All of the above approach to american energy. For a country to continue to benefit from Nuclear Energy, we need the nrc to be an effective, efficient and predictable regulator. The nrcs efficient principals states the american taxpayer, the rate paying consumer, and licensees are all entitled to the best possible management and administration of regulatory activities. I agree. It is our commits responsible to assess the agencys performance. Will the nrc Safety Mission is paramount, the nrc must execute that mission in a fiscally responsible and timely fashion. My home state of wyoming plays a key role in the American Nuclear energy supply. It produces more uranium than any other state. I want to commend the commission for agreeing to extend the duration of uranium recovery licenses from ten years to 20 years. This is an important recognition that the Regulatory Burden placed on these facilities is disproportionately high given how the nrc considers their operations to be quote, low risk. The growth of this Regulatory Burden is clear in the monthly report. The nrc is taking far longer to make uranium recovery decisions than it did ten years ago. This general lack of urgency is troubling. Uranium producers struggle with depressed prices and production is at levels since we havent seen since the early 1950s the need for timely Decision Making is greater than ever. The nrc is lagging in its progress toward instituting flat fees for routine uranium recovery license actions. These would be fees on uranium producers by the nrc that wouldnt increase. Four years seems to be an inorder ant amount of time for the nrc to institute flat fees given some of the nrcs agreements state, meaning states that have assumed responsibility for regulating their uranium Recovery Facilities already have flat fees in place. Wyoming is seeking to become an nrc agreement state and assume responsibility for regulating his uranium Recovery Facilities. While this will be a positive step for wyoming, its also a strong verdict on the need for the nrc to improve its performance. Improving performance was the goal of the nrcs project aim 2020. Quote, to transform the agency over the next five years this says to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and agility of the nrc. Unfortunately, project aim 2020 seems to be ending prematurely. The most recent project aimed status report indicates that the nrc will complete the vast majority of action items early next year and the nrc staff will no longer report on it. Project aim 2020 is becoming project aim 2018 yet the challenges facing the nrc remain. This includes closing of power plants and declining new reactor reviews. The nrc must strive to improve its performance. I look forward to having a decision today with the commission about these important issues. Following the Opening Statement by Ranking Member carper, well continue way five minute open statement from chairman svinicki. Id like to turn to the Ranking Member for his statement. Senator carper. Welcome to the chair and commissioners this morning. Special thanks for our chair for pulling this together. This is a timely hearing. This is one that we need to have as this industry faces real challenges these days. Theres still opportunity to address. Nuclear industry is something at a crossroads as we know. The path the industry decides to take will have ramifications not just for the industry but for our country and for the citizens of our country i think for decades to come. Let me begin by noting that its important to examine the benefits as well as the draw backs of Nuclear Energy. Fm Nuclear Power helps reliance on dirty fossil fuels and reduces our air pollution that threatens our health and climate. Second Nuclear Energy has been continued to be a real economic driver in many places around the country, creates construction jobs, manufacturing jobs, operations jobs for communities across the nation and despite all the benefits of Nuclear Power, i would be remiss not to mention some of the potential consequences of Nuclear Energy. Weve seen from serious incidents in places like duke shim ma the damage that Nuclear Power can cause if the proper safety precautions are not in place and up to date, are not strictly followed. Nuclear energy, safety has been an must remain a top priority in the operation of Nuclear Reactors. Let me repeat that. With Nuclear Energy, safety has been and must remain a top priority in the operation of Nuclear Reactors and that is a primary responsibility of this committee and especially of the Nuclear Regulatory subcommittee of which ive been a past for member for many years actually. Unfortunately the cost of safety precautions along with the cost of construction, operation and maintenance for current Nuclear Reactors can be expensive as we know. Especially when compared to the cost of other sources of energy such as natural gas. In fact, some u. S. Reactors are retiring sooner than expected due to Market Forces sfamt our countrys Nuclear Reactors are getting older and will need to be replaced in the years to come. Building new reactors as weve seen in georgia and South Carolina has proven more difficult than predicted a decade ago. As most of my colleagues know, i often try to see the Glass Half Full and i believe the challenges that the Nuclear Industry faces today can make it stronger and more efficient tomorrow and frankly make our nation stronger. If our country is smart, we will replace our aging Nuclear Reactors with new Technology Developed in this country that is safer, that produces less spent fuel and is cheaper to build and to operate. If we seize this opportunity the u. S. Can be a leader in Nuclear Energy again wreeping the economic and clean air from that leadership. In order to do so we must make sure that the nrc has resources that it needs to review these new technologies, to make certain our Current Nuclear reactor fleet continues to be operated safely. Since joining this committee, i worked closely with a number of our colleagues to strengthen the cultural safety within the u. S. Nuclear energy industry. Part due to our collective efforts and to the nrc leadership and the commissions dedicated staff, the nrc continues to be the world withs Gold Standard for Nuclear Regulatory agencies. Success in any organization starts with leadership at the top and ive been quite impressed with the current commissioners at the nrc and its members ability to Work Together and i especially want to applaud our chair for the leadership, and the service that shes provided at the nrc and especially as our chair. Each commissioner brings a unique set of skills to the commission which is served the nrc and our country very well. These three commissioners have done an excellent job however having a full compliment of nrc commissioners would be ideal. As my colleagues know, the committee our committee has reported out several quality nrc nominees that awaits senate confirmation. I hope we can quickly confirm all three of the nrc nominees given the nuclear critical uncertainty at a time when there is much uncertainty in other areas. An Organization Also needs a strong and dedicated workforce and with the necessary resources in order to be successful and at one time the nrc year after year ranked as the top place in the federal government for which to work. Now number 11, thats better than a lot of other agencies but its not number one and what i want to talk about p how do we get the nrc headed back to the top. Bud yet cuts and uncertainty in Nuclear Industry play a big role in this change and i look forward to hearing from all of you about these issues and most importantly i want to hear what we can do to better retain, recruit a quality workforce at the nrc which is still revered across the globe. I would i shared i close with this thought. I have two sons. Theyre both boy scouts and i used to take them down to the Norfolk Naval station. Im retired navy captain and i would take them down to the naval station every three or four years and 25 or 30 scouts and wed spend a weekend and sleep in the barracks and eat in the galley and visit ships, submarines and aircraft carriers and one morning we visited one sunday morning and Norfolk Naval station and the captain of the ship came to meet with us on the bridge and he addressed our scouts and adult leaders and he said these words, boys, boys, when Teddy Roosevelt goes to sea its 1,000 feet long and the boys go ooh. Boys when Teddy Roosevelt goes with it carries 5,000 sailors. He said boy, when it goes to sea it carries on board 75 aircraft and boys, when the Teddy Roosevelt goes to sea it doesnt refuel for 25 years and the adults went ooh. I tell that story again today. We have challenges with respect to Nuclear Energy, no doubt about that. Theres also a great opportunity and thats just one of them. That is just one of them. Spent many years in the navy tracking submarine, nuclear submarines. I dont know of a single fatality to personnel of the navy because of failure of the Nuclear Power on those ships. The last thing i want to say is, we have real problems, real challenges although were making progress, we still have big challenges with respect to clean air. Emissions of sulfur oxide, merckry, c. O. 2 and others. The good things about nuclear is our biggest source of clean energy with none of those pollutants including co2 and for all those reasons i think its important that we find a way to strengthen the industry and a big part of that is making sure we have a strong nrc at the top. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. I want to welcome the witnesses again. Remind you that your full written testimony will be made part of the official hearing today. I look forward to hearing your testimony beginning with chairman svinicki. Please proceed. Thank you and good morning chairman barrasso and distinguished members of the committee. My colleagues and i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the u. S. Nrcs licensing and regulatory action since our last appearance. Weve continued to improve our yeskt i haveness have foekted on providing the appropriate level of resources to both corporate and problematic areas while continuing to carry out our vital, Security Mission without diminishment. In june of 2014 the nrc established project aim to enhance the agencys ability to plan and execute its mission in a more efficient and effective manner. The agency continues to institutionalize the actions related to project aim and pursue additional activities that demonstrate the nrcs continuing commitment to effectiveness, agility and efficiency. Since the initiative began weve endeavored to forecast our work with greater accuracy and identify changes to our resource needs in this dynamic nuclear environment. In light of the uncertainty and work forecast the agency is pursuing activity of both our headquarters and regional offices and institutionalizing a common prioritization process to prepare the agency to evaluate emerging work more readily and to staff it more efficiently. Were also implementing an enhanced strategic workforce planning process to improve the training, agility and utilization of our very capable workforce. In a separate Improvement Initiative the nrc has analyzed its feel setting process to improve transparency, equitable and timeliness to improve transparency the agency is engaged with stakeholders over the past few years to better understand their interests associated with how information is presented on invoices. The agency initiated several projects to improve hour billable work is tracked and reported. In our program, the nrc continues its pursuit of risk informed regulation through which we strive to put focus on those issues that are most important based on their safety significance. Currently the nrc staff is vaulting and updating key risk Decision Making guidance, implementing training requirements for agency staff, enhancing communication of risk activities and advancing other initiatives across the agency. The nrc is taken many steps over the last year to ensure uniform implementation of the agencys back fitting regulations which govern when the agency can impose additional requirements and are essential part of the stability of a Regulatory Framework. In support of this initiative the staff is undertaking action to improve oversight by nrc managers and lead to more consistent identification and treatment of potential back fitting issues. The nrc also continues to evolve its licensing processes. For example, the Nuclear Industry is researching advanced fuel designs aimed at improving safety margins under both normal and postulated accident conditions. Several vendors are exploring candidate designs which they refer to as accident tolerant fuel in response the nrc is developing plans to ensure that we are prepared to effective and efficiently review these fuels to ensure that their proposed use meets our high safety standards. The nrc is also received four lerlsz of intent to seek subsequent license renewals which would authorize operations for up to 80 years. The nrc has been preparing for these reviews for several years and is published final versions of the document that provide guidance for applicants and for the nrc technical reviewers respectively. Regarding nrcs activities associated with new reactors, all those the licensees summer units two and three decided to discontinue conconstruction of those two units the nrc new Reactor Program continues its focus in support of the activities necessary to ensure the safe construction of the two ap 1,000 units under construction at the vogel site in georgia. Its also finalizing and testing the regulatory procedures that will be necessary to assess the transition of these plants from the construction phase into the operating status. Weve also docketed the first application for a small modular reaction designed received in application for an early site permit for small modular reactions in tennessee, both of these reviews are progressing on schedule. We also continue our preapplication engagement with advanced reactor designers and vendors. Significant activity in the area of rule making is our rule making to include the decommissioning, the efficiency of the decommissioning transition process for operating reactors that are shutting down in the next few years. Weve published a regulatory basis for the development of the proposed rule and concluded that there is sufficient basis to proceed with new and modified regulations addressing emergency preparedness, physical Security Training and financial requirements among other areas. We have received the request from the state of wyoming to achieve agreement state status and we received that application packet. Were working to complete the assessment of that package and it will be provided to the commission the staff targets doing that in september of 2018. The state of vermont has also indicated its intent to pursue agreement state status. During this active Hurricane Season the nrc responded to the hurricanes harvey, irma and maria in accordance with our Incident Response plans. We dispatched inspectors to the reactors impacted by the hurricanes to provide monitoring of the operators event response and we worked closely with federal partners such as fema. We will also consistent with our practice evaluate both the agency and licensee responses to the hurricanes and implement any Lessons Learned to further improve our event response going forward. In closing, the nrc continues to focus on efforts to achieve additional efficiencies without any diminishment in our important Public Health and Safety Missions. I thank you for this opportunity to appear before you and we will be pleased to answer your questions at the appropriate time. Thank you. Thank you very much. Commissioner barron. Thank you. Thank you for the invitation to appear today. Its a pleasure to be here with my colleagues to discuss the work of the commission. The chairman provided an overview of nrcs activities including the project the agency is making. I want to briefly highlight a few important efforts now under way at nrc. We remained focus on post duke asheema and Lessons Learned. That rule addresses a number of recommendations of the Near Term Task force and is the culmination of years of work. Meanwhile the staffs focus is shifting to oversight and inspection of licensing implementation of several safety enhancements and natural hazard evaluations. Decommissioning is another key issue for nrc. Since 2013 six u. S. Reactors have permanently shut down and seven more h