Chairman Voinovich, Senator Carper, and Members of the Subcommittee:

I am Marilyn Kray, Vice President of Project Development for Exelon Nuclear, a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation. I am appearing today in my capacity as the lead representative of NuStart Energy Development, a recently formed consortium of power companies and reactor vendors. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.

Congress has an important role in providing oversight of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and this oversight will be particularly important as the Commission proceeds with a new process for licensing nuclear power plants. My testimony today will focus on the benefits of nuclear power, the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Power 2010 Initiative, the formation of NuStart Energy Development, and the prerequisites for the construction of new nuclear power plants.

Benefits of Nuclear Power
Nuclear power is a safe, clean, reliable and economic method of generating electricity. Indeed, the nation’s 103 operating reactors provided over 20 percent of the electricity generated in the United States last year.

Nuclear plants are safe, both from an operational and a homeland security perspective. Despite concerns expressed by some that nuclear plants would become less safe as plan operators focused improving operational efficiency, data has shown that plant performance and safety go hand-in-hand. The best performing plants in terms of capacity factor also have the fewest safety-related incidents. Operational excellence not only increases plant output, it also enhances safety. In fact, commercial nuclear plants have an exceptional record of worker safety.