{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.curtis.senate.gov/press-releases/curtis-highlights-utahs-nuclear-leadership-calls-for-local-empowerment-in-federal-nuclear-policy", "Curtis Highlights Utah\u2019s Nuclear Leadership, Calls for Local Empowerment in Federal Nuclear Policy", "2026-05-13", "2026", "2026-05", "Republican", "Senate", "UT", "John R. Curtis", "C001114", "www.curtis.senate.gov", "curtis", "https://www.curtis.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "The full transcript of the exchange is below, and video can be found here.\n\nSenator Curtis: Chairman Nieh, congratulations. Mayor Wright, thank you for your service and for your leadership during that period of time. Some of you will remember from previous hearings that we both share that title in common. Senator Whitehouse, all those lists of accomplishments that you mentioned, I would attribute to him having been a mayor. And if we could just make every member of the Senate a mayor, we would be in good shape.\n\nUtah, as many of you know, is known as the Beehive State. That\u2019s a reminder that working together produces better outcomes. State and local leaders and industry partners often recognize the potential in their communities long before a federal agency thousands of miles away. That\u2019s why I believe federal policy works best when it empowers states and communities instead of imposing a one-size-fits-all solution across the country.\n\nWe also need to acknowledge the reality that comes up repeatedly in these hearings. Our permitting and regulatory processes are too slow, too duplicative, and too unpredictable.\n\nWe should recognize the tremendous opportunity in front of us. America has the talent, resources, innovation, capacity to lead the world in next generation energy development and advanced technologies. But leadership requires a government that can move at the pace of innovation.\n\nSo, let me start, Chairman Nieh, with a question about rulemaking. As you consider new rules, are you looking at anything for making uranium recovery as a plan for that? If so, maybe a timeline please.\n\nThe Honorable Ho K. Nieh: Yes, Senator. The NRC\u2019s efforts for these rulemakings started under the executive order, will cover the entire life cycle of nuclear from the front end to the back end. It\u2019s important that we really look at our regulatory frameworks to make sure that we can enable the entire circle of life in nuclear.\n\nAs you already know, America is too dependent on foreign uranium and enrichment, and we need to fix that. And what we are doing with all of these rules is that when the commercial interests align with the capital resources, workforce, and supply chain to bring new facilities all around the fuel cycle to the NRC, we will have a predictable and credible licensing framework to support that.\n\nCurtis: Thank you. Utah has a request to allow conversion to be added to Utah\u2019s agreement in the state status. I hope the NRC is still on track by to give them an answer by the summer. Can you comment on that?\n\nNieh: I believe we are on track, but I will verify that.\n\nCurtis: Super important. Thank you.\n\nWith that, Utah is actively exploring nuclear as a dependable source of clean baseload power. I think it\u2019s been clear Utah wants to be a leader in this. How is the NRC engaging states to provide clarity around the path forward for deploying nuclear?\n\nNieh: So, Senator, we always stay ready to engage with our state partners through any NRC licensing activities. I would share personally, I\u2019ve been invited to several states to speak about some of the reforms happening at the NRC related to some of the new requirements.\n\nI\u2019ll be, by the end of this month, attending an event in your home state, Senator to do the same. So, we stand ready to engage with the states to ensure that there\u2019s full transparency and awareness about the NRC\u2019s licensing process.\n\nCurtis: Commissioner Wright, please.\n\nThe Honorable David A. Wright: If I could add to that, mayor, I mean, Senator, thank you.\n\nCurtis: Mayor works just fine.\n\nWright: I actually met with the governor\u2019s team, as well as the President of the Senate in Utah and the Speaker of the House, to discuss these things several months ago. I\u2019ve also met personally with Governor Cox and actually appeared in a video with him on the nuclear issues and the nuclear stuff that\u2019s going on in Utah.\n\nSo, we are a resource for the states. I think it\u2019s important. And we will assist them as appropriate, to do exactly what Chairman Nieh was talking about to answer the questions, help them better understand the process and all of it consistent with our mission.\n\nCurtis: Excellent. Good. Chairman, or any of you really, comment, really, to the American taxpayers. You\u2019re looking at these changes. These are the things that are upcoming. How can the American taxpayer be assured that we\u2019re on track, that we\u2019re spending their money well? And what is your message to my constituents back home?\n\nNieh: The message to your constituents is judge us by our actions. We are making our licensing performance more transparent. On our website, there are dashboards that show how we are using resources for licensing. So, there\u2019s increased transparency.\n\nAgain, I\u2019ve set priorities for this agency to operate in a more disciplined and efficient manner. So, my message would be the NRC is enabling the safe use of nuclear technologies in America. And I hope that people in your state will be able to judge that and confirm that through our actions and results.\n\nCurtis: Ranking Member Whitehouse, I\u2019m going to paraphrase something you said in remarks, and I\u2019ll get it wrong, so I\u2019ll apologize. But you kind of classified a couple of different applicants to those who are on their game. They know what they\u2019re doing, and when they do so, they interact well with NRC. Others are not so.\n\nI would introduce a third class. I think of Utah Municipal Power Authority and Power and UAMPS, two municipal organizations in the state of Utah who I would say kind of fall in a third category, who really just don\u2019t have the resources to navigate the way that some of these larger organizations do.\n\nAnd so just a quick question about what you\u2019re doing to ensure applicants who don\u2019t have a wealth of resources know how to navigate this as well, who are good actors and who we want to be players in this in this space.\n\nNieh: One of the most important things we do, Senator, is our pre-application engagement with applicants. That is one of the most valuable things to ensure that there\u2019s clear expectations on what is expected to be in an application.\n\nAnd, you know, it\u2019s very clear that the applications have to contain sufficient information that demonstrate NRC requirements are met. So, we do those discussions upfront, and it really is a prioritization tool for us as well as an agency.\n\nWe can judge through a pre-application engagement what level of maturity the application may be, in, what type of information gaps may exist, and it helps us really prioritize what to focus on.\n\nCurtis: I\u2019m out of time, but thank you for your answers and really thank you for the good work that all of you do as Commissioners. We don\u2019t get very many hearings\u2014and yes, we have our questions and yes, we have our concerns\u2014we don\u2019t get very many hearings when we have a body in front of us that\u2019s really doing really good work and really at a critical point, not just for nuclear, but for energy throughout our whole country.\n\nSo, thank you and I yield my time.\n\nRanking Member Sheldon Whitehouse: And I will accept my friend\u2019s characterization of a third category.", 1, "2026-05-15T06:17:41Z", "2026-05-15T06:18:51Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.curtis.senate.gov/press-releases/curtis-highlights-utahs-nuclear-leadership-calls-for-local-empowerment-in-federal-nuclear-policy"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4546599704772234, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}