To make thorium reactors work,
we need seed material that is U233
and that is sitting in Oak Ridge
and is being downblended every year.
And once we lose that strategic material, it's gone forever.
Because we don't
have another reactor to create that type of seed material.
China does because they understand
what the future nuclear power is.
We don't.
We're down blending a strategic material
that could be used in cancer
research and cancer cures, and we're destroying that asset.
The US pioneered thorium reactor technology in the 1960s
These reactors cannot meltdown, actually consumes nuclear waste
and do not rely on High Assay Low Enriched Uranium [HALEU],
which all of The Department
of Energy's next generation reactors rely on.
Mr. White, what's the problem with HALEU?
It comes from Russia, correct?
Yes sir. Thank you very much.
Do you believe that
we should invest heavily in
building out our own conversion enrichment infrastructure
to eliminate our dependance on Russia for nuclear?
And can we do it fast enough to meet our demands?
The Russian invasion of Ukraine puts into stark contrast
the importance of our energy security.
I completely agree that we need to build out capacity
for a Western alternative to the Russian
component of the uranium market,
including conversion and enrichment capacity.
We have a $4 billion investment
in those advanced reactor demonstration projects.
I think we were totally counting on Russian fuel. Do we
have any availability in this nation to get those HALEU fuels?
This concern is at top of mind for the Department of Energy's
Office of Nuclear Energy.
And while we do have some appropriations
for our HALEU availability program,
there are limits to the speed with which enrichment
capability in the United States can be stood up.
Particularly in the context
of the potential need for expanding enrichment
in order to support Russian exit from the nuclear fuel market.
Let's talk about U233 just for a second.
While we're destroying it, China is making it,
and I think that you would agree it has some inherent value.
And I believe there are some legal reasons
that you're saying we have to destroy it.
I'm hoping that the
the committee here might be able to look into that as well.
Can you just address U233 for a second?
Congress has directed the Office of Environmental Management
to dispose of the Uranium-233.
That's at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
That material having some proliferation concerns
has increased the security stance of Oak Ridge
National Laboratory and Congress
decided some time ago and directed the department
to dispose of that material in order to reduce
the security stance of Oak Ridge National Laboratory
and reduce the costs
of that security stance, which are significant.
And so any change to the plan would require
congressional direction.
In 2015 it was reported that the DOE
plan to sign a ten year agreement
to build a Molten-Salt Reactor with China.
What's the status of that agreement?
I'm going to get back to you on that.
The DOE is destroying an important piece of
our ColdWar nuclear programs, Uranium-233.
You know, there's been talk of a uranium stockpile.
Uranium-233 is not part of the planned
United States uranium stockpile. It's not a mined mineral.
It's a man-made isotope of uranium,
different from natural uranium different from enriched uranium.
U233, in an appropriately designed reactor,
enables nuclear power without the creation ot plutonium.
It's the only way to do this.
Plutonium is a pain.
It's one of the reasons why nuclear waste isn't reprocessed.
U233 enables us to harness nuclear power
without creating plutonium.
Mr. White, you're familiar with Uranium-233?
Yes, sir.
Yeah, I figured you were. Your office was tasked
with downblending Uranium-233 in 2001.
Not only is U233 proven to create safe and clean power,
it's grandchildren isotopes
are also valuable to fighting cancer.
A May 2008 DOE report found that the destruction of Uranium-233
threatened the supply of these life saving treatments.
U233, over time, creates a rare material,
which creates a lifesaving medical isotope,
which can be used to fight dispersed cancers
such as leukemia.
That will be the way we treat metastatic cancer disease
by having antibodies of high specificity
carrying little nuclear weapons.
To destroy the tumors,
you need
only a tiny amount of this highly radioactive material
to give a really big dose to the tumor.
The DOE's 2010 audit report said that
destroying Uranium-233 would blunt scientific research
and weaken National Security
Administration's test readiness program.
Mr. White, how many kilograms of this Uranium-233 remain
to be blended?
Do you know?
I do not know that exact number off the top of my head,
but I'll be happy to take that
for the record and give it back to you.
450 kg that we have left, which is worth billions of dollars.
I was involved in making U233 back at Savannah River in 1964.
Producing U233 seems simple, but when you make U233
contaminated with U232, you can't just work with it
in a glove box.
China and India are busy creating
U233 for their own advanced reactors,
while America is busy destroying its own supply.
This is a terrible, wasteful and expensive mistake.
You know how much it cost us to downblend U233?
Our budget request for this year is for $55 million.
$55 million, correct.
$55,000,000 to destroy something
that's worth hundreds of millions of dollars,
that we also can use for other things.
Do you find it odd that
your agency is tasked with destroying something
while at the same time the DOE gave this technology to China?
The laboratory
spends over $50 million a year to safely store
and secure this material,
and it's being stored in some of the oldest
operating facilities that we have
in the Department of Energy.
So the cost of continuing to store the material in
these facilities is going to go up over time.
At the moment,
we actually have
a very unique opportunity
working with a public-private partnership
to make use of some of the benefits
that you just described.
We have a partnership that allows
our contractor, Isotech, to extract the thorium
from the material.
That thorium is provided to another company, TerraPower,
which uses the thorium to extract
isotopes for life saving cancer research
and in the process, some of the costs
of our disposition activity is covered
by that agreement between Isotech and TerraPower.
Right now, at Oak Ridge National Lab,
such materials are being created and harvested.
This is a wonderful thing.
However, after the lifesaving medical isotopes are harvested,
the U233 is being mixed with natural uranium.
This is called downblending.
It renders the Uranium-233 useless forever.
U233 is the ultimate source of otherwise unobtainable
medical isotopes.
U233 is also needed for the development
of amazing highly efficient advanced nuclear power.
China is building just such a reactor right now
they call it
TMSR-LF1: Thorium Molten Salt Reactor Liquid Fuel One.
China will use TMSR to create lifesaving medical isotopes,
to create pollution-free energy,
and to demonstrate their technological superiority
over The United States.
China isn't just passing The United States on this...
America is headed in the wrong direction.
We should be a leader
in nuclear energy, and we should be.
We have the capability of being.
We've got to think about the next generation reactors.
We've got to think about thorium, molten salt reactors.
That are walk away safe.
But let me tell you who is acting, and that is China.
They are kicking our butts across the globe
with nuclear power.
Why nuclear energy?
Why molten salt reactor?
Why thorium?
And last, but not the least,
why is China the first one to eat the crab?
That's Chinese saying.
We need a revolutionary...
something happen.
I submit to the record 2012 Summary Meeting Report
between the Chinese Academy of Sciences
and the US Department of Energy.
I would hope that we would really look at this
to make sure that while we're destroying something
that in the future
we're not going to have
turn around
and try to either buy it from China, buy it from Russia.
I'm sure we could find a better place for the U233.
If they're not wanting it there [at ORNL, Oak Ridge National Lab]
heck, we'll take it in Alabama
and put in Redstone Arsenal and protect it with our lives.
But I just hate that
we're destroying something, that we're paying
to have destroyed, that we might use in the future.
Save the U233. Do NOT downblend it.