LIBERTY ENERGY CEO & OKLO BOARD MEMBER CHRIS WRIGHT PICKED TO BE DOE SECRETARY

CNBC | November 16

President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday selected Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright to serve as the next energy secretary of the United States.

Liberty Energy is an oilfield services company headquartered in Denver with a $2.7 billion market capitalization. The company’s stock gained nearly 9% on Nov. 6 after Trump won the U.S. presidential election, but its shares have since pulled back.

Wright serves on the board of Oklo, a nuclear power startup backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that is developing micro reactors.

Wright will also serve on Trump’s Council of National Energy, the president-elect said Saturday. The council will be led by Trump’s pick for Interior Secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Wright has denied that climate change presents a global crisis that needs to be addressed through a transition away from fossil fuels.

“There is no climate crisis and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either,” Wright said in a video posted on his LinkedIn page last year. “Humans and all complex life on earth is simply impossible without carbon dioxide. Hence the term carbon pollution is outrageous.”

“There is no such thing as clean energy or dirty energy,” Wright said. “All energy sources have impacts on the world both positive and negative.”

Trump described Wright as a “leading technologist and entrepreneur in the energy sector.”

“He has worked in Nuclear, Solar, Geothermal, and Oil and Gas,” the president-elect said in a statement Saturday.

“Most significantly, Chris was one of the pioneers who helped launch the American Shale Revolution that fueled American Energy Independence, and transformed the Global Energy Markets and Geopolitics,” Trump said.

Trump has vowed to increase fossil fuel production to reduce energy costs, though analysts and some oil executives have said the president has little influence on oil and natural gas output in the U.S.

The U.S. has produced more crude oil than any other country in history, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, since 2018, according to the Energy Information Administration.

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: RECORDING AVAILABLE FOR IAEA-DOE-ECA WEBINAR ON GLOBAL PROGRAMS TOWARDS HLW & SNF STORAGE & DISPOSAL

A webinar series hosted jointly by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Department of Nuclear Energy, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy, and the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA).

ENSURING LONG TERM SUCCESS: ECA TRANSITION PAPER FOR EM

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) must continuously examine its work and evolve. The Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) is calling on the next Administration to launch a comprehensive review of all aspects of the EM program. To meet the challenges and better ensure the continued success of the DOE-EM program, the ECA’s Transition paper offers the following recommendations:

• Establishment of disposal paths for every type of radioactive and hazardous waste, including ensuring that both private and public sites are available and utilized.
• The reevaluation of DOE-EM’s use of the end-state contracting model so that more funds are available for actual work.
• Ensuring that regulatory agreements are reasonably achievable and balance short- and long-term needs.
• Improvement of workforce planning to address “brain drain” and long-term needs for skilled talent of all kinds.
• Continuing focus on economic and energy development benefits.
• The maintaining of robust local, state, tribal government, and stakeholder engagement at each site.
• Clarification on DOE policy regarding how the discovery of hazardous and radioactive materials at “completed sites” will be addressed to ensure that cleanup is protective of human health and the environment, and that the local community is not responsible for the DOE’s legacy waste cleanup.
• The reconstituting of a dedicated nuclear waste organization within the DOE to address high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel issues.

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Proposed Rule: Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Licensing of New Nuclear Reactors 

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing to amend the regulations that govern the NRC's environmental reviews of new nuclear reactor applications under the National Environmental Policy Act. The rulemaking would codify the generic findings of the NRC's draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Licensing of New Nuclear Reactors. The draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Licensing of New Nuclear Reactors uses a technology-neutral framework and a set of plant and site parameters to determine which potential environmental impacts would be common to the construction, operation, and decommissioning of many new nuclear reactors, and thus appropriate for a generic analysis, and which potential environmental impacts would be unique, and thus require a project-specific analysis. The NRC expects that both the proposed rule and the Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Licensing of New Nuclear Reactors would streamline the environmental reviews for future nuclear reactor applicants. The NRC is also issuing for public comment draft regulatory guide (DG), “Preparation of Environmental Reports for Nuclear Power Stations,” and “Environmental Considerations Associated with New Nuclear Reactor Applications that Reference the Generic Environmental Impact Statement.”

Response Due: December 18, 2024

Planned Change Request for Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Replacement Panels 11 and 12

On July 16, 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) announced for public comment the availability of a Planned Change Request (PCR) recently submitted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to modify the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The proposed change will involve adding two additional waste panels west of the current repository to replace lost disposal capacity resulting from the 2014 radiological incident and resulting ground control issues. A 60-day comment period was provided for the PCR that expired on September 16, 2024. A request for an extension to the comment period was received from several stakeholders, most recently at the Agency's informal public meetings held in New Mexico in late August. EPA is reopening the comment period to seek public input on both DOE's application and on what EPA should consider in its evaluation.

Response Due: December 31, 2024

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Most of us have probably dealt with landlords at one time or another in our personal or business lives.  But did you know that Department of Energy sites around the country also have landlords--DOE offices that are responsible for operation and maintenance of the site as a whole?This week’s episode covers the recent change of DOE landlord at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. After nearly three decades, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is taking over landlord responsibilities from the Office of Environmental Management (EM). What does this change mean for SRS and its current and future missions? Host Michael Butler talks with SRS EM Site Manager Mike Budney and NNSA SRS Field Office Director Michael Mikolanis. 

www.gonefissionpodcast.com

NucleCast - Aaron Holland: A Personal Journey in the Nuclear Field

November 12, 2024 | S02 E194

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https://rss.com/podcasts/nuclecast-podcast/

Atomic Show - Julie Kozeracki, Director of Strategy, DOE Loan Programs Office

November 12, 2024 | E323

Julie Kozeracki was the lead author for a U.S. Department of Energy strategy document titled Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Advanced Nuclear published in September 2024. The document was the result of a multi-agency, multi-lab effort to update a previously issued report. During our conversation, Kozeracki described how the report was informed by changes in the market, by a study of experiences from other countries and other industries, and by a growing recognition of the importance of design completion in enabling cost and schedule adherence.

www.atomicinsights.com

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https://www.lastenergy.com

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