IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – Nuclear power continued to be a big topic in eastern Idaho Monday afternoon as Senator Jim Risch spoke with the Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce after the groundbreaking at the INL.
Senator Risch started the roundtable discussion by saying the nation is experiencing “a tremendous nuclear renaissance” and that President Trump is “all-in on nuclear.”
In light of the groundbreaking at the INL today, Local News 8 asked Senator Risch if there will be ways in the future to streamline the licensing process for both new and updated nuclear plants.
One issue is that licensing a nuclear plant can take anywhere from five to 15 years.
And complaints that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in charge of licensing, is understaffed.
“The complaint is correct that it’s taken way too long. The complaint that they’re understaffed is a complaint I hear from every single federal agency.” Risch said. “Okay, so I could have predicted that if you just said, if you’d asked me, what do you think they’re complaining about, that they’re understaffed, they’ve got the staff to do the work. They are committed to do the work. And as you know, Trump is tough when it comes to making the people do things. So, we are committed to shortening the time.”
We also asked Senator Risch if he could share more details about what’s happening within the NRC to streamline the agency and if it would be helpful to have separate groups within the NRC to process the licensing for each type of reactor, like boiling water reactor, pressurized water reactor, molten salt reactor, and so on.
“I can tell you this, they are doing their best to consolidate within agencies. One is when possible, because there are tremendous number of agencies that are duplicating each other and nobody ever checked on it,” Risch responded.
Senator Risch spoke with members of the chamber about a wide variety of topics, including tariffs, inflation, farming, and his thoughts on water storage in eastern Idaho.
