Brendan Rogers, nominated to be assistant secretary of the Navy for energy, installations and environment, called small modular reactors (SMRs) as a viable option to power military installations at a Senate nomination hearing last week.
Rogers, among other Department of Defense nominees, Marc Berkowitz, James Caggy and Joseph Jewell, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee Oct. 28 at the Senate Dirksen Building in Washington, D.C.
Rogers, a former Navy SEAL, was nominated by President Donald Trump on March 31.
Rogers said SMRs had “great potential” and if confirmed, would look for ways to implement the new nuclear technology to advance energy infrastructure at the military sites.
“When we think about our installations, you [Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C)] mentioned Guam and Camp Lejeune; we need energy independence and we need it in kind of contested or challenging environments,” Rogers said in response to a question. “SMRs can potentially be that solution going for us across these installations.”
Though Rogers embraced the potential of SMR technology, Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss), was more circumspect.
“Mr. Rogers it’s not going to be in the next 5 or 6 years though is it on these SMRs? They take longer than that,” Wicker said.
“It sounds tempting and helpful [but] I don’t think there’s one [SMR] operating on the face of the Earth right now,” Wicker added.
Rogers responded that he would have to sit down with the technical teams to find what the best SMR option would be to support military sites. He also added there are currently many proposals to bring SMRs online.
If confirmed, Rogers said he would like to see where efforts are in the SMR technology and how they can push on those deployment timelines.
In July, Paris-based Nuclear Energy Agency reported there are 74 SMRs internationally that are under active development. In the United States alone, there are over 25 announced plans for SMRs. However, none have been commercially deployed yet..
“Well, I hope our dreams can be realized there,” Wicker said about SMRs.