cold War.
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“But these existing weapon stockpiles, like others, have aged over time, so we realised that we must restore production of plutonium pits in the complex,” Wright said.
“We’ve built one in the last 25 years. We’ll build over 100 during the Trump administration,” he pledged.
He said it will be a priority for Wright’s tenure, along with military-oriented nuclear technology.
Wright said he is working to reopen the closed Palisade nuclear power plant in southwestern Michigan, which closed several years ago.
Another major plant, Indian Point on the Hudson River, across from Haverstraw, NY, was particularly closed under the GOV at the time, as it supported the power of New York City. Andrew Cuomo. However, there was little effort there to see the reopening.
Wright said that in addition to large plants, the energy sector is trying to transfer SMR or small modular reactor technology.
“Nuclear weapons and nuclear power generation started in the US. We built a large number of power plants, and by the mid-’80s we essentially stopped building them,” he said.
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Radioactive waste sealed in large stainless steel cans is stored under 5 feet of concrete in a storage building at the Savanna River site near Burnwell, South Carolina (AP)
“Part of our goal is to bring this to make it more efficient to build this again in America. But one of the nuclear technologies is that what you need to build is slower and therefore more expensive to build.”
SMRs can reduce that pressure by allowing the materials needed to build plants to be shipped and assembled on site at much smaller scales, but with the potential for per capita power output.
Unlike a “stick building house” from a large-scale plant perspective, SMR tools can be created in the factory and are more mobile.
Any concerns of a data center, military base or state can essentially be submitted to have an SMR installed on the site and provide a larger domestic power source and a better overall grid.
“There is great private capital that exists in the innovations to design these plants. But again, you have still got this slow, bureaucratic central government that you have to allow them and allow them to approve.
“So we’re simplifying the regulatory regime. We’ve sent out a request for proposals to fund efforts to speed up these, and in fact, something similar has been sent for the Biden administration.
States seeking to benefit from SMR are speaking out to support their technology.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed the bill calling for the promotion of the construction of SMRs in 2022, saying “Micronuclear technology plays a potential role in providing low-cost, reliable power to communities, remote villages and resource development projects.”
“This bill will update state laws so that we can pursue possibilities.”
Asked about opposition to nuclear power, including the closure of Indian Point, Wright, said it, like most other topics, is vulnerable to politicization.
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Plant Vogtle is a two-unit nuclear power plant located in Burke County, near Waynesboro, Georgia. (Paravabagra/Corvis via Getty Images)
“That doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “It was the safest way to generate energy in the entire history of the American nuclear industry.”
“We know exactly how many people died from nuclear energy: Zero.”
Wright said nuclear power has a “incredibly small footprint,” and repeatedly criticised President Donald Trump’s highly dependent on wind and solar.
“Whether the sun is shining or the wind is blowing, you get energy. But like any industry, you need to be alive and active as the supply chain moves on. And not building nuclear power plants in our country for decades means we have lost its industrial capabilities.
Charles Kraitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers the media, politics and culture of Fox News Digital.
Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.
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