New building will centrally house NRC personnel who will help meet licensing challenges, advance domestic nuclear energy
– By April Murelio –
Senator George V. Voinovich (R-OH), former Chairman and Ranking Member, and current member of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee, yesterday participated in the groundbreaking ceremony for a new U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) office building in North Bethesda, Maryland. The EPW subcommittee has oversight responsibility of the NRC, and the senator has focused a great deal of time and effort towards ensuring the NRC is fulfilling its mission to oversee the safety and security of the nation’s nuclear power plants.
“This building is sorely needed to bring together NRC staff who are currently dispersed in several different locations around the county, and it will allow them to work together much more efficiently and effectively,” Sen. Voinovich said. “NRC has successfully hired more than 1,000 new staff in the last several years to meet the challenge of licensing the next generation of nuclear plants in this country. I'm very pleased to have helped NRC get this new building and to help move the nuclear renaissance forward.”
As the NRC was hiring staff, Sen. Voinovich and Senator Thomas R. Carper (D–DE) both understood the importance of having NRC employees located together to facilitate the exchange of information on nuclear safety.
However, the General Services Administration (GSA) limit on allowed lease costs per square foot was too low to permit construction of the new NRC building. The senators successfully convinced the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that the building lease amount needed to be increased, but the NRC still needed legislation authorizing it to proceed.
Consequently, the senators jointly sponsored a floor amendment to the FY10 Energy and Water Appropriations Act to allow the NRC to move forward. Even then, the senators needed to aggressively explain the situation to several other senators to prevent them from blocking the authorization for the new building at the last minute. As a result of the persistence of Sen. Voinovich and Sen. Carper, NRC will finally be able to be co-located and more easily share information affecting the safety and security of new reactor plants.
Sen. Voinovich is committed to the safe and secure growth of nuclear power. The senator believes that without nuclear power we will not be able to reach our goal of reducing carbon emissions or provide the base-load electricity our growing country demands – and we will miss an amazing opportunity to strengthen our U.S. manufacturing base and create good paying jobs. At a time when we are struggling to regain our economic footing, the domestic manufacturing industry has an incredible opportunity when it comes to nuclear energy. Nuclear energy offers thousands of well-paying jobs in all stages of development and production.
Together, Sens. Voinovich and Carper led the EPW Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee in challenging the NRC to make its licensing process more efficient and predictable, while ensuring that it has the resources necessary to deal effectively with the current surge in new license applications. Most recently the duo led a bipartisan congressional letter to President Obama requesting that the White House join them in hosting a nuclear energy summit to bring together key leaders, stakeholders and innovators to discuss and plan for America’s nuclear energy future.