WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) participated in a recent Senate Appropriations Committee hearing to examine the Biden administration’s Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) budget request for the U.S. Department of Energy. During the hearing, Energy Secretary Chris Wright faced questions from senators, including Britt, on topics ranging from nuclear energy competitiveness to hurricane preparedness.
Senator Britt opened her remarks by raising concerns about China’s expanding nuclear infrastructure. Citing China’s construction of at least 28 nuclear reactors—roughly half of all reactors currently being built globally—Britt framed the issue as part of a larger geopolitical and technological competition.
“China is using political and economic leverage to manipulate and get ahead,” Britt said. “AI is not just an AI race, it is also an energy race. And we must win both.”
Britt asked Secretary Wright what the Trump administration’s strategy is to maintain American leadership in the energy sector and how the Department of Energy plans to allocate funding to meet those goals.
Wright acknowledged China’s rapid nuclear development and noted that some of its progress is based on American technology. “They don’t have the giant bureaucratic regulatory overhang we have in the United States,” he said. Wright also stressed the importance of the DOE’s loan program office as a mechanism to quickly deploy capital in support of energy infrastructure.
Britt also highlighted the work being done in Alabama by Southern Company and its partners in developing the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE), which she described as “transformational” for nuclear energy. The MCRE is set to become the world’s first fast-spectrum salt reactor and could play a significant role in modernizing both commercial shipping and U.S. maritime dominance through floating nuclear power solutions.
“The project supports scalable, deployable, and transformational American nuclear energy,” Britt said.
Shortly after the hearing, President Trump signed an Executive Order aimed at bolstering the U.S. nuclear industrial base, aligning with broader efforts to assert American leadership in this sector.
In her concluding remarks, Britt turned attention to the Gulf Coast, asking about DOE efforts to protect the electrical grid during hurricane season. Secretary Wright agreed the grid’s vulnerability is a pressing concern and confirmed the Department is actively working to improve resiliency.
