Lee, Mike: you exactly committee will come to order good morning to everyone and welcome before turning to my opening statement I want to let all members know how we're gonna proceed this morning that I also want to thank senator Heinrich and his staff for working with us on today's hearing on May 23rd 2025 President Trump issued four executive orders concerning nuclear energy to help launch a renaissance in that really important area and that increasingly important area within the energy sector of the United States. These executive orders do the following. Direct deployment of advanced nuclear reactor technologies for national security, require needed reforms at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to safely and expeditiously license nuclear facilities, employ existing Department of Energy authorities to accelerate nuclear reactor testing and the deployment of new designs, and direct comprehensive action to reinvigorate America's nuclear industrial base, secure supply chains and prepare our workforce to ensure American nuclear energy dominance. Today, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will hear testimony regardingthe U.S. Department of Energy's implementation of these orders from President Trump. We'll receive testimony from three eminently qualified experts. They are the Honorable Theodore Garrish, Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy, Dr. John Wagner, Director of the Idaho National Laboratory and President of Battelle Energy Alliance, and Dr. Mike Laufer, the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kairos Power. On behalf of the committee, I welcome each of you to the committee today. For much of the past century, the United States operated from a position that most countries have never had. We had reliable energy. It allowed American industry to thrive. It allowed the economy to grow. It gave the United States a level of independence that few nations enjoy. Whenever that advantage has slipped, the consequences have been immediate. In the 1970s, supply disruption drove prices up and gave foreign producers leverage. Decisions made overseas began to overshape outcomes at home more than they had previously. Now for the first time in decades, we're confronting some of those same pressures again. The question is no longer how we use energy. It's whether we have enough of it. Data centers are not going to wait. Advanced manufacturing is not slowing down. The systems driving artificial intelligence don't just scale down when power is scarce. They go to where the electricity is. If we cannot meet that demand here, it will be met somewhere else. We can be sure of that. Because when energy tightens, everything downstream follows. This requires constant, large-scale, reliable energy. And that is where nuclear energy comes in. So today, we're examining whether the United States is moving quickly enough to deploy the next generation of nuclear technologies. What has long been a stable and essential part of our energy mix is becoming central to whether we can meet this demand at all. We're already seeing energy-intensive industries turn toward nuclear as a long-term solution. Russia and China both understand this. They're building reactors at scale. They're financing and exporting them across the world. They're locking in fuel supply arrangements that tie countries to their technology and their influence for decades. To put it bluntly, energy will determine the global balance of power for the next generation. And if we hesitate now, we will not just fall behind. We will be operating inside a system defined by others, dependent on supply chains and standards that we didn't write. That is not a position of strength, and it's not a position that the United States can accept. The question before us is no longer whether nuclear energy will play a role in our future. It's how much capacity we can build and how quickly we can build it. Recognizing that urgency, President Trump issued four executive orders last May to elevate the American energy industry to the next level. These orders build on previous work that's been done in Congress, bipartisan work that's been done on some of these issues. They focus on modernizing the regulatory framework, accelerating reactor testing, enabling deployment for national security applications, and rebuilding the domestic nuclear industrial base. At least three test reactors will achieve criticality by July 4th of this year. A microreactor will be deployed at a military installation by 2028. Ten new large reactors will be under construction by 2030. The Department of Energy has already begun implementing these directives, including standing up new programs and expanding the use of existing authorities. In coordination with the – with Idaho National Laboratory, it has rolled out initiatives such as the reactor and fuel line pilot programs to support advanced reactor development and deployment. Today's hearing provides an opportunity to examine that execution, assess programs, identify remaining barriers that we still face, and determine what additional actions may be necessary to ensure that the United States leads in nuclear energy technology. We're joined by witnesses who are directly involved in implementing and advancing these efforts, and I look forward to hearing from them. I now recognize my friend and colleague, the Ranking Member, Senator Heinrich, for his opening remarks.