DVDs YES Symposium Sessions

Mark Amodei CONFIRMED Nevada Congressman is the first Congressional representative in recent years to consider re-visiting the Yucca Mountain Project as a potential business asset for the state of Nevada if acceptable planning and feasible economic value can be sustainable. He views the Yucca Educational Symposium as an important process in initiating an educational program for Nevada citizens. Congressman Amodei has also addressed one of our USNEF meetings in 2012.

John Shimkus, IL CONFIRMED: Illinois Congressman has been a proponent of Yucca Mountain for many years trying to understand why Nevada’s bureaucracy opposed a facility that would bring thousands of jobs to a depressed Nevada economy. Among his duties in Congress, John is Chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Subcommittees on Energy and Power; Health Communications and Technology. John received his Bachelor of Science degree in general engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Jack Spencer CONFIRMED: oversees Heritage Foundation research on a wide range of domestic economic issues as director of the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies. Those topics include federal spending, taxes, energy and environment, regulation and retirement savings. Before his promotion to Director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.  Spencer specialized in nuclear energy issues in both the domestic and global arenas as Heritage’s senior research fellow in nuclear energy policy. He was Heritage’s go-to expert on nuclear waste management, technological advances, industry subsidies and international approaches to nuclear energy. Spencer also researched regulation of the industry, proliferation issues, the global energy market and national security uses for nuclear power. Much of his work centered on developing a comprehensive, subsidy-free, market-based approach to nuclear energy policy. That strategy includes fighting to preserve Yucca Mountain as a safe repository for nuclear materials. Spencer has testified before Congress on related topics, including nuclear loan guarantees and international implications of the growth of commercial nuclear power. The President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future heard his testimony in 2010 on how to introduce market forces into public policy for safely managing nuclear waste.

Robert F. Edmonds, Jr. CONFIRMED As Director, Business Development for AREVA Federal Services LLC (AFS), Mr. Edmonds leads the company’s sales to the federal market sector, with a particular focus on the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, including management, transportation, storage, and disposition of Used Nuclear Fuel and High Level Radioactive Waste.  Prior to joining AFS, he was Business Development Director for Duke Engineering and Services, a subsidiary of Duke Energy.  For the past 20 years he has been actively involved in Used Nuclear Fuel and High Level Radioactive Waste policy development at the federal and state levels. AFS and legacy companies have been participants on the Yucca Mountain Project since the inception and were most recently a part of the Department of Energy’s Management and Operations contractor team when the project was temporarily suspended.  Mr. Edmonds has an MS, degree in Water Resources Engineering, Clemson University BS, Civil Engineering, Clemson University.