ATLANTA — President Julie Fedorchak of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) this week appointed Georgia Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols to chair  NARUC’s Nuclear Waste Sub-Committee. 

The NARUC Committee now chaired by Echols will bring the brightest minds around nuclear energy to three national conferences each year.  Echols says there will be a focus on small modular reactors (SMRs).

“SMRs hold great promise for the US and our climate goals,” Echols said. “It is my hope that the federal government can reapportion part of the Inflation Reduction Act money to be used as a federal backstop against cost overruns that are likely to result in building new nuclear.”

Echols has long served as vice-chair of the Sub-Committee and is seen as an expert in the field of nuclear energy and reprocessing.  As he has since 2014, Echols will represent the United States at the World Nuclear Exhibition held in France Nov. 28-30. 

“For the first time in decades, the United States can stand shoulder to shoulder with French officials and be proud of the completion of the Westinghouse AP1000 built at Plant Vogtle in Georgia,” Echols said. “It is my hope that our success here in Georgia will lead other states in America to begin their own nuclear projects.”

Echols led the effort in 2017 to complete the reactors after Toshiba bankrupted Westinghouse, the plant’s prime contractor.  Despite the challenges, Georgia Power completed the project under the oversight of the Georgia Public Service Commission.(PSC)

“Finishing Plant Vogtle has been a critical part of my tenure on the PSC,” Echols said. “Our Commission, the legislature, the business community and many others have been supportive of the effort—and we are proud to be the only state in America to accomplish such a task.”

NARUC is a non-profit organization founded in 1889 whose members include the governmental agencies that are engaged in the regulation of utilities and carriers in the fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. NARUC’s member agencies regulate telecommunications, energy, and water utilities. NARUC represents the interests of state public utility commissions before the three branches of the federal government. For more information visit their website at www.naruc.org.