I'd like to thank the Chair and committee for consideration of this bill, and thank Delegate Reid for his efforts to put HB369 forward. We are supportive of the bill in concept, but believe more work is needed to address the particulars.

HB369 MUST BE DEFEATED. Re-starting or continuing operation of old nuclear facilities beyond their retirement date is potentially costly and dangerous, and unnecessary. Old nuclear reactors - present a multitude of concerns - facilities exceeding designed and permitted life cycle, waste and storage, emissions, safety, terrorism, and weapons proliferation to name the most apparent. New nuclear facilities present even greater concerns of excessive costs and unreliable construction schedules. These concerns, however, pale compared to newly revealed safety rule changes - heightened by an exclusive NPR investigative report on 1/28/26, "THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS SECRETLY REWRITTEN NUCLEAR SAFETY RULES." (See attachment.) To cope with escalating nuclear costs (the highest costs of power generation at utility scale) the NPR report states: ** "The Trump administration has overhauled nuclear safety directives and shared them with the companies it is charged with regulating, without making the new rules available to the public, according to documents obtained exclusively by NPR." ** “The sweeping changes were made to accelerate development of a new generation of nuclear reactor designs...The changes are to departmental orders, which dictate requirements for almost every aspect of the reactors' operations – including safety systems, environmental protections, site security and accident investigations... ** "The orders slash hundreds of pages of requirements for security at the reactors. They also loosen protections for ground water and the environment and eliminate at least one key safety role. The new orders cut back on requirements for keeping records, and they raise the amount of radiation a worker can be exposed to before an official accident investigation is triggered." Without public involvement, over 750 pages of NRC safety regulation and worker protection were eliminated in this unprecedented secret collaboration between government and the nuclear industry. This is no way to run what is potentially the most catastrophy-prone industry on earth! Current legislation permits accelerated renewable energy buyers to purchase renewable energy across PJM, there is no need to add nuclear. It's needless to incur financial, health and safety risks of purchasing old or new nuclear capacity. The VCEA excluded nuclear eligibility for the RPS because of the problems experienced with the technology across the country and to encourage the development of far cheaper alternatives, which are truly renewable. Please vote NO on HB369.

We support HB289 and HB395 as they will enable a broad swath of Virginians , including renters, to afford small-scale solar. We support HB590 as it streamlines approval of residential solar, which will help consumers implement solar projects. We support HB617, as it will expand the very important virtual power plant program so necessary to meeting grid demand. We strongly support HB628 to expand power purchase agreements, a crucial element of meeting clean energy goals. We support HB634 to enhance energy assistance and weatherization. We support HB807's shared solar proposal to improve the viability of that program. We oppose HB369 as it puts nuclear energy in a category that should be reserved for clean, renewable power.