Andy Meyers - Fort Bend County Precinct 3 Commissioner Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Seven, twenty three out of time here in Houston Sporting News.
Texas has has power needs we have. We have power
needs that we're not delivering on right now, and we
just continue to grow. At some point we're gonna have
to add more power that's not winding solar. Andy Myers
joins us Ford, ben County Precinct three Commissioner and a
believer in nuclear energy. You work with the governor on

(00:21):
this issue. How close do you think we are too
seriously installing small nuclear reactors here in Texas?

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Well?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Thank you for having me on. I that's a difficult
question to answer. I think we're probably, you know, six
years away. There's a lot to be done. One of
the things that we're trying to do. I'm actually on
my way to Austin to talk to the co chair

(00:53):
of the Texas Nuclear Caucus right now to help develop
strategy with regard to how do we get legislations that's
necessary to make certain that we have the opportunity to
invite a whole lot of researchers and developers in advanced
nuclear to Texas and get them started.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
And to be clear, I don't think you're not talking
about you know, three mile Island. You're not talking about
these huge nucular reactors that many which have existed for,
you know, for thirty or forty or fifty or more years.
We're talking about relatively small nuclear reactors capable of powering
what like an entire neighborhood, for example, or maybe an
entire city.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, yes, they're they're called small multi reactors. I'm a
big proponent what they call multi salt reactors. And the
reason I'm proponent of that is because multi salt reactors
can generate about two to three times thermal energy that
the current pressure I asked are light water reactors as

(01:57):
are called can generate.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Those reactors are very large.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
We've got two of them in Texas wanted uh South
Texas Project in Mountagorda County. The have the commnsion PEAT.
But our focus is on small mod's reactors that can
be grouped together to be the size if you want
to produce as much electricity as one of the larger ones,

(02:21):
or you can have them small that operated for uh,
you know, one city, or you can have microreactors at gatarer,
say the Houston Medical Center.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Andy. What's the biggest thing standing in the way of
something like this is it the concern that the public
still has over things like nuclear power and nuclear waste
or is it more the regulatory environment.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well, I think it it's a combination of things. Obviously,
one of the things that I served, as you pointed out,
the Texas the Governor's Texas Advanced Nuclear Reactor Working Group,
was policy co chair. That group was charged with coming
up on a plan to make Texas leader in developing

(03:05):
nuclear power. We're believing in all forms of energy. We
the leader on in gas, where the leader in the
wind and leader in solar. Wind and solar is proven
that they're not as reliable.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
As we need. That's one of the reasons that.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
I'm a big component of nuclear is a very reliable
based load generator.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Uh and UH. The effort that we have right.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Now is to get necessary legislation, uh interviews so that
we can incentiviize so to speak, are make the road
a little easier. One of the things I introduced legislation
of twenty three legislative session UH to put Texas on
that path to.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Become the leader. Uh and UH.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
One of the things that that we did we met
with the Due Regulatory Commission.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
They're in favor of of the effort.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
They just want to make certain that these plans are
going to be ultra safe, and I totally agree with that.
One of the things that the chair of the working group,
the Nuclear Working Group, did is he appointed me, gave
me the responsibility of coming up with a marketing and
education plan. So it's makes we educate first of all,

(04:21):
our legislators know what's going on, and our local elected
officials and the business commuti and ultimately the population at whole.
Right now, this is this country is about fifty safety.
About fifty percent of the favor of nuclear, about fifty
percent are opposed to.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
And a lot of it has to do with there's
a lot of.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Misinformation, sure misunderstanding right out there. And that's yeah, that's
a big company clock.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
We got to run because we're running over as we
usually do. But I want to thank you for your
time this morning, and keep working on this and keep
us posting if you would, sir, hope to talk to
you again soon about this. For ben County Precinct three
Commissioner Andy Meyers seven to twenty eight