DOE Champions ‘Game Changing’ Small Nuclear Reactors via The New York Times

By EMILY YEHLE of Greenwire

Published: July 21, 2011

“This is an opportunity not only to continue to get back into that game but to change that game entirely,” Vic Reis, a senior adviser for DOE’s Office of Science, told the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board. “If you just take a look at what the DOE and government’s needs are, they are big enough to be the first buyer.”

Reis laid out the department’s plans to invest more than $450 million in developing two designs for the small reactors, a move officials hope would spur companies to build off-the-shelf reactors that could become a cost-effective alternative to other forms of energy. But funding for the program is in doubt; last week, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, called the request inappropriate (Greenwire, July 14).

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