Cranetestimony042407

Chairman Boucher, Ranking Member Hastert, members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear today to provide the nuclear energy industry’s views on one of the most important elements of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The energy loan guarantee program is an absolute imperative to support the financing and construction of new nuclear power plants in the United States. I believe I speak for the entire electric power industry in thanking this committee for its consistent and evenhanded leadership in matters of energy policy and environmental policy, and I appreciate your interest in ensuring effective implementation of this loan guarantee program.

My name is Christopher Crane. I am president and chief nuclear officer of Exelon Nuclear. With 17 nuclear power plants—approximately 20 percent of the U.S. nuclear fleet—Exelon is the largest nuclear operator in the United States. Exelon is also actively pursuing new nuclear development. We are developing an application for a construction/operating license (COL) for a new nuclear plant and are exploring several potential sites for that facility. In addition, we recently received an early site permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that certifies that our site in Clinton, Ill., where we operate one nuclear reactor, meets all necessary criteria for construction of a new nuclear unit.

I am appearing today on behalf of Exelon and on behalf of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear industry’s Washington-based policy organization. I am chairman of NEI’s New-Plant Oversight Committee, which consists of the chief executives or chief nuclear operating officers of the companies that are developing applications for COLs for new nuclear power plants. NEI’s New-Plant Oversight Committee is charged with establishing industrywide consensus on regulatory, financial and other significant policy issues associated with new nuclear plant development. The New-Plant Oversight Committee has various task forces focusing on specific issues related to new nuclear plant development, including a finance task force, which has been deeply involved in implementation of the energy loan guarantee program.