VIDEO: Ricketts Highlights Need for Improvements at U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

April 20, 2023

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) yesterday highlighted Nebraska’s long history of nuclear power generation at an Environment and Public Works Committee hearing.

“Nebraska is very proud of our nuclear power,” Ricketts said in the hearing. “It’s clean, safe, and reliable. Our Cooper Nuclear Station is an 835-megawatt facility that can generate power for about 385,000 residences, even in the hottest part of summer. We’re very proud of our nuclear power and look to continue to see how we can expand it going forward in the future.”

Ricketts questioned U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners about the need to improve the efficacy and timeliness of the Commission’s licensing and regulatory reviews.

“As Governor of Nebraska, we were very focused on process improvement and how we could streamline our operations to be able to do a better job…” Ricketts said in the hearing. “We leveraged Lean Six Sigma. There’s a lot of other process improvement methodologies out there that you can implement agency-wide to be able to drive better productivity, streamline operations, reduce the number of steps it takes to do things and not sacrifice anything with regard to the quality of the output.”

After the hearing, Ricketts re-iterated the importance of nuclear energy as a component of America’s energy infrastructure.

“Nuclear needs to be an essential part of our nation’s energy portfolio,” Ricketts said after the hearing. “As higher demand on our energy grids continue, we must ensure regulators are efficiently executing their responsibilities.”

Watch the video HERE.

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