Barrasso Questions DOE Secretary Wright on Nuclear Fuel Security and Protecting the Future of Coal

On Tuesday,  U.S. Senator John Barrasso questioned Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright about refocusing the Department’s mission, investing in American nuclear fuel security, and protecting the future of coal.

“Over the last few years, I believe Congress irresponsibly saddled you, the department, with 71 new programs overseeing hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. And I think that this situation is fraught with waste, fraud, and abuse. It left the department, your department now, without a clear direction. So can you talk a little bit about how you are getting the Department of Energy back in a focused direction with regard to your overall mission?” asked Barrasso.

"I would say the simplest thing is treating it like a business. I've ben writing on energy for 20 years, I never infused it with politics," Wright answered. "To me, energy is about humans and math. Energy is to better people's lives and expand their opportunities in how they can do things and the way to do that comes down to what is the lowest system cost to deliver whatever that form of energy is? in a reliable, secure way. And reduce the environmental impacts of that as well."

He added that he is interested in delivering the best product possible to the American people. "I want to restore confidence in our department again."

The Wyoming senator pointed out Congress' investments in nuclear innovation and asked Wright to speak about plans in the program. Wright's excitement was palpable as he described a new announcement for three new, small modulators with the potential to produce nuclear power next year at the Idaho National Lab. He wants to "get that nuclear ball rolling again," and discussed working with other countries, like Russia, to enrich uranium in the United States for nuclear power production.

Then shifting topics, Barrasso said: “You know the last administration was flat-out anti coal every way they could be."

“They wouldn’t support projects that we needed, even when the ones resulted in diminished emissions. They just were against everything.

“I thought it was short-sighted, left our valuable resource underutilized. What’s the department doing in terms of restarting coal research, whether it’s novel combustion, carbon capture, or coal products made from newly mined coal as a result of the president signing the executive orders?”

Wright nodded that coal has been the largest source of global electricity for 100 years. "It will be when I die, as well. There's a reason coal is the biggest provider of global electricity, but I'll be in your great state (Wyoming) on July 11, for the opening of a new coal mine that's combined with rare earth element mining right there. That to me is incredibly exciting, and maybe the biggest thing that I've been involved in with coal right now is that we need all this extra power...we need to win the AI race...we've got to stop closing all these coal plants with tons of useful life left in them."