Energy Secretary Rick Perry toured Holtec’s Advanced Manufacturing Division and Operations Center at the Company’s Krishna P. Singh (KPS) Technology Campus in Camden, New Jersey on October 25, 2018.
The Secretary, himself an accomplished welder, inspected the state-of-the-art welding machinery and greeted the men and women in the bays of the manufacturing facility. The tour included a brief stop at Holtec’s newly established energy storage manufacturing unit for EOS systems which is notable in so far as it marks a (rare) migration of a manufacturing plant from China to the United States.
An enthusiast of small modular reactors (SMR), Secretary Perry inspected the facility’s SMR manufacturing bay where Holtec plans to build its SMR-160 plant components for delivery around the globe. Congressman Donald Norcross joined in a part of the shop tour.
Following the tour, the Secretary addressed Holtec’s work force where he re-affirmed the Administration’s position that all energy sources including solar, wind, coal, gas and nuclear, must play a role in meeting the Nation’s energy needs. Remarking on Holtec’s exports of nuclear equipment and projected supply of SMRs, the Secretary roused the audience with the noble assertion, “We’re exporting freedom. And I happen to think that’s what small modular reactors represent: freedom to the countries that are looking to develop alternative energy resources.”
He added, “It’s the ability to have a resilient grid, a reliable supply of energy that I think is tantamount to our national security, an uninterruptable supply of base load energy. That’s why what you’re doing in that building across the way is so important, whether it’s in the battery storage side, whether it’s in dealing with the materials that have been used in the nuclear energy industry since the Manhattan Project. What you all are involved with is nothing less than the type of things that change the world … I can’t impress on you enough about how important your work is. I appreciate the work that you’ve done. The world class work force that’s in here. I felt the pride that men and women who are fabricating, who are designing, who are managing this company, and working together. We can continue to spur on the innovation for a clean energy source that this world really needs. Thank you for what you do. Thank you, Dr. Singh, for having that vision 30 plus years ago.”
The Secretary was visibly impressed by Holtec’s under-ground used fuel storage system, HI-STORM UMAX. Company officials explained to Secretary Perry that the Company is securing the license to build the HI-STORM UMAX in southeastern New Mexico near the Texas border to serve as a supremely safe and secure consolidated interim storage facility for the nation’s used nuclear fuel.
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