Special Open Meeting/Commission Workshop - E-00000A-25-0026 - Arizona Corporation Commission - Advancing Nuclear Power Gen. in AZ Wksp No. 2
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What are the opening remarks and objectives of the workshop?
Welcome to the second Advancing Nuclear Power Generation workshop. I appreciate everybody taking the time to be here. This is going to be a very good meeting and a very packed meeting. And for those that happen to be watching, I'll summarize this in very simplistic terms. Today we're going to talk about projects and costs and even some of where we stand in now as opposed to the last meeting. So just lots of different things going on. So again, welcome and thank you. And with that, I will go ahead and turn it over to Commissioner Lopez and let him run this show.
All right. Thank you, Chair. And again, thank you all for those in attendance. I think we'll get some more people kind of straggling in. Very, very big topic. And I appreciate the allowances from my fellow commissioners on letting me talk more about nuclear even outside of the hallways and actually doing this in public. As a lot of I've told many people, you know, again, nuclear energy is my first love language. And I love seeing that there's so many other people out there that feel the same way as I do. And again, my fellow commissioners want to give them some opportunities here in a little bit, but I want to set the stage for today's events and then also the follow on workshops. So from the first workshop I had mentioned this was going to be a multi phased approach, I am kind of flipping the script.
from what other states have been doing in basically having the utilities being told what to do from the commission's task force and or legislature and governor's offices. But what we're doing here in Arizona is something different. Yeah, again, I love nuclear, but I'm not in the industry. Technology changes so quickly that we need to have the utilities telling, well, advising us on those risks and ways to mitigate bringing nuclear to Arizona. So what we are here to do is listen. There's going to be a lot of elected officials. There's going to be representation of the governor's office from federal partners. We here on the commission, we want to hear from the experts in informational that we're going to have a lot of presentations on.
And then also from the utilities themselves identifying these risks. So today is really centered about risk mitigation around the finances. of financing a nuclear reactor coming in. It is a big deal. It is a major, major financial commitment, not just from the utility, but from the rate payers and, again, a long-term asset. So in doing so, we do need to make sure we're setting ourselves up for success. So this is going to be what I refer to as kind of a 2A workshop in dealing with risk mitigation. The next workshop will be a 2B, literally a 2B workshop, where we're going to be addressing some of the other risks that have been identified by the utilities to address those, such as workforce, supply chain, public outreach, and dealing with a lot of those additional risks in order to, again, bring new nuclear power generation to Arizona.
So again, this is the second of maybe a couple more workshops that we'll be having. And again, the intent here is so those elected that are here are representing staff and even amongst my fellow commissioners. Again, the output at the end of this workshop is to be an intentional recommendation for changes in whether it be rules, procedures, legislation, budgets, in order to see what we can do again to help mitigate those risks in bringing nuclear forward. So at this time, before moving on to the presentation agenda, I would like to just open it up to my fellow commissioners on any inputs they have before we get started. So I'll start at the end. Commissioner Lea Marquez-Peterson.
I feel so far away down here. I guess
I
will. Maybe I'll scoot over during the break. But good morning, everybody. Thank you to Commissioner Lopez for leading on these various workshops. I think this will be very interesting. We know as large-load customers seek reliable baseload, low-carbon energy solutions, nuclear power is really poised for a comeback. In fact, about 6 out of 10 U.S. adults now say they favor more nuclear power plants to generate electricity, per Pew Research.
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Agenda
8 items
1
What are the opening remarks and objectives of the workshop?
0:02–14:08
2
How does the presentation address risk mitigation and financing for new nuclear projects?
14:08–1:10:21
3
What questions arise about large‑load customers, partnerships, and the Tier 2 grant status?
1:10:21–2:23:56
4
How are federal financing tools, tax credits, and state legislation discussed?
2:23:56–2:33:21
5
What key lessons did NEI share about project development and cost overruns?
2:33:21–2:59:26
6
How are financing structures and contingency planning being addressed for new nuclear builds?
2:59:26–3:57:31
7
What role does Microsoft play as a consumer, collaborator, and innovator in nuclear energy projects?
3:57:31–4:38:51
8
How are community leaders and local officials expressing support for nuclear conversion in Arizona?
4:38:51–5:00:40
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