Public Health Labor and Environment - House & Senate

Good morning good morning everybody like to call the Meeting to order this is the house and let House labor environment permanent subcommittee public health. I do recognize a quorum. This time I would to recognize you representative Ladyman and if you would introduce yourself for the record. State representative Jack Lehman District fifty nine. In the. My co pay department of environment. Great welcome. Representative Ladyman I'll turn it over to you for discussion of your acting ninety two would you sponsor this past session which is the study on the commercial application of existing technology to reclaim and repurpose spent new nuclear fuel rods thank you Mr chairman I'll just kind of give a little opening summary statement and then Mr pray will give some. Of the activities that we've undertaken. So first off I wanna thank the department of energy secretary Teo and Mr Michael Gruppe for their assistance so for on this project they've been very helpful in moving this forward and the governor's office Caleb Stanton over the governor's office and governor Hutchinson I have been involved others that have been involved in this argon national laboratories doctor Bob at the universe of Arkansas inter G.. borough Brazel corporation they'll Brazzell in John Warnick we did have one meeting and I think all of these were represented except enter G.. but I wanted to just remind people on the subcommittee of the history of this particular interim study back in January of twenty seventeen there was in awe of Arkansas alternative energy commission that was formed by the governor and they recommended to governor Hutchinson to support the University of Arkansas and the department of energy to offer options on reclaiming spent nuclear fuel rods that was one of the things that they presented to the governor Mister buddy Alan of Texarkana was chair of that commission in August of twenty seventeen the joint energy committee unanimously approved an interim study resolution the energy committee held a meeting at nuclear one to further discuss this in August of twenty eighteen. you have a many other people were involved in that meeting at the power plant in April of twenty twenty one a bill H. B. eighteen ninety ACT ten ninety two was passed and signed into law in put in interim study and sent to the joint public health labor and welfare committee may have twenty twenty one interim study proposal for acting in ninety two referred to public health and the real sub in public health. I'm sorry public labor and environmental subcommittee for further study. So that's kinda I mean this is been a long road I just want to remind you of that. Then I wanted to just list some of the requirements of actin ninety two. Chair of the joint public health welfare and labor committee shall call the first meeting for the purpose of beginning the. Stay within sixty days of it's going into effect we did that in June. The committee must meet at least every two months to conduct to conduct the study we did not have a meeting in July so this meeting is required by the act in the that's why this is required and in two months will be required to hold another meeting to just check the progress of the study. Committee is required to submit a final written report to the Legislative Council by twelve one twenty twenty two. So that's what we're required to do the purpose of this study this is very important because we need to stay within the bounds of this up to study what is required. To study the commercial application of existing technology to reclaim and repurpose spent nuclear fuel rods so that's the purpose of the study. And with that I will turn over to Mr paid account talk about what's been going on. You're recognized Mr pay thank you Mr chairman. So in June we had a meeting with Mr Babbitt Mr Brattle mission Womack well as representative Ladyman. To discuss the parameters of the what needed to be studied and produced in accordance with that ten ninety two. shortly after that we received a proposal from Mr gravel who is a consultant in Fort Smith. And his firm has extensive experience working with the University of Arkansas impression grants related to the nuclear activities. We asked him to provide a proposal to our committee he provided that it's being reviewed at this point and it within the next to seven to ten days we expect this review comments to go back to Mr battle for him to address before we move forward with funding it cetera. Glad to take any questions. We have any questions from the committee. Representative Payton you're recognized. Thank you so right now we're in the phase of of looking for funding to fund the study or as been any suggestions or studies begin yet on on some. Some angle that we're going to work towards and if the have there been any emails that I missed the that contained information on how these rods could be used. No really we we've just talked within our working group because we didn't have any real details nailed down but the in the bill it does talk about funding will be needed of course we didn't know how much so that's what we're trying to do is to lock down what we want to do so that we can get an exact amount and that's why we've talked with the governor's office and the department of energy to try to identify some funds that will allow us to do that we we do need technical help on this because the what we have to do is have a proposal to go to the department of energy to get the funds. In order to do that we've got a lockdown. A proposed design almost you know of a facility that would do this and project some of the cost and some of the income so to do that we we need help and. I don't want to give you a number but yes we will need funding and hopefully within the next few weeks will be able to lock that down as to how much funding we need because we only have seventeen months now yes seventeen months left before this report is due so we need to get a consultant hired and working on this so I understand that if I may I guess my question is are you know right now I need educated. It says existing technologies. Can somebody send me some emails about what technologies exist and what demand exists we're talking about re purposing them and there must be a demand for the re purposing of them or else we just call it disposal but you know what technologies do exist I mean I under I understand we need funding. To go forward very far but I'd like to know what direction we're headed if there's been any information along those lines I'd like to receive it. yeah there's definitely a lot of information on the new technology it gets pretty down in the weeds I mean it's. Kind of hard to summarize it. Maybe you can help. So the issues existing and nuclear energy facility up in Russellville so uses a nuclear material and then once it's used to. It was supposedly going to be stored away somewhere in a mountain that change they've got that so sitting. At the energy site in Russellville. The new technology claims to be able to take that material. And through a new reactor type program you can use that used material in turning to new material a new energy fuel and so. It's been proven and and the lab It argon. But commercially it has not been improved in part of the active ninety two is to establish a program with the university of Arkansas to see if you can't turn that. Our gun program. It in the lab into a commercial viable programs. For the industry okay thank you thank you Mr yes so the the technology has been proven has been accomplished in the last. The the the question is will it become usable and that's what we want to do and course some you all heard me talk about this before if it does become usable you know Arkansas would be the place to come for that technology and for those folks that have been trained in that technology that will say since this bill was passed to other states are looking into this thanks Wyoming in California I believe. Minnesota California So they're looking into the same thing I'm not sure where they are on the road trail with their behind this or not but also let me just mention course this is a little let's say three years ago I believe President trump and his administration allocated funding for this particular type of project and with that still available I don't know but there was I think a hundred million dollars that was put in place to do just this so that money that money is available at the national level we have to be prepared and have all the I's dotted tease crossed bill get that money that's what we're trying to do with this project I think I got clear understanding thank you thank you Mr. Representative back here at one thirty. Yes you're recognized thank you I appreciate you and although I'm not on the subcommittee at of. I have some questions related to this. It's my understanding that you guys are going to work with the department of energy so the re purposing of the fuel rods would definitely be for energy purposes is that correct yes that's correct so. The study then looked reviews site are the possibility of the the what it would take to put the process and non process on site. Is it not true that the NuScale company is currently been approved I know it's not a fast reactor but it is a modular design reactor they will be installing and this would be the technology. After's converted to the new sticks style reactors that would be able to reuse these rights correct. Yes you are correct the new modular in and as you say represent back that has been proven. we just don't know what's economical. So I just just making sure that you are you guys are focusing on that one aspect that the re purchasing these rides will go to Providing energy for the future right I mean it Representative Payton ask about the demand this will just be producing electricity that can be used anywhere so the demand is always there and it's obviously going to go up with electric cars and other things so the man's going to go up any other thing is that these fuel rods as you know representative back they're sitting out there in the yards with nowhere to go. And now somebody needs to address that problem and I hope we can do that and benefit economically for the state of Arkansas what. Another state in all public what would you agree then that that are would you like to share with the committee the amount of energy that could be generated using this new technology once it's in place. Well I don't know that we're that for long yet but as you said these plants are modular so they can be construct they can be built in a factory shipped to the site and constructed which is another big advantage they're not huge the investment is smaller but we really can't answer that question now that's why we need to that there are some estimates from argon laboratory that there's as much as nine hundred years worth of energy. In the ways that we have using this technology yeah I think they'll cover yours and mine like them. I do have a question how how many spent fuel rods are on site do we know who are approximately you to my Russellville just in wrestling at. I don't know but some we all tended the meeting we had up there and there's quite a pile and is out of parking lot with a fence around with those orange is not even a solid fence I don't know Rick do you have any idea. Sorry can I ask a question Mister chair. Yeah go ahead. It's if you understand the well fuel rod comes out it still has a lot of energy so it's going to go to an area where it can be controlled tend to us but after a certain period of time the Storting cast that are very safe and they're put on the parking lot there after it requires no more further attention other than it's going to be kept in those cats and that's where it's at now it's my understanding and I may I may be incorrect on this but the the fuel rods all the fuel rods for nuclear one nuclear to are sitting and all the fuel rods from the beginning of those records are sitting in the parking lots out there none of them have been made anymore. She caught that that's by the way that's pretty much common across the United States yeah so we don't know how many is there but every spent fuel rod that has been created this is still there big solution to solve a problem that existed throughout the country and then I'll just add one other thing they have what they call or funds I thank the column orphan spent fuel rods so there are plants I think there's one in Massachusetts if I'm correct where the the nuclear plant has been shut down everything's been tore up the only thing they're of the spent fuel rods an offense. Okay representative right you're recognized yes thank you thank you Mr monk. Question for you. Are we looking at maybe taking contaminated material and turn it into something good yes yes that's exactly what we're trying to represent. Any other questions comments from the Committee. It just in summary Mr chairman I hope it's my hope that we'll be able to come to council either this month or for sure next month to get approval for this funding that we need to get the engineering firm started sounds great well we appreciate your presentation represent senator Wallace and representative Penzo with be the ones to call a meeting in the follow up in two months at least. We appreciate it very much thank you all for attending thank you.