Farewell Interview: Assistant Secretary Katy Huff

I'll lead in here by saying it is nearly two years since you were sworn in as assistant secretary for nuclear energy um can you talk about some of the high points from your time here at the department of energy uh well yeah it's been an absolute honor um it's been a real thrill to see the bipartisan support for nuclear energy right now I think my confirmation was a real signal that that was the case even you know starting out and while I had been Pete ass for a year before you know becoming confirmed I think that that moment when I was confirmed was a real indication and a signal of how bipartisan nuclear energy was it was a very bipartisan vote which was more about the topic than about me um some major highlights of course you know we want to keep existing reactors running and I've seen you know Diablo Canyon stay open when it was potentially destined to close Palisades Nuclear Power Plant has a hope of a future even though has shut down and they're restarting that plant very soon you know in just a couple years with Vogal unit 3 and four coming online vocal 4 coming online today a fully operational it takes us from the sort of 92 reactors or so we were at when I started you know up through 93 94 with Palisades it'll be 95 um and in a different world we could have been walking backwards instead and allowing those reactors to shut down right right yeah um and advanced reactors I mean tons of progress tons of exciting developments in that space as well uh over the past few years I mean are there anything that stand out to you in terms of pushing the technology forward yeah absolutely I think especially with regard to the construction permit uh application with chyros uh fluid salt cooled high temperature reactor we're looking at you know it's a real advancement in demonstration that the nuclear Regulatory Commission is ready to license Advanced reactors um you know we've seen so much progress with the office of clean energy demonstrations and the two big demos Terra power and X energy but broadly I think just every time I talk to people there is more and more awareness of the incredible variety of new nuclear reactor Technologies available and the ways that each of them could fit into a clean energy field future that it's not one size fits all but that rather there will be reactors fit for purpose for a number of different purposes that'll be hard to otherwise decarbonize right and then of course we've seen historic Investments over the past few years especially um with the bipartisan infrastructure law the inflation reduction act um can you talk a little bit about the investment we're seeing uh and the impacts that that's having on the nuclear space yeah I mean in the last 3 years in this Biden Harris Administration what we are seeing is not an accident it's not chance um this kind of investment is policy this is President Biden's invest in America strategy this process it starts with investing in the kinds of Energy Technologies that'll succeed in decarbonization while simultaneously helping with American jobs and prosperity in general um we want to see this transition move forward in a way that is deeply American and that supports you know American lives right right and and a big part of that is securing a domestic supply chain for nuclear fuels if that was a big part of the the investment that's gone in uh to the nuclear energy space over the past few years right yeah I think it's really a shame that the situation that has driven so much attention on our nuclear fuel supply is such an incredible unjust attack from Russia on Ukraine but it has focused a great deal of our attention on the trust we have to have in our fuel supply chains when there are nations in the world willing to use fuel for energy as a weapon and access to that fuel can be used to dominate and control other nations we cannot allow ourselves or our allies and partners to be exposed to that and the United States is ready to be a good partner in that more diverse fuel supply but we have to work really hard to rebuild our capacity to displace that you know Russian exposure that we have on the market and that our allies and partners have on that uranium market right um one other big priority I know um for for this office is Waste Management um can you talk a little bit about consent based exting and and the progress that we've seen there during your time at doe I think it's really important that the American public see that the United States government is doing something rather than nothing and while in the last Administration there was no policy no real forward movement on progress towards some solution we are now in a position that we have restarted a consent-based process that had been started in the Obama Administration that consent-based process focuses on centering communities and their interests with regard to where the ultimate you know storage of spent nuclear fuel is and potentially ultimately the disposal of spent nuclear fuel right now we're focused on interim Consolidated storage for spent nuclear fuel to reduce the number of locations across the US where that fuel is currently stored it's what we owe to communities it's what we've promised the utilities and trust that the US government is moving forward rather than stagnating with regard to this policy is essential to the build out of new nuclear right it makes perfect sense that the first question of reasonable person should ask when presented with the option for their Community to have a new reactor that that question should be well what about the waste haven't you guys figured that out yet and the answer needs to be well we're working on it and we have a process that we believe will work and we believe that this process centering consent and centering communities working from a sort of more groundup approach with the communities it has worked in Finland for example to site their final repository which is a much harder problem than an interim storage facility and so we believe that not only is this the right way to go about the process but it's also the most likely path to success right right um thinking back of your time here at doe um what was your best day in the office if you had to pick one sorry I have to think about this no it's fine we've had a lot of good ones yeah sorry I should have thought about it's all good you know I think the best day was at cop 28 our government stood alongside over 20 other governments and said we see how necessary nuclear is going to be in with regard to our 2050 Net Zero goals that we will not get to Net Zero without tripling nuclear energy and so we must try and we pledge to try that is Earth shaking and I think it represents not necessarily what we believe to be a projection of what is likely it's not even a reflection of what we believe is possible with the resource we have today from the federal government to incentivize a change it's instead a declaration of where the numbers lie and what it's truly going to take a declaration of fact which is that we will need to Triple nuclear energy to get to Net Zero in the United States and that fact-based data focused policy has been the Cornerstone of this Administration from my perspective especially with regard to nuclear energy and I think that was a a really ining moment um that we were succeeding right um so you joined uh the department of energy from Academia um what caused you to to accept the job um to be honest it was a complete surprise uh that I was even being considered uh it never occurred to me to work in the government um I to be frank tar Shaw the secretary's chief of staff at the time said to me um we're in war with the climate crisis and we need you on the front lines and I can't say no to that this is a very motivational value for me that you know it is worth doing some public service to save the world and there's we're doing nothing less and so he got me right in the heart with that one and um I was uh powerless against it well we're glad you joined us um so now that you're returning to the University of Illinois Urbana champagne um you what has it been like working for the federal government did it match up with your your expectations you know it's so similar to Academia the way politics and bureaucracy shake out in an organization um and the government is is very similar in that way it's driven by hard workers who you know are focused on a major public driver you know in the case of universities it's education and the workforce um the pursuit of knowledge right in the government it's the prosperity of the American public and it but the bu bureaucracies are similar in a lot of ways um I've learned certainly how to expand my skills to manage a much larger portfolio um the office of nuclear energy has been an honor to work in the people have amazed me and I think generally speaking the thing I will take away the most is an incredible respect for the public servants in the US government the public has no idea the amount of care and concern and work that is put in every day in Within Walls like of an agency like this one the department of energy is working so hard every day for the people of the United States and seeing it firsthand is really breathtaking um how does it feel when you look back at the progress we've made over the past few years do you feel like we've made huge strides or you feel like there's still just so much left to be done can I say both I think both is true true yes we have made huge strides we are now walking forward we should be running forward with regard to new deployments of nuclear energy but you know we could be walking backwards and I think that shift in the direction is so important and we're in a place where that momentum I think is going to stick with us the last couple of years I think has cemented some of that momentum um but we could easily lose it if implementation doesn't move fast enough um and again the fate of humanity is very much at stake we look out towards a future where I intend to be alive in 2050 and if we haven't reached that Z by then my understanding is that there will be profound climate impacts um and I think there's no question in the scientific world that we're not moving fast enough to decarbonize and so while we're moving very fast and I'm so proud of us for moving as fast as we are um we've got to move so much faster especially when we think about the tripling of nuclear energy goal Building 200 new gigatt of nuclear power between now and 2050 is going to be hard but it'll have a lot of benefits huge Workforce increase a lot of American jobs a lot of long-term good paying American jobs come out of this and there will be communities that maybe will transition from fossil em you know fossil emitting particul emitting coal plants in their communities to clean air nuclear plants in their communities and we'll be able to continue to serve the energy world I think that's the only just way to go forward and not doing so would be not just unjust but unmerciful do do you carry with you a sense of optim optimism um as you depart the department of energy um or is it kind of more on the like uh trepidation about the the future of of nuclear energy and the future of our our battle against the climate crisis I am an incurable Optimist it is impossible for me to look towards the future and not see the immense possibility with what we know with the technology we have with the capabilities I know we have demon frustrated and the sort of strength of our enthusiasm As Americans as people and citizens of the world the disguised limit um are my is my understanding of the challenge a little bit more nuanced and um uh textured yes I have a lot more texture and understanding of the nuances of the challenges that truly face us and they are immense um and a lot of them are associated with you know the nature of capital investment or the intricacies of Mega project deployment these things are big hard gnarly problems they're not just complex but they're complicated and I think I have a better understanding of all of that but it doesn't dull my optimism right um do you have any parting words uh as your time at doe comes to a close here well you know I think it's I'm a big nerd and so I think about the Lord of the Rings sometimes and um there's this moment where you know billbo says that he misses his books and his armchair and he's had enough of Adventure but you know I will say just like the Lord of the Rings I'm sure this this adventure will be the sort of the tapestry Beyond which I will will always be so proud of this and you know like Bill Bill I will think back on it fondly and often well we will think back on this time finally as well um from all of us at the office of nuclear energy and Department of energy thank you for your time here and best of luck in your future endeavors thank you